Pickle for Meat
Ingredients
Directions
Make the brine
In a large saucepan, combine 1½ pounds of coarse sea salt, 6 ounces of brown sugar, 1 ounce of saltpetre, and 1 gallon of water.
Heat the saucepan over medium heat until it boils, then let it boil for 5 minutes, skimming off any foam.
Strain the mixture into a tub or large basin.
Cure the meat
Once the pickle is completely cool, submerge the meat in it, ensuring it is well covered for 9 days.
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 water out of the meat and seasons it, helping preserve and firm the flesh.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the saltiness of the brine.
- Saltpetre
- Helps the meat keep its pink colour during curing.
The step that matters
Cooling the brine before adding the meat. Adding meat to hot brine can partly cook its surface and uneven curing follows. Letting the brine cool fully keeps the meat raw so the salt and cure can penetrate evenly.
“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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