Help! Brine problem!!

[ExpatCanadian]

Hey all... need some advice from someone with ham brining (wet cure) experience! I am going to post separately on this as I just had 2 legs arrive today, one of which I am going to wet cure as a "Wiltshire" style ham.  I am following the method described here:
http://www.rivercottage.net/questions/food/1843/

Specific Wiltshire brine recipe (I've doubled it)

3kg salt
100g saltpetre (optional)
6 litres beer (bitter)
2kg black treacle or molasses
40-60 juniper berries
60g black peppercorns, crushed

Anyway... I've assembled everything in a big pot... brought it to a boil... and WTF... A massive amount of the salt will NOT dissolve! I know this must mean the solution is saturated... and I know I've got all the ingredients right... correct amount of liquid etc etc... so is it possibly the recipe? Can someone tell me is this recipe totally wrong as a ham brine??

I'll add some pics shortly as its a pain from a mobile...

[ExpatCanadian]

Pics:

The beer.... 6 litres of it, 12 500ml bottles


2 kg (more or less) of Black Treacle (basically molasses)




3 kg Salt...  1/2 Diamond Crystal and 1/2 Maldon Sea Salt:


Boiled the s*$t out of it....  yet still have a load of salt on the bottom!!!


Strained it out....


I decided to dissolve the remaining salt in another 2 litres of water, but I've kept it separate so far...  not sure if I should add it to the main batch...???


So I've got until tomorrow to figure out what to do.  Not sure if I should just mix the 2 and call it good...  or go with the "strained" saturated solution without adding the second batch with the remaining salt dissolved.

[Keymaster]

I would like to try and help figure this out, I am no expert. Did you use salt peter as that will have a change in the salt percentage of your brine with salt you added. Off the top it seems like the salt level is doubled after my calculations after many conversions so I may be wrong. I would like to see what Habs has to say :)

[devo]

I would have doubled the beer.............beers good no matter what  ;)

I also believe the salt peter should have just been left alone, that should not have been doubled.
You can add only about 26% of salt to water(beer) before the solution becomes saturated (100° SAL). Adding more salt will only cause it to settle down on the bottom of the container.



Most meats like 70-75° brine, poultry likes a weaker solution of 21° and most fish are cured at 80° brine.

Like Aaron I'm no expert either and most of what i know comes from the books I have read. Now not that I understand totally a lot of what I am reading some sinks in. So going by the tables I posted I think you added close to 3 lbs of extra salt to your brine than what was needed.

[Habanero Smoker]

I have one of the river cottage books, and if I use a recipe from that book I always adjust the salt amounts to a lower level. Right now it is too early to locate that book. Reliable books are a great source to learn from. His books have good recipes, but uses salt levels for preserving, I prefer to use salt levels for flavoring. With cure #1, and todays refrigeration you don't need those huge amounts of salt. Also I switch the saltpeter to cure #1, it is a much faster acting cure and the curing times are more reliable. Though saltpeter doesn't add any additional salt, cure #1  does so you just need to reduce the amount of salt by the amount of cure #1 you have added. Also I add the cure after the brine has been heated and cooled. If you double the recipe you will need to double the cure.

Not having worked with saltpeter, I don't know if you add both solutions together you will have the flavor your are looking for or the nitrite protection, but with that salt level you can safely smoke it with out a cure. You need a 10% salt solution (1 pound of salt per gallon of liquid) with no cure added, to protect the meat from Clostridium botulinum (botulism).

As Devo pointed out the recipe contains too much salt, for the amount of liquid (beer + molasses). As I stated I brine/cure mainly for flavor, so lets say the molasses added another 2 liters, that would bring the liquid up to 8 liters. For that amount of liquid for curing a ham I would use:

8 liters liquid
*567g salt (if you want a lower salt content 340g would also work)
136g - 182g Cure #1 (the amount depend on taste, but levels keep you within safe limits)
*The final amount of salt would be the salt plus the additional salt in cure #1.

The amount of juniper berries looks high to me.

[ExpatCanadian]

Folks, just a quick reply here, crazy busy day here in London, so no computer time!!  Anyway, thanks so much for your replies...  between these responses and reading my books I've come to the only conclusion I could have:

MORE BEER NEEDED

But isn't that the answer to many of life's little problems ??  ;D ;D

Habs....  I too have a River Cottage book, but silly me, I didn't even think to look at it until you mentioned it.  Even on the weaker side of Hugh Fearlessly-EatsItAll's brine formulation (as he is called over here at times  ;) ) , I am still at least double the salt concentration called for.  So...  more beer. I'll then calculate any adjustment in Saltpeter and add afterwards.  Like you, I don't boil it with the cure, but dissolve it in as it cools down a bit.

Thanks again guys.

[Habanero Smoker]

 I located the book, and beginning to think the amount of salt is a misprint. I wonder if it is suppose to be .5kg instead of 1.5.

More beer is always the answer.  ;D ;D

[ExpatCanadian]

This is the book I have... just got it for Christmas, specifically asked for the newly printed American version of it:



He says the "correct" (according to him) brine concentration is no less that 3 quarts and no more than 4 quarts of water to every 2 lb of salt... which converts to roughly 900 grams of salt to every 2.8-3.8 litres. Or... in my brine assuming the molasses adds a full 2 litres bringing it up to 8 litres: 1.9-2.5kg salt total.

So... As I used 3 kg, even diluting down by doubling the beer is still a pretty strong brine.  I've not added any more Saltpetre either...

Anyway... moving on... for better or worse the ham is now in the (strong) brine... it smells amazing, so I hope it turns out. I'm going to start a new post today on these next 2 hams.

[Habanero Smoker]

Looks like you have a newer addition. I just remembered I have used his brine, for Cure Beef Tongue - Smoked. At that time I had adjusted most of his recipe, even the juniper berries looked like a lot.

Can't wait for the results, and taste.

[Waltz]

I have a recipe I use to brine ox tongue which calls for 150g of salt for every litre of liquid and that is what I used for my prosciutto brine cure. I have found it can leave the meat too salty if I leave it in the brine too long so it looks like your salt quantity is about three times what it needs to be. I have never used any of HFW's curing recipes but have heard others say his cures are too salty.
However, are you sure you can immerse a pork leg in 6 litres of brine (+volume of salt)? I suppose it depends on  the size of container you put it in but I needed almost twenty litres for mine.

[Waltz]

I missed the bit where you said you had doubled the quantities ::) ::). Good luck with your project, keep us posted on your progress.