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Dutch Beef

A historical recipe from Ten Dollars Enough, by Catherine Owen (1886).

A historical recipe

Ten Dollars Enough: Keeping House Well on Ten Dollars a Week How It Has Been Done; How It May Be Done Again, by Catherine Owen (1886). Project Gutenberg eBook #49521.

From an old book: a historical recipe, not current advice. Its methods, additives and storage may be unsafe by today's standards. Its words name: curing or salting meat. Check current food-safety guidance before following this.

Source and licence

From Ten Dollars Enough, by Catherine Owen (1886). Digitised by Project Gutenberg, eBook #49521 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/49521). Public domain in the USA; its status may differ elsewhere.

Read the original Public domain in the USA

What was changed: As printed, from the book's text; Project Gutenberg's header and licence removed. Ingredient lines were read out of the text by a program. A historical recipe, not current advice.

Netherlands. Associated with Netherlands by a demonym leading its title: Dutch (confidence 0.55). "Associated with" means only that the evidence named here links this recipe to that place. A recipe isn't labelled as representing an entire country because a source associates it with one, and regional origins are kept where the source gives them.

  • Curing. Old curing amounts and salts may be unsafe. Use current tested guidance.

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Ingredients

  • one pound of coarse sugar

Method

  1. Get a fine piece of round of beef;
  2. rub it well with one pound of coarse sugar.
  3. Do this twice a day for three days, using same sugar.
  4. When the sugar has thoroughly penetrated the meat, wipe dry, and salt with the following mixture: Common and bay salt, of each four ounces;
  5. saltpetre and sal prunel, of each two ounces;
  6. black pepper and allspice, of each one ounce.
  7. Rub well and continue to do so for a fortnight, then roll the beef tight in a cloth, sew it up, and it is ready for smoking.
  8. The smoking should be long enough to thoroughly and slowly dry the meat, but not long enough for the covering to separate.
  9. This beef may be cut and boiled as wanted.
  10. It should be pressed with a weight till cold.
  11. This will keep two or three months after it is boiled, if it is rubbed all over with hot fat (lard or suet melted), and a layer of fat put over a fresh-cut surface.
  12. This is delicious if a piece is cut off, put to dry slowly, and grated for sandwiches.