- Joined
- Jan 14, 2006
- Location
- At home...
Ever wonder if you can use Oakridge Game Changer Brine & Injection as a 'curing brine'? So did I, and I've been experimenting this year and it's time to share some information.
If you already use Game Changer, you know it contains sea salt, cane sugar and some signature spices like garlic, black pepper, onion and a few others. To use it as a curing brine it needs some pink salt (aka Cure #1, Prague #1, Instacure #1) which contains 6.25% sodium nitrite in a salt carrier. It's dyed pink so it won't get confused with table salt. Sorry, Morton tender Quick is not an option here because it contains salt and sugar which will upset the percentages.
My experiment was inspired by Pop's Brine which is both an 'equilibrium curing brine' and a 'universal curing brine'. This means the amounts of salt, sugar are variable and the amount of Cure #1 is close to the minimum needed to fully cure meat. The base amount is 1 gallon of water.
Now we don't know the percentages of salt and sugar in Game Changer but the wet finger test tells me that the flavors are well balanced. There are recommendations for full strength and half strength amounts, which relate to recommended brine times. We also know that curing brines generally have longer brine times than flavor brines. So I concluded that a Game Changer curing brine will need to be lower strength because the brine time will be longer.
What is agreed upon in curing circles is that 1 to 1.5 tablespoons of Cure #1 is the minimum amount needed in 1 gallon of water. And the maximum recommended safe amount of Cure #1 used in 1 gallon of water is 3 tablespoons (actually the maximum amount is around 4 tablespoons, but this causes the parts-per-million of sodium nitrite to approach a Government limit, so 3 tablespoons is a safer amount when curing at home).
I am currently using this formula:
1 gallon of water
125 grams of Game Changer
23 grams of Cure #1 (this is a generous heaping tablespoon)
Additional aromatics like a lemon, some herbs, peppercorns etc.
I mix my Game Changer and any aromatics in a quart of warmed water on the stove top, then add 3 quarts of cool water. When this mixture has cooled down, I add the Cure #1 and mix VERY well. Usually I mix this the night before and refrigerate. For thin meats like a pork chop I just use a cover brine. For thicker meats I inject a few ounces, then move into a container with a covering brine.
So far I have cured turkey breasts, chicken breasts, and pork chops. I am using a warm/hot smoke and my total cooking times is in the 4 to 5 hour range. The Cure #1 will provide the safety net to exceed the 4 hour food safety window but I decided against experimenting with something like a ham until I've got the amount of Game Changer nailed down better.
Here is a turkey breast I recently smoked, I injected, then brined the whole breast in 1 gallon of brine for about 50 hours. Then removed the fillets, seasoned them with rub on all sides, put them together, wrapped with the skin, and let sit in the fridge for 24 hours. I removed the twine and put into a sock for for hanging and to improve the shape, then warm/hot smoked to an internal of 157°.
Set the whole breast with the cavity up, and just follow the rib cage with a fillet knife.
I did slice off some fat from the skin but it is only to protect the breast when smoking. It will be chewy and this is why I directly seasoned the fillets.
The twine is just to hold the skin while drying in the fridge.
If you already use Game Changer, you know it contains sea salt, cane sugar and some signature spices like garlic, black pepper, onion and a few others. To use it as a curing brine it needs some pink salt (aka Cure #1, Prague #1, Instacure #1) which contains 6.25% sodium nitrite in a salt carrier. It's dyed pink so it won't get confused with table salt. Sorry, Morton tender Quick is not an option here because it contains salt and sugar which will upset the percentages.
My experiment was inspired by Pop's Brine which is both an 'equilibrium curing brine' and a 'universal curing brine'. This means the amounts of salt, sugar are variable and the amount of Cure #1 is close to the minimum needed to fully cure meat. The base amount is 1 gallon of water.
Now we don't know the percentages of salt and sugar in Game Changer but the wet finger test tells me that the flavors are well balanced. There are recommendations for full strength and half strength amounts, which relate to recommended brine times. We also know that curing brines generally have longer brine times than flavor brines. So I concluded that a Game Changer curing brine will need to be lower strength because the brine time will be longer.
What is agreed upon in curing circles is that 1 to 1.5 tablespoons of Cure #1 is the minimum amount needed in 1 gallon of water. And the maximum recommended safe amount of Cure #1 used in 1 gallon of water is 3 tablespoons (actually the maximum amount is around 4 tablespoons, but this causes the parts-per-million of sodium nitrite to approach a Government limit, so 3 tablespoons is a safer amount when curing at home).
I am currently using this formula:
1 gallon of water
125 grams of Game Changer
23 grams of Cure #1 (this is a generous heaping tablespoon)
Additional aromatics like a lemon, some herbs, peppercorns etc.
I mix my Game Changer and any aromatics in a quart of warmed water on the stove top, then add 3 quarts of cool water. When this mixture has cooled down, I add the Cure #1 and mix VERY well. Usually I mix this the night before and refrigerate. For thin meats like a pork chop I just use a cover brine. For thicker meats I inject a few ounces, then move into a container with a covering brine.
So far I have cured turkey breasts, chicken breasts, and pork chops. I am using a warm/hot smoke and my total cooking times is in the 4 to 5 hour range. The Cure #1 will provide the safety net to exceed the 4 hour food safety window but I decided against experimenting with something like a ham until I've got the amount of Game Changer nailed down better.
Here is a turkey breast I recently smoked, I injected, then brined the whole breast in 1 gallon of brine for about 50 hours. Then removed the fillets, seasoned them with rub on all sides, put them together, wrapped with the skin, and let sit in the fridge for 24 hours. I removed the twine and put into a sock for for hanging and to improve the shape, then warm/hot smoked to an internal of 157°.
Set the whole breast with the cavity up, and just follow the rib cage with a fillet knife.
I did slice off some fat from the skin but it is only to protect the breast when smoking. It will be chewy and this is why I directly seasoned the fillets.
The twine is just to hold the skin while drying in the fridge.
