Hamburg Beef
Ingredients
Directions
Boil and cool
Place the brisket of beef in cold water and bring it to a boil, skimming off any foam.
Remove the beef and let it cool.
Cure
Rub the beef thoroughly with the coarse sea salt and saltpetre.
Beat the beef with a rolling pin for 20 to 30 minutes.
Place the beef in a pickling tub and sprinkle with a small handful of salt.
Let it sit for 4 days.
Turn the beef, add the same amount of salt, and let it sit for another 4 days.
Smoke
Sew the beef into a piece of old linen and hang it in smoke for 12 days.
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
- Brisket of beef
- Provides the main meat that is firmed and seasoned through the curing process.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it during the long cure.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the meat and gives cured beef its pink color.
The step that matters
Turning the beef and adding salt after 4 days. Salt penetrates slowly, so the beef must be turned and re-salted to cure evenly. Uneven salting lets some areas spoil or cure unevenly, which affects both safety and texture.
“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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