how to brine a brisket-pastrami and corned beef

8/8/2019 How to Brine a Brisket-pastrami and Corned Beef

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How to brine a brisket

1. This monster is a 2.5kg beef brisket. It’s a cheap cut, full of fats and connective tissue. Think belly pork but not as

fashionable and thus considerably cheaper



2. Divide roughly in half and untie one section. This will be your pastrami piece. The rolled section is the salt beef



3. To 4l of water add 400g salt, 150g sugar, 30g Prague Powder #1 (optional), 3 bay leaves, 4 cloves garlic, 25gpickling spice (I mixed mace, allspice, juniper, coriander, ginger, dried chilli and just a couple of cloves. You can gowherever you fancy with flavourings). Bring the whole lot to the boil and then allow to cool



4. Pack each piece of brisket into doubled, heavy-duty resealable freezer bags. Ladle half the brine over the rolledpiece (intended for salt beef). Stir 100g of honey into the second half of the brine and ladle into the second bag overthe pastrami piece Photograph: Tim Hayward



5. Exclude as much air as you can and then seal both bags. Mark clearly, including the date and place in the fridge.Turn them over daily

Follow pastrami or salt



How to make pastrami

1. After 5 days in the sweeter brine, remove the first, flat-shaped piece of brisket and pat dry with kitchen roll. Crush10g each of black peppercorns and coriander seed. Some people like to keep it crunchy - I’m not so sure I enjoypicking the coriander shells out of my teeth



2. Massage vigorously into the surface of the brisket trying to get as much to adhere as possible



3. Hot smoke to an internal temperature of 70C. You can do this in any covered barbecue. Try to keep thetemperature low and steady so the cooking takes as long as possible and keep chucking handfuls of wood or woodchips on the fire to keep it good and smoky



4. Put your smoked pieces onto a rack over a few centimetres of boiling water …



5. … build a tinfoil hat around it …



6. … and seal it up. Try to keep as much free space around the meat as possible for the steam to circulate. Put intothe oven at 120C and give it at least three hours.



7. A fork should slide into it like butter when it’s done. Slice thinly while still hot



8. That’s so nice, lets look at it again closer up. The pink colour is a result of the nitrites in the Prague Powder.



9. Serve hot, in epic quantities on rye bread. Butter and mayonnaise would be a dangerous error. The pickle is alegal requirement



How to make salt beef

1. The salt beef can stay in the brine for at least ten days before removing it, rinsing it briefly and patting it dry



2. Cover with water in a closed pot and add your favourite aromatics. I keep it real with carrots, onions and abayleaf. You can, if you wish, add more of your pickling spice… but I’m not sure it adds anything. Simmer on top ofthe stove for between two and 4 hrs. Keep the water topped up so the meat is covered. It will be done when a

skewer runs through it with alarmingly little resistance..



3. Carve brutally into inelegant slabs while still hot



5. Stack the meat as high as you can on top of the ‘kraut …



6. …then get three or more slices of Emmenthal to sit on its stomach and hold it down while you slide the lot under ahot grill



Bonus: The Americans refer to all this as ‘corned beef’ which is clearly wrong. The original canned corned beef ofour childhoods was salted Argentinian beef trimming set in its own fat. In this case the cold salt beef can bechopped, shredded finely, bound with melted butter and set into a terrine as a more elegant and infinitely more tasty

homage.

how to brine a brisket-pastrami and corned beef

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