Tri-Tip Pastrami Using Pop's Brine

[thirdeye]

WCB
Wyoming Corned Beef
Can we call you an honorary Wyoming Colonel? Twist on Kentucky Colonel.
KFC secret recipe is not so much the (secret) herbs and spices, but the pressure cooking.

Now that looks and sounds great.
I can tell you , I would have a stomach ache from eating way too much at one sitting, I just know I would

Thanks for posting your way of processing. Love the PC finish. New to me.

I have to make more soon

Thanks

David

I think I've only corned a couple of other tri-tips, the worst thing is they do go fast. I see that some BBQ joints are making pastrami with beef plate ribs, which sounds good too.

Last one I did was smoked to 150 , then SV'd for 24 hours .
I'll be doing the pressure finish on the next one . Makes more sense , and I bet a better finished result .

I do a dry cure , but mix the spice in wth the cure mixture . 14 days , smells fantastic .

Are you grinding your additional spices?

 

[Steve H]

Now that is a mighty fine looking pastrami! If TT ever gets to a sane price point. I'll try this.

 

[Culinary Otter]

Last one I did was smoked to 150 , then SV'd for 24 hours .
I'll be doing the pressure finish on the next one . Makes more sense , and I bet a better finished result .

Have you tried going the opposite way?

For smoked brisket or pastrami, I've always gone SV first to the temp/time to get the texture you prefer, chill, then smoke to add flavor and bark, and bring it up to a nice eating temperature. Turns out amazing.

To me, the pressure cooker after makes sense as it's a short jaunt to the finish line. The SV is a marathon, and is going to lose a lot of bark and possibly lose the smoke flavor or make it a bit weird as you're probably losing more moisture in the SV than on the smoker.

May I ask what temp you finished in the SV?

 

[chopsaw]

Are you grinding your additional spices?

This was for a smoked pork loin , but it's my go to for dry bringing . If I was wet curing I would grind it to a powder , and maybe even steep in a cup for liquid before adding to the brine .

This is the actual mix I used for the pastrami cure . Before going into the
Molcajete . I add the spice mix to Tender quick . I like TQ , but have also used cure 1 .

I actually used petite tenders to make some pastrami snacks with the mix .

This is a great informative thread . I'll take some info away from it .
Now to see what beef cuts I have , and get it thawed out .

 

[chopsaw]

May I ask what temp you finished in the SV?

I believe it was 155 . Followed Al's lead on that one .

 

[Culinary Otter]

I believe it was 155 . Followed Al's lead on that one .

Same as I use. I try for 36 hours but 24 works too, but I wouldn't go less. If you're open to it I'd suggest doing the SV portion first then smoking. Think you'll be pleased! Sorry if I derailed the thread a bit.

 

[thirdeye]

To me, the pressure cooker after makes sense as it's a short jaunt to the finish line

A big advantage with the pressure finish is dialing in the exact tenderness you like. This is my pressure canner, and each of these pastramied briskets is a little over 3#. Once the pressure falls I probe for tenderness and if it's fine, I rest for at least an hour. It it's not tender enough the cooker comes back to pressure pretty fast, and I'll process another 5 or 6 minutes.

 

[Hijack73]

Looks great. Have you tried just taking one to medium on the smoke with no steam? I'm still on the hunt for an affordable sirloin cap, as the one I did back in January was delicious but I really want to go no steam on the next one that I can find on sale. I can get tri-tip cheaper than picahna. Way cheaper

Smoked to about 100 then steamed to about 150. I think both of these cuts could just be smoked to 140-145 and be done.

 

[chopsaw]

I think both of these cuts could just be smoked to 140-145 and be done.

The first time I did one , was store bought corned beef . I smoked it to 145 in my MES 30 , cooled and sliced . Fantastic .

 

[JLinza]

Looks great, that would make one hell of a sandwich, right there

 

[Florida Chris]

Looks like an awesome recipe I'd like to try out for some St Patty day grub!!! One question:

"(note 2: the amount of Cure #1 is 22 grams due to the large amount of aromatics used)"

Why would the amount of aromatics used affect the amount of Cure #1?

 

[thirdeye]

Looks like an awesome recipe I'd like to try out for some St Patty day grub!!! One question:

"(note 2: the amount of Cure #1 is 22 grams due to the large amount of aromatics used)"

Why would the amount of aromatics used affect the amount of Cure #1?

Good question... and weight plays a big part in the answer.

