Corned Beef At Home: Recipes, Tips, etc.

[Porthos]

22 minutes ago, rotuts said:

please consider, say  145 for the CB.

 

I will try 145 F. I hope it renders enough fat out of the meat.

[gfweb]

I do SV CB brisket or London broil or whatever is at a nice price. Dry rub with garlic, salt, pepper, allspice, mustard, coriander and nitrate for about 5 days depending on thickness.  Some get smoked for pastrami. 

 

I cook SV at whatever time temp is indicated by the cut.

 

the thing about sv is you can cook non brisket cuts and get juicy tender meat.  I believe that BoarsHead has CB made from top round. 

[Tri2Cook]

Corned beef is in the plans, brisket is unlikely to happen unless I can convince the local store to special order it so I'll have to consider a different cut. I'll probably do sous vide if I can decide which direction I want to go with time and temp. ChefSteps says 60 C (140 F) for 48 hours. Anova says 57.2 C (135 F) for 48 hours. The Food Lab on Serious Eats says 82.2 C (180 F) for 10 hours wasn't as juicy as when done at lower temps but was more enjoyable to eat for their taste. They also suggested 71 C (160 F) for 36 hours as an option for a juicier but more dense and solid result. I don't do a lot of sous vide and don't cook a lot of corned beef so it's a lot to digest...

Edit: also, when cooking corned beef sous vide, would it be better to go with Rhulman's 5% brine for the curing process since none of the salt is going to be leached into a cooking liquid? I know when I cook corned beef by more traditional methods, the cooking liquid gets really salty. Is the resulting corned beef really salty if cooked sous vide? As you can tell, I haven't spent a lot of time making my own corned beef. I think this will be the 3rd or 4th time I've made my own and the first time cooking it sous vide.

Edited February 10, 2017 by Tri2Cook (log)

[rotuts]

SV has been studied here for meat extensively

 

as has CB.

 

135 - 145  gives you meat with retention of more jus from the meat  than  160 - 189  which is more of a traditional braise w the jus 

 

rendered for sauce.

 

remember :  w SV  time gives you tenderness at all temps,

 

the two temp ranges just give you two different results  w regard to meat's moisture and flavor in the meat itself

 

there is no one way to cook CB.

 

just stop boiling it.  even allow simmer is way out of date for the best result.

 

unless you enjoy Steamy windows, and that cabbage smell every where , which is of course traditional 

 

llike socks you've forgotten to change and wash

Edited February 10, 2017 by rotuts (log)

[Tri2Cook]

Yeah, It's that deciding part that I'm working on. I'm trying to decide in my head which result sounds better to me so thanks for the encouragement and sharing your temp preference.

P.S. Just for the record, I do very much enjoy steamy winter windows and cooking smells filling the house but I'm willing to forego that in the pursuit of a better result.

[rotuts]

there are past threads full of experience and resulting tastiness of different  CB 's

 

at many of the above temps and various times.

 

I very much recommend them

 

that's where I started.

 

this year I hope to solve and move around the newer papain issues.

 

just read the fine print on  your selection of meats

[gfweb]

15 minutes ago, Tri2Cook said:

P.S. Just for the record, I do very much enjoy steamy winter windows and cooking smells filling the house but I'm willing to forego that in the pursuit of a better result.

I care not for steamy windows, but cabbage cooking smells like dinner is coming. 

[Tri2Cook]

1 minute ago, gfweb said:

I care not for steamy windows, but cabbage cooking smells like dinner is coming. 

Yeah, probably a bit of a niche thing. I'm thinking of cold winter evenings coming home from work to a house that smelled like something good cooking. I couldn't peek through the kitchen window to see what the family was up to because it would be steamed over but I knew they were in there and expecting me home. It's okay if I don't do that myself with the corned beef though, it wouldn't be the same anyway.

[Tri2Cook]

So just out of curiosity, if we're using sous vide to precisely control what happens to the meat during cooking and don't need the abundance of fat and collagen found in the more traditional cuts to avoid ending up with jerky, is there any down side to using something like a top sirloin roast for corned beef? I mean, other than price. Let's pretend that part doesn't matter just for the sake of discussion. Just to be clear, I'm not asking for brisket substitutes. I can get chuck/blade and other roasts no problem and I know what I'm asking wouldn't work too well for more traditional cooking methods. I'm just curious about using cuts from further up the chain while we're already being scientific and controlling with the cooking anyway.

[gfweb]

28 minutes ago, Tri2Cook said:

So just out of curiosity, if we're using sous vide to precisely control what happens to the meat during cooking and don't need the abundance of fat and collagen found in the more traditional cuts to avoid ending up with jerky, is there any down side to using something like a top sirloin roast for corned beef? I mean, other than price. Let's pretend that part doesn't matter just for the sake of discussion. Just to be clear, I'm not asking for brisket substitutes. I can get chuck/blade and other roasts no problem and I know what I'm asking wouldn't work too well for more traditional cooking methods. I'm just curious about using cuts from further up the chain while we're already being scientific and controlling with the cooking anyway.

