Son Of TGP/SME

[bdevidal]

Hi. I'm a long-time lurker here at eG, but have only rarely posted. A while back, I started in on a series of curing experiments, inspired in no small part by the Chef Fowke thread "The Great Pastrami/Smoked Meat Experiment". For my own experiments, I focused more on a corned beef interpretation (no spice crust during cooking, no smoking, etc), although I did settle on a dry cure method early on. What follows is some of the the info and recipes I've been working on, with hopefully more to follow.

I started a series of tests using publicly available recipes for corned beef cures, both wet and dry. I tried both with and without saltpeter (potassium nitrate), including the Cook's Illustrated Master Recipe. Unfortunately, I wasn't happy with any of the results. Most were overly salty (which could have been reduced by a presoak refresher, were I to do it again), some were somewhat tasty, but none were what I would think of as "Corned Beef". Additionally, the Saltpeter cures were inconsistent in their cure depth/evenness, and the color was not as bright as I had hoped.

After a layoff period, I decided to try and create a new baseline master recipe, to then be tweaked depending on the strengths and deficiencies of the resulting product. I drew from multiple online recipes, looking for commonality in proportions, spicing, etc. I settled on a recipe based around Morton's TenderQuick, which uses a sodium nitrite/nitrate combination at aprox. 1.5%. That recipe was:

Corned Beef Cure v.1.0

1/2 C TenderQuick

1/2 C White Sugar

3 Tb. Brown Sugar

1 tsp. yellow mustard seed

1 tsp. brown mustard seed

5 Tb. coriander seed

3 Tb. whole black pepper

4 Tb. garlic powder

3 tsp. onion powder

1 tsp. ground bayleaf

1 pinch ground allspice

1 pinch ground clove

1/2 pinch ground cinnamon

1/2 pinch ground nutmeg

1 pinch fennel seed

All whole spices ground, then added to all other ingredients and mixed until uniform. Sprinkle cure on outside of well-punctured meat (brisket flat, etc) so that meat is covered to the point at which no more cure will adhere. Place meat in zip-top bag, sealed and under weights, or vacuum seal in vacuum bag. Cure time will vary depending on thickness of meat (aprox a week, give or take). After curing but before cooking, wash meat well to remove any external cure, and soak meat in fresh water to remove excess saltiness (anywhere from 1 to 3 hours, changing water every half hour; may want to experiment based on preferred level of salt in finished meat).

After testing this recipe, the two main issues were uncured portions at the center of thicker pieces of brisket after a week of curing, and that the resulting meat was a bit too sweet (but not as much as one would think, given the amount of sugar in the v1.0 recipe). The v.1.5 removed the brown sugar from the original recipe (did not seem to add anything noticeable, made the resulting cure harder to evenly spread), and used a portion of the cure, dissolved in warm water, as an injectable cure agent. These changes resolved the two major outstanding issues, but the flavor profile still wasn't quite where I wanted it. The texture of the meat was also a bit off (a bit dry, a bit grainy). I tried an offshoot method, call it v.1.5.2, by separating the main cure agents (TenderQuick, sugar) from the seasoning spices. I cured the meat for a week, then rinsed, soaked, coated in spices, resealed (vacuum bagged), and let season for an additional three days. This method definitely increased the amount of seasoning in the final product, but did not appear to be worth the additional effort (I may revisit this method for other issues at a later time).

Feeling that the Coriander flavor was too strong in the flavor profile, I adjusted the proportions of the spices in the next version of the cure. I also added two additional ingredients used in the commercial meat processing industry to improve the texture and perceived "moistness" of the final product. Sodium Erythorbate is a close relative of Vitamin C; it is used as both a cure enhancer and freshness promoter. Sodium Phosphate is used to retain moisture in brined and cured meats. I also added a small amount of Cure #1 (also known as Prague Powder #1 or Pink Salt cure) to slightly increase the nitrite concentration in the final cure. (All unusual curing agents/salts are available via Butcher&Packer, or wherever else fine curing goods are sold)

Corned Beef Cure v.2.0

1.5 C TenderQuick

1.5 C White Sugar

1 Tb. Cure#1 (Pink Salt)

1 Tb. Sodium Erythorbate

1 Tb. Sodium Phosphate

3 Tb. yellow mustard seed

3 Tb. brown mustard seed

12 Tb. coriander seed

10 Tb. whole black pepper

12 Tb. dehydrated garlic

9 Tb. dehydrated onion

3 tsp. ground bayleaf (aprox 2-3dzn bay leaves)

4 tsp. whole allspice

2 tsp. whole cloves

2 tsp. fennel seed

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg

All spices ground fine in coffee grinder, then combined until uniform. Makes aprox 3.5 pints of cure, enough for aprox. 4-6 whole briskets (or 10-12 brisket flats).

