Skip to main content
Main

A Common Receipt for Salting Beef

A method for salting beef using saltpetre, sea salt, sugar, spices, and suet, then baking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

A Common Receipt for Salting Beef

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Cure the beef

  1. Mix 1 ounce of saltpetre and 1 pound of coarse sea salt until finely powdered.

  2. Rub the saltpetre evenly over the beef.

  3. Apply the salt thoroughly.

  4. Rub the beef with the pickle.

  5. Turn it daily for 7 to 10 days.

  6. Mix 1 to 2 ounces of sugar with the saltpetre before applying.

  7. Rub ½ pound of coarse brown sugar over the beef.

  8. Let it sit for 2 days.

  9. Mix 2 ounces of saltpetre, ¾ pound of coarse sea salt, ¼ pound of black pepper, 3 ounces of allspice, and 4 ounces of bruised juniper berries.

  10. Rub this mixture evenly over the beef daily for 3 weeks.

  11. Turn the beef at the same time.

  12. Wash off the spice.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the beef in a tin or covered earthen pan with 1 cup of water or gravy.

  2. Cover the top with chopped beef suet.

  3. Lay a thick crust over the pan.

  4. Bake the meat in a well-heated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 5 to 6 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. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Beef + allspicetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,940 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Sugar + allspicetop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,938 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Sugar + peppertop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,401 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,401 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
The main meat, which the cure seasons and preserves while the slow bake makes it tender.
Saltpetre
Preserves the meat and gives the cured beef its pink colour.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat while helping preserve it.
Coarse brown sugar
Balances the salt and adds sweetness and depth to the cure.
Black pepper
Adds a sharp, aromatic bite to the spice coating.
Juniper berries
Add a resinous, pine-like aroma that flavours the crust of spices.

The step that matters

Baking the cured beef in a covered pan. The beef needs a long, gentle bake in a sealed crust so the connective tissue softens and the meat stays moist. Too little time or too much heat can leave it tough or dry.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, sugar, pepper):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Rosemaryfits about as well
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, sugar, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

You might also like

Roast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipesBeef BrothBeef Broth67 recipes