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!

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.

Hi,

I posted a question a while ago, but wasn’t able to get much feedback. If I want to adapt a wet brine curing recipe for pastrami/brisket to using a vacuum tumbler, what would I change?

With a wet brine, I have the salt, spices, sodium nitrite (pink powder), and enough water to submerge the meat. But with the vacuum tumbler, I don’t need that much liquid, right? I just don’t know how much to reduce water, and whether spices and nitrite need to change.

Thanks!

Thanks guys. I originally used the curing calculator off amazingribs.com, and my recipe has been working well for me. But I’d like to speed up the process (and increase production), so I’m looking at vacuum tumblers. But coming across information online has been challenging. Vacuum tumbler sales people don’t have recipes to reference either.