I recently trimmed and cured a brisket to make pastrami with, following the close to Katz's curing recipe and instructions, as I’ve done a couple times before with great results. It was about an 8 pound packer when it went trimmed into the brine. It sat in the brine for 9-10 days, and I rinsed and left in a bag of water to reduce some of the the salt content before cooking that weekend. Unfortunately the schedule did not work out in my favor and I did not cook that weekend. It’s been in the same bag of water now for about 15 days. I would love to cook this thing this weekend (tomorrow) but I’m not certain how to know if it’s a problem that it’s been in a bag of water out of the brine for 2 weeks now. Any thoughts on it?
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I recently trimmed and cured a brisket to make pastrami with, following the close to Katz's curing recipe and instructions, as I’ve done a couple times before with great results. It was about an 8 pound packer when it went trimmed into the brine. It sat in the brine for 9-10 days, and I rinsed and left in a bag of water to reduce some of the the salt content before cooking that weekend. Unfortunately the schedule did not work out in my favor and I did not cook that weekend. It’s been in the same bag of water now for about 15 days. I would love to cook this thing this weekend (tomorrow) but I’m not certain how to know if it’s a problem that it’s been in a bag of water out of the brine for 2 weeks now. Any thoughts on it? -
Assuming it was kept at well below 40* and was properly cured, I'm not seeing a major problem from a food safety standpoint, although it may be borderline. I'd worry more that the meat is saturated, not sure what that's done to the texture. Wow I'm really on the fence with this one. -
Dump out the bag, and give it a sniff. Could be ok given that you did cure it.Comment
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Sniff then slap it on the pit and cook it to 203F If for other guests I would say no, but personal use is ok. I have a cooked brisket in the fridge for 2 weeks now, still slicing of chunks to eat. Dr Blonder would have a coronary if he knew that.Comment
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I'd love to see the back and forth between the salt ions in that water.
"Sooo, do we try and go in the meat?? "
"I don't think so, remember we came OUT the meat."
"Yeah, but that was 12 days ago, surely we must go back in again."
"OK, if this smell gets any worse we try to go back in, but since meat has a 0.5% saturation rate, and water has a 26.3% rate, I'm thinking more active diffusion will be required than I care to expend"
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I would be damn careful since it was in water...cook a piece in a pan on high heat or micrave a piece and see if it tastes weird or smells weird.. (I know microwave sounds weird). I do this with beef.. if it was sick or had a fever you can taste something weird kind of like eating freezer burnt meat..Comment
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Ok, so first of all - thank you everyone who offered an opinion. I realize this is kind of a touchy subject to ask people opinion on. I mean who wants to go out on the limb of telling people food they are questionable on won’t get them sick, and then potentially they COULD. Lol, kind of a rough spot to be in.
The short story is I’ve decided to cook it. Based on what some of you said, what I already thought about brining, and based on how it looked and how cold my fridge actually was keeping it. I put my thermapen in there and it was reading 33, and the bag had a pretty sizable chunk of ice in there when I pulled it out. It also had zero smell, and looked a nice pink color, not much of a grey hue at all. I did take your advice Backroadmeats and I cut off a small piece and nuked it. I cooked the hell out of it accidentally, I don’t often cook in the microwave lol, but it didn’t taste funny at all. Just not much salt flavor probably after soaking for so long, so I decided to add a little bit of salt to my rub mix.
Cross your fingers and pray pray for me/us! I’ll be taking this one for the team lol.Attached FilesComment
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I'll be following this fast-breaking story closely !
Back to You, Guy!
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Figure I may as well keep updated with some progress pics, everyone likes those. First one is rubbed and going back in the fridge for the night. Just took these now, starting to get some decent colorAttached FilesComment
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Yup I would eat that.. I think!!😁😁if it was bad u should have smelled something.. the microwave is tough to cook in but for some reason the smells tends to come out more that way..good luck!!Comment
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So, the next morning after having for an early dinner, I think we’re in the clear! It turned out pretty good in general, might have been able to be a tad more moist than it was, but flavor wise it was delicious and everyone raved about how good it wasAttached FilesComment
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Nice save. I would call that a win.Comment
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The interior meat color in contrast to the bark is just beautiful!
--MichaelComment
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Thanks guys, the bark kinda looks darker in those pics than it actually was. But I always feel like Pastrami bark is kinda hard to get a good set so I do tend to leave it as much as I can in the smokeComment
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Not what I would have recommended, for safety reasons. But it is good to hear that you made out okay!
As I mentioned on the free side of the site, "when in doubt, throw it out."
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Brother
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