Brine

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •5-quart stainless-steel pot
• •Digital scale accurate to 0.1 gram
• •Tall 6-quart food-safe glass or polypropylene curing vessel
• •Meat injector with a long perforated needle
• •Small nonreactive rack and glass or ceramic weight
• •Refrigerator thermometer

Instructions

1. 1

   Separate the preparations

   Cooked Marinade for Venison (No. 168) is the book's separate finished preparation for venison, not an ingredient to pour into this saumure. Keep it whole and reach for it only when treating venison. This brine proceeds with beef or ox tongue.

2. 2

   Measure by mass

   Weigh the water, salt, meat, and Cure #1. The listed 10.4 grams of Cure #1 is calculated for exactly 1.89 kilograms of water and 2.27 kilograms of meat, using Cure #1 at 0.25 percent of their combined mass. If the meat weighs differently, calculate 0.25 percent of the new combined water and meat weight. The gram figure governs; a spoon is only an approximate visual measure.

   Use only Cure #1 labeled as 6.25 percent sodium nitrite. Pure saltpetre, pure sodium nitrite, Cure #2, and pink Himalayan salt are not substitutes.
3. 3

   Dissolve the gray salt

   Combine the 1.89 kilograms of water and 1.016 kilograms of gray salt in a stainless-steel pot. Bring to a boil, stirring for five minutes. This source formula begins near or beyond saturation, so a layer of crystals may remain even when the liquid has taken all the salt it can hold. Let them settle, then carefully pour the clear brine into a clean pot, leaving the stubborn crystals behind. Do not add unmeasured water to force them into solution.

4. 4

   Read the potato

   Lower the peeled potato into the hot brine. It should float, confirming the high density that the old kitchens judged by eye. The original method diluted or reduced the liquid until the potato hovered at the boundary between floating and sinking, but potatoes vary too much for safe curing calculations. Here the potato remains a useful visual check while the scale controls the formula. If it sinks, ça se rattrape: verify the water and salt weights, return the brine to the boil, and test again. If the measurements are uncertain, remake the batch rather than guessing.

5. 5

   Sweeten and chill

   Remove the potato. Stir in the brown sugar until completely dissolved, then take the pot off the heat. Cool the saumure until it is no longer warm, cover it, and refrigerate until it reaches 4°C or colder. The sugar belongs in the hot liquid; the curing salt does not.

6. 6

   Add the curing salt

   Weigh exactly 10.4 grams of Cure #1 and whisk it into the fully chilled saumure until no pink grains remain. Never add extra for colour or reassurance. If the wrong curing product or an uncertain amount enters the pot, discard the brine and begin again; an inaccurate nitrite dose is not a failure to salvage.

7. 7

   Prepare the meat

   Trim beef of loose tissue and heavy surface fat. For ox tongue, remove nearly all the throat cartilage, rinse well, and press it firmly several times beneath a rolling pin or smooth meat mallet without crushing it. Prick the tongue all over with a sterilized trussing needle, concentrating on the thick root. Keep the prepared meat cold throughout.

8. 8

   Inject the centre

   Draw up an amount of chilled saumure equal to 10 percent of the meat's weight, 227 grams or roughly 1 cup for a 5-pound piece. Insert the injector deeply along the grain and deposit small amounts every 2.5 centimetres while withdrawing the needle slowly. Work through the thickest sections first. If brine spurts back from the puncture, reduce the pressure, turn the needle slightly, and make smaller deposits. A thick piece without injection cures unevenly, so if you have no injector, postpone the cure or divide the meat into pieces no thicker than 5 centimetres.

9. 9

   Cure under cold

   Set a small nonreactive rack in a narrow food-safe vessel, place the meat on it, and pour over the remaining chilled saumure. Weight the meat with a clean glass or ceramic weight so every surface remains submerged. Refrigerate between 1°C and 4°C, turning the meat once daily. Allow seven days for a medium ox tongue and eight days for the beef. If the liquid fails to cover, ça se rattrape: transfer everything to a narrower vessel or prepare another correctly scaled, fully chilled batch. Never top it up with plain water. If the brine becomes slimy, foamy, or sour-smelling, discard both meat and brine.

10. 10

    Rinse and soak

    Lift out the cured meat, rinse it thoroughly, and soak it in fresh cold water for two hours. Change the water, then cook a thin trimming completely and taste it. If it remains fiercely salty, continue soaking and changing the water for up to six hours. The saumure cures the meat but does not cook it, so proceed with the full cooking method appropriate to the cut. Discard the used brine and sanitize the vessel and injector. Never reboil or reuse it. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Gray salt varies wildly in crystal size and moisture. Its mass is dependable and its cup measure isn't, so trust the kilogram figure.
• •Cure #1 must contain 6.25 percent sodium nitrite for this calculation. If your product has another concentration, do not use the listed dose; follow its regulated instructions for the exact combined meat and water weight.
• •The floating potato is a density lesson, not a nitrite meter. Keep it because the source's method lives through that observation, but let the scale decide safety.
• •Injection is essential for a thick joint. It equalizes the cure so the edges don't become leathery while the centre remains untouched.
• •Keep the refrigerator at 4°C or colder throughout. Reboiling an exposed meat brine was workshop maintenance for unrefrigerated vats; cold storage and single use are the honest home equivalents.

Advance Preparation

• •The salt-and-sugar base can be boiled up to three days ahead, covered, and refrigerated. Add the measured Cure #1 only after the base is fully chilled and you know the exact meat weight.
• •Plan seven curing days for ox tongue or eight for the beef, plus several hours for rinsing and soaking before cooking.
• •Used saumure is never stored for another batch. It has contacted raw meat, and boiling would both concentrate the salt and make the curing strength uncertain.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 115g)