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Salting Meat

A method for curing beef using alum salt, saltpetre, fine salt, and brown sugar, followed by smoking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Salting Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Brine the beef

  1. Prepare a brine strong enough to float an egg using alum salt and saltpetre for beef.

  2. Soak the beef in the brine for 9 days.

Dry and cure

  1. Hang the beef in a dry place for 2-3 days after soaking for smoking.

  2. Pack hams in a cask with layers of salt and saltpetre, skin side down.

  3. Let the hams cure for 6 weeks, then smoke with hickory sawdust for 4-5 days.

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Is the meat being preserved, and its proteins firm up as it cures.
Alum salt
Adds a firm, salty curing agent that helps preserve the meat.
Saltpetre
Supplies nitrate that helps preserve the meat and gives it a pink cured colour.
Fine salt
Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it during curing.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the saltiness of the cure.

The step that matters

Keep the brine strong enough to float an egg. Salt concentration must be high enough to preserve the meat and penetrate it evenly. A weak brine lets spoilage bacteria grow and leaves parts of the beef unprotected.

“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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