New course content — equilibrium brining

Any links to research on why those salt percentages are ideal? I've always heard to shoot for 1.5-2% but never have seen anything scientific about it.

Chris_Young_80640

@Brendan – Given enough time with salinity above 2% and proteins begin to denature and coagulate in meat and seafood. This will result in a cured texture developing, rather than a brined texture. You can use higher salt levels (up to about 10% or so) briefly without curing the meat, of course, but it's critical that you time things just right to avoid overdoing things.

There is a substantial amount of literature for meat producers about brining at very low levels to increase the perceived juiciness. Typical these levels are below 0.5% and often they include other salts like calcium chloride that have other functions such as activating enzymes responsible for tenderizing meat. The recommended percentages for seafood and white meats that I suggest in this lecture are based on my own experience and experiments, however.

That's a pretty fine line to walk when curing the regular way then. Good info! Thanks.

That was brilliantly simple. Great video and explanation.

Just watched on my new phone, nice work breaking it down.

jim_53915

Great video, I thought the side by side view of the textures of the meats was well done. I really enjoyed a control display of how and why the technique worked. As a suggestion could you do a close up shot of the weights while you are measuring? I was wondering how much the pork and water weight was when I watched it, even though it was irrelevant since the brine is by weight percentage.

michaeltran

Another fantastic video guys. I noticed you have been using the KD8000 (My Weigh) lately instead of the costly Toledo I've seen in older videos. How does it compare as a scale at less than 10% of the cost? Also, is there any reason the KD8000 isn't mentioned in the Basic Tools page?

Dennis_Cloutier_38122

Another great video. The video on this site is all beautifully shot.

Have you compared dry brining with wet brining? It would be interesting to know how say salting the meat with 1% salt and then sealing it in a bag overnight would compare to wet brining.

One problem I have encountered with a dry brine/cure is it is hard to get an even distribution on the surface of the meat, normally dry cured products are hung uncovered for long periods of time, If you salt something and wrap it up the weight of the meat sitting on the salt can change how much and how fast moisture and salt react, so flipping the meat is needed where with a wet brine you really don't need to worry about since everything will reach the equilibrium. Brining can add extra moisture to meat that tends to dry out easily like pork or poultry where a dry cure will tend to suck moisture out of the meat which can be good for flavor concentration and perhaps tenderization if you cured over a long period of time IE country ham or bacon, these meats can also benefit from the dry cure as it tends to firm up the texture a bit more than a brine.

I flip cured vacpacked products every 3 days and give them a massage to redistribute but I have found that after day 3 there is usually enough moisture drawn out to basically surround the product anyway which is perfect for it to harden up before reapplying the final seasonings before hanging.

To me they serve slightly different purposes, I see a wet brine as a part of a cooking process where a dry cure is more likely being closer to the finished product, like a country ham or a gravlax, I looked at some of the aquavit gravlax ideas using wet brines for a quicker process, I personally think that impairs the texture a little.

@Johan yes brining will impair tecture if you are going for a firmer end product like you stated, I don't dry cure except for ham/bacon, no one likes soggy bacon...

@Mason, yup - and other longer term curing techniques as well.

I wet cure everything besides salmon and pork that I'm planning on eating later on.

Yes salt packed salmon is something I forgot about, I have cooked it in salt as well, works better with white fish, and it takes a LOT of salt .

Swedish gravlax is 50/50 I tend to go 60/40 salt / sugar, dill seeds, pepper (to taste) and plenty of fresh dill. - Something I grew up with and I like the cured surface, still only a 24h operation, if you bag it and are deft with the vacuum level you can speed it up without making shoe leather.

Hmm added to my list, I like gravlax

Here is another take on it - https://plus.google.com/112827635720941213700/posts/QtBhKAwsKii

Those cukes sound delicious. They would make a really nice sandwich topper.

Gosh I hate how slow google plus scrolls..... way better on my phone

It is funny - Hovmastar sauce is the one sauce Escoffier refused to make a "sauce" he hated it

Not french enough.

Well, one of the best ways of enjoying gravlax and if you are lazy is to do the above vac dry cure, then it'll take a few hours instead of 24h, it does get a bit firmer, slap it on a fresh piece of sourdough toast, butter, mix a little mayo with chinese take out mustard and dill, make a good layer, add flash pickled cucumber, salmon that you run through a lot of lemon juice, top off with plenty of fresh dill.

haha man do i hate chinese take out mustard. At least the kind they give you in the pack, I can only stomach the ones you buy in a jar from the asian store.

Im still hungry I didn't eat enough meatloaf henge

@Brendan - you basically want a really spicy vinegary one - I threw that out as an example as it is hard to find good mustards in the regular mega-marts, I normally have around 10-15 kinds at home...

I think they have websites for Mustard fetish....

I think my whole kitchen is a collection of fetish deviations...