Help on Pastrami

Hi all

I am making an attemps at the CS pastrami (https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/sous-vide-pastrami). I used smoked salt instead of regular salt as I have no smoker. Not crazy about the liquid smoke... Too chemical...

The piece of meat is not exactly the "pastrami" piece, but it is a very nice one. It's however 3-4 times smaller than the one in teh original recipe.

I was wondering if I had to reduce the brine proportions according to the meat weight? I guess not... But I may have to reduce the brining time as this piece is quite smaller. Any idea how long I would need to leave it? 4 days instead of 7? Is there a way to check? Cut a small piece and try? This said, this would be an outer part, so obviously well cured...

I also used instacure 2 instead of 1 (as I did not have it), which I geuss is not a big deal (the opposite would have been).

Thanks !

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Comments

jeffreybkim

Hi Francois. Firstly, I hope you haven't completely turned your back on liquid smoke. If you get a good one such as from Colgin or Wright's, it's literally as described, simply collected condensation from smoke. So it genuinely isn't any different from smoking your meat in a smoker, besides the delivery mechanism of course. Hope you give it a chance, bc I certainly like it! If not, that's of course okay, but just expect that you won't get as much of the smoke flavor, even with smoked salt.

Was the meat smaller after cooking, or after brining but before cooking? It's expected to get smaller with cooking as the proteins will squeeze out water. This is expected with any type of cooking, sous vide or smoking, and will reduce in size significantly. For a big piece of meat like brisket, you really do need a lot of time for the brine to penetrate. Although maybe 4 days is enough, I haven't tried! Nonetheless, the brining time will not shrink your meat, it will actually increase in size because it will take in water.

As to the Instacure, I can't remember the difference, so I will let someone else much smarter than me comment

Hope that helps!

tshewman

Hi Francois, a few things. I do agree with @Jeffrey_Kim_49219 regarding liquid smoke. However it can be done without liquid smoke, smoked salt and right in your own oven using a deep tray or pan that you can turn into a smoker. I use a stove top smoker in the oven which worked well. It just took allot of babysitting. I kept the door wedged open to keep it at 150F(ish) and would need to reignite or add chips to my smoking tray every hour.

1. Instacure 1 vs 2. Instacure 2 is generally used for non cooked (heated) meats (e.g. to make salami, etc) and includes the nitrate, where instacure 1 is used for heated/cooked foods. Over simplified, but

2. For the brine, Reduce the amount accordingly. E.g if the product is 50% of he recipe, reduce the brine by the same.

3. The time is the same regardless of the size. If you want to speed it up, you can try injection brining though there are a couple considerations there as well

a. with the smoked salt, the color inside may appear speckled and strange. Not harmful, but will look weird.

2. I'm uncertain of the more direct effects of he Instacure salts. Should be fine, but...?

brian_martin2001

What cut of meat are you using?

Francois_346702

Thanks guys,

Can't remember the name of the cut but it's 1kg only. It looks more like a brisket than a pastramy cut. You cannot really find the right cuts for that here in France

I think I'll just brine less as the meat is thiner. I also have reduced the brine components to 1/3.

Wait and see then. First attempt anyways...

Cheers,

fisher23

Your reasoning sounds good to me.

Bob_Johnson_418368

I highly suggest reviewing the wet curing process instructions, the science of the process, and recipes on amazingribs.com. I frequently make my own Bacon, Corn Beef and Pastrami and found this site instrumental when starting out.

Francois_346702

Update. Here is how it looks like after 3.5 days brining. As the piece was rather small, I decided to stop the brining as I was afraid it was too salty. I rubbed it in spices (including merken, a smoked Chili from Chile) and it's now cooking for 48h. Stay tuned !