pastrami brine troubleshooting

[arqkay]

Hoping someone can help or have some advice...

I made a recipe for pastrami with an equilibrium brine... 4130g/9.5lb brisket (i separated the point and flat) and 10L of water with 1.5% salt (214g) and 0.25% Prague#1 (35g). I let it sit for 9 days.. maybe I should have done 5?... washed it well (or so i thought) but didn't soak it in clean water then smoked it long. Came out quite salty. This is an equilibrium brine, so I wouldn't have expected it to come out as salty.

While It's probably not inedible level of salt with toppings and such, I'm wondering if the meat absorbed too much salt (nacl) then maybe it absorbed too much Prague powder such that I shouldn't eat it? ... even though it's a equilibrium brine, something must be up; I know my scale work fine :)

 

[Fueling Around]

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Your numbers work out for meat, water, salt and cure for a 1.75% salt brine.
Remember cure #1 is basically all salt so we add that number to the salt percentage.
Equilibrium is not a method to control salt by number of days. Gradient is controlling salt by the time factor.
With equilibrium you determine the total salt up front. Many add sugars to soften the bitterness of the salt.
I would double check your scales. I use a larger scale for meat and a 50g scale for salt, cure, and spices.
10 days is the minimum I would go myself. It is perfectly safe to eat even if salty to your taste.
You can soak meat slices in water to leach out some salt, but it will also take away some flavor.

Hope this helps.

 

[arqkay]

Thanks John; yes makes sense since it's the concentration controlling the max salt levels assuming the solution stays well mixed which it should. ppg should about 156 ppm...

I did use ice in the beginning which took a several days to melt at my keizer temps, so I was wondering if it maybe over salted first since the concentration would have been higher due to the ice. Perhaps next time I also try to melt most of the ice sooner or leave it out of the fridge longer. Will probably go less nacl next time and maybe next, next time, a final clean soak if needed.

For scales I'm using a 55lb postage scale with 0.5 accuracy for the big stuff and a turin espresso for the smaller stuff, also have a variety of jeweler and other scales for coffee and brewing on hand thanks to my other hobbies :)

 

[SmokinEdge]

I did use ice in the beginning which took a several days to melt at my keizer temps, so I was wondering if it maybe over salted first since the concentration would have been higher due to the ice. Perhaps next time I also try to melt most of the ice sooner or leave it out of the fridge longer. Will probably go less nacl next time and maybe next, next time, a final clean soak if needed.

This may well be the problem. If you weighed out water weight in ice alone then applied the salt and cure as “equilibrium “ that won’t work. The salt and cure must be dissolved in the water first. If you want to add some ice after that’s fine but you cannot start out with pure ice.

 

[arqkay]

I did 2L water heated near boil to dissolve the salt, sugar, then tossed int the spices & toasted spices. Then poured the hot water over 8L/kg of ice; to melt it and keep the brine cold. I also maybe should have stirred the brine more frequently as the ice melted, or left the meat in longer in case that initial bath foir the first few days was too potent with the ice. Or I coudl leave it out longer on the couter to thaw, or math out the water / ice + cold water ratios to leave less ice.

 

[SmokinEdge]

I did 2L water heated near boil to dissolve the salt, sugar, then tossed int the spices & toasted spices. Then poured the hot water over 8L/kg of ice; to melt it and keep the brine cold. I also maybe should have stirred the brine more frequently as the ice melted, or left the meat in longer in case that initial bath foir the first few days was too potent with the ice. Or I coudl leave it out longer on the couter to thaw, or math out the water / ice + cold water ratios to leave less ice.

Make the EQ brine with just the water (10L in this case) then if you want to add ice that’s fine. But the ice weight can not be part of the EQ weight ratio.

 

[Fueling Around]

The brine needs to be completely liquid and chilled below 40° before adding the meat.
Let's do some reverse calculation questimates
If 3l of your brine was captured as ice the equilibrium percentage with 7l of liquid works out to about 2.2% salt (including the cure#1) and about 200 ppm of nitrite.

If you add ice to a calculated equilibrium (EG) brine it will dilute out as the ice melts.

I haven't made brisket pastrami in a long time. I did recently make a pastrami with tri-tip.
In both meats, I dry cure the meat first, then add the "pastrami" flavoring for an additional dry cure. Just my preference.