Some Advice Needed

[Oddley]

I'm going to make some salt beef my usual recipe which I made up is not bad but as it is using just salt I would like to use some cure. This is the recipe I made up myself.

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Salt Beef

Ingredients:

Salt
Water
4lbs Beef (cheap joint such as brisket)

Method:

1: In a pot boil enough water to cover the joint or joints of beef. Now add 1/2lb of ordinary salt for every pint of water simmer until dissolved. put aside until cold.

2: Submerse the joints of beef in the pot of brine put the lid on and keep in a tempreture of below 5 degrees centigrade (bottom of fridge thats where I keep mine) For between 10 - 14 days turning regularly (2 Days per Pound).

3: Cook by simmering for about an hour in water or your favorite stock. cut into about 1/2 inch thick slices and make hot sandwhiches or serve with your favorite vegetables

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I have found a recipe for salt beef that I would like to try. But there seems an awful lot of Prague powder in it seeing as the recommended dose is about 6 gm per 5 pounds of meat. Please have a look at the link below and tell me what you think

http://home.pacbell.net/lpoli/index_files/Corned_Beef.pdf

[deb]

Only made salt beef a couple of times and I used Hugh F-W's recipe from The river cottage cookbook. I have another book called Preserved which has a different recipe for salt beef (quit different really), in fact the one this book shows for Corned Beef is more like Hugh's salt beef recipe. Could mail to you if you like (not sure if it's o.k. to reproduce published recipes on this site). Due to my lack of experience I cannot comment on the recipe you have found.

[Oddley]

Thaks for your offer deb can you send the recipe or recipies to:

As I said the salt beef came out quite nice with just salt but i'm a bit worried about botulism and so on. Thanks again.

Oh BTW hows that bacon of yours doing?

I'm going to make some bacon tonight myself with franco's sweet cure and some sausages tommorrow I've got some new recipe ideas. I will post them if they are any good.

[deb]

Will mail tomorrow. I'm about to lose control of the computer for the rest of the evening.
The bacon is in the cure at the moment, will probably be ready Monday. Hope your making goes well. Any good recipes are always welcome.

[Franco]

I asked Len about the salt in the recipe and he mailed this back,


Hi Franco,
Thanks for the photo--looks very yummy!!!!


I'm not registered on your site to respond--And short on time now. But... maybe you can cut and paste in this reply:

6 grams /5 lbs is the ratio for use in ground product when all of the cure is required to be absorbed for safety reasons (about 0.26%) and in a brine 40 g /5 lbs. is about 1.8%...since not all of the cure in the brine recipe will enter the meat and hence not be consumed, the dose is higher to insure a concentration gradient....you can certainly put in less cure or even leave it out, if you wish. Because of the very high salt content, its not really necessary to add the cure in this recipe to the beef, but the corned beef will cook up brown instead of that desirable reddish color caused by the nitrite.
Len


If any of the forum members have not visited Len's site yet please do, you won't be dissapointed.

Franco

[Oddley]

Thanks for taking the time to find that info out for me much appreciated.

A question Franco in your Prague powder#1 what chemicals do you use in it is it sodium nitrite or sodium nitrate?

This question is not so i can make it myself but to understand the effects it has so I can when a bit more experianced make my own recipies for brines up.

Oh and can it be used for brining bacon or ham will it kill the bacteria that causes botulism.

[deb]

Oddley the recipes should be with you via your e-mail now.
Sorry about the delay but weekends are not a good time for me to get much of a look in on the computer.
Hope the recipes make sense, if something isn't clear give me a shout and I'll have a look in the book and try to clarify.

[Oddley]

Thanks deb I thought that you would probably be busy over the weekend my wife normally is. keeps complaining shes run off her feet.

I suppose I'll have to cook her a nice meal.

EDIT: Just picked them up great all seems perfectly clear thanks again

Isn't it funny I posted the old fasioned salt beef recipe today. It's exactly the same...

I think I might use a combination recipe by using the spices from 1 and using Prague Powder#1 to give that nice red colour. I found this post on another forum I will probably use this formula to work out the brine to Prague powder ratio.

Prague powder #1 is basically a mix of salt, nitrate,nitrate, anti-caking elements and pink food color so that you can distinguish it from salt. It is used at the rate of 1 level tsp. per 5 # meat,1 oz. per 25# meat or 4 oz.per 100# meat if added direct. A brine requires 1# 13 ozs. dissolved in 5-6 gallons of water. It goes by other names also.
Every manufacturer has thier own. Examples are Speed Cure,Pink curing
salt,Insta-cure and Prague Powder #1. I teach meat smoking and curing in a TechCollege setting. Hope this HELPS!

Another forum in the States Click Here

[Parson Snows]

YOU REALLY NEED SOME FORM OF NITRATE, NITRITE IN THE MIXTURE whether you are using a dry cure or wet/brine cure. For you information the FAO calculate that for salt to have any preservation effect at all it would have to be at the 14% level, something that you just wouldn't eat. I'll post a Corned Beef/Salt Beef recipe in the next couple of days. It should be noted that when making this you are dealing with DEADLY items (nitrates,nitrites) and the levels mentioned/included should NEVER be exceeded. It's not like making sausages, in as much as that if you like extra chilli or pepper that you just add it . Curing meats, certainly brining is a science and needs to be treated as such. If it says inject at 10% of green weight that doesn't mean make it 15 to 20%.


Hope that this is of some use to you

Kind Regards

Parson Snows