Corning Beef ... day 1

Since we had such an early kidding season, we are having a late meat curing season. Today we started working on whole briskets that will be cured and turned into corned beef, then we will smoke 2 of the corned beef briskets turning them into pastrami. It takes about 5 days to corn the beef. I'll keep a diary of their progress here..

First, everything has to be sanitized. The buckets and coolers all must be scrubbed, then soaked with a bleach solution. You do not want to attract any uninvited guests to dinner!

Here are the basic ingredients I use for my corning cure. Tender Quick is the cure itself, then I add pickling spices, allspice berries, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, brown sugar, garlic, and a couple gallons of water. The cure is all mixed in a sanitized 5 gallon bucket and placed into the fridge until well chilled....The star of the show of course is the meat. Four whole briskets totalling just over 47 pounds.I arrange the very cold (nearly starting to freeze) meat in the bottom of the sanitized cooler...Then add the brine....

Enough cure is needed to keep the meat submerged.The meat is weighted down with bags of ice....this not only keeps the meat submerged, but also keeps it cold.Twice a day I will take out the old bags of ice, refill them....then turn the meat over and replace the ice bags.