To Salt Beef or Pork for Eating Immediately
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and boil
Sprinkle the meat thoroughly with coarse sea salt just before placing it in the pot.
Wrap the meat in a damp coarse cloth and place it in boiling water.
Boil the meat for the same duration as other salt beef of similar size, about 4-5 days.
Cure and smoke
For best results, sprinkle the meat and let it drain for a few hours before rubbing it with salt.
Rub the meat with common salt, saltpetre, cochineal, and bay salt after it has drained.
Rub the pickle into the meat daily for a week, then turn it.
After 16 days, drain the meat from the pickle and smoke it at the mouth of a heated oven.
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 or pork
- The main meat that is salted, cured and then cooked until tender.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and preserves it as the salt penetrates.
- Saltpetre
- Helps the cure keep its colour and adds preservation; used sparingly because it is strong.
The step that matters
Rubbing the salt and pickle in evenly and turning the meat. Salt penetrates slowly and unevenly, so missed areas can spoil or cure poorly. Daily rubbing and turning keep the brine in contact with all surfaces, which keeps the curing even.
“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.
More salted beef recipes
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.