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To Salt Meat

Use caution with saltpetre.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 36% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,747 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

To Salt Meat

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Remove any kernels from the meat.

  2. Rub the salt thoroughly and evenly into every part of the meat.

  3. Fill any holes where kernels were removed with salt.

  4. For a 25-pound round of beef, use 1.5 pounds of salt.

  5. Turn and rub the meat with brine daily for 4-5 days.

  6. In summer, salt the meat as soon as possible after killing.

  7. In winter, let the meat rest for a few days before salting for better flavor.

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. Sugar + oniontop 36% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,747 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and onion barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,747 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

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