For Injection: 3/4 cup warm water (do not use water over 100-110 degrees; nitrites start to degrade at aprox 130 degrees F), 4 Tb. of mixed Cure v.2.0, 1/4 tsp. Pink Salt, 1/4 tsp Sodium Erythorbate, 1/4 tsp. Sodium Phosphate. Mix until dissolved; may want to filter for solids depending on injection needle.

Sprinkle cure on outside of well-punctured meat (brisket flat, etc) so that meat is covered to the point at which no more cure will adhere. Inject cure liquid into thicker portions of meat at one inch intervals. Place meat in zip-top bag, sealed and under weights, or vacuum seal in vacuum bag. Cure time will vary depending on thickness of meat (aprox a week, give or take). After curing but before cooking, wash meat well to remove any external cure, and soak meat in fresh water to remove excess saltiness (anywhere from 1 to 3 hours, changing water every half hour; may want to experiment based on preferred level of salt in finished meat).

I have not yet tested the v.2.0 cure. I have a brisket flat with the v.2.0 cure in the fridge right now which should be ready in the next four to five days.

If anyone has any additional comments, or if anyone tries or improves on the above cure recipes, please let me know. Hopefully, I will have more info as time goes on.

-B

[bdevidal]

Update: Just finished cooking the Corned Beef v.2.0. It turned out very well. I washed and soaked

half of it before cooking, then cooked both the soaked and unsoaked portions in separate containers of simmering water. Tasting both of them, I think I prefer the unsoaked portion; it had slightly better flavor and was not overly salty. I also think that I will try bumping up the sodium phosphate in the injection mix next time, as well as increasing the overall injections.

-B

[maher]

Thanks Bdevidal...

its great to get such wealth of detail in your post. i cant wait for you to settle on a master recipe that you are happy with. i am already earmarking next week for some corned beef experimentation.

[bdevidal]

Thanks Bdevidal...

its great to get such wealth of detail in your post. i cant wait for you to settle on a master recipe that you are happy with. i am already earmarking next week for some corned beef experimentation.

←

No problem, I'm happy to share. Its been an ongoing process, with more than a few blind alleys. In fact, at this point I'm prob going to have to start looking for reference samples, since I've made so much home-cured corn beef that I've almost forgotten the the context when tasting. I'd also love it if anyone out there had the opportunity to try the cures listed above and give me feedback, or if anyone else has a cure recipe that they particularly like and would be willing to share. I'm still missing something in the spice profile, but I haven't quite figured out what it is yet.

-B

[bdevidal]

I'd also love it if anyone out there had the opportunity to try the cures listed above and give me feedback, or if anyone else has a cure recipe that they particularly like and would be willing to share. I'm still missing something in the spice profile, but I haven't quite figured out what it is yet.

-B

After a bit of a layoff, I've started a new round of corned beef trials. My new version is the best yet, and the secret winning spice that I couldn't figure out last time is......dill seeds! I added ~3Tb of whole dill seeds to the 2.0 recipe and it made a world of difference. As soon as the cold weather starts rolling in, I may try a few more variations (next up on the list is juniper berries)

-B

[Kouign Aman]

What did you select as 'reference' samples?

And how do you eat all that corned beef? Do you have lots of sandwich parties?

[bdevidal]

What did you select as 'reference' samples?

And how do you eat all that corned beef? Do you have lots of sandwich parties?

←

I actually haven't found a reference sample yet, but the corned beef layoff helped.

For most of the experiments, I did smaller samples (say, a six pound semi-trimmed

flat cut into 6-8 pieces); I only did larger pieces when I already knew I was happy with

the results or I was trying to track down a cure penetration issue (grey stripe in the

middle = not enough cure penetration; harmless but unsightly). But yeah, it was a lot

of corned beef

-B