Pastrami -- substituting tender quick for pink curing salt

[RachA]

Hey everyone! This is my first post and my 4th pastrami I'm making. I've searched and can't find an answer on here so thought I'd ask...

I put a 7 lb brisket in brine yesterday for 10 days. The recipe for a 5 lb brisket called for 3/4 c Morton's Kosher salt and 2 tsp Pink Curing Salt #1. I couldn't find curing salt anywhere in my town! but I did find Tender Quick, so I put 2 tsps in. I'm now realizing I may need to adjust the brine a bit to match the change in brisket size and the amount of Tender Quick vs Pink Curing Salt. Any advice on adjustments I can make? Mainly: do I need to put in more Tender Quick or even Kosher Salt for this size of brisket/amount of Curing Salt?

Cheers!
R

 

[Brokenhandle]

Hi from Iowa, and welcome!
Pink curing salt # 1 is not the same as Tenderquick and can NOT be substituted at the same amount as cure # 1. Hopefully someone will chime in with how much to use... Rich, chopsaw do you have an answer?
I'll look for a different thread and maybe get a better answer. Bearcarver ( RIP ) has a step by step threads and if I remember correctly mostly used Tenderquick.

Ryan

 

[BigW.]

From the tender quick website. This is for a dry brine. You may want to figure out a plan B.

• One beef brisket, 4-6 lbs
• 5 tablespoons Morton® Tender Quick® mix
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon ground paprika
• 1 teaspoon ground bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

 

[Brokenhandle]

Corned Beef and Pastrami by SQWIB

This has been a long time coming and to be quite honest I'm glad it's over. If I find ant discrepancies I'll fix them later but for now I'm spent! Corned Beef and Pastrami Pastrami Shown above. February 21st, 1st day Step 1 Game plan You will need a game plan as to what your intentions...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

Read through this... rather lengthy

Ryan

 

[Dustin Dorsey]

You absolutely CANNOT substitute one for the other at the same volume. Cure #1 has 6.26% sodium nitrite and Tenderquick has .5% sodium nitrite and .5% sodium nitrate. You have nowhere near enough nitrite, and if you substituted the other way you could make yourself or someone you love very sick with way too much cure. The math to try to fix what you've done is probably pretty hard.

The amount of tenderquick you put in probably is too low to do anything and if you just put in the right amount of cure #1 you might salvage it but your cure would be slightly high. To just add more tenderquick you'd probably wind up with too much salt.

edit - I typed nitrate instead of nitrite. Whoops.

 

[chopsaw]

If your option is to use Tender Quick , do a dry brine . Use it at 1 Tablespoon per pound of WHOLE muscle meat . That aligns with the response in post 3 per Morton's website .
If it's only been a day , you could dump the water , rinse and dry it . Then do the dry brine per Morton's info .

You can do a wet brine with the TQ , but the ratio of cure to water is extreme and needs to be soaked to get rid of the salt . I suggest not doing that .

The dry brine works just fine . 1 TBLS per pound of whole muscle , and whatever spice you want to add , or follow the info in post 3 . I go 14 days . Rinse , dry , black pepper and smoke .

 

[RachA]

Hey everyone! This is super helpful. I haven't been able to find neither enough Tender Quick (I got a few tablespoons from my mom who told me it was interchangeable!) NOR pink curing salt #1 in the area I live in.

Looking back, I remember doing a fresh brisket with Himalayan and Kosher salts in the past, which I now realize we lucked out with! I've ordered some curing salt that will arrive on Friday. May try to get the rest of my mom's Tenderquick and switch to the dry rub this evening.

 

[hoity toit]

Hi from Iowa, and welcome!
Pink curing salt # 1 is not the same as Tenderquick and can NOT be substituted at the same amount as cure # 1. Hopefully someone will chime in with how much to use... Rich, chopsaw do you have an answer?
I'll look for a different thread and maybe get a better answer. Bearcarver ( RIP ) has a step by step threads and if I remember correctly mostly used Tenderquick.

Ryan

you are right about Bearcarvers method..

HT

 

[chopsaw]

Hey everyone! This is super helpful.

I don't usually get involved with " just joined " questions . So I'm happy to see you're still here .
You will get great advice from experienced people here .
When you get what you need cure wise , revisit this with your plan before you do it .

 

[SmokinEdge]

All good advice above. I worked up some numbers on TQ a couple years ago when I was researching European cure salts that only contain .6% nitrite. They apply these curing salts as percentage of salt to meat weight and the corresponding nitrite numbers are safe, low but safe, it’s how they roll in much of the old country.

TQ has .5% nitrite and .5% nitrate so this cure can be applied just like Peklosol, one of the more popular cure salts in Europe. I ran the long math on salt and nitrite to give percentage to meat weight. This is for anyone who finds this information useful.

TQ applied as salt and cure per Kg of meat.

20g/Kg = 2% salt and 100ppm nitrite/nitrate

15g/Kg = 1.5% salt and 75ppm (this is the lowest I recommend for nitrite concentration)

Hope this helps some of you.

 

[Dustin Dorsey]

I've dry cured a brisket flat using cure#1. I full packer might be too big. I'd try dry brining with Tenderquick at this point if that's you're only option. I've done bacon with Tenderquick in the past.

 

[RachA]

OK, awesome! Thank you everyone. I think I salvaged it thanks to your advice. I got enough Tender Quick for the 9 lbs of brisket and used the Katz's Pastrami Rub recipe on it. Wooot! Never done the dry cure before so I'm excited to try something new. I'll let you all know how this turns out.

I've only ever cured Pastramis but this is definitely giving me a taste for other cured meats.

 

[RachA]

I don't usually get involved with " just joined " questions . So I'm happy to see you're still here .
You will get great advice from experienced people here .
When you get what you need cure wise , revisit this with your plan before you do it .

I get that. I'm sometimes surprised at the lack of thorough information online around various subjects, and today was one of those days. I love curing meat and am excited to have found this community! <3

 

[Hijack73]

If you'll look up Bearcarver you will find a wealth of recipes using tenderquick

RIP old friend......

 

[cptnding]

https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/bears-step-by-step-index.159333/#post-1149932