Salted Beef
Ingredients
Directions
Salt the beef
Sprinkle the beef with coarse sea salt, saltpetre, and bay salt, using a small amount of bay salt.
Rub the beef with the mixture and let it drain for a day.
Rub the pickle into the meat daily for a week, then only turn it.
Ripen and finish
After eight days, the beef will be ready; after sixteen days, drain it and smoke it at the oven mouth or send it to the baker's for a few days.
Optionally, add a little coarse sugar to the salt.
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
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws out moisture and preserves the meat while seasoning it through.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the meat and gives the cured flesh its characteristic colour.
- Bay salt
- Adds salt to the cure, supporting preservation and seasoning.
- Beef
- Main protein; the cure firms its texture and makes it keep longer.
The step that matters
Rubbing the pickle in daily. Regular turning and rubbing spread the salt and saltpetre evenly through the meat. Skipped or uneven turning leaves some areas under-cured and more open to spoilage.
“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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