Salt Beef

salt beef is here to resolve further a linguistic distinction already discussed under corned beef. Americans may refer to all salt beef as corned beef, while the British reserve that term for tins of chopped and pressed beef.

Salt beef, or corned, or powdered, was an essential way of preservation (see salting) for many centuries as is witnessed by the powdering tubs that were an ever-present item in English domestic inventories. In other countries the meat might also be dried (see drying), or smoked, and often spiced, as, for example, bakkwa (in E. Asia), biltong, bresaola, bündnerfleisch, carne de sol (in Brazil), cecina (in Spain and Mexico), hunter beef (in Pakistan), jerky, pastrami (or pastirma in Turkey or pasturma in SE Europe).