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To Preserve Meats

This recipe preserves beef using salt, saltpetre, cayenne pepper, molasses, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Preserve Meats

Ingredients

Directions

Salt the beef

  1. Rub salt into the beef and let it sit for 24 hours to draw off the blood.

  2. Drain the beef and pack it as desired.

Make the pickle

  1. Boil 7 pounds of salt, 1 ounce of saltpetre, 1 ounce of cayenne pepper, 1 quart of molasses, and 8 gallons of water.

  2. Skim and cool the mixture.

  3. Pour the cooled pickle over the beef.

Cover and cure

  1. Dissolve 5 pounds of salt, 1 pound of brown sugar, and 1 ounce of saltpetre in enough water to cover the meat.

  2. After two weeks, drain the brine and repeat the first method to ensure preservation.

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 + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Pepper + molassestop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Pepper + sugartop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,401 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Beef + molassestop 35% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together606 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Pepper and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,401 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

What each ingredient does

Beef
The main meat that is salted, packed and preserved.
Salt
Draws moisture out of the meat and slows spoilage by microbes.
Saltpetre
Curing agent that helps preserve the meat's colour and inhibit spoilage bacteria.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the pickle.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture to the brine, balancing the salt.

The step that matters

Cool the pickle before pouring it over the beef. Hot liquid would partly cook the surface of the meat and could set uneven curing. Letting the boiled mixture cool first keeps the meat raw and lets the brine 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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