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Recipes for making corned beef at home. What to do if you over-salted and how to fix an over-salted dish Soak salted meat

Cooking corned beef at home is done as a last resort if it was produced but could not be sold or a thaw has set in. After all, corned beef is made only from beef. Pork is salted only for cooking hams, brisket and loin, but of course it is also simply salted lard(lard). Three types of corned beef can be prepared from beef: bone-in, pulpy and delicacy. First and second courses are prepared from corned beef, but only after soaking.

If you decide to cook corned beef at home, keep in mind that canning with salt, like any canning, requires compliance with the rules. Must be observed temperature regime when salting and storing corned beef. If the temperature is not maintained, the corned beef may spoil.

GOOD QUALITY CORNED BEEF AND DISHES FROM IT DIFFER SLIGHTLY FROM THOSE PREPARED FROM FRESH MEAT.

Identify well-cooked corned beef possible by appearance and smell. Good, dense, pinkish or light red when cut when lightly salted and dark red when salted heavily. The piece of corned beef is clean on top, without any mucus, has no foreign unpleasant odors, the brine in the container is transparent, red, without foam.

But if the salting of meat was unsuccessful, then it can also be determined. The brine is cloudy, covered with a film of mold on top, and the smell immediately smells of rot and sourness. The removed piece of corned beef is flabby, soft, gray or Brown With unpleasant smell. It is dangerous to eat such salted beef.

How to cook and what to cook from corned beef

First courses, cabbage soup, soup, and second courses are prepared from corned beef. Corned beef is used to prepare goulash, roast, solyanka, cutlets and zrazy. The main thing is to prepare the corned beef correctly.

Corned beef is well-salted meat, so before preparing cutlets or borscht from it, it must be soaked. Salt was used for cooking and corned beef contains from 6 to 12 percent. Therefore, it is soaked before use.

To do this, take a piece of meat out of the brine, rinse it well, peel it and put it in a basin or pan. If the pieces are large, they need to be cut into several parts. Fill cold water based on 5 kilograms of corned beef, a bucket of water, or per 1 kilogram, 2 liters of water.

Soak for at least a day, changing the water several times, replace the water for the first time after 2 hours, then increase the interval and if you change the water only 5 times, then the last time you can replace it 10 hours before the end of soaking. This will reduce the salt content in the meat to 2%, which will significantly improve the taste of corned beef.

If you were preparing delicious corned beef, then you don’t have to soak it or soak it for a very short time, about 16-17 hours. After cutting the meat into pieces of 50-70 grams, you can wash it and boil it immediately, adding five times more water than meat. To improve taste, it is recommended to lightly smoke , and then boil. Then it can be cut into thin slices and served as a snack.

Corned beef is very tasty boiled with sauce

Soak the corned beef, place the whole piece in a saucepan and cover with cold water. The water will boil, skim off the foam, add parsley root, carrots, onion head, garlic cloves. Cook corned beef over low heat for 2-2.5 hours. When the meat is cooked, remove it, cool slightly and cut into small slices. Pour over the boiled corned beef and serve as an independent appetizer or with a side dish.

Meat brine is a kind of marinade that helps soften even very tough meat. The main component of meat brine is acid. To obtain the necessary acidic environment, you can use vinegar, wine or fermented milk products. Another important component for brine is. What types of meat can be soaked in brine? How long is meat immersed in brine? Can I use salt instead of brine? Let's consider all the options.

Meat in brine

Defrosting. Many experienced housewives combine defrosting meat with soaking in brine. This is appropriate when you need to cook meat that you forgot to defrost in the refrigerator first.

Time. One of simple ways There is a formula for calculating the time for soaking meat: 1 hour per half kilo of product.

Important

If you are caught by surprise and there is very little time to cook the meat, try to soak it in brine for at least half an hour. This procedure will definitely give the dish improved taste.

You can go the other way - find an alternative to baked meat and, to avoid wasting time on brine, cook.

Amount of brine. In order for the meat to be completely saturated with brine, it is necessary that the brine completely covers the meat. This applies not only to small pieces of meat, but also to the whole chicken that you are going to bake.
Very tough meat. require a special approach. So the game should be in the brine for at least 2 hours. However, it is not advisable to overdo it with the amount of time for the “brine bath”, since the meat may turn out to be too soft. Such meat can spoil the taste of the dish.
Salt instead of brine. Great not only for meat, but also for fish. Salting meat with kitchen salt mixed with spices has a similar effect to brine. Meat

Today I propose to talk about brine. No, not the brine that you used to restore your health after the New Year's feast, but another one - the brine in which food is kept immediately before being sent to the frying pan or oven. This technique is quite well known in the West, where it is called brining: it is quite difficult to translate this into Russian in one word, because in our country this technique is not often used.

And completely in vain.

