Dutch Beef
Ingredients
Directions
Cure the beef
Rub the beef heart with common salt, saltpetre, brown sugar, and coarse sea salt.
Turn and rub it every day for nine days.
Hang it in the kitchen to dry until it becomes hard.
Prepare and serve
Cut off a small piece of the beef heart.
Boil the piece.
Grate it when cold.
Serve with curled butter on top.
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 heart (in the method)
- The meat being cured, which firms and dries as salt draws out moisture.
- Common salt
- Draws out moisture and slows spoilage, preserving the meat during the cure.
- Saltpetre
- Acts as a curing agent that helps preserve the meat and gives it a rosy colour.
- Brown sugar
- Balances the saltiness and adds a mild sweetness and depth of flavour.
The step that matters
Turning and rubbing the beef daily. Salt and curing agents penetrate meat slowly and unevenly. Turning and re-rubbing every day spreads the cure through the piece, so it preserves evenly rather than spoiling in spots.
“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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