Carne Seca - Salted Dried Beef

Carne Seca is a brazilian form of dried beef which is like a salted piece of beef similar to salted cod. This beef goes great in making your traditional brazilian black beans  into a feijoada which consists of many meats cooked together inside of the beans. Or even in a crazy rice type thing where you do a stir fry, great to be served on its own made into a beef stroganoff.

You can use it in the place of any beef great recipe, but Bearing in mind that it is salted. So just like you would with a piece of salted cod. You would first need to soak it and rinse out some of the excess salts and not season your dish in order to enjoy it and not overly salt your foods.

It is hard to find Carne Seca in stores, at least here in America it is... Only in select Brazilian specialty shops; and when you do finally find it, they are extremely over priced. I remember buying a small piece weighing no more than about 8oz and I payed about $25. Very expensive. I was trying to make a feijoada (black beans full of meats inside, a traditional Brazilian dish) and I couldn't find it, so I decided to just make it on my own. Sure easy, much cheaper and tastes great. Take a look at how its done.

Carne Seca - Salted Beef
Servings: 4
Perp Time: 0 min
Total Time: 24 hours
Source: Elise Jackson

Ingredients
Beef (whatever cut you prefer)
26oz salt

Cut your beef into thick slices, rinse well and clean it by cutting off all of the fat around the edges. Then using a paper towel thoroughly dry the meat.

Using a plate place you beef pieces side by side leaving a small space in between each piece, thoroughly cover the beef with salt. creating a thin layer of salt on top, turn over to the other side and do the same thing, press down and massage the salt into the beef and continue salting, until you have a thick layer of salt over the beef and you no longer see the meat itself.

Refrigerate over night (uncovered)

The next day you will notice a little water, that is the moisture of the beef coming out. In creating this salted beef our goal through this process is to dry out and remove all of the moisture from the meat. Drain out the water, rinse your beef and repeat the steps to drying out the beef as listed above. Rinse well, dry meat using a paper towel and then salt the meat on both sides massaging the salt into the meat, then cover entirely with salt until you no longer see the meat itself, refrigerate a few hours ( about 7-8 hours) or overnight again.

The next day you will see much less water, continue repeating the steps over and over again, until you don't have any water coming out of the beef. Once that is done. Your beef is dry enough for carne seca.

Rinse meat well, slice as desired and use in your favorite dishes.
Enjoy

Note: (Something you might have not known) This meat because it has been salted has a much longer shelf life and can technically be left out of the fridge without getting spoiled because the salt preserves it.

Print Recipe

From my kitchen to yours
God Bless