Hi everyone...
My wife and I always throw a big St. Paddy's Day party. It's out big shin-dig for the year. We'd always go to the local butcher shop in NJ where we lived, where they brined their own brisket, and it was always delicious.
Well, back in February, we moved to Germany and wouldn't you know... it's impossible to find a corned beef over here (as far as I can tell). So, my wife decided that she was going to make her own corned beef (we can get flat cut brisket).
So, the recipe I found has us using 3/4 c. salt and 2 tsp. of pink curing salt #1 (Prague Powder #1), which brings me to our second problem. We can't find pink curing salt #1. What they sell is called Pökesalz (pickling salt).
What I've come up with is that Prague Powder #1 is 93.75% salt and 6.25% Sodium Nitrite (NaNO2).
The Pökesalz is 99.6% salt and 0.4-0.5% NaNO2. So PP#1 has about 14x the amount of NaNO2 than the Pökesalz.
So, when I convert the US recipe I get:
3/4 c salt = 36 tsp salt
2 tsp of PP#1 (@ 6% NaNO2) = 1.875 tsp salt & .125 tsp NaNO2
Overall I have 37.875 tsp salt and .125 tsp NaNO2
So for the Pökesalz I would use
28 tsp of Pökesalz (@.045% NaNO2) = 27.875 tsp salt & .125 tsp NaNO2.
So, to make the salt/NaNO2 the same, I need to add 10 tsp salt to bring the total to:
10 tsp salt
28 tsp Pökesalz
Am I doing this right? Should I just give up on the whole thing and go get Schnitzel? ;)
Thanks!
My wife and I always throw a big St. Paddy's Day party. It's out big shin-dig for the year. We'd always go to the local butcher shop in NJ where we lived, where they brined their own brisket, and it was always delicious.
Well, back in February, we moved to Germany and wouldn't you know... it's impossible to find a corned beef over here (as far as I can tell). So, my wife decided that she was going to make her own corned beef (we can get flat cut brisket).
So, the recipe I found has us using 3/4 c. salt and 2 tsp. of pink curing salt #1 (Prague Powder #1), which brings me to our second problem. We can't find pink curing salt #1. What they sell is called Pökesalz (pickling salt).
What I've come up with is that Prague Powder #1 is 93.75% salt and 6.25% Sodium Nitrite (NaNO2).
The Pökesalz is 99.6% salt and 0.4-0.5% NaNO2. So PP#1 has about 14x the amount of NaNO2 than the Pökesalz.
So, when I convert the US recipe I get:
3/4 c salt = 36 tsp salt
2 tsp of PP#1 (@ 6% NaNO2) = 1.875 tsp salt & .125 tsp NaNO2
Overall I have 37.875 tsp salt and .125 tsp NaNO2
So for the Pökesalz I would use
28 tsp of Pökesalz (@.045% NaNO2) = 27.875 tsp salt & .125 tsp NaNO2.
So, to make the salt/NaNO2 the same, I need to add 10 tsp salt to bring the total to:
10 tsp salt
28 tsp Pökesalz
Am I doing this right? Should I just give up on the whole thing and go get Schnitzel? ;)
Thanks!