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To Keep Beefsteak

A method of preserving steak by layering it with salt, sugar, saltpetre, pepper, and lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 32% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,401 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

To Keep Beefsteak

Ingredients

Directions

Layer the cure

  1. In a jar, layer slices of steak with the salt, sugar, saltpetre, and black pepper mixture, continuing until the jar is full.

Seal and store

  1. Spread lard over the top to seal.

  2. Store in a cool place; the steak will keep for three months.

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 + peppertop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,401 recipes

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

Sugar and pepper 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

Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the steak and helps preserve it by slowing spoilage.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the harshness of the salt.
Saltpetre
Curing agent that helps preserve the meat and keeps its colour.
Lard
Forms a fat layer over the top that keeps air away from the surface.

The step that matters

Spread lard over the top to seal. Air reaching the exposed surface lets spoilage start. A full jar with an unbroken layer of fat over the top keeps air out during storage.

“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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