Venison Pastrami Question

[HerbcoFood]

So, I have been using this pastrami recipe from another message board that I am active on. My one question which I have always wondered about is the amount of pink salt(instacure #2). Now does that seem like the right amount of it for 4lbs of meat? Thanks in advance to everyone!

[WVTim]

HerbcoFood Ive got notes from a recipe that has the same amount. I’ve used it a number of times on deer roast successfully. I may have originally got it from meat eater but I’m not sure.

[WVTim]

HerbcoFood mine calls for the roast to sit in the brine for 3 to 5 days. I pull it at 5 as it doesn’t penetrate enough in 3 days

[WVTim]

HerbcoFood mine calls for Morton’s tender quick meat cure in that amount. I looked up the meat eater recipe and the first one I found calls for 1/4 cup of tender quick

[HerbcoFood]

@wvotrfan Yeah, I usually go 4 or 5.

[Denny O]

HerbcoFood
Sounds similar to mine. I use one called “Pop’s Brine”. I question the 2 tablespoons per gallon. I believe it is still within the safe level but I find that amount of “Cure” unnecessary. The other is the use of “Cure #2”, That is used for sausages and other meats that are for a longer cure time than those that are measured in days or weeks up to 4 or so?

Here is mine,
1 gallon of pure clean quality water
1 cup non-iodized kosher or canning salt
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar (or 2 cups brown and omit the white sugar)
1/2 cup corned beef spices
2 tablespoons crushed juniper berries
1 tablespoon of Cure #1 (Prague powder, DQ curing salt or other, not Morton’s Quick Cure or Insta Cure)
Dissolve all and mix in food-safe container, stir until clear, then chill. Side note: It needs to have the sodium nitrite level at a maximum of 6.25%.
I use this as reference: Computing equivalency, for 100 gallons of curing brine, you add 24 lbs. of curing salt to 100 gallons of water and mix.

That is .24 lbs, or 3.84 oz. of curing salt to 1 gallon of water maximum.

My recipe calls for 1 tablespoon of curing salt to 1 gallon of water. A level tablespoon is .88 of an ounce. Heaping is approx. 1 ounce. Either is fine. Neither comes close to the maximum amount allowed, but just enough to do the job. Curing at Maximum, plus with injection, requires 48 hours of cure time maximum. This process uses less than one third the curing salts and a longer curing time to tenderize and flavor the meat.

You must cover the product until it floats off the bottom of the container, then weight it down to stay submersed in the brine, leaving no area to be exposed to air.

At minimum the cure takes ¼”/day plus a min of 2 more days (cure penetrates both sides), a 2” thick brisket takes 4 days plus 2 = 6day minimum cure time

When the curing time is completed Take out the beautifully cured “corned beef” (because that’s what it is at this point), and wash off all of the brine and spice. Then, put it in some clean water to soak for an hour to soak out any of the extra salt and rinse it once again. Lightly pat it with a paper towel, but not too dry. With the corned beef being damp proceed to the next step, the Pastrami rub.

Note: I will do a double batch of the brine in a 5 gallon food safe bucket with a lid for 2-10 pound ish brisket flats.

Then comes the process to make pastrami, reseason it and smoke it to make your corned meat into pastrami.
You will lose approximately 40% of the weight during the smoking process depending on the cut of meat

[RandyNight]

I’ve been told the pink cure ratio is higher for brining than what is added to something like cured sausage. I had to ask also first time I made pastrami, as I was not used to that much in meat.
I brine venison roasts 3-4 days, then rinse and soak in water only overnight.

Top round and eye of round smoked last evening:

[RandyNight]

I brine in vacuum bags sealed with my chamber machine. Any pros or cons to that instead of in a container?

[cdavis]

RandyNight yours looks great. I need to do a few of mine.

[Idaho Smokey]

I haven’t been doing much with curing things. I have made bacon a number of times using the EQ method of curing. I did some reading before I started making bacon. One of the things I noticed is that one of the recipes is calling for Cure #2, and one is calling for cure #1. They are different and used for different purposes. I would think that you would want to use the cure #1 for jerky. The cure calculator that I use starts with the weight of the meat and then calculates out the amount of water, sugar, salt and cure #1. You can change the percentages of the water, salt and sugar, but the cure #1 is locked at .25% of the total weight of the water and meat. For 4 pounds of meat the calculator calls for 762.9 grams of water which is about 1 2/3 cups of water and 4.54 grams of cure #1 that is around 1.3 teaspoons. What am I missing about this?

[cdavis]

Idaho Smokey that’s how I calculate mine…25% of the meat +water.

[Jonathon]

I am with Idaho Smokey I think the reason for the differences is the difference between cure #1 and cure #2. Cure #2 has nitrates and nitrites. The nitrates break down into nitrites, which break down into nitric oxide which provides the curing power. So, because we are holding for a shorter period of time than normal for using cure #2 they might have been calculating it by the amount of Nitrites in the cure, knowing that all the nitrate wont break down into nitrites in that time. However, the nitrates in cure #1 are a very small amount…it seems like a lot of cure for a 4 lb roast.

[HerbcoFood]

Jonathon and Idaho Smokey thanks for making my head hurt!