"Once more into the brine dear friends..."

[ckkphoto]

Have a packer brisket soaking in brine right now. Woozy sauce, coke, dr. pepper, vinegar, garlic, canning salt and ceyenne. put it in last night.

will smoke it tonight as soon as I can scrounge up some wood...fresh out.

rub? just gonna be a mustard slather then season-all salt and cracked pepper.

It is just too bad that I can't plan a meal around this brisket...it is gonna get cooked, fridged and sliced for sammiches. not that I wont help myself to a meal at 3am when it comes out! but I doubt I will have much company.

 

[bowhnter]

not that I wont help myself to a meal at 3am when it comes out! but I doubt I will have much company.

Many nights I wake up around 2, and I am usually hungry, so that should be good timing.

 

[thirdeye]

Other than adding Mayonnaise, you have got that guy covered. :mrgreen: Oh yeah, is it a left handed one? :mrgreen:

Seriously, I've seen recipes for pop mops, just not a brine. Although I do use apple juice for sweetener in my turkey brines. Care to share your brine recipe? You sound like you've done this before with brisket?

 

[biffleg]

Care to share your brine recipe?

Inquiring minds want to know :biggrin:

 

[gunrunner2491]

Yea! Yea! Yea! Inquiring minds want to know.:tongue:

 

[Puppyboy]

Status on the brine & brisket?

 

[ckkphoto]

Status on the brine & brisket?

Wellllllllll....Actually I just put it in this morning. should be done by 4pm if your hungry. I got busy doing some volunteer work and then the usual yada yada. So the brisket lay in the brine a long time.
Smelled good when I put it in the smoker. Cruising nicely at 200. I skipped the rub because of the long brine time. When it comes out its not gonna need salt or pepper or sauce. The brine tends to cut cook time by 20 percent, so a brisket that would take ten hrs gets done in eight. Foiling is a bad idea because you will end up with mush. Because of the extra moisture there are less "burnt ends" which can be good or bad depending on how much you look forward to a smoky pot of beans.
I haven't brined one this long before, so I am curious myself to see how this one turns out. I can post pics when this is done, but I cant figure out how to make them "scratch and sniff."

 

[ckkphoto]

Brine recipe???? I am not organized enough to have a recipe. Generally I start with about 1 cup canning salt per qt (boil dissolve and cool completely)and a half water, add 8-12 oz woozy sauce, a glug and a splash of vinegar (preferably apple cider), ground pepper, a large helping of garlic powder from the big plastic container I buy at sam's, then I add dr. pepper or coke (this time was both because I had some flat soda to get rid of) till the brisket is covered. A little cayenne pepper goes a long way in the brine, but it doesn't taste as good if it isn't there.
I freely mix it up with the brines. Celery salt is good when I have it, and I have frequently swapped beer for the soda.

 

[thirdeye]

Brine recipe???? I am not organized enough to have a recipe. Generally I start with about 1 cup canning salt per qt (boil dissolve and cool completely)and a half water, add 8-12 oz woozy sauce, a glug and a splash of vinegar (preferably apple cider), ground pepper, a large helping of garlic powder from the big plastic container I buy at sam's, then I add dr. pepper or coke (this time was both because I had some flat soda to get rid of) till the brisket is covered. A little cayenne pepper goes a long way in the brine, but it doesn't taste as good if it isn't there.
I freely mix it up with the brines. Celery salt is good when I have it, and I have frequently swapped beer for the soda.

Thanks for the info. I'm trying to get a feel for the salt to liquid ratio. It looks like about 2 quarts without the soda pop. What do you think your total amount of liquid is?

 

[ckkphoto]

I have a turkey roasting pan small enough to fit in fridge and big enough to hold a brisket. I imagine 2L is about the max liquid total with the brisket in the pan. The easy way to backwards engineer your approach is to throw the brisket into the pan still in the wrap, then take a two quart pitcher of water and see what the total amount of liquid is required to cover the meat. Then figure about 1/2 to 2/3 of that volume will be salt water and the remainder will be worcestershire and soda. In a brine one standard store bought bottle of woozy sauce will suffice...I by gallon jugs from sam's, so I "eyeball it" now.
That is how I figured out how much brine I needed to make the first time.
Because you have to heat the salt water to dissolve the salt it might be tempting to use the soda to cool the salt water. Bad idea...especially with beer.
Lotta mess to clean up that way. (farkin woosh...um sorry dear) Also although I have NO idea of what properties could change, heating a strong salt solution and adding an acid (like in soda or beer) is essentially a chemical process...better to do it cold so that the taste isn't changed by the process.

