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To Cure Beef for Drying

A method for curing beef before drying using saltpetre, fine salt, and molasses.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

To Cure Beef for Drying

Ingredients

Directions

Cure the beef

  1. Mix saltpetre, fine salt, and molasses until the color resembles brown sugar.

  2. Rub the mixture onto the beef, ensuring it adheres well.

Pack and rest

  1. Pack the beef in a deep narrow vessel, like a keg or half barrel, and cover with the pickle.

  2. Let it sit for 48 hours to form enough pickle to nearly cover the meat.

Dry

  1. Remove the beef and hang it in a suitable place for drying.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Beef + molassestop 35% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together606 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Beef + sugartop 37% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Beef
The main meat that is cured and then dried.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the meat and gives the cured beef its characteristic color.
Fine salt
Draws moisture out of the meat and helps preserve it during curing.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and a brown color, matching the look of brown sugar.

The step that matters

Rub the mixture onto the beef, ensuring it adheres well.. Salt and cure must reach the meat surface evenly, since uneven coverage lets spoilage start in bare spots while the rest of the meat stays underprotected.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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