Name: Traditional Corned Beef with Salsa Verde
Cuisine: United Kingdom
Ingredients: 10 white peppercorns; 1 bay leaf; 2 juniper berries; 20 g saltpetre; 200 g salt; 200 g sugar; Good bread, toasted, to serve; 1 bouquet garni; 6 garlic cloves, peeled; 1 celery stalk, halved; 1 onion, peeled and studded with cloves; 1 carrot; 2 kg brisket of beef; 1 tablespoon chopped capers; 2 green peppers, peeled and deseeded; ⅓ cucumber, peeled and deseeded; bunch of spring onions; 1 tablespoon chopped mixed herbs, such as chervil, tarragon, parsley and chives; 1 tablespoon chopped gherkin; Salt and freshly ground black pepper; Good extra-virgin olive oil

Preparation info

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Today's special

By Anthony Demetre

Published 2008

About

Corned beef – beef preserved in brine – is such a classic, but our ideas of it are now very coloured by the tinned version. To do the real thing at home, it is important to get the right balance between fat and meat, and this is my interpretation of how it should be done. Because it has been used by terrorists in bombmaking, saltpetre has disappeared from most chemists’ shelves, but you might well be able to get it via your butcher or Internet suppliers.