 

[thirdeye]

Thanks. I make my brine base 3/4 cup of kosher to 1 gallon of liquid, which is water apple juice, cider vin, beer with a little wooster or soy sauce. Chicken and turkey get different herbs than pork. Usually a little Tenderquick goes in for good measure.

Yours is a lot stronger than mine since canning salt is finer and your liquid is less.

 

[ckkphoto]

I like the tenderquick also. On briskets you can see about a half inch of red at the outside. Looks great. yeah, my brine is pretty salty to start, but then it gets cut by the volume of beer, soda, and the sugar in the soda takes up some of the salty taste. Also, briskets are really thick and salt penetration goes at a constant rate, so what ends up happening is that by the time it is sliced, it all tends to balance out.
I back off a lot on the salt when brining chicken and turkey, because they seem to soak it up quickly. Tenderquick rocks with birds. Salmon I like salty so when I do a salmon brine it is in a near saturated solution. Plus with salmon, I just tend to like the edge that salt gives over bacteria at the lower temps.

A lot OT but gotta throw it in...I bought one of the pre-cooked 8lb turkey spams from sam's, and plugged it with tooths of garlic, then rubbed with basil,butter and salt, smoked it for about 3.5 hrs at 200. Then fridged and sliced for sandwiches. Must be tried to be appreciated.

 

[thirdeye]

I gotcha. This should be my last brine question , how long to you rest in the fridge AFTER removing from the brine?

Rest Times:
Pork chops 2 hours
Chicken at least 2 or 3 hours
Pork loin 3 or 4 hours
Salmon 5 or 6 hours
Turkey breast, overnight if I can get away with it
Corned beef, same
Buckboard bacon, same

BTW, I'm making some shrimp tonight and I brine them 10 minutes and rest 30.

 

[ckkphoto]

pork...0
chicken: 2-3 hrs
never brined a pork loin
salmon 5-10 hrs depending on whether I want a "pellicle"
I often don't give it a rest at all because the natives are restless and then find that when I eat the rarely available salmon leftover that the flavor improves on the second day.
Turkey: overnight
never brined a corned beef...but have corned a brisket into corned beef...does it count?

you must be an awesome cook...I have tried to smoke shrimp and they come out tasting like dog turds.

This may be hard to keep on topic. When you smoke salmon do you have a temp you pull it at. 155 seems to be the sweetspot for me. So I try to take as long as possible to get there.

 

[thirdeye]

I don't think I have smoked shrimp. I grill them a lot. I brine all shrimp even if I am deep frying them or steaming them for a shrimp cocktail. It gives them some extra flavor and really makes them taste fresh. I was raised on Gulf shrimp, so I like that distinct flavor.

For salmon, I pull it at 130°-140°. This is a bad description but I try to catch it BEFORE if flakes. It finishes off while resting. I use a dry cure which turns to a syrup like liquid. My recipe details can be found in this earlier thread.

http://bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16805&highlight=salmon

This thread shows some of my Copper River salmon from this season. I wound up doing about 20 fillets, 12 of them of them for other folks.

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28274&highlight=copper+river

You could say I really like salmon.

 

[ckkphoto]

Very, very nice pics! I understand where you are coming from on the salmon. It is hands down my favorite thing to smoke and I want the texture exactly right. It should melt without having to be chewed...

Thanks for sharing the pics.

 

[redaub]

That is some nice looking salmon! And I like the idea of brining brisket. Never tried it but it sounds like a good idea. thanks.

 

[ckkphoto]

the brisket was good...I was afraid it would be too salty after its extra long soak, but it was fine. It was a little too soft, but my wifes work friends managed to eliminate an entire brisket and pork loin in one meal. There were some leftovers, unfortunately none remained at the house...they wanted em, so my wife packed it to go. I did save some of the burnt ends from the brisket for beans so I will have to console myself with bbq beans this week.

 

[redaub]

So the flavor was good even without the rub? I definitely have to try the brine.