2/19/2017 – Yesterday bought a 3.54 lb. beef shoulder roast, 3″ thick, at HEB for $2.27/lb. Some marbling. This morning did this.
- Added the seasoning per Foamheart’s recipe below to 1 qt. water minus 6 ice cubes that will be added back once cool. Weighted the salt, sugar and Cure No. 1 with the digital gram scale. The other seasonings were added by volume.
- Heated the water to steaming but not boiling. Let it stay very warm for about 30 minutes.
- Put the pot into the sink with cool water up to the level of the brine in the pot.
- Once brine was cool added the Cure No. 1, stirred and then six fresh ice cubes.
7 days into the cure
- Once the cubes had melted injected two syringes into the roast no more than 1″ apart.
- Put the injected meat into a freezer grade ziplock bag. Poured the remaining brine/cure into the bag. Put the bag into a 1/4 sheet pan and into the wine cooler.
Will let it cure for 14 days, i.e. until March 5th. It actually cured until the 11th; i.e. 3 weeks.
Foamheart’s Corned Beef Brine
Below is his recipe for 1/2 gal cure/brine with my quantities for: the actual meat; 1 qt. water; and the weight of cure, salt and sugar per the Cure Calculator by DirtSailor at SMF.
His 1/2 gallon — My 1 quart
4 lb. brisket flat probably less than 20% fat — 3.54 lb boneless beef shoulder = 1,605.71 gm
1/2 gallon water (including ice) 1,881.6 gms — 1 qt. = 940 gm
1/2 C Sugar 140 gms — Added per Calculator below
1/3 C Canning Salt 146 gms — Added per Calculator below
2 t. #1 Cure — See below 6.35 gm
2 Garlic toes — 1 toe
1/3 t. Ground Cloves — 1/6 t
2 large Bay Leaves — 1
1/2 t. Coriander — 1/4 t
1/2 t. Mustard Seeds — 1/4 t
1 t. Thyme — 1/2 t
1-1/2 T cracked pepper — 1 T
Results of Cure Calculator are:
Cure #1 Needed… 6.35 grams
Salt Needed… 44.96 grams
Sugar Needed… 25.96 grams
Total 2,622.48 grams + spices
Note: Even though my meat weight is close to his I am leaning toward the advice to a water:meat ratio close to 2:1. So computed cure+sugar+salt for 1 quart + the meat. That will also concentrate the seasoning so will watch if that makes much difference.
3/11/2017 – After 3 weeks curing pulled it from the ziplock and rinsed. Put it into a large CI DO and covered with hot water. Put on stove to warm up before going into the oven. Added about 8 small golden Yukon potatoes and a medium yellow onion. Added Foamhart’s seasonings below (double batch because of large DO) and put into the oven at 325 at 8:30 AM.
0.5 ml (1/8 tsp) ground ginger
0.5 ml (1/8 tsp) ground mace
0.5 ml (1/8 tsp) dried dill weed
0.5 ml (1/8 tsp) coriander
0.5 ml (1/8 tsp) mustard seed
0.5 ml (1/8 tsp) ground allspice
0.5 ml (1/8 tsp) ground cloves
5 ml (1 tsp) crushed dried chillies
5 ml (1 tsp) peppercorns
1 pinch cinnamon
10:40 – Mary said it smelled done so checked the IT and it was 210. Wrapped meat in foil to rest and not continue to cook in the broth. It is very tender and the muscles are falling apart. Note – Target was an internal of 165 and time was 1 hour per pound. So, it was way over IT in 2 hours. Likely due to having the DO with seasoned water and meat fairly warm on the stove when it was put into the over.
11:30 – It fell apart when cut for Ruben sandwiches. Tasted good but not quite like corn beef we had before from the sandwich shops. Note the outside is red but the inside looks gray like roast beef and tasted the same. The broth is very spicy hot with the black pepper corns and red pepper flakes. Ate a potato that had been cut in half. It was not salty at all and very mild flavored.
