Corned Beef Brine Saltiness

[chopsaw]

Just another note , If you still have these soaking , change the water a few times like Braz said above .

 

[bellevueduck]

test fry as in "oil" to cook it fast?
So I can do a taste test?
I can do that.

 

[chopsaw]

yeah cut a small piece and cook in a pan . See how salty it is .

 

[bellevueduck]

Just took your advice and fried up a piece...
It's salty...however not inedible..

I will continue to soak and change out water for a few more hours and then smoke it later.

The Traeger recipe calls for 2 hours of smoke and then finish off in a simmer.
Can I break this up into 2 days... Do the smokin today and then simmering tomorrow AM?

 

[chopsaw]

I like to finish stuff like that after I start it . Not sure what if any concerns are involved safety wise . That's a cured piece of meat , but I'm not sure enough to say .

 

[gmc2003]

From my personal experience - smoking will not draw out any of the saltiness. Boiling it will.

Chris

 

[bellevueduck]

Chris
OK, that's encouraging... After doing the cooking taste test the pieces are salty.

So if I can get a little more of the salt out by soaking it in water this could work.

I'll smoke it for 2 hours and then put it cook it at 300 in the oven in a Dutch Oven till fork tender which is 3 =/- hours.
If you say that boiling brings out the saltiness the 2nd stage of cooking it at 300 might bring out enough salt
to make this all work.

Thanks

 

[gmc2003]

I'm not familiar enough with dutch oven cooking so I don't want to say if it will or won't draw the salt out. Just keep soaking up until your ready for smoking. You mentioned that it was eatable so maybe your tolerance to salt is greater then mine.

Chris

 

[Bearcarver]

I was in the middle of typing when you posted above . What does the sodium percent say on the label . That's a daily value percent per serving size .

"That says 1160 Mg of Sodium------48% Daily Recommendation."

Bear

 

[bellevueduck]

Thanks Bear

I just learned a ton about all this... Don't feel so bad I'm not gonna kill'em with the salt intake.

Just got back from Safeway and looked at 4 different kinds of corned beef and the nutrition labels.
they are in that range of 1160 and up.

 

[chopsaw]

That says 1160 Mg of Sodium------48% Daily Recommendation."

Yeah , I asked before he posted that , but I have a web site that you can look up nutrition labels and you can change the serving size to see what the values are . Didn't know if it was ok to post a link to that are not .

 

[bellevueduck]

Follow up on the discussion yesterday.

soaked the corned beef for 18 hours. Took out rinsed off again. they put on the pastrami rub
and let them dry in fridge till 5:30am today.

In the smoker for 2 hours on the corned beef and 6+ hours with the pastrami with a blend of mesquite and apple.

Learned quite a bit yesterday thank you all. Just saw a smokinAl picture with a few new techniques
I can learn from... cut off corner to tell the grain and with those pieces do a test fry..

Will post the rest under a New Post... newbie pastrami

 

[gmc2003]

Looks good so far.
Chris

 

[chopsaw]

Yup ,,, be waiting .

 

[bellevueduck]

Both corned beef and pastrami have been on smoker 2.5 hours... will take off the corned beef now.

did a fry test....still salty......... so hope the simmer water will take some of the salt out.

Also been doing some research and to cut the saltiness put in just alittle sugar and some cider vinegar in the corned beef simmer water.. gotta do it. glad I started early...still have Plan B lined up.

 

[chopsaw]

Sounds like you're all over it .

 

[bellevueduck]

I did have one more question that didn't get answered on my other post.

Traeger has a smoke mode which is 180 or lower... Since the Pastrami cut is so thick
is there any downside to putting up temp to 225?

I see most of the recipes are at 225.

 

[bellevueduck]

It's all coming together nicely....

IT of the Corned Beef is 204 and I turned off the oven.

IT of the pastrami on the grill is 145 and it's in the stall. I will remove this at 150
and do a 2 hour steam at 215 in the oven.

Best news is I tasted them and if anything they are undersalted....Extreme desalting was acheived.
The cooking/simmer in water sure took alot of the salt out.

Pictures shortly..

 

[bellevueduck]

Almost all ready

The corn beef is done and resting
The pastrami is still steaming.

Corn Beef taste is excellent, the cooking/simmering really took the salt out

Pastrami taste is alittle salty... it needs 3+ more hours at 225 in oven to soften up, maybe the salt will
come out a bit or the steam will add more moisture....

Lots of learning curve details this weekend for a newbie..

will take some pics when I slice.

 

[chopsaw]

Lots of learning curve details this weekend for a newbie..

You took suggestions and made it work . Had a back up plan to boot . Might be your first corned beef , but newbie ?
I don't think so .