Salt Beef – Israeli nice...

Day 1

What's not to love about salt beef? Tender, melt-in-the-mouth brisket, served on rye bread with hot mustard and pickles. Yum, and indeed, yum. Sadly, decent salt beef cafés are something of a dying breed these days, so getting your hands on this juicy Jewish delicacy is rarer than a rabbi at a hog roast. And if the mountain won't come to Moses...

Ok, making your own salt beef is surprisingly easy and cheap, what with brisket being an incredibly reasonable cut of beef selling for around £6-£7 a kilo. You'll also need a bit of space in your fridge and a bit of time.

Soaking the beef in brine for up to two weeks will beak down all the fatty connective tissue leaving a succulent piece of meat. That's the theory anyway. Oh, and to keep the beef looking pink rather than an insipid grey (and to kill botulism spores), you'll need to source some saltpetre (sodium nitrate). Go easy, though, as it's an ingredient used in gunpowder, so buying too much will likely see you raided by the anti-terrorism squad.

Ingredients:
1.25kg beef brisket
2l water
200g salt
75g sugar
15g saltpetre (sodium nitrate, a preservative used to give the meat its pink colour and to help prevent nasties such as botulism. Also used in fireworks and explosives. Handle with care. I got mine from http://www.sausagemaking.org/)
2 bay leaves
2 cloves garlic
13g pickling spices (anything you like here. I used ground ginger, allspice juniper berries, coriander seeds, dried chilli and 1 clove)

Method:
1. To make the brine add the salt, sugar and spices to the water, bring to the boil and allow to cool.
2. Place the beef into a large plastic container and cover with the cooled brine and lid, weighing down with a saucer and ramekin if necessary to completely submerge the meat.
3. Put in a cool place or fridge for two weeks, turning the meat every day. Yes, two weeks. Pop back in a fortnight see how we got on and for the next step. I'll also be making the rye bread.