Pickle for Meat
Ingredients
Directions
Make the brine
Boil the salt, saltpetre, brown sugar, and water for 20 minutes.
Allow the mixture to cool.
Use the brine
Pour the cooled brine over the meat.
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
What each ingredient does
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out and seasons the meat, helping it cure and resist spoilage.
- Saltpetre
- Acts as a curing agent that helps preserve the meat and gives it a pink color.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the salt.
The step that matters
Allow the mixture to cool. Pouring hot brine over meat would partly cook its surface and warm it into the temperature range where bacteria grow quickly. Cooling first keeps the meat safe and firm while it cures.
“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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