To Press Beef
Ingredients
Directions
Cure
Salt the meat with coarse sea salt and saltpetre for five days.
Cook and press
Boil the meat gently until extremely tender.
Place the meat under a heavy weight or in a cheese-press until perfectly cold.
Serve
Serve cold, ideal for sandwiches.
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
- Brisket
- Provides the beef cut that becomes tender and firm after curing and boiling.
- Saltpetre
- Helps cure the meat, giving it a firm texture and a pink colour.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws out moisture and seasons the meat during the multi-day cure.
The step that matters
Boiling gently. Simmering slowly rather than boiling hard keeps the connective tissue breaking down gradually, so the meat becomes tender without turning stringy or dry.
“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
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.