Commonly associated with Jewish cuisine, salt-beef refers to meat that has been cured or preserved in salt.
Typically, salt-beef is served thickly-sliced in sandwiches with sour-tasting pickles such as gherkins, which perfectly complement the saltiness of the meat. It can also accompany salads or mixed with mashed potatoes and fried into a hash.
Before the days of mass refrigeration, salt-beef bars used to be a common feature throughout London.
Today, only a handful of specialist outlets remain – but there is plenty of evidence to suggest that salt-beef dishes are making a renaissance in pubs.
The Longroom
Keeping the salt-beef tradition going in the capital is the Longroom, just yards from Smithfield meat market in Farringdon. With beef sourced from the market’s Keevil & Keevil and cured in-house, the pub’s snacking menu includes salt beef on sourdough with mustard and pickles (£7.50) and a salt-beef salad (£8.50).
London pubs have also been embracing salt-beef bars as a pop-up concept. Formerly in residence at the Queen’s Head in Piccadilly, the Bell & Brisket pop-up is now serving hand-brined salt-beef on Brick Lane bagels or black rye buns at the Duke’s Head in Highgate.
Options include the Old Timer, made with gherkins and English mustard for £6.50, the Lord Rupert – with picked cabbage, gherkins and melted cheddar (£7.00), and the Baron Beethoven – with pickled beets, grated horseradish and melted cheddar (£7.50).
Away from the capital, the Pipe and Glass Inn, in South Dalton, East Riding of Yorkshire has a salt-beef hash cake with fried quail egg, rhubarb ketchup and crispy pickled onion rings on its starter menu.