Brining chicken or pork for a short time makes the meat much more juicy and tender, which, given the popularity of these products in our Palestines, gives ample scope for creativity in any kitchen.

What?

Keeping food in brine is similar to pickling, but the chemical processes that occur are fundamentally different. By and large, the magic of brine is based on three pillars (now there will be small excursion into physics and chemistry, so if someone can’t stand them, it’s better to skip right down):

Firstly, diffusion: as you probably remember from school, this term is called the process of mutual penetration of molecules of one substance between the molecules of another, leading to spontaneous equalization of their concentrations throughout the occupied volume- in this case, salt molecules, of which there are much more in the brine, penetrate into the cells of an abstract chicken, where there are fewer of these molecules.

Illustration from www.patiodaddiobbq.com
Secondly, osmosis, which is actually a special case of one-way diffusion, in which solvent molecules penetrate through a semipermeable membrane towards a higher solute concentration. In our case, the role of solvent is played by water, and although the concentration of salt in the brine is much higher than in the cells of the same chicken, the concentration of other dissolved substances in these cells contributes to their additional saturation with water: on average, meat kept in brine weighs 6 -8 percent more than before immersion in brine.
Finally, the third pillar is protein denaturation: Under the influence of a salt solution, proteins that are initially in a twisted state unwind and form a matrix that holds water molecules inside the cells, preventing moisture from leaking out of a piece of chicken kept in the solution during heat treatment. True, if you overcook the chicken to the point of sole, no amount of denaturation will save it: the proteins linked to each other will shrink, and most of the water they hold will leak out one way or another. The denaturation process also occurs when heated - this is why salted foods cook faster, because part of the work that comes with heat has already been done.

How?

So we come to the question that worries everyone: how to properly use brine so that the meat turns out juicy and tender, and not over-salted and over-dried?

Strictly speaking, the simplest brine is made from water and table salt, although if desired, sugar can be added to them (it also promotes diffusion, although to a lesser extent than salt) and spices (although the effect of their use will not be as noticeable as in the case of classic marinating). Salt is added to cold water, stirred until dissolved, after which the product is completely immersed in it and put in the refrigerator. The universal brine formula is as follows:

1 liter of water + 1/4 tbsp. table salt + 1/2 tbsp. sugar (optional)

Keep the products completely immersed in brine for 1 hour for every half a kilogram of product weight, but not less than 30 minutes and no more than 8 hours. When brining small pieces of meat, be guided by the weight of each of them: for example, if you put 6 chicken drumsticks weighing 250 g each in the brine, you need to remove them from the brine after half an hour. If you are brining a whole chicken, it is better to put it in a thick plastic bag and fill it with brine, which will significantly reduce its amount. And don’t forget to wash off the salt that has settled on the surface of the food - in this case, the meat will be juicy, but in no case over-salted.

Now let’s talk about which products can and should be tested with brine before cooking. These include:

white meat- chicken, turkey, lean cuts of pork, in short, everything that needs to be cooked for a long time and can easily dry out.
fish- absolutely any, especially one that you are going to cook at high temperatures (for example, on the grill) or smoke.
seafood- especially shrimp, and in general everything that is usually grilled.

On the other hand, products such as beef, lamb, duck, game and so on do not benefit from aging in brine. There are several explanations for this. First, they are usually not cooked to anything more than medium, so the internal temperature of cooked beef will be lower than that of cooked chicken, meaning there will be much less moisture loss during cooking. Secondly, this meat itself is fattier and will turn out juicy in a completely natural way. 0

Even experienced housewives can sometimes over-salt their favorite dish. You shouldn’t be upset, because everyone has the right to make a mistake. Moreover, this oversight is very easy to correct.

Correcting over-salted meat

There are many variations in cooking meat dishes. Housewives bake a whole piece of meat, fry it in pieces, and roll it into minced meat. How to correct over-salting depends on how you choose to prepare your dish.

If you cooked meat as a whole piece, there is a simple option to correct the mistake - prepare any sauce and cut the meat into pieces. Ideal for this situation sour cream sauce, you can also cook tomato, but you don’t need to salt it. You need to boil the pieces of meat in the sauce, and the liquid will absorb all the unnecessary salt.
If you cooked meat in pieces immediately in the sauce and over-salted it? Everything is simple here. Prepare more of the same sauce, but do not use salt when cooking. Add it to the dish. Or put the meat in new unsalted sauce and simmer.

Minced meat over-salted

Over-salted minced meat can seem like a disaster for the housewife. But don't panic. Here, the strategy for correcting the situation depends on at what stage of cooking you noticed something was wrong.

If over-salting is noticed on the most initial stage When the minced meat is raw, you can add more ingredients to it that will take on the salt.
If you wanted to fry cutlets and oversalted them, add more loaf or potatoes to the minced meat, which need to be grated on a fine grater. These ingredients absorb salt well. You can beat another egg into the minced meat or add life-saving sour cream.

