Last night I learned what didn't work...

[austin87]

I love a good deli roast beef. I've made it before when I only had an oven and didn't have good thermometers and it still came out pretty good, if slightly over cooked. On that one I covered an eye of round roast in oil, then did a generous rub of salt, pepper, and herbs, and wrapped it in plastic to hang out in the fridge for 3-4 days. Then it got cooked in the oven at 250 until it hit 135 internal. After resting it was medium/medium well, but the color (a little grey) left a lot to be desired. It was also a bit on the dry side plain, but once on a fully dressed sandwich, it was awesome. The flavor was great all the way through.

This time I brined the eye of round roast with a bit of cure (sodium nitrite) to help preserve the awesome red/pink that you get at the deli counter. After a week in brine, it got rinsed, dried, and rubbed with salt, pepper, onion, garlic, and cayenne, then into the kettle at 225 with pecan and mesquite smoke.

I pulled it at 125 after 2 hours or so, and double wrapped in foil for another hour to settle and cool a bit. When I cut into it, I saw this:



Wow, what beautiful color, awesome! Wait, what is that lighter spot in the middle?

Turns out 1 week wasn't quite enough for a piece of meat that thick, the cure didn't fully reach the interior of the meat. It was also so salty I couldn't eat it (except for the lighter spot, which had no flavor at all). It was a real bummer to be looking forward to this for a week and screw it up.

Brine was 1 quart water, 1/4 salt, tablespoon of white sugar, and 1 teaspoon Prague Powder #1. My basic brine is 1 quart water, 1/4 salt, and 1/4 brown sugar with no cure, and I've never had anything be too salty.

Next time I think I'll give it 10 days in brine and then give it a couple soaks in plain water to draw out excess salt.

If anyone has any tips, I would appreciate them!

[AcrossFromHoss]

If you haven't thrown it out making a soup with carrots, onions, mushrooms,low sodium beef stock and any variety of rice or barley and a bay leaf would be nice, maybe adding some beer peppers and onion in a slow cooker with it sliced or cubing it for fried rice may be ways to salvage the piece of meat. Unfortunate it didn't work out but I hope you can salvage it.

Sliced thin and added to a tomato sauce then make a sandwich with mozzarella cheese or adding it to a pot of chili would work too. Look forward to seeing your next attempt.

[austin87]

@AcrossFromHoss man what a terrific idea. I liked it so much that I pulled the meat out of the trash can (it was still wrapped in foil and had only been in there about 20 minutes) then immediately went to the store and got some onions, peppers, and beans and have a pot of chili simmering on the stove.

I use Guinness as my go to chili base, along with some diced canned tomatoes, and low sodium black and red kidney beans. I think I'll be able to save it, even though it's really freaking spicy! I added a couple jalapeños, a habanero, and 5-6 different kinds of chili powder I picked up at a local Mexican market. The salt seems to have been pulled out of the meat and it's not too salty.

Thanks again for the great suggestion, I HATE wasting food but was at a loss with what to do with how salty it was.

[AcrossFromHoss]

Sounds like a great save glad you were able to get use out of it.

[MrHoss]

Bravo AFH.

[blieb]

Kudos for @AcrossFromHoss !

No worries @austin87 - I say everything I do is an experiment.