Technically speaking, when you make a curing brine, the amount (weight in grams) of Cure #1 is based on the weight of the meat + the weight of the water + the weight of anything else that is in your curing bucket. Meaning, in a basic curing brine, you should include the weight of the salt and sugar when calculating the weight of Cure #1. But some of us (who still use manual calculations) let that slide because there is a small margin of error within the rules for using nitrites when curing meats.

Considering the additional pile of goodies I add, (along with the salt & sugar) I wanted to move the needle back toward the approved range. This is why I bumped the Cure #1.

 

[Florida Chris]

Thanks, thirdeye. I knew we had to consider the weight of both the liquid and the meat but never thought about the "anything else" part.
Does this apply only to wet brines or should the "additions" also be considered when using a dry brine?

 

[SmokinEdge]

Good question... and weight plays a big part in the answer.

Technically speaking, when you make a curing brine, the amount (weight in grams) of Cure #1 is based on the weight of the meat + the weight of the water + the weight of anything else that is in your curing bucket. Meaning, in a basic curing brine, you should include the weight of the salt and sugar when calculating the weight of Cure #1. But some of us (who still use manual calculations) let that slide because there is a small margin of error within the rules for using nitrites when curing meats.

Considering the additional pile of goodies I add, (along with the salt & sugar) I wanted to move the needle back toward the approved range. This is why I bumped the Cure #1.

Just a casual question to you because I’ve always questioned adding the salt weight and sugar weight to the brine and meat to come up with the cure #1 amount. Reason to me is adding more cure #1 because of salt and sugar weight makes little sense. However in the SAL formulation to make a salt brine (weight of the brine and subsequent buoyancy of the brine) the SAL goes up with added sugar. That’s just brine strength measured that way, but I still don’t think cure #1 should be based off that. Maybe I’m missing something?

 

[thirdeye]

Just a casual question to you because I’ve always questioned adding the salt weight and sugar weight to the brine and meat to come up with the cure #1 amount. Reason to me is adding more cure #1 because of salt and sugar weight makes little sense

Okay, I hope this is not a "because we've always done it that way" answer but... I recall two statements but not sure if they come from daveomak , Rytek Kutas, or Marianski: 1) you use the weight of the brine, and not just use the weight of water, and 2) the weight of everything in the bucket is used when calculating the amount of Cure #1.

That said, on a small scale like most of us use, we can take short cuts and get away with it.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Okay, I hope this is not a "because we've always done it that way" answer but... I recall two statements but not sure if they come from daveomak , Rytek Kutas, or Marianski: 1) you use the weight of the brine, and not just use the weight of water, and 2) the weight of everything in the bucket is used when calculating the amount of Cure #1.

That said, on a small scale like most of us use, we can take short cuts and get away with it.

I agree. But I still say the weight of the salt, sugar and whatever else is just not needed in cure #1 calculations. Just water and meat weight. Obviously this view works and I see no benefit increasing cure #1 when it’s clearly not necessary. Is just a curious topic to me. Thank you for your reply, it’s always appreciated.

 

[Fueling Around]

I believe that Pop's universal pickle (cure) is solely based on volumetric measurements in water, salt, sugar, and cure #1. I see no adjustment based on meat weight. Why the need to adjust for added spices, except to to get it updated to the nitrite ppm that we use and accept as current standards?

 

[chopsaw]

A big advantage with the pressure finish is dialing in the exact tenderness you like.

Yup . I ended up using a store bought point end . Smoked then pressure ( instant pot ) finish .
I started with 30 minutes , but ended up closer to an 1:15 . It works . I think next time I'll go longer from the start and deal with whatever comes out of the pot . Then I can adjust to get it close .
One negative for me , was I fried a piece , and that told me it needed a soak . I ended up soaking to long I guess , because it needed salt .
Good info in this thread , thanks again .

 

[kilo charlie]

For my most recent pastrami, I used a 1-gallon corning brine based on Pop's Brine, but added a bunch of corning aromatics and substituted 16 ounces of beer. I did inject 10% of the meat weight. The beef corned for 12 or 14 days, seasoned, rested 24 hours, then smoked followed by a pressure finish.

After corning
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This is after chilling down, to show the fat lines.
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Pops would be proud of this dude! Looks amazing!

 

[thirdeye]

Yup . I ended up using a store bought point end . Smoked then pressure ( instant pot ) finish .
I started with 30 minutes , but ended up closer to an 1:15 . It works .

I need to remember how popular the Insta Pots are and start mentioning that I use a conventional pressure cooker that runs around 10 PSI, or my pressure canner which I keep in the 11 to 13 PSI range. That's why my process time is less than 40 minutes.