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Preserve

Preserving Meat Without Smoking

This method preserves meat by salting, brining, and soaking in a salt and soot solution.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,115 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Preserving Meat Without Smoking

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Wash the meat thoroughly.

  2. Rub the meat with saltpetre and coarse sea salt.

  3. Moisten the meat with vinegar.

  4. Cover the meat with juniper berries, chopped garlic, laurel leaves, and spices.

Brine and press

  1. Prepare a solution of 1½ pounds of coarse sea salt and 3 ounces of saltpetre in cold water.

  2. Pour the solution over the meat and let it sit for 2 days.

  3. Apply pressure to the meat using stones or a screw-press for 15 to 20 days.

Smoke-soak and hang

  1. After brining, clean the meat and immerse it in a solution of 6 pounds of coarse sea salt, 1½ pounds of powdered wood soot, and 6 quarts of water for 8 to 9 hours.

  2. Remove the meat and hang it in an airy, shady place.

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. Vinegar + garlictop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Garlic + laureltop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Meat + garlictop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,530 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Vinegar + laureltop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,820 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Meat + laureltop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together573 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Meat
The main protein that is cured, firmed and preserved by the salt and time.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat, slowing spoilage by limiting water available to microbes.
Saltpetre
Supplies nitrate that helps preserve the meat and gives it a characteristic cured colour.
Powdered wood soot
Adds a smoky aroma and helps protect the surface of the cured meat.
Juniper berries
Add a resinous, aromatic flavour to the meat.

The step that matters

Pressing the meat during brining. Pressure keeps the meat submerged and in contact with the brine, so salt and cure penetrate evenly. Uneven contact can leave spoilage-prone pockets that are under-salted.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, vinegar, laurel):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, vinegar, laurel. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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