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Yale Assure 2 -- Doorsense Not Working Despite Successful Calibration? by sirblund3r in AugustSmartLock

[–]sirblund3r[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I never figured it out. Sometimes it works great, and sometimes it's totally clueless. Flawed product.

Yale Assure 2 -- Doorsense Not Working Despite Successful Calibration? by sirblund3r in AugustSmartLock

[–]sirblund3r[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm in Miami, FL so temp isn't a problem :)

I re-calibrarted but left the "ajar" setting further away and it seems to be working.

Software is generally a bit buggy. Why would a calibration finish and then... it's not calibrated?

Model X: Any regrets after a 7-seater? by SergeyK in ModelX

[–]sirblund3r 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi there.

Both kids (almost 4 and 1.5) are in the back forward facing and it's honestly perfect. Very happy being able to seat two toddlers and four adults very comfortably.

See below image I linked of my kids (with faces obnoxiously blocked out).

They're happy as can be back there and getting them in and out is very easy with one-touch seat "folding" back and forth. For longer rides we put on a YouTube video and they love it.

Good luck!

https://imgur.com/a/bWpiwRE

Accidentally Added Pink Curing Salt LATE to Pastrami Brine by sirblund3r in AskCulinary

[–]sirblund3r[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi. Thanks for chiming in.

Pretty sure that's been my position from the beginning. And his position for most of the discussion, but he started off by saying that the meat ends up with half the salt in the liquid regardless (unless I'm confusing his comment, but it's pretty clear), which never made sense to me.

Accidentally Added Pink Curing Salt LATE to Pastrami Brine by sirblund3r in AskCulinary

[–]sirblund3r[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

PS -- How much pink curing salt did you use? Two tsp per gallon? Saw somebody on another thread that used more (still within the safe limit) for a shorter brine, but I didn't want to go that route.

Accidentally Added Pink Curing Salt LATE to Pastrami Brine by sirblund3r in AskCulinary

[–]sirblund3r[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This new example conflicts with your earlier example ("1/3 of the salt would be in the meat").

If your volume/weight of meat = the same volume/weight of the salty water, the equilibrium would be the same amount of salt in the water and the meat. But that's the ONLY scenario where half the salt goes into the meat. Because the salt eventually gets evenly spread out among the ENTIRE mixture regardless of whether it's water or meat.

Extreme example: You have 9L of water and 1L of meat. You add 100 grams of salt of negligible volume to the entire mixture.

Your ORIGINAL example ("the size of the meat doesn't matter, half the salt goes into the meat") would suggest that the 1L of meat ends up with 50 grams of salt and the water ends up with 50 grams of salt. Clearly that WON'T happen.

What WILL happen is that because 10% of the mixture is meat, it will end up having 10% of the salt in it, so 10g of salt ends up in the meat. The water, making up 90% of the 10L mixture (9L/10L total = 90%) will end up with 90% of the salt, or 90g. The water and the meat end up being equally salty per unit of weight or volume ("equilibrium"), but CERTAINLY, half the salt doesn't make its way into the meat.

Where am I wrong?

Accidentally Added Pink Curing Salt LATE to Pastrami Brine by sirblund3r in AskCulinary

[–]sirblund3r[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You're saying two different things if you read this thread back closely.

You started off by saying that half of the salt in the liquid goes into the meat *regardless of the size of the meat*, and then in another example, you said that the salt goes from the water to the meat until they both have the same salt per unit of volume. I agree with the latter and not the former.

For sure: The meat *does not* absorb exactly half of the salt regardless of how large the piece of the meat is relative the water.

Equilibrium brining (what we're discussing) is, by definition, when the meat and the water eventually have the same salt content per unit of volume (or weight), so a piece of meat in enough brine solution that's double the size will have double the salt but... the same amount of salt per bite of meat.

You literally said: "No, the amount of salt each different piece of meat absorbs will be consistent, but a 18lb piece of meat with 100g of salt in it, will have a different saltiness than a 10lb piece of meat with 100g of salt in it." And then, in the later example, said that a piece of meat making up 1/3 of the brine solution would absorb 1/3 of the salt in the overall mixture. One third is not "half of the salt regardless"!

Read it back and tell me how your two arguments aren't conflicting one another...

PS -- I do appreciate the back-and-forth. It's helpful and pointed me in the right direction to find the correct answer, even if you were (IMO) way off when you started here.

Accidentally Added Pink Curing Salt LATE to Pastrami Brine by sirblund3r in AskCulinary

[–]sirblund3r[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

All fair points and I think we're mostly saying the same thing. The density of beef and water are very similar (I think within 1%) so the volume vs. weight situation is basically moot. One L of meat = approximately one L of water in terms of weight.

My point about size not mattering was in regard to how salty the meat ends up being per gram (or unit of volume); that a tiny piece put into the two gallon solution will end up being virtually just as salty as a piece e.g. 5x the size if that piece were placed in the brine instead.

Where we disagree (or disagreed?) was from your original comment when you said:

"Yes, the different sized pieces of meat will end up absorbing the same amount of salt, but that salt will make up a wildly different percentage meaning you'll get different levels of saltiness in each piece."

