Want to be a Corn Star?
Great corned beef and cabbage with Irish potatoes starts with corning your own beef.
If you really want to improve your luck with future corned beef preparations, consider corning your own beef. I know it sounds a little profane, but it’s really just another way of saying brining, or even marinating.
Start with a simple pickling brine then cure the beef in it for a couple weeks, 10 days at the very least. Not difficult, but certainly takes some advance planning. You’ll also want to flip the meat daily, which means you’ll need to commit two weeks to the operation.
If you have a vaccuum sealer, you can brine the beef in about half the time. Or you can use the two weeks to develop an even deeper flavor.
When choosing the brisket, consider how you want to serve it. Some people like their corned beef in neat slices; other like it in delicate hunks that easily tear apart with a fork. Either way tastes great, but the point-cuts do take a little longer to cook. That said, they’re a little easier to convert into hash the next morning. Speaking of hash, next week I’ll share a recipe for that leftover classic.
Corned Beef
Ingredients
- 2 quarts water
- 1 cup kosher salt
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons saltpeter or 1 cup of celery juice
- 2 cinnamon sticks, halved
- 2 teaspoons black peppercorns
- 1-1/2 teaspoons yellow mustard seeds
- 10 whole juniper berries
- 6 whole cloves
- 6 whole allspice berries
- 3 dried bay leaves, crumbled
- 2 pounds ice
- 1 dried red chile like cayenne or de arbol
- 1 3 to 5 pound trimmed beef brisket, flat-cut for sliced or point-cut for shredding
Directions
- Heat water in a large stockpot.
- Add salt, sugar, saltpeter, cinnamon sticks, mustard seeds, peppercorns, cloves, allspice, juniper berries, bay leaves and chiles.
- Cook over high heat until salt and sugar have dissolved.
- Remove from heat and add the ice.
- Stir until the ice has melted.
- Cool water to 45 degrees, place it in the freezer for a short time if need be.
- Place brisket in a 2-gallon resealable bag and add brine.
- Seal and lay flat inside a container, cover and place in the refrigerator for 14 days.
- Check daily to make sure the beef is completely submerged and stir the brine.
- After 14 days, remove brisket from the brine and rinse well under cool water
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