Skip to main content
Drink

To Make Brine for Salting Meat and Tongues

A brine made with salt, sugar, saltpetre, and water for seasoning meat and tongues.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

To Make Brine for Salting Meat and Tongues

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cure

  1. Combine salt, brown sugar, and saltpetre in a bowl.

  2. Rub the mixture into the meat or tongue.

  3. Pour ½ pint of water over the meat.

Press and turn

  1. Press the meat down and place a heavy weight on it.

  2. Turn the meat every day.

  3. Use the brine only twice.

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

What each ingredient does

Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it, helping preserve the meat.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the salt.
Saltpetre
Acts as a curing agent that helps preserve the meat and keeps its color.

The step that matters

Press the meat down and place a heavy weight on it. Keeping the meat pressed under the brine ensures the salt and cure penetrate evenly. Parts left floating or exposed to air may cure unevenly or spoil.

“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

Vegetable SoupVegetable Soup350 recipesRaspberry VinegarRaspberry Vinegar214 recipesBrown Coffee with EggBrown Coffee with Egg175 recipesBlackberry CordialBlackberry Cordial129 recipes