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salvageable or toss? - corned beef

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    salvageable or toss? - corned beef

    TLDR - tried to cure some corned beef for a week but used a lot less cure #1 than I should have, is it salvageable?

    So I've tried the close to katz pastrami recipe on store bought corned beef before and loved it. Wanted to try curing some brisket myself since I had one in the freezer and I have plenty of cure #1 so why not?

    Defrosted the brisket in my fridge, and finally late last Wednesday night I decided to separate the point and flat and cure it. It was a rough night, I'll spare the details but a lot was going wrong. I think I just discovered another thing that went wrong.

    Here we are almost a week later and I take the meat out so I can desalinate the meat for tomorrow morning, and it's grey. Doesn't look cured at all. I was looking at the calculator and I believe I read the teaspoons of cure #1 and measured that number (3) as grams, but it should have been 16.65 grams of cure.

    Do I toss it? It doesn't smell, not slimy. It's just really grey on the outside and pretty dull looking. I made a small cut and it is red, but not the normal color you would see when it's properly cured.
    I keep my fridge on the colder side, and I have a 2nd thermometer on the same shelf I had the meat, it shows a 24 hour history that stayed between 33 and 36 and that is pretty normal so I suspect it kept it at that temp most of the time. Not sure if it makes much of a difference but instead of using a bucket or anything I had it in vacuum sealed bag for the brine.

    #2
    So you basically let the meat sit in the fridge for a week with minimal salt? The grey is normal.

    I am inclined to simply put the right amount of cure in and restart the clock.

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      #3
      Bet if you cut a chunk off and cook in oven it will pink up. A week at those temps its probably fine

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by texastweeter View Post
        Bet if you cut a chunk off and cook in oven it will pink up. A week at those temps its probably fine
        Worth a shot, I'll give it a shot.

        Originally posted by IFindZeroBadCooks View Post
        So you basically let the meat sit in the fridge for a week with minimal salt? The grey is normal.

        I am inclined to simply put the right amount of cure in and restart the clock.
        Basically, yep. That's sort of what I was thinking as well. Or maybe the difference of the cure that I was missing? So 13.65 grams.

        Actually I sliced the end of one of the pieces off and here what it looks like. I guess that doesn't look as bad as I thought, maybe I did get it right. I'm not really sure.
        Attached Files

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        • STEbbq
          STEbbq commented
          Editing a comment
          I think the 13.65 grams is probably the safest approach and it does look like the original 3 grams had some impact. I am guessing the vacuum seal made it pretty effective.

        #5
        texastweeter You were right. It pinked up pretty good and looks just like you would expect it to. I guess I over-reacted when I saw how grey it looked. I think I'm just going to soak it overnight and smoke it tomorrow as planned.

        I'm not going to cook it super low heat so it doesn't really need to be fully cured right? It's more for the flavor/looks than anything as long as I eat or freeze it within a few days I should be good I'm thinking.

        Thanks guys, appreciate it in my moment of panic lol.

        Comment


          #6
          Yes typically turn grey on the outside

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