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Salt beef with green peppercorn and mustard sauce

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A Karoo-style festive dish of already cured salt beef simmered with vegetables and aromatics, served with a cream sauce of brined green peppercorns and wholegrain mustard.

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Illustrative Karoo-style salt beef, sliced with creamy green-peppercorn mustard sauce, cabbage and carrots.

Scope

Start with salt beef that is already cured and commercially prepared. This recipe covers cooking and sauce only; it does not provide a curing formula.

The two-hour simmer is the author's estimate for a 1 kg joint. Check tenderness and follow the package directions for the product you bought.

Green peppercorns preserved in brine bring a fresh, sharp flavour. Taste the reduced stock before adding any salt.

Sources for this section

Ingredients

Scaling: source batch only

Salt beef, already commercially curedUse an already cured joint; this dish does not make the cure.
1 kg
White onionRoughly chop.
1 large
CarrotsPeel and roughly chop.
4
CeleryChop.
3 stalks
ParsleyA handful, rinsed.
Amount not stated
Cloves
6
Black peppercorns
10
Fennel seeds
4.9 mL1 tsp as recorded
Mustard powder
1 heaped tsp
Bay leaves
3
WaterCold water to cover the joint.
Amount not stated
CabbageCut into chunky wedges.
½ medium head
Green peppercorns in brineDrain.
30 mL2 tbsp as recorded
Wholegrain mustardPrepared mustard.
2 heaped tbsp
Cream
100 mL
Salt and white pepper (optional)Season the sauce only after tasting.
Amount not stated

Method

Risks and precautions · Standard risk
Commercially cured meat and hot cooking liquid

The product is already cured and may be salty; package directions and hygienic handling apply. This recipe does not establish the cure composition or a curing procedure.

Hazard source

Use commercially cured salt beef that has been handled and stored according to its package directions; cook until tender and follow package safety instructions.

Control source

This is a cooking recipe for already commercially cured salt beef; it is not a recipe for brining or curing meat.

The cooking time is an estimate and depends on joint size and thickness.

  1. Roughly chop the onion, carrots and celery. Put them in a deep heavy pot and set the already cured salt beef on top.
  2. Add the parsley, cloves, black peppercorns, fennel seed, mustard powder and bay leaves. Pour in cold water to cover.
  3. Bring to a boil, lower the heat to a steady simmer, and cook for two hours or until the joint is tender. Follow any cooking or handling directions on the cured beef packaging.
  4. About 20 minutes before the joint is ready, add the cabbage wedges and continue simmering.
  5. For the sauce, strain about 500 mL of the cooking liquid into a small saucepan. Add the drained green peppercorns and boil, reducing the liquid by about two-thirds.
  6. Whisk in the wholegrain mustard and cream; simmer until the sauce thickens. Taste before seasoning, because the salt beef and cooking liquid may already be salty.
  7. Slice the tender beef and serve with the vegetables, cabbage and sauce.

Places

Karoo, South Africa

Documented preparation · Region evidence

The source locates salt beef as a Karoo Christmas tradition and gives this dish as the author's interpretation; this row does not claim exclusivity or earliest origin.

See Karoo, South Africaon the mapLocation source 1 →

Related

Made from

  • Black peppercorns

    Black peppercorns are dried fruits of Piper nigrum, valued for piperine pungency and volatile aroma; whole peppercorns season Peter Kuruvita's lime pickle.

  • Cabbage

    Cabbage is the dense leafy head of Brassica oleracea, a European vegetable that keeps for months and is the classic raw material for sauerkraut, with napa cabbage the base of kimchi.

  • Carrot

    Carrot is the sweet taproot of Daucus carota subsp. sativus, domesticated in Central Asia, and the raw material of kanji and a common companion in fermented vegetable mixes.

  • Cloves

    Cloves are the dried unopened flower buds of Syzygium aromaticum. Whole buds infuse liquids and can be removed; ground clove disperses its intense aroma through food.

  • Cream

    The fat-rich fraction of milk, used as a pouring ingredient, a whipped foam, a cultured dairy substrate or the starting material for butter.

  • Fennel seed

    Fennel seed is the dried aromatic fruit of Foeniculum vulgare; a Himachal Pradesh survey records it among the seasonings of Galgal pickle.

  • Onion

    The onion is the bulb of Allium cepa, built from swollen leaf bases, and is eaten raw, cooked, pickled and as a seasoning in ferments. It is known only from cultivation and probably began in Central Asia.

  • Parsley

    Parsley (Petroselinum crispum) is a cultivated Apiaceae herb grown mainly for its fresh leaves, though root parsley is a separate crop form. Flat-leaf and curly-leaf parsley differ in leaf shape and reported flavour.

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Sources