"Egg Test"

[q dawg]

Ran acrossed this bit of info while looking at older recipes for making your own corned beef. The recipe called for 1 raw egg in shell for testing salr content of the brine. Apparently in earlier times when saltpeter was used and salt was added seperately....you put an egg into the brine as you were making it....if the egg floated, you had it salty enough....if it sank, you needed to add more salt to the brine......just seemed like a cool way things were done back in those days when the average household couldn't afford testing devices......


Q Dawg

 

[Bearcarver]

I only tried that once on Salmon. It takes about twice as much salt as I use in my Salmon brine to float the egg. I would guess if you use that method, you'd have to make it a short brine time, because that is really a lot of salt (at least for fish it is).

BC

 

[mballi3011]

Now I know that tesst is a true along time ago but I have never heard of it for a brine for corned beef but I'm just another guy out here that has made some coned beef in a brine to.

 

[scubadoo97]

1 1/2 cups of salt/ gal of water is usually enough to float an egg. I have used this test a few times when first brining salmon for lox. I'm pretty sure I have it included in a pictorial on salmon. I've gone up to a 15% brine for lox or 1 1/2 pounds of salt/ gal of water. With a large thick cut of salmon an overnight brine is sufficient and it's still not too salty.

 

[Bearcarver]

scuba,
I just did a batch last week (another one ready to smoke now). Last week I used a light 3/4 cup in 2 quarts of water, which would be equal to a light 1 1/2 cups in 1 gallon. I brined it overnight, and rinsed it well & dried it good. I am a lover of salt, and it was too salty. Everyone who tasted it said it was too salty. I'm keeping that batch separate, so I eat it all myself---I don't want to give it to anyone else (kinda ashamed of it??). The batch I'm doing now had 1/2 cup in 2 quarts, and I brined it for 6 hours. The batch I did two weeks ago was similar. I will confirm if I like it best of all of my batches after this one.

Bearcarver

 

[pike]

the trick to that is, put the egg in and add salt till the egg is just off the bottem of the container.

 

[Bearcarver]

Yup, that's about it. Too salty for Salmon, if soaked overnight, unless maybe you soak it in cold water for hours the next day.

BC

 

[scubadoo97]

BC, did you do hot smoked or cold? I don't brine this long for hot smoked salmon. I do refresh my salmon for maybe 30 to 60 min max before drying and most of the sides I get are a good 2 inches thick at the center. Strore bought Nova lox are always much saltier than what I make at home.

I don't want it too salty because then the capers on top would be too much to handle.

 

[Bearcarver]

Scuba,
Lately I've been smoking a different batch, and posting about one a week----Another gets smoked tomorrow. I do a slow hot smoke. Most of my fillet sides are also about 2" thick at the backbone. When I post the ones I'm smoking tomorrow (last of 24 fillets), I'm going to consolidate all of the notes from the 8 batches I did since November, and only keep the stuff that worked the best. The last batch I did was perfect, and the one tomorrow should duplicate it.


Bearcarver

 

[rbranstner]

I use the floating a egg trick every time when I make my chicken legs.

 

[nickelmore]

That the trick my bro inlaw taught me for chickens and Turkey, he just adjusts the time/pound. They do tend to be a little salty, I may have to try the egg just raising off the bottom.