To Collar Beef or Mutton
Ingredients
Directions
Cure
Rub the beef with coarse sea salt and saltpetre.
Let it sit in the pickle for 2-3 weeks, depending on thickness.
Prepare and cook
Dry it with a cloth and season with mixed spices and sweet herbs.
Roll it tightly in a clean cloth and tie both ends with broad tape.
Boil in a pot of water, keeping it covered for about 6 hours if thick.
Remove from pot and hang to cool.
Once cool, remove bindings and slice as needed.
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
- Forms the main body of the dish, and its thickness sets how long curing and boiling take.
- Saltpetre
- Helps the meat keep its pink colour during the long cure.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws out moisture and seasons the meat during curing.
The step that matters
Letting the beef cure fully. Salt needs time to penetrate the meat evenly. Curing too briefly leaves the centre underseasoned and less preserved, so the 2-3 week cure should match the thickness of the cut.
“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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