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Salting Meat

A method for curing beef using alum salt, saltpetre, and hickory wood smoking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Salting Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Cure the beef

  1. Prepare a brine strong enough to float an egg using alum salt and 1 teaspoon of saltpetre for every 10 pounds of beef.

  2. Soak the beef in the brine for 9 days.

Dry and smoke

  1. For chipping, hang the round beef to dry without smoking.

  2. For boiling, smoke the other pieces for 2 hours over hickory wood for flavor, for 2-3 days.

Cure the hams

  1. For hams, pack them in a cask with skin side down, layering with alum salt and pounded saltpetre.

  2. Cover and let it sit for 6 weeks, then hang and smoke for 4-5 days.

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
The main meat that the brine and curing salts preserve and firm up.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the meat and gives it its characteristic cured colour.
Alum salt
Coarse salt that draws out moisture and preserves the meat during curing.
Hickory wood
Smoke that adds flavour and helps preserve the meat's surface.

The step that matters

Brine strength. The brine must be strong enough to float an egg, because too weak a brine lets the meat spoil before the salt penetrates it fully during the long soak.

“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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