English(?) Round Beef

Air dried cured meat and salami recipes

English(?) Round Beef

Postby grisell » Sun Feb 26, 2012 3:41 pm

This is a recipe from a Swedish cookbook from 1918. I don't know how English the recipe actually is, but it sure came out delicious, both hot and cold!

I calculated three days of curing time per centimeter of thickness, which was too short (see the picture below). It don't think it affected the taste though, but it would have affected its lasting properties if I hadn't cooked it at once. I recommend five days of curing per cm, which should suffice.


Recipe

For curing

2 kg lean beef, in one piece, trimmed (in US it's the tougher part of the round, in UK,it's the silverside)
60 g salt including cure
30 g dark sugar (e.g. Muscovado)
2 tbsp juniper berries
1 tbsp white pepper
1 tbsp black pepper
1 tbsp allspice


For cooking

The cured meat (above)
Water
2 onions, peeled and quartered
1 large carrot, in chunks
1 piece of root celery equal to the amount of carrot (or a few stalks ordinary celery)
1 small piece of parsnip (optional)
1 leek, green part only
2 cloves garlic
1 large bunch parsley stalks
3 bay leaves
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp peppercorns


Method

Crush or grind all the spices. Measure the thickness of the cut of meat. Rub the meat throrughly with half the cure and spices. Cover and keep refrigerated (0-4 C). Pour off the juices that form. Apply the rest of the cure and spices after four days. Calculate five days of total curing time per centimeter of thickness.

Rinse and scrape off the spices. Tie the meat nicely. Put in a pot and add the vegetables listed above. Add water to cover. No salt. Slowly bring to a boil and let simmer on low heat until the meat is tender (depending on the meat, this takes 1½ - 3 hours or more).

Carefully examine the direction of the fibres in the meat and slice at an angle across the fibres, so that they get as short as possible. Long fibres in boiled meat, that tend to get stuck between the teeth, are very unpalatable.

Either serve hot with e.g. mashed potatoes, mustard and horseradish; or let cool and slice thinly, like pastrami.

The stock can be strained. It makes an excellent base for a soup.


Some pictures

Spices, salt and sugar:
Image

Ground:
Image

Measuring the thickness:
Image

Half of it rubbed into the meat:
Image

19 days later. Cleaned and tied:
Image

In the pot:
Image

Part of it served hot, with a potato and celery purée, mustard, wild horseradish and cornichons (Note: the meat was not cured through after 19 days, which is clearly visible here. I revised the recipe accordingly):
Image

The rest thinly sliced:
Image
Last edited by grisell on Sun Feb 26, 2012 5:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
André

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grisell
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Postby wheels » Sun Feb 26, 2012 4:18 pm

It looks a nice salt-beef grisell. It's also known as corned beef in the UK (from 'corns' of salt). It may be thick flank that's in the recipe, but silverside would be the most usual piece of the 'round' used for salting. I have a variation of this type of cure in at the moment but have used rump for it. It's suposedly known as Hunt Beef as it was served to the huntsmen.

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Postby SausageBoy » Sun Feb 26, 2012 4:29 pm

Looks delish!!!!

8)
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Postby grisell » Sun Feb 26, 2012 4:37 pm

Thanks for the information, Phil! :)

It's difficult for me to know what part of beef is most suitable. In Swedish, the "ytterlår" means the outer part of the thigh, literally. It's a lean and tough part, in contrast to the "innanlår" which literally means the inner part of the thigh. This part is also lean, but more tender. The former, "ytterlår", is what is recommended in the recipe. Anyway, I think any tougher cut would work great, e.g. brisket or shoulder.
André

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Postby wheels » Sun Feb 26, 2012 4:59 pm

I'm sure that it would. Traditionally, brisket and silverside have always been favoured over here. Why you'd salt silverside, but not (let's say) topside or thick flank (a.k.a. top rump), I don't know; it's just one of those things I guess.

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Postby Big Guy » Sun Feb 26, 2012 10:43 pm

Injecting some brine would have got the cure all the way to the center. I usually pump 10% by weight. IE if you have a 5 lb. chunk of meat inject 0.5 lb of the brine. Then soak as usual. :D
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Postby grisell » Sun Feb 26, 2012 11:44 pm

Yes, it surely would shorten the curing time too, but I don't have a pump. It seems to be very difficult to find here. :(

I think I will go for longer dry-curing instead.

BTW, the seasoning in this recipe is awesome IMO. I was a little dubious about the large amount of juniper berries, but it worked out great! :)
André

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