Hamburg Beef
Ingredients
Directions
Cure
Rub the common salt thoroughly over the beef.
Pour the treacle over the beef.
Turn the beef every day and rub it well in the pickle.
Dry and smoke
After three weeks, put the beef to dry in wood smoke.
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
- Is the meat being cured, so its texture firms and its flavour develops during the salt cure.
- Common salt
- Draws out moisture and seasons the meat, slowing spoilage during the long cure.
- Treacle
- Adds sweetness and a dark colour, and its sugars help flavour the cured surface.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the cured colour and flavour of the meat during curing.
The step that matters
Turning and rubbing the beef daily in the pickle. Salt and treacle only cure evenly when the pickle reaches every surface. Skipping turns lets some areas stay underseasoned and spoil, while others become too salty.
“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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