Name: Modern Cookery
Ingredients: 3 gallons water; 6 lbs common salt; 2 lbs coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); 2 lbs loaf sugar; 2 oz saltpetre

Modern Cookery

Ingredients

Directions

Boil water in a large pot.
Add common salt, coarse sea salt, loaf sugar, and saltpetre.
Boil for 20 to 30 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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

Common salt: Seasons the brine and draws moisture out of the food being pickled, preserving it.
Saltpetre: Helps keep the color of cured meats and adds a preserving effect.
Loaf sugar: Softens the salty edge of the brine and adds mild sweetness.

“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.