Brown Fur!

[EndUser]

Novice Briner and newB forum member, pls forgive any transgressions (including failure to weigh or reboil!)

Hi,

About 4 weeks back I brined* a brisket joint (~3lb) for 2 weeks.
Cooked and tasted OK.

* Jane Grigson: 5 pint water,12oz salt, 12oz sugar, 1oz saltpetre ...

Loath to discard the brine I threw in another "small handful" of salt and dropped in a de-skinned pork leg joint, again 3-4lb.
2 weeks later I come to cook the pork and find my brine is cloudy, also the joint has a brown "fur" coating it.
However the brine didn't really smell and neither did the joint.
The "fur" rubbed off and the flesh looked "salted rosy" and smelled fine, what fat still on there was still fat and not slimy...

Any idea what the precipitate/fur was (blood?)

ta,

Matt

[wheels]

Welcome Enduser,

I'm afraid I can't help with the brown fur problem, it's not something I've experienced. I'd be tempted to get rid of the second piece of meat personally.

From reading Jane Grigson's book, it would appear that this brine was for a larger amount of meat than you've used: was the brisket not very salty? It also uses an awful lot more saltpetre than would be thought necessary nowadays - by a massive amount.

Phil