How to make salt beef

1. The salt beef can stay in the brine for at least ten days before removing it, rinsing it briefly and patting it dry Photograph: Tim Hayward

2. Cover with water in a closed pot and add your favourite aromatics. I keep it real with carrots, onions and a bayleaf. You can, if you wish, add more of your pickling spice… but I’m not sure it adds anything. Simmer on top of the stove for between two and 4 hrs. Keep the water topped up so the meat is covered. It will be done when a skewer runs through it with alarmingly little resistance.. Photograph: Tim Hayward

3. Carve brutally into inelegant slabs while still hot Photograph: Tim Hayward

4. Smear one slice of rye bread with a thick layer of thousand island dressing. On the second slice mound a pile of sauerkraut. The commercial jarred stuff is great Photograph: Tim Hayward

5. Stack the meat as high as you can on top of the ‘kraut … Photograph: Tim Hayward

6. …then get three or more slices of Emmenthal to sit on its stomach and hold it down while you slide the lot under a hot grill Photograph: Tim Hayward

7. Reunite the sandwich with its besmeared lid and serve forth with the statutory pickle (yes, I did make that jar in the background but that’s another feature). Do not expect to finish the sandwich in a single sitting. That is NOT the point. Photograph: Tim Hayward

Bonus: The Americans refer to all this as ‘corned beef’ which is clearly wrong. The original canned corned beef of our childhoods was salted Argentinian beef trimming set in its own fat. In this case the cold salt beef can be chopped, shredded finely, bound with melted butter and set into a terrine as a more elegant and infinitely more tasty homage. Photograph: Tim Hayward