I am interested in finding a recipe for the thin dried beef Armour used to sell in the small jars. I am not planning to stock much meat, but would like to try making this beef. SOS would make a good meal. Charlotte

-- Charlotte (Charlotte's Web@gateway.net), January 24, 1999

Answers

Dried Beef,

Have the rounds divided, leaving a piece of the sinew to hang up by; lay the pieces in a tub of cold water for an hour, then rub each piece of beef that will weigh fifteen or twenty pounds, with a handful of brown sugar and a tablespoonful of saltpetre, pulverized, and a pint of fine salt; sprinkle fine salt in the bottom of a clean tight barrel, and lay the pieces in, strewing a little coarse salt between each piece; let it lie two days then make the brine in a clean tub, with cold water and ground alum salt - stir it well; it must be strong enough to bear an egg half up; put in half a pound of best brown sugar and a table spoonful of saltpetre to each gallon of the salt and water, pour it over the beef, put a clean large stone on the top of the meat to keep it under the pickle (which is very important!, put a cover on the barrel, examine it occasionally to see that the pickle does not leak, and if it should need more, add of the same strength. Let it stand six weeks then hang it up in the smoke- house, and after it has drained, smoke it moderately for ten days, it should then hang in a dry place. Before cooking let it soak for twenty-four hours; a piece that weighs fifteen or twenty pounds should boil two hours-one half the size, one hour, and a small piece should soak six or twelve hours, according to size.

Corned Beef,

Fifty pounds of beef, three pounds of coarse salt, one ounce of saltpetre, three-quarters of a pound of sugar, two gallons of water. Mix the above ingredients together and pour over the meat. Cover the tub closely.

To Pot Beef.

Cut it small, add to it some melted butter, two anchovies boned and washed, and a little of the best pepper, beat fine. Put them into a marble mortar, and beat them well together till the meat is yellow; put it into pots and cover with clarified butter.

To Pot Leg of Beef,

Boil a leg of beef till the meat will come off the bone easily, then mix it with a cow heel, previously cut into thin pieces, and season the whole with salt and spice; add a little of the liquor in which the leg of beef was boiled put it into a cheese-vat, or cullander, or some other vessel that will let the liquor run off, place a very heavy weight over it, and it will be ready for use in A day or two. It may be kept in souse made of bran boiled in water, with the addition of a little vinegar.

-- Paul Milne (fedinfo@halifax.com), January 24, 1999.

Also, If you are planning on dehydrating beef etc., I couldn't recommend "Mary Bell's Complete Dehydrator Cook Book" highly enough!!

ISBN==>0-688-13024-0

Stock #==>9-780688-130244- -90000

It will be $20 well spent. (for just the meat recipes 20 is cheap, and it has fruit and veggie recipes too)

Chuck

-- Chuck, night driver (rienzoo@en.com), January 24, 1999.

Paul Milne, I don't like the saltpeter part. It may take him down. Thanks for the rest.

-- fly .:. (.@...), January 24, 1999.

To Salt Hams.

For three hams pound and mix together 1/2 peck of salt, 1/2 ounce of salt prunella, l 1/2 ounces of saltpetre, and 4 pounds of coarse salt; rub the hams well with this, and lay what is to spare over them, let them lie three days, then hang them up. Take the pickle in which the hams were, put water enough to cover the hams with more common salt, till it will bear an egg, then boil and skim it well, put it in the salting tub, and the next morning put it to the hams; keep them down the same as pickled pork, in a fortnight take them out of the liquor, rub them well with brine, and hang them up to dry.

To Dry-salt Beef and Pork.

Lay the meat on a table or in a tub with a double bottom, that the brine may drain off as fast as it forms, rub the salt well in and be careful to apply it in every niche, afterwards put it into either of the above utensils, when it must be frequently turned; after the brine has ceased running, it must be quite buried in salt, and kept closely packed. Meat which has had the bones taken out is the best for salting. In some places the salted meat is pressed by heavy weights or a screw, to extract the moisture sooner.

To Pickle in Brine.

A good brine is made of bay salt and water, thoroughly saturated, so that some of the salt remains undissolved; into this brine the substances to be preserved are plunged, and kept covered with it. Among vegetables, French beans, artichokes, olives, and the different sorts of samphire may be thus preserved, and among animals, herrings.

To Salt by another method.

Mix brown sugar, bay salt, common salt, each 2 pounds; saltpetre, 8 ounces; water, 2 gallons; this pickle gives meat a fine red color, while the sugar renders them mild and of excellent flavor. Large quantities are to be managed. by the above proportions.

-- Paul Milne (fedinfo@halifax.com), January 24, 1999.