Smoking pastrami - Is it possible to "over-brine"

[Monch]

Howdy,

I'm breaking out the Bradley, tomorrow, to smoke two pastramis:  One is a venison roast for friend, and the other is a beef brisket, for my wife...."The Little Carnivore"..

The brining is being done via the wet process outlined in the Charcuterie book by Ruhlman and Polcyn.

The two meats are in separate containers with a gallon of brine.

I had INTENDED to smoke both meats at the same time, but my friend pointed out that the roasts were the size of large softballs and might require additional time to brine.

Sooooo...instead of three days, my brisket is going to have been in the brine for six.

Any idea if this will have caused problems, or would the brisket simply have reached an "osmotic equilibrium" and stopped absorbing the salts, etc?

THANKS!

[Habanero Smoker]

Yes you can over brine. It will not be a safety factor, but a flavor factor; it may make the finished product too salty. If it comes out too salty soaking will help some. I took a look at his brine, it is not overly salty, so a lengthy brine may not have much of an effect on the finished product.

How thick is the brisket at the thickest point? How thick is the venison roast at it thickest point? You man not need 6 days for the roast.

It may be better to brine the brisket four days and remove it from the brine, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, refrigerate while you wait for the roast to finish brining.

[Monch]

Thank you, HS.

I will take the brisket out of the brine, tonight.  Rinse and wrap.

By this time tomorrow, the entire "fiasco" will be over, and I'll be able to report on results.

I'm really lucky that my wife LOVES her salty foods.

We shall see.  I was MOSTLY worried about what over-brining might do to texture.

Again, we'll see and I'll report out.

[Habanero Smoker]

Texture is another problem for longer brines, but a couple of days for beef, pork, venison; generally will not effect the texture that much.

Slice off a very small piece of the brisket, wrap it in plastic and poach it in a small pan until fully cooked. It will be tough, but you are tasting it for saltiness. If too salty you can soak for 30 minutes -  flip it over half way through the soaking. For soaking, I generally use 3 gallons of cold water.

[BrianD9765]

I have brined many things and smoked few and one the greatest pieces of wisdom I read somewhere on this forum was when brining or curing, was done, rinse and soak as you think appropriate, then slice a piece, cook it up and taste for saltiness. If its salty, soak/rinse longer etc and try again. If OK, to the smoker!

I did it to a dry cured loin (to be CB) that cured for 21 days (I originally planned on six) and it was fine. As a matter of fact it tasted close to the 6 day brined CB I did 2 weeks before. In my experience, the peak of brining takes place very quickly, a few hours depending on the size of meat (a chicken breast needs only 30 min for brine to be effective) and its effectiveness tapers of so slightly for days...weeks after. Test for saltiness and if too salty rinse and repeat.