DIY Corned Beef
From elgourmand 14 years ago
- - to make
- Serves 8
Why make corned beef? Maybe you want really good corned beef. You probably go to your local supermarket or butcher and pick up a corned brisket and it’s not bad. Here in Samoa corned beef is made with the hunks of meat they can’t do much else with. Read more It’s 50% fat and just rubbish. Last time I had store bought corned beef in the US it was okay but nothing to write home about. What to do? Well corning beef isn’t rocket science and doesn’t require lots of special gizmos so why not DIY? I did some research and took a bit of this and a bit of that for a method. What I got for my trouble was fantastic. I normally do two briskets at a time and using a heavy brine solution is a must if you’re not going to refrigerate from square one. A heavy brine solution is easy. Just dissolve salt in water until you get salt crystals on the bottom of the container that won’t dissolve. If space is limited you can use large Ziploc type bags to brine the brisket but make sure there is plenty of brine around the beef as you’ll get some salt/water exchange. Make sure the brisket is completely submerged and that no part sticks up out of the brine. I have a big old fridge that I keep at about 55 – 60 deg F for cool storage and that’s where the briskets cure. With the heavy brine they don’t need to be all that cold. If you live in a cold climate you could keep them in a bucket in the garage or other out building. I’ve never kept a brisket more than a couple months this way; they get eatin, but never had one spoil. If you’ve never done anything like this before it may look complicated but it really isn’t. The directions are for one 4 – 5 lb brisket. See less
Ingredients
- • One 4 – 5 lb ( 2 – 2 ½ kg) beef brisket . Trim excess fat and membrane. shopping list
- • one 2 gal (8 ltr) container shopping list
- • 1 gallon (4 ltr) cold water shopping list
- • 2 cup kosher salt Use kosher or pickling salt, not table salt. shopping list
- • Prague powder #1 (by meat weight). This is optional and I don’t use it. It’s a nitrate that keeps the meat pink but doesn’t change the flavor. shopping list
- • 1/3 cup raw (un-refined) sugar. This is not as sharp as “white” sugar and has a mild but pleasant flavor. shopping list
- 1 btl. Guiness Stout. shopping list
- • 6 bay leaves (crumbled) shopping list
- • 1 large garlic clove fine chopped or pressed. shopping list
- • 2 teaspoons black peppercorns, cracked, not ground shopping list
- • 1 tsp Wrights liquid smoke, optional but good (bet you never thought you’d see that here). shopping list
How to make it
- 1. Heat a qt (ltr) of the water, mix in all the ingredients except the meat and let stand for 15 minutes or longer to infuse the flavors; then pour it into your 2 gal container, add the rest of the water and mix well.
- 2. Add the meat and inject/pump the brisket with brine every few inches up to about 10% of the meat weight. You can buy meat pumps at a fancy kitchen place but not in Samoa so I use a sorta horse syringe and huge needle I got from the hospital here.
- 3. Place in your caning container with as much of the brine as it will hold and refrigerate or keep pretty cold for at least five to seven days. I usually leave mine until I’m ready to use it as it keeps very well this way and after 7 days the flavor doesn’t change. Use whatever kind of container you like as long as you meet the storage criteria. Keep in mind that the brisket has to be completely submerged in brine.
- This corned beef will be salty. When I get ready to cook it I usually soak it in cold water for an hour or so then change the water and boil it for 30 to 45 minutes, dump out the water, add new water and carry on with the cooking in your usual way.
- With good rub of some course ground Butchers pepper and other spices, plus a bit of judicious smoking you can make great pastrami out of this.
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The Rating
Reviewed by 10 people-
Would this be anything akin to doing Sauerbraten?
windy1950
in Flint loved it
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Tell you what... I love corned beef but I've never seen the steps to make it. Will bookmark this and then I'll have to get the ingredients together. Not things I normally have lying around. But methinks it will be worth the effort.
Grea...more
dugger
in Crestwood (suburb Of Louisville) loved it
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wow wee sounds really good .........
thanks for sharing this great recipe
tink
minitindel
in THE HEART OF THE WINE COUNTRY loved it
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