BALLYMALOE SPICED BEEF
Serves 8-10. You will need:
110g (4oz) demerara or light brown sugar 125g (4½oz) salt 5g (one-fifth of an oz) saltpetre (potassium nitrate) 25g (1oz) whole black peppercorns 25g (1oz) whole allspice (pimento or Jamaican pepper) 25g (1oz) whole juniper berries Roughly 2kg (4.4lbs) flank of beef with the bones and excess fat removed, you can ask your butcher to do this (weigh the beef after preparing) Bread, pickles and chutney, to serve
First, make the Ballymaloe beef spice mixture. Grind the demerera sugar or the light brown sugar, whichever you’re using, with the salt, the saltpetre, the whole black peppercorns, the whole allspice and the whole juniper berries (preferably in a spice grinder, in a few batches) until the mixture is fairly fine.
Put the prepared flank of beef onto a large gratin dish or roasting tray, and thoroughly rub some of the Ballymaloe beef spice mixture into every crevice of the beef. Cover the beef and put it in a fridge for three to six days, turning the meat occasionally. (This is a dry spice mixture, but after one to two days some liquid will come out of the meat.) The longer the meat is left to marinate in the spice mixture, the longer the meat will last after cooking, and the stronger the spiced flavour will be.
Just before cooking the meat, roll and tie the joint neatly into a compact roll with cotton string, cover it with cold water and simmer it for two to three hours or until it is soft and cooked (allow approximately 20 minutes per 450g (1lb)). When the beef is cooked, you should be able to insert a skewer into the centre and the skewer will come out easily.
If you’re serving the beef warm, remove it from the liquid, then place it on a carving board, cut away the string, and carve it into slices to serve.
If the beef is to be eaten cold, remove it from the liquid. Put the beef in a highsided dish such as a roasting tray or gratin dish, cover it with a chopping board and weigh the board down with about four or five tins of tomatoes or beans (or something of a similar weight) and leave it for 12 hours.
After 12 hours, remove the weights and the board. The spiced beef will now keep in the fridge for up to six weeks. Serve it by cutting it into very thin slices. Serve the spiced beef with some bread, pickles and chutney.