Brighton Hunting Beef
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the beef
Soak the beef in spring water for 2 hours.
Drain the beef and rub in 2-3 ounces of saltpetre thoroughly.
Cure the beef
Let the beef sit for 24 hours, rubbing in the saltpetre 3-4 times during this period.
Add 1 pound of coarse sea salt and rub it in 3-4 times, adjusting the amount for desired saltiness.
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
- Round beef
- The meat being cured; salt and saltpetre work into it over the resting period.
- Saltpetre
- Curing agent that helps the meat keep a pink colour and a cured flavour.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it, while helping preserve it.
The step that matters
Rubbing in the saltpetre thoroughly and repeating the rubs. Salt and cure penetrate meat slowly, mainly by diffusion from the surface inward. Uneven coverage or skipped rubs leave some areas under-cured and others over-salted, so the repeated rubbing matters for an even result.
“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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