Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2013 1:32 pm
Thanks for starting this thread Vindii, I've just started the pastrami recipe from this book and also had a query.
As some people replying have mentioned, the brine strength and time have an impact on the cure, but I could do with a little help getting the numbers right.
The beef I'm using is a little less than half the weight suggested in the recipe (works out approx 41%) I'd made up half the quantity of brine. This is plenty to cover the meat but I wanted to double check the time to leave it in. The 'pro rata' length of time for brining would be about 29 hours (41% of 3 days), but as I've used a little more brine than proportionally necessary, would a day do the trick (have calculated it to be just under 24 hours)?.
Also, while I'm here, I've a basic stovetop hot smoker I got for Christmas that I will be using - are there any tips for calculating smoking time? Since it will be cooked in the oven subsequently how important is that you get to a particular internal temperature?
Sorry if I've hijacked the thread somewhat, hopefully these question will be relevant to others too. Thanks.
As some people replying have mentioned, the brine strength and time have an impact on the cure, but I could do with a little help getting the numbers right.
The beef I'm using is a little less than half the weight suggested in the recipe (works out approx 41%) I'd made up half the quantity of brine. This is plenty to cover the meat but I wanted to double check the time to leave it in. The 'pro rata' length of time for brining would be about 29 hours (41% of 3 days), but as I've used a little more brine than proportionally necessary, would a day do the trick (have calculated it to be just under 24 hours)?.
Also, while I'm here, I've a basic stovetop hot smoker I got for Christmas that I will be using - are there any tips for calculating smoking time? Since it will be cooked in the oven subsequently how important is that you get to a particular internal temperature?
Sorry if I've hijacked the thread somewhat, hopefully these question will be relevant to others too. Thanks.