As an option, add vegetables to the cutlets - cabbage, zucchini, mushrooms, carrots or any others you like.

If you notice over-salting in ready-made cutlets, pour boiling water over them and steam for 5-7 minutes. If you don’t want to steam it in water, you can do it in a sauce prepared without salt.
If cooking cutlets is not important, make meatballs from this minced meat. Add rice, having previously boiled it until half cooked and, of course, not salted. Moreover, meatballs require sauce, which can be salted just a little or not at all.

What to do with over-salted pilaf and stew

If you oversalt the stew with meat, the situation is simple to correct - add more vegetables to the dish, which will divide the amount of salt with other ingredients.
If you over-salted the pilaf, boil some unsalted rice and add it to the dish, heating the pilaf for a few minutes.

What to do with over-salted chicken

If you over-salted boiled chicken, you can cool it and use it to make salads, but it’s better to add a little salt to the salad. Or cut the chicken into pieces and simmer in the sauce. Ideal, as always, sour cream.
If you cooked the chicken in pieces, rinse the pieces in cold water and prepare unsalted sauce for the fried pieces.
If you stewed chicken in sauce, prepare a new sauce for her with less or no salt.

Meat is prepared not only as a whole piece or by standard stewing of pieces. What to do in other situations with over-salted meat?

If you over-salted the kebab, serve it with more raw and, of course, unsalted vegetables and herbs. Place a bottle of sparkling wine or champagne on the table. The bubbles eliminate the taste of salt.
If you were preparing meat for smoking, prepare the same marinade, only without salt and leave the meat in it for several hours.
If you don’t have time to correct over-salted meat, serve it with a bland side dish that will even out the taste of salt.

What to do if you oversalt your fish

There is nothing complicated in cooking fish, but these dishes can also be over-salted. Fixing over-salted fish is as easy as fixing meat. You need to know a few secrets.

If fried fish is over-salted, sprinkle it with lemon juice. You can also add a little sugar.

Another secret recipe for over-salted fried fish- This is a pillow made of vegetables. You need to fry a large amount of carrots and onions in a frying pan. There is no need to salt the vegetables; sprinkle them with lemon juice and add sugar. If the salting is small, you can lightly add salt and pepper. Then place the fish on a layer of vegetables and cover it with a second layer of vegetables and heat for 4-6 minutes. Vegetables will absorb unnecessary salt, the fish will become tastier.

For over-salted fatty fish, such as salmon, mackerel or halibut, it is better to cut the lemon into slices and place on the fish, sprinkle on top a small amount Sahara.
If you over-salted fish stewed in sauce, prepare the same sauce, but not salty, and marinate the fish pieces in it.
If the already salted herring is too salty, you need to fill it with milk. Dairy products are excellent at removing unnecessary salt from foods.
Over-salted small fish You can fill it with water and change it periodically. After 2-3 hours, the salt will come out. If after testing you feel too salty, the procedure should be repeated.

If you think that you can fix over-salted soup by simply adding more unsalted water to it, then this method is best left as a last resort. Such seemingly simple manipulations can completely ruin the soup. There are several more cunning, but also simple ways to revive a dish.

If size allows freezer, it's great to have frozen unsalted broth for such occasions. It can be used to dilute an over-salted dish.
Another way is to put a bag of rice into the boiling broth. Rice absorbs salt well.
You can use refined sugar. Place a piece in a tablespoon; when the sugar melts, replace it with a new one. Try the broth.
Potatoes and pasta work the same way as rice. If your soup recipe doesn't include potatoes, add a few whole peeled potatoes to the broth. When the potatoes are cooked, remove them from the soup; the vegetable will absorb unnecessary salt.

To avoid over-salting situations, it is better to add salt to the dish before it is ready or before you intend to under-salt it. After all, adding salt to a finished dish is much easier than correcting over-salting. No wonder they say: “Under-salting is on the table, over-salting is on the back.”

Unfortunately, there are cases when cooked tasty dish turns out to be oversalted. What to do if you oversalt? How to fix it? How can you save an over-salted dish? The main thing is don’t be upset, don’t rush to throw away your creation, we’ll try to solve this problem.
I'll share with you a few simple recipes, allowing you to give a “second life” to seemingly hopelessly spoiled dishes.

You should try to correct over-salted meat and chicken soups by adding potatoes, rice, and unsalted noodles (you cannot use vermicelli or pasta if they are already salted (look on the package)). If these components are not provided in the dish, then they can be placed in a bag made of cloth or gauze. After 10 minutes they should have absorbed excess salt and can be removed.

In exceptional cases, it can be corrected by sowing flour. True, then you will have to clarify the broth minced meat(called a pull) or beaten egg white, and then strain.
Agree, a much more complicated option.

