To Salt Beef
Ingredients
Directions
Sprinkle the beef thoroughly with coarse sea salt.
Let it drain for a day.
Rub the meat with common salt, saltpetre, and bay salt.
Rub the pickle into the meat every day for a week, then only turn it.
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
- The main cut that the salt cure penetrates and firms up over the curing period.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it as the cure begins.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the meat's colour during curing; used sparingly, as stated in the record.
The step that matters
Rubbing the pickle in every day for a week. Salt penetrates meat slowly and unevenly, so daily rubbing keeps the cure reaching all parts of the cut. Missing days can leave parts under-salted and vulnerable to spoilage.
“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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