Spicing your own beef

yabadabado

I am going to try making my own Spiced Beef this year and I am wondering is it worth using saltpeter ?I have heard it can be dangerous if used by a novice but are these just extreme cases?I mean if I follow the recipe should all go ok or am I better getting a premixed cure?I was looking on a few different websites and there is Cure 2 and Prague power are these suitable to use ?

the beer revolu

yabadabado wrote: »

I am going to try making my own Spiced Beef this year and I am wondering is it worth using saltpeter ?I have heard it can be dangerous if used by a novice but are these just extreme cases?I mean if I follow the recipe should all go ok or am I better getting a premixed cure?I was looking on a few different websites and there is Cure 2 and Prague power are these suitable to use ?

Just ask your local friendly butcher who cures their own ham and bacon or does spiced beef. If nice, they'll give you a little and tell you how much to use.
I was unable to find saltpetre when I went looking for it.

Minder

I make up a brine with 10% salt to water. Then I add the same weight of brown sugar. For example measure out 1 litre of water and bring to the boil. Add 250g of sea salt and 250g of brown sugar. Stir until dissolved. While still hot, add 3 or 4 whole star anise, a tablespoon of fennel seeds, a tablespoon of coriander seeds and a tablespoon of caraway seeds. Cut a large onion into chunks, add the juice and squeezed halves of an orange and the stalks of a bunch of parsley. Also add a couple of tablespoons of black peppercorns and yellow mustard seeds. Finally add a couple of teaspoons of saltpetre. Stir until all the solubles are dissolved and leave to stand for up to an hour. Finally add the remaining cold water (1.5 litres) to take to solution back to 10%. If you are in a hurry, 1.5kg of ice will do the same job and cool the mixture down quicker. It needs to be about 10 to 12c when I add the cut of beef. I use a large tupperware box and leave the meat to sit in the brine for 10 days. Last batch cooked for 5 hours on the hob at barely a simmer. Was meltingly tender.

Dizzyblonde

Minder I've moved your post to this recent thread following Dubl07's query in the other much older thread, now closed.

yabadabado

I followed a receipe that I found here and must say it turned out well especially as it was my first try.I used saltpetre .

Minder

Anyone tried cooking spiced beef in either a steam oven or a smoker?

Carawaystick

the beer revolu wrote: »

I was unable to find saltpetre when I went looking for it.

That's cos it's controlled as it's one of the main ingredients in making fertiliser bombs-- you can guess the other

You can get it mixed with salt NaCl from saussagemaking.org online or from a butcher. You only use it in about 100 ppm, so it's handier used premixed to a degree anyway
Unless you've a very accurate scales