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A Common Receipt for Salting Beef

This recipe describes a method for salting beef using saltpetre, sea salt, and sugar over 7 to 10 days.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 37% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,435 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

A Common Receipt for Salting Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dry and finely powder the saltpetre and coarse sea salt.

Cure the beef

  1. Rub the saltpetre evenly over the beef.

  2. Apply the coarse sea salt thoroughly to all parts of the beef.

  3. Rub the beef with the mixture and turn it daily for 7 to 10 days.

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

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Beef + sugartop 37% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Beef
The main meat that the cure penetrates and firms as it salts.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the meat and keeps its color pink during curing.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat while it cures.
Sugar
Adds mild sweetness and balances the saltiness of the cure.

The step that matters

Turning the beef daily for the full curing period. Salt and curing agents move into the meat by diffusion and draw out moisture, so uneven contact or skipped turning leaves some areas under-cured and others too salty. Turning daily keeps the cure in contact with every surface over the 7 to 10 days.

“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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