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This might be a dumb question but here goes.

I made the brine yesterday for a pastrami. I did one last year and am doing this one the same. Its basically Ruhlmans and Polcyn's recipe from their book. This is the recipe.

1 gallon water
2 cups Morton’s kosher salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 ounce (5 teaspoons) pink salt (see Note)
3 garlic cloves, minced
4 tablespoons pickling spice (above recipe or store-bought)
One 5-pound well-marbled (first-cut) beef brisket

My question is does the amount of brine need to be made specifically for the weight of the meat that you will use? Or does the meat just need enough of the brine to cover it? Yesterday I trimmed up the brisket and then weighted it. Using that weight I made the right amount of brine. Could I just have made a big batch of brine and use however much I need to cover the meat?

Vindii wrote: Could I just have made a big batch of brine and use however much I need to cover the meat?

I make a 60lt brine up but only use about 20lt (for 12 boneless pork loins) the remainder sits in another container ready to be used later

There will be them there that tell me I am wrong

I'm asking if the amount of cure in the brine makes it important that the amount of brine applied to the meat is correct?

Example - Take your same 60lt of brine. Say the recipe calls for 20lt for 12 loins. If I only want to do 1 loin do I have to use specifically 1.66lt (20 divided by 12) or can I use any amount of brine that will cover the whole loin. Could I use .5lt as long as it covers the loin? Could I use 6lts?

I guess my thoughts are that too much brine might be ok but not enough and your meat might not have enough cure?

G'day Vindii,
It is my experience when curing meat at home the two most important things to keep in mind are;
1, You need the cure levels correct too much or too little is no good.
2, The amount of salt this one is a little more to taste whether you like it strong in salt or not so strong.
So in answer to you question yes to make a good quality product at home on a small scale you do need to weigh all your ingreadents up accordingly.
Damo

BriCan wrote:

Vindii wrote: Could I just have made a big batch of brine and use however much I need to cover the meat?

I make a 60lt brine up but only use about 20lt (for 12 boneless pork loins) the remainder sits in another container ready to be used later

There will be them there that tell me I am wrong

I was loathe to reply, given the above

BriCan wrote:
There will be them there that tell me I am wrong

It's like a challenge that stifles other comment...

...However, I know that you expect better...

...so, why do you think that 'what your brine does' will be like 'what his brine does' Robert?

Surely, it's what's in each brine that affects the cure?

Phil

BriCan
I have never suggested that you are wrong or untruthful I have merely asked on a couple or three occasions the salt and nitrite content of your 4 day brine but have yet to receive an answer.

Jim.

So this all mean that its important that you use the right amount of brine for your weight of meat?


This is what got me thinking about this. I had the brisket that weighed 14lbs. I wanted to start making the brine in the morning but I didn't know what the brisket would weight after I trimmed it. I assumed I would lose a fair amount of weight. So instead of starting the brine right away I decided to trim the brisket first, weight it and them figure out how much brine to make.

Vindii

Somewhat surprisingly this cure fits the results that NCPaul got in his tests. i.e. if we calculate it according to NCPaul's results it gives a sensible, compliant result.

As such, I'd scale both the recipe and curing time it pro rata for a larger piece of meat.

Phil

wheels wrote:Vindii

Somewhat surprisingly this cure fits the results that NCPaul got in his tests. i.e. if we calculate it according to NCPaul's results it gives a sensible, compliant result.


Phil

Whats this about? Is it in another thread?

NCPaul did tests on a piece of brine cured meat that showed the movement of brine salt into the meat.

What I'm saying - in a long winded way - is that the R & P cure works and is safe - on paper that is!

I'm assuming the very short cure time is due to the brisket being in a flat piece?

Phil

I'm going to leave mine in the brine for 2 weeks. The R&P book calls for 3 days for corned beef and 5 for pastrami. It odd they are different as the recipes are basically the same. 3 days seems short to me but what do I know.

My last one was 2 weeks and it was good so...

I separated the point from the flat so they are both pretty thin pieces. The flat is about 2" thick with the point being a bit thicker.

I look forward to seeing the results.

Phil

I have just tried to produce some Pastrami using the method suggested in James Strawbridge's book on curing. The end result was lovely and tender but overly salty. The salt contents in the brine were similar to Vindii's recipe. Should I have soaked the meat in water before smoking?

Hi,
As a novice I had the same hassles with smoked pork, great taste but too salty for my liking.
Now I soak the cured meats in fresh filtered water for up to 4 hours, depending on thickness.
Then in a plastic bag in the fridge overnight for the cure to work longer and it's ready to smoke in the morning.
If anybody sees a mistake in this procedure, please advise me.
Regards,
Jan.

CornishRick wrote:I have just tried to produce some Pastrami using the method suggested in James Strawbridge's book on curing. The end result was lovely and tender but overly salty. The salt contents in the brine were similar to Vindii's recipe. Should I have soaked the meat in water before smoking?

Hi and welcome to the forum CornishRick.

I've not seen any of his cures - but then he's not known for being a food producer/curer is he? If it was too salty, there's no doubt that it either needed less salt or that the recipe needed revising.

You'll find that we don't do too salty here.

Phil