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Preserve

Curing Meat

A method of preserving beef using salt, sugar, saltpetre, brine, and smoking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and beef 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 ↓

Curing Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pickle

  1. Boil 6 ounces of salt, 4 ounces of sugar, and ¼ ounce of saltpetre in 1 quart of water, then skim the mixture.

  2. For a stronger pickle, use 6 pounds of salt and 4 ounces of saltpetre in 4 gallons of water.

  3. Boil the mixture, then skim the mixture.

Cure the beef and aitch-bone

  1. Rub 1½ pounds of salt into a 25-pound round of beef.

  2. Turn the beef daily for 4-5 days.

  3. Let the beef sit in brine for a week.

  4. Rub ¾ pound of salt mixed with 1 ounce of coarse sugar into a 12-pound aitch-bone.

  5. Let the aitch-bone sit for 4-5 days.

Finish and smoke

  1. Dissolve saltpetre in water equal to the amount of common salt needed for the meat.

  2. Place the meat in a saucepan with the dissolved saltpetre and cook over low heat until the water evaporates.

  3. Hang the meat in thick smoke for 24 hours.

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. Sugar + beeftop 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

Salt
Draws out moisture and preserves the meat while seasoning it through the cure.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the meat and gives cured meat its characteristic pink colour.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the salt and softens the flavour of the cured meat.

The step that matters

Turning the beef daily in the pickle. Salt and cure penetrate meat slowly, so uneven contact leaves parts under-cured. Regular turning keeps every surface in contact with the brine, helping the cure reach evenly through the joint.

“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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