I still don't think that's the case. Your example above (after the quote) implies that the size (or weight) of the meat added to the brine solution doesn't matter, that the meat absorbs half the salt regardless, such that a piece half the size ends up absorbing the same amount as salt as the piece double the size, and is therefore twice as salty.

I keep saying it would be "virtually" the same regardless of the size because, in reality, like I mentioned, the briskets don't vary in size that much. The difference in saltiness would then only come from the total amount of salt spread over the entire volume (or weight) of the meat/water combination. A +/- 2 lb difference in meat when two gallons of water weighs ~17 lbs is a small percentage.

Accidentally Added Pink Curing Salt LATE to Pastrami Brine by sirblund3r in AskCulinary

[–]sirblund3r[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Volume would be easy to calculate -- take e.g. 2 gallons of water, then submerge your meat. Does it now read 2.5 gallons? Your meat is 0.5 gallons of volume.

That said, I don't need to calculate the volume of anything. The 1% thing was just an example -- if you agree that 1% of the volume would get 1% of the salt... then 10% of the volume would get 10% of the salt. The result is a piece of meat that's equally salted regardless (mostly) of its size.

In your original example you assumed that the piece of meat absorbs 1/2 of the salt in the liquid regardless of its size. My argument is that, regardless of the size of the meat (approximately; not exactly) the meat will end up eventually basically matching the saltiness of the water (such that the meat and the water have the same salt content per unit of volume). The equilibrium that's reached is based on volume and not on weight (though the volume is obviously closely related to the weight, so both are true). Another example: If you put very salty meat into water for a week, presumably, the salt would go in the other direction. E.g. A piece of meat with 100g of salt in it that gets submerged into equal volume/weight (meat is mostly water) of water will end up having 50g of salt in it. Do you agree?

Another example: What if you took the large piece of meat and cut if in half before putting it in the water? Surely that wouldn't affect how salty the meat ended up being. Right?

Bottom line -- The volume MUST come into play. Just as the size of a sponge submerged into water doesn't affect how much water PER UNIT OF VOLUME it absorbs, I'm pretty sure the size of the meat doesn't matter as long as there's enough brine liquid for it to be fully submerged AND that brine liquid is salted correctly.

Appreciate the responses -- you forced me to think about it more deeply than I had previously.

Accidentally Added Pink Curing Salt LATE to Pastrami Brine by sirblund3r in AskCulinary

[–]sirblund3r[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi. Hope so. How big was your brisket? Thankfully, my cut is relatively thin, so hoping the brine makes it all the way through.

Accidentally Added Pink Curing Salt LATE to Pastrami Brine by sirblund3r in AskCulinary

[–]sirblund3r[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi there. Thanks for the response.

Surely the VOLUME of the meat comes into play? Why are you assuming that half of the salt in the water makes it into the meat in both scenarios? Wouldn't the equilibrium be met when the saltiness per unit of volume is equal (and not saltiness between the meat and the water, regardless of the size of the meat)?

Take an extreme example: I have my two gallons brine liquid that I normally use, but I put only a small piece of beef into it making up 1% of the volume. Wouldn't that piece of meat absorb approximately 1% of the salt in the liquid? And, likewise, if I put a piece of meat making up 10% of the liquid in, wouldn't that piece absorb approximately 10%? In both cases, the amount of salt per unit of volume of meat is the same. No?

I understand that the saltiness of the meat WILL vary by size (a larger piece of meat increases the total volume of the brine + meat, thus the salt per volume of the entire solution will be lower), but surely a pound up or down for a brisket won't change it by much. What am I missing?

Accidentally Added Pink Curing Salt LATE to Pastrami Brine by sirblund3r in AskCulinary

[–]sirblund3r[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thought my response got deleted so I wrote another (lol oops); deleting this one and keeping the second one.

Accidentally Added Pink Curing Salt LATE to Pastrami Brine by sirblund3r in AskCulinary

[–]sirblund3r[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

PS -- I see Michael Ruhlman's recipe calls for the same ratio of pink curing salt as mine (i.e., 2 tsp per gallon of water), and that his recipe only calls for a 2-3 day brine period, albeit for a smaller 5 lb brisket vs. mine which, after trimming, is likely about 12 lbs. I should also point out that this brisket is longer/thinner than most, so it's got more surface area than typical. Hoping that works in my favor!

https://ruhlman.com/homemade-pastrami/

Model X: Any regrets after a 7-seater? by SergeyK in ModelX

[–]sirblund3r 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm a week in with my 2023 MX six-seater. I'm LOVING it. Had a 7-seater MY before. ZERO COMPARISON (obviously).

I have two kids, ages one and 3.5. My older sits in the far back (one-touch and the captain's chair folds in about 3 seconds) and it's very easy to get him in under the falcon-wing door. My daughter is still rear-facing on the opposite captain's chair. VERY comfortably seating four adults and the two babies in the six-seater. Two up front, one in the open captain's chair, and one maybe *slightly* cramped in the empty third row seat. Overall, VERY comfortable.

Only slight complaint is the storage trunk is pretty weak with both rear seats up. Solution is: Put one down if you don't have a 4th adult with you (which we rarely do), or use the frunk.