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.
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.
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