Corned Beef and Pastrami from Brisket

[justplainbill]

What's wrong with these recipes?
CORNED BEEF – PASTRAMI, First Try (COMPOSITE FROM MORTON AND OTHER SOURCES) 09/15/12
Wet Sweet Pickle Cure (per Morton) - at a rate to cover meat
- 1 cup Morton plain sugar cure or Tender Quick per 4 cups cool water, = 4 Tbs* per cup water
+ 2 Tbs brown sugar
+ 1 Tbs Black pepper
+ 1 Tsp, each, paprika, bay leaf, all spice, coriander (all ground in mortar)
+1/2 tsp garlic powder
- Inject 1 ounce of pickle per pound of meat
- Wet cure, refrigerated, for 5 days per inch
- Pat dry and store refrigerated in evacuated zip-loc for up to 21 days
- Simmer for 1 .25 hours per pound
FOR PASTRAMI:
- Cut strength of wet pickle cure by 50%
- Halfway through pickle cure; remove from brine, dry and apply 1 Tbs per pound of smoke flavored sugar cure per pound, then insert in evacuated zip-loc and refrigerate.
- At end of curing process; rinse, pat dry and apply
0.5 Tbs/ lb coarse ground black pepper
0.1 Tbs/ lb coriander
0.1 Tbs/ lb granulated garlic
- Bake at 250F on rack over pan of water for 3/4 hour per pound
- Wrap in foil and cool to room temperature.

* 1 Tbs pink salt = ½ ounce

[taxlady]

I have only made corned beef without using water. I have never used the injection method. Seems to add unnecessary complication, IMHO.

I use Julia Child's method of rubbing the salt and seasonings (no sugar, no water) onto the brisket in a plastic bag. It produces liquid within a few hours. I turn and massage it every 12 hours for two weeks. When it is cured, I rinse in copious amounts of water and soak it for at least 24 hours to remove excess salt. I don't use pickling salt. Julia Child claims that it will keep for several months refrigerated, if left in the cure. It will take longer soaking to remove enough salt, if left in the cure longer.

Julia Child's seasonings include thyme and sage, but no coriander. I might try adding coriander next time.

[Addie]

My frist husband was a chef. He worked in a deli right next to our home. I watched him one day doing the briskets down in the basement. They had the biggest injection needle you ever saw. He would take a brisket that had been sitting in a barrel with pickling seasons, suck up some of the juice in the barrel, inject it into the brisket in several places and then put the brisket into another barrel that had fresh pickling liquid. He continued to do this until the first barrel was completely empty of all briskets. And there was very little liquid left in the first barrel. That barrel was dumped out and washed. The second barrel was allowed to sit for another week, then the briskets came out for sale as needed. In the meantime the first barrel was started with another batch of briskets. Now you know how briskets are done for your favorite deli.