History

Eastern European Jewish migrants brought the boiled-and-baked bagel and the brined-brisket tradition to Whitechapel and Spitalfields from the 1880s. The Beigel Bake on Brick Lane (1974) and the rival Beigel Shop next door (1855, the older of the two) sell the form that London adopted: dense hand-rolled bagel, hot pink salt beef sliced to order at the window, English mustard and pickled cucumber, cash and card, 24 hours. Cabbies, theatre staff and clubbers anchor the queue from midnight onwards. North London delis like Reuben's and Brass Rail in Selfridges sell the upmarket sit-down version.

Common allergens: Gluten, Mustard

Make it at home

Yield Serves 6 (with leftover salt beef)Hands-on 45 minTotal P8DDifficulty Advanced

Ingredients

  • 1.5kg beef brisket, point cut
  • For the brine: 3L water, 250g coarse sea salt, 100g brown sugar, 25g pink curing salt (Prague powder #1), 6 garlic cloves, 2 tbsp pickling spice, 1 bay leaf
  • To cook: 1 onion, 2 carrots, 1 celery stick, 6 peppercorns
  • 6 plain bagels, sliced
  • English mustard (Colman's)
  • Pickled cucumbers (gherkins), sliced lengthways

Method

  1. Bring brine ingredients to a boil, simmer 5 minutes, cool completely.
  2. Submerge brisket in cooled brine in a non-reactive container. Weigh down with a plate. Refrigerate 7 days, turning daily.
  3. On day 8, drain brisket, rinse, place in a large pot with onion, carrot, celery and peppercorns. Cover with cold water.
  4. Bring to a bare simmer, skim, cook covered for 3 hours until knife-tender.
  5. Lift the brisket out and rest 15 minutes covered loosely with foil. Save 200ml of the cooking liquor.
  6. Slice across the grain at 4mm thick. Keep slices warm in a little reserved cooking liquor.
  7. Toast or warm the bagels. Slather one half with mustard.
  8. Pile salt beef high (50g to 80g per bagel), add a pickled cucumber slice, close and press.

Tip from the editors. Pink curing salt is what makes salt beef pink instead of grey. Brine for the full week; it's the difference between a sandwich and the sandwich.

This is the TableJourney editorial recipe, modelled on the canonical bistro / counter version. The first place to try the dish in its city of origin is below.

Where to eat salt beef bagel

Salt beef bagel in London

Beigel Bake ★ 4.7

shoreditch-spitalfieldsUntil Open 24/7

The Brick Lane Beigel Bake bakery in east London, trading since 1974, runs 24-hour hand-rolled bagels and salt beef sandwiches, the city's defining late-night cheap eat.

Try: Salt beef bagel

Tip: After midnight queue runs 15 minutes. Salt beef bagel £6, cream cheese bagel £2.50. Cash or card.

159 Brick Lane, London E1 6SB

The Dusty Knuckle ★ 4.6

hackneyTue-Sat 08:00-17:00, Sun 09:00-16:00Walk-in onlySourdough sandwiches and pastry

Max Tobias's social-enterprise bakery in a Dalston car park in east London, opened 2014, runs sourdough sandwiches, pastry and a youth training program.

Tip: Salt beef sandwich is the marquee fill. Sunday roast bread loaf sells out by 13:00. Outdoor seating only in summer.

Worth the queue: Salt beef sandwich

Abbot Street Car Park, Abbot Street, London E8 3DP

More cities are in research. Want salt beef bagel covered somewhere specific? Tell us where you want to eat.

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