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Homemade Pastrami

Greenm4ch1ne

Found some matches.
Joined
Jan 12, 2021
Location
Victorvi...
Name or Nickame
Matt
Been wanting to try this for a while. Cured and smoked a brisket to make pastrami. Think I smoked it a little too long but will definitely be doing this again.
 

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I made a brine starting out with 3 quarts of boiling water 1/4 a cup of curing salt some coriander seeds whole black pepper garlic kosher salt and honey. Once it all was absorbed into the water mixed it into another food safe container with 3 quarts of ice cold water and let it get cold in the fridge. Once it was cold i put the brisket in let it sit for 5 days and then an additional day soaked in regular water. After that about a 6hr smoke at 225 to 160 internal then steamed over water for 3. You can do the steam in the oven just put it on a grate over water not in it and wrapped the whole thing in foil.
 
Dang, that is a LOT of curing salt... 3/4Tbsp(!) and a couple more days time would suffice.

Thats what I thought as well. But it is absorbed into 6 quarts of water. Apparently this recipe comes from the guys at Katz deli in NY. The article I linked speaks on the science of this. As I understand it a liquid brine absorbs alot less nitrates into the meat than a dry cure making higher amounts safer. Also the 6hr smoke and 3hr boil cooks out most of the nitrates. We all ate it here and were still alive lol. Obviously its probably not the healthiest sodium wise but its not something id eat everyday either lol.
 
Very nice. Never made one from scratch, always started w/ an already corned beef. Thanks for the motivation. Looks so good...[drool]
 
I made a brine starting out with 3 quarts of boiling water 1/4 a cup of curing salt some coriander seeds whole black pepper garlic kosher salt and honey. Once it all was absorbed into the water mixed it into another food safe container with 3 quarts of ice cold water and let it get cold in the fridge. Once it was cold i put the brisket in let it sit for 5 days and then an additional day soaked in regular water. After that about a 6hr smoke at 225 to 160 internal then steamed over water for 3. You can do the steam in the oven just put it on a grate over water not in it and wrapped the whole thing in foil.

Dang, that is a LOT of curing salt... 3/4Tbsp(!) and a couple more days time would suffice.

Thats what I thought as well. But it is absorbed into 6 quarts of water. Apparently this recipe comes from the guys at Katz deli in NY. The article I linked speaks on the science of this. As I understand it a liquid brine absorbs alot less nitrates into the meat than a dry cure making higher amounts safer. Also the 6hr smoke and 3hr boil cooks out most of the nitrates. We all ate it here and were still alive lol. Obviously its probably not the healthiest sodium wise but its not something id eat everyday either lol.

Your cure amount is on the high end, but acceptable. I prefer a lower strength cure, and longer time but that is a personal preference. A couple of changes you might consider is to not boil your brine, only simmer it. And the 3 hours is quite a long time.... 1 hour works well. I inject brine into all my wet cured meats over 1" thick, this way it cures from the outside in, and from inside out. Another tip is to wait until you cool the brine down before adding the Cure #1. The is a lot of debate on how heat affects sodium nitrite. Many labels on Cure #1 actuall mention cold water. So keep that in mind.
e6LsfM1.jpg


You can probably stop reading right here because with a couple of changes.... what you are doing will get the job done.... but this is how you can check other recipes you find online, or just prove to yourself how a brine cure works.

The way Cure #1 is calculated in a brine is somewhat easy. You weigh the meat, weigh the water and then calculate the amount of Cure #1, which is 0.25% of the meat and water weight. For example you have a 6 pound brisket and will use 1 gallon of water for your brine. Converting to grams, this is 2724 grams of meat, and 3786 grams of water for a total of 6510 grams. Next calculate the Cure #1: 0.25% of 6510 equals 16.3 grams of Cure #1 which is a hair over 1 tablespoon. This concoction will come in around 156 parts per million of sodium nitrite. You had 6 quarts of water, so the Cure #1 amount would be a little over 20 grams.

That said, look at the heavy tablespoon as the minimum amount of Cure #1 in one gallon of water. More can be safely used, in fact the maximum amount of Cure #1 in a gallon of water is almost 4 tablespoons BUT you are now pushing the 200 parts per million on the sodium nitrite, which is the maximum recommended amount. So.... most curing folks will agree that 1 to 1.5 tablespoons of Cure #1 is the minimum, and 3 to 3.5 tablespoons of Cure #1 is the maximum when making 1 gallon of brine.

I suspect commercial operations go heavy on the Cure #1 so they can shorten their cure time. Many will inject about 10% of the brine, which also shortens the cure time (I inject any meat over 1" thick).
 
Your cure amount is on the high end, but acceptable. I prefer a lower strength cure, and longer time but that is a personal preference. A couple of changes you might consider is to not boil your brine, only simmer it. And the 3 hours is quite a long time.... 1 hour works well. I inject brine into all my wet cured meats over 1" thick, this way it cures from the outside in, and from inside out. Another tip is to wait until you cool the brine down before adding the Cure #1. The is a lot of debate on how heat affects sodium nitrite. Many labels on Cure #1 actuall mention cold water. So keep that in mind.
e6LsfM1.jpg


You can probably stop reading right here because with a couple of changes.... what you are doing will get the job done.... but this is how you can check other recipes you find online, or just prove to yourself how a brine cure works.

The way Cure #1 is calculated in a brine is somewhat easy. You weigh the meat, weigh the water and then calculate the amount of Cure #1, which is 0.25% of the meat and water weight. For example you have a 6 pound brisket and will use 1 gallon of water for your brine. Converting to grams, this is 2724 grams of meat, and 3786 grams of water for a total of 6510 grams. Next calculate the Cure #1: 0.25% of 6510 equals 16.3 grams of Cure #1 which is a hair over 1 tablespoon. This concoction will come in around 156 parts per million of sodium nitrite. You had 6 quarts of water, so the Cure #1 amount would be a little over 20 grams.

That said, look at the heavy tablespoon as the minimum amount of Cure #1 in one gallon of water. More can be safely used, in fact the maximum amount of Cure #1 in a gallon of water is almost 4 tablespoons BUT you are now pushing the 200 parts per million on the sodium nitrite, which is the maximum recommended amount. So.... most curing folks will agree that 1 to 1.5 tablespoons of Cure #1 is the minimum, and 3 to 3.5 tablespoons of Cure #1 is the maximum when making 1 gallon of brine.

I suspect commercial operations go heavy on the Cure #1 so they can shorten their cure time. Many will inject about 10% of the brine, which also shortens the cure time (I inject any meat over 1" thick).

Oh I only brought the water to a boil then shut the burner off as i mixed in the ingredients. Ive had brown sugar ruin the bottom of a stainless steel pot before with turkey brine. Learned that lesson the hard way lol. Thanks for all the info. This being my first time i was super nervous. Glad i did it though and will definitely take your info into account as I make tweaks to the process.
 
….daaaaamn…..

I’ve done Meathead’s version a couple of times and while it’s a ton of work and time consuming, I never regret it.
 
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