Skip to main content

The Dutch Way to Salt Beef

This recipe uses saltpetre.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

The Dutch Way to Salt Beef

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Rub the beef well with treacle or brown sugar and turn it often for three days.

  2. Wipe the beef and salt it with coarse sea salt and beaten saltpetre, rubbing it in well.

  3. Turn the beef every day for a fortnight.

  4. Roll the beef tightly in a coarse cloth and press it under a large weight.

  5. Hang the beef to dry in wood smoke, turning it upside down every day.

  6. Boil the beef in pump water and press it.

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

You might also like

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