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A Pickle for Beef Tongues or Dried Beef

A pickle made by brining beef tongues or dried beef in a brown sugar, saltpetre, and water solution.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and beef 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 ↓

A Pickle for Beef Tongues or Dried Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Make the brine

  1. In a large pot, combine the brown sugar, beef, saltpetre, and water.

  2. Boil gently, skimming off any scum that rises to the surface.

  3. Once the mixture is clear, remove it from heat and let it cool.

Pickle the meat

  1. Place the meat in a tub and pour the cooled brine over it until fully covered.

  2. Add a weight on top to keep the meat submerged in the brine.

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 + beeftop 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
The meat absorbs the brine over time, becoming seasoned and firmer as it cures.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and mellows the sharpness of the salt in the brine.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the meat and keep it a rosy color during curing.

The step that matters

Let the brine cool fully before pouring it over the meat. Hot brine would partly cook the surface of the meat and can change its texture, while cooled brine lets the cure penetrate evenly. Keeping the meat fully submerged prevents spoilage at exposed spots.

“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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