Pastrami Cure


 
J

Jason Filcman

New member
Hey all,

I've been making pastrami (dry-cured) for a couple of years, using Morton Tender Quick. On Monday, I picked up some Instacure #1, misread directions and used 3 TABLESPOONS instead of 3 TEASPOONS in my cure. I wound up not using all of the cure I made, and had maybe 15-20% left over. What I did use went on a 11 pound brisket. So it looks like I tripled the recommended amount. I had planned on soaking it overnight before smoking (I usually only do this for an hour or two) in order to try and draw excess salt and nitrite out of the meat... while I'm sure this is a valid idea for salt, I'm less sure about the nitrite. I'm having a bunch of people over on Sat night, and had intended on feeding them this pastrami.

So, basically, I'm asking:
1) Will I poison my guests? I know nitrite is not great for you, but will one serving of this pastrami give them any health issues, gut problems, etc?
2) If the answer to question 1 is no, will the meat be tasty, or really just inedible?

Any advice would be very much appreciated.
 
Too much nitrate is more than not good for you. If you have measurements of everything and know the starting weight of the meat, you should be able to save it.

You'll want to add enough water so that the total weight of water and meat is appropriate for the amount of cure. Use Martin's calculator and just back into the total weight. Then just add more of the ingredients to be appropriate for your new total weight and you should be good to go.

For what it's worth, I brine-cure pastrami and have great results.
 
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No, you will not poison your guests at all. I'd be much more concerned about the salt level, as long as your guests do not live of a strict daily diet made up of beets, cabbage, carrots, celery, radishes and spinach. Too much salt is not good for you, either.

The "safe" levels of nitrites are very conservative, and that is wise. But in this case, I'd be more worried about the taste and salt than nitrites.
 
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