Vacuum tumbling to cure beef brisket

[Kayko]

Hi folks,

I’ve been curing beef brisket for a few years with the traditional method of brining in liquid. I’m happy with the results, but I want to consider vacuum tumbling to reduce the time, I just have no idea how to adapt the recipe.

If I start with a couple of packers briskets, say 20kg (44 lbs), I’d cut them into smaller pieces of 2kg. My brine is about 20L water plus some sodium nitrite, salt, sugar and spices (these add up to about 2kg, including the equivalent of 70g pink salt). Each small chunk goes into its own plastic bag and I pour some of the brine into each bag and let it brine for about 1.5 weeks. I reduced the time in half after I started using a brine injector.

So, if I wanted to cure/brine the same amount of meat with a vacuum tumbler with brine injector, what would change? I wouldn’t use the same amount of liquid, right? How much is the liquid reduced and does the sodium nitrite and spices stay the same since the amount of flavour should be the same just penetrating quicker? I know I would have to experiment, but I would love to have a starting point so I don’t end up wasting a lot of meat and time.

How long would it take to cure 4-5lb chunks and should it need to rest overnight or can it be cooked right after vacuum tumbling?

BTW, I saw in other posts Jonathan said to tumble in 50% solution, but I’m not sure exactly what that means. 50% volume but concentrations all the same, or reduce water by 50% but the curing salt and additives the same? And what about the injected brine solution?

Sorry asking a lot of questions but I can’t seem to find much about the subject online.

Thanks a ton!

[craigrice]

what you have left of your injection fluid add the same volume of water to make the brine a 50 % solution

[Kayko]

Oh! So it’s an even more diluted brine than is used when wet brining? I thought using a vacuum tumbler is supposed to reduce the amount of ingredients needed.