curing pastrami

[Smoke some]

Started with a 10 pound  beef brisket  and and followed habs recipe for curing
separated it into 3.5 pound pieces, applied the right amount of cure to each piece.
second day of curing one of the bags leaked so i but it in a new zip lock, there is no juice left in it
I'm on the third day of curing now...... just wondering if its going to cure properly
with no liquid left in the one bag? ........the other bags have a good amount of liquid in them.
Using the dry cure method

   

[Habanero Smoker]

It difficult to tell. Sometime I get a lot of liquid, other times I get very little liquid. Do you have an idea of how much liquid leaked out of the bag? If you divided a whole brisket, the piece or pieces that contain the point or parts of the point usually will produce more liquid then the flat.

One other thing, when you cut the brisket into three parts, are they all the same thickness.

[Smoke some]

Thanks for the reply habs

i started with a whole brisket and did the butcher thing to it

cut the flat in three pieces and point separate

it is one of the flats that lost all the juice..... size wise they are all the same

i was going to give it a good rinse and start over with the cure again but..

to late now so will leave it alone and see how it comes out   

[Habanero Smoker]

I would not rinse and apply more cure, especially after it has been curing for about 3 days or more. If it doesn't fully cure then treat it as "fresh" brisket. There are a few way to check to see if it is cured. Often you can go by touch. The meat should feel firm in all areas. Another way is to insert a sharp knife into the thickness part of the meat. Then twist the knife and check to see if the color is red through out the meat. A third way, usually for larger pieces of meat, is to cut through the meat to check the color.

If you see any grayish or brownish color it is not fully cured, but still edible. If you are following my recipe, the cooking temperatures are safe for uncured meat.

[Smoke some]

It turned out just fine... the cure went all the way through

[Habanero Smoker]

Great!