Name: Home-Made Salt Beef
Yield: Serves 8
Ingredients: 1 celery stalk, roughly chopped; 4 clove garlic; 1 bouquet garni; boiled potatoes, to serve; freshly grated horseradish, to serve; 700 g/1 lb 9 oz rock salt; 2 bay leaves; 1 sprig of celery leaves; 3 sprigs of thyme; 4 parsley leaves, stalks and, if possible, roots, too – all tied together in a piece of cheesecloth); 2.5 kg/5 lb 8 oz rolled brisket; 25 g/1 oz Prague Powder No 1 (this is the saltpetre, and optional); 2 onions, roughly chopped; 2 carrots, roughly chopped; 2 star anise; 10 black peppercorns; 2 sprigs of thyme; 2 cloves; 5 clove garlic; 300 g/10½ oz demerara sugar; 3 bay leaves; 3 small dried chillies; 1 dried habanero chilli (optional)

Preparation info

Serves
8

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Let's Eat

By Tom Parker Bowles

Published 2013

About

This is an epic recipe, but it’s more Independence Day than Odyssey as the action takes place over about eight or so days. Home-made salt beef is miles removed from the bland, chewy, pre-sliced stuff you get in the shops. It’s rich and luscious, scented with spices and falls apart in great chunks.

As to its history, there are the usual debates, arguments and polite exchanges of opinion. A recipe for pickled beef, in Rob