There is an option not to try to save the broth, soup or borscht itself (if it is not too salty), but to disguise your mistake. You can serve dishes with sour cream and fresh herbs. They will reduce the noticeability of over-salting.

Do not try to correct it by adding water to the broth, soup or borscht. This may help you get rid of excess salt, but the taste of the dish will be ruined.

What to do if you oversalt fried or boiled meat

Over-salting meat is relatively easy to correct. This is done by adding an unleavened butter or flour sauce, which will quickly absorb the salt. Good way- This is adding sour cream to fried meat. You will get a delicious salty gravy with meat juice.

It should be remembered that it would be a mistake to heat meat with sour cream on the stove in the container where the meat was cooked, because the effect will be minimal, which will have to be enhanced by using much more sour cream. It would be correct to transfer the hot, cooked, salted meat into a cup with cold sour cream. Wait until the dish cools down. Only then can you heat this cup of meat in sour cream in a water bath. It is better to use glass or porcelain rather than metal. This method is guaranteed to be 100% effective.

What to do if you over-salt the minced meat for cutlets, dumplings, whites, manti

Over-salted minced meat can be saved by adding chopped cabbage, herbs, onions or grated potatoes. Adding white bread or a roll soaked in milk also helps. Also good for minced meat a raw egg cabbage, raw zucchini or potatoes, grated.

These additives will not only remove excess salt, but can make the minced meat more juicy and tender. If these tips do not help, then the only way out is to add rice and cook cabbage rolls or.

There may be an option when the cutlets are already fried and heavily salted. Milk or sour cream unsalted sauce with fresh herbs will help out here. You need to pour the sauce over the cutlets and place in the oven for 15-20 minutes (temperature 180 degrees).

If this does not completely solve the problem, then serve the cutlets with an unsalted side dish.

Over-salted dumplings should be boiled in water without adding salt and served with sour cream. The water will take away some of the salt, and the sour cream will hide your mistake.

What to do if you oversalt boiled or fried fish

It is more difficult to correct fish if it is over-salted. The reason is the loose structure of the fish itself and the fact that the consistency of fish meat is much more tender. Salt quickly ends up in the thickness of the fish or fillet, unlike animal meat, which is much denser and “takes up” the salt only on the surface of the piece, especially a large one.

Correct fish with excess salt in the same way as meat. This is the use of unsalted mashed potatoes, unleavened flour sauce, as well as sour cream with the addition of large quantity various herbs(onions, dill, parsley and others are suitable), which should be stewed together with over-salted fish.

The effect of this will not be as significant as in the case of over-salted meat. This is especially noticeable with significant oversalting.

What to do if you over-salted vegetables

It is even more difficult to correct over-salted vegetables. You can't fix them without redoing the original dish. If potatoes, carrots, beets or other root vegetables are too salty, you will have to mash them and mix them with mashed potatoes from the same unsalted ingredients. Of course, cooking will take twice as much food and time.

If the oversalting is insignificant, then it can be masked not by adding unleavened puree from the same products, but by adding fat, flour, sour cream or eggs to the oversalted puree (it is better to take whipped egg white).

As you can see, over-salting vegetables will inevitably lead to a change in the character and shape of the dish, and in the worst case, the over-salted dish will have to be thrown out.

What to do if you over-salted mushrooms

You can try to correct over-salted mushrooms by using flour, rice, unsalted mashed potatoes, sour cream, and onions. It depends on the degree of oversalting. Often a new portion of unsalted ones is added to reduce the amount of salt. However, this will lead to a “variegated” taste. Over-salted mushrooms evenly mixed with unsalted mushrooms can create the appearance of a lightly salted dish. It will not be possible to completely correct over-salting in this way. Fresh mushrooms will not be able to take excess salt from over-salted ones.

For the adsorption of salt, a fresh-acidic liquid medium or starchy (enveloping) substances are required. They are able to dissolve salt even after it has been absorbed by another product. Therefore, if you don’t have sour cream, you can try to correct the dish with over-salted mushrooms with a small portion of water and lemon juice.

What to do if sauerkraut, salted fish or lard is too salty

The easiest way is to rinse sauerkraut in water, and dilute the brine to taste with boiled water.

Salted fish will have to be soaked in water. If the fish is large (for example, herring), then it is necessary to divide it into pieces. After this procedure, dry the fish with paper towels.

Lard has a dense structure and salt, usually accumulates on the surface and nearby layers. If you don’t mind, you can cut off a piece of lard or scrape off the top layer with a knife. If the lard is salted in small pieces, you will have to rinse them in water. If it is too salty, soak it in the same way. It is also necessary to dry the lard after water and grate with pepper and garlic.

Now you know what to do if a dish is too salty and you can fix it.