This is experimental, use at your own risk. Annotations and observations to follow.
Ingredients
- 6-8 lbs beef brisket
- 8 quarts water
- 1½ cups Diamond Crystal Kosher salt
- ¼ cup packed brown sugar
- 1 tbsp Prague Powder #1
- 1 tbsp black peppercorn
- ½ tbsp yellow mustard seed
- ½ tbsp coriander seed
- 2 tsp fennel seed
- 1 tsp whole allspice
- 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
- ½ tsp ground mace
- 3 clove crushed garlic, or 2 tbsp granulated garlic
- 2 bay leaves, crumbled
- 2 anise pods
- 2 cloves
- 2 cinnamon stick, crushed
Instructions
Prepare beef brisket, trimming silver skin and fat. Reduce fat cap to ¼” thickness. Set aside.
Combine water, salt, sugar, Prague Powder and spices in a pot and raise to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes, until salt and sugar are dissolved. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.
Combine beef brisket and cooled brine in a 2 gallon freezer bag, displacing air. Refrigerate 10 days, flipping daily to distribute cure.
After 10 days, rinse beef well to remove excess cure and spices, discarding brine. Refrigerate meat up to 2 weeks, or prepare as normal.
Some thoughts as this is brining
First run through, this brined 13 days, winch is a little more than the outside estimates for full penetration.
I braised some of the trimmings to see how the brine took, and I think the fall spices are over-expressed. Perhaps dial back the anise, clove and cinnamon by 25%.
I was concerned about the salt. The trimmings were not salty, so.we’ll see where the sous vide ends up.
No adjustments needed for the fall spices. They express well in a full cook, but don’t overpower.
Made late addition of fennel seed and garlic to the brine, which worked out great. Will amend the recipe to include these.
Not salty at all, even with a sous vide cook.