 

There isnt a downside other than a different texture than brisket. I do flank steak and top round as much as brisket cause they are cheaper. Most commercial deli corned beef is not brisket. I know that at Least one major company uses top round for corned beef and pastrami

[rotuts]

indeed , the most striking thing is texture.

 

but as meat de novo tastes differently muscle group by muscle group

 

you still get some of that by ' corning ' different cuts.  the corning however masks a lot of the beef flavor Id say

 

corning was used in cheaper cuts for lots or reasons :  who would want to ' corn ' a filet when you could sell it at 10 times a corned price ?

 

I like to get point cut, trim almost all or most of the external fat off , then SV

 

why ?  its cheaper than flat , but after removing the extra fat on point over less fat on flat , it may cost the same if not more

 

it does have more intramuscular connective tissue , but w prober SV  that turns itself into tender delicious flavor.

[Tri2Cook]

Good points from you both. The texture's going to be different than brisket if I use anything other than brisket so that part I just have to accept regardless and the price part won't be relevant to me because getting the local store to special order brisket for me will cost more than anything I'd substitute with. Since I don't enjoy eating large pieces of fat no matter what meat I'm eating (I have no problem sacrificing a bit of meat to avoid a fatty area) and I'm controlling the cooking with sous vide to avoid dryness, I thought using a fairly lean cut might be nice. Anyway, there's still a lot of time until St. Patrick's Day to do a little experimenting. Thanks!

[lindag]

The Catholic Church located in the next town over has a fund raiser every St Patrick's Day.

They slow cook their corned beef (they get very high quality stuff) and then they smear it with yellow mustard and brown sugar and bake it slow for an extra couple hours or so.

It is the best corned beef I've ever had.  I tried their method last year at home and, for whatever reason, mine was not nearly as tasty as theirs.  I will probably try it again this year, just because.

And I will definitely be at their dinner!!!

[rotuts]

now that's an interesting idea

 

I could SV @ 140 until tender , taking out samples to check for enzyme activity

 

stop the cooking when just tender

 

and finish in the CSB s some dijon and B.S.

 

at 130 steam

[rotuts]

interestingly enough

 

America's Test Kitchen  ( ep # 1704 ) today in my area was NewEngland favorites :  CornedBeef dinner and Sinickerdoodles , which Id never had

 

until I came to college in NE.  A friend mother sent him some from time to time.  eventually I got to try one  Like trying to pry Gold from a Miser. !

 

anyway  in fairness to the Test Kitchen , they did a decent job considering they business demographic :

 

no SV, but they recommended brining your own , and showed how easy it is to do.

 

they simmered on the stove w additional whole seasoning but then put the Pot in a low oven to finish.

 

far better than boiling away for etc etc.

 

they took out the finished meat , put it on a platter w a lip , added a little of the stock and foiled it over in a very low oven to keep

 

warm while they did the veg in the pot of stock.  and used red new potatoes and left the skin on 

 

so good for them ( ish )

 

they also sampled sherry vinegar  and I learned something here and will look for their recommendation :

 

no CK histrionics which was an improvement :

 

#1 Napa Valley Naturals Reserve Sherry Vineger   $ 5.49  even though Ive lived in Spain , I didn't know they had a Napa Valley !

 

none the less , Ill look for this V and try it.

[kayb]

Stopped by Aldi today to pick up a few things. They had packages of flat cut brisket, already corned, ready to cook. I started to buy one or two, but a quick read of the list of ingredients gave me pause. There were way too many things I couldn't pronounce. Including whatever it was that @rotuts mentioned that was the tenderizing agent (it started with a "p."). 

 

I may change my mind and go back. Or not.

 

Edited February 12, 2017 by kayb (log)

[Tri2Cook]

On ‎2017‎-‎02‎-‎10 at 5:54 PM, rotuts said:

there are past threads full of experience and resulting tastiness of different  CB 's

 

I took your advice, read through every thread on the subject that the search function found for me and came to a conclusion. The one common thread to all of the sous vide corned beef discussions is that nobody really agrees on much of anything. But that's probably a good thing because it leads to a large number of suggestions with accompanying information regarding the result using that person's preferred method. So I have some ideas in mind for how I want to approach this now.
 

12 minutes ago, kayb said:

There were way too many things I couldn't pronounce.

 

I try my best to steer people away from that idea. The idea that food safety has a direct correlation to how difficult an ingredient is to pronounce. There are a lot of completely natural and safe ingredients or ingredients derived from completely natural ingredients that don't just roll off the tongue when trying to pronounce them. I don't in any way try to tell people how to eat or how to decide what to eat or not eat, it's just that particular phrase in regards to food safety has been a pet peeve of mine since they started using it as a marketing gimmick in commercials.

[lindag]

17 hours ago, rotuts said:

interestingly enough

 

America's Test Kitchen  ( ep # 1704 ) today in my area was NewEngland favorites :  CornedBeef dinner and Sinickerdoodles , which Id never had

 

 

I can't figure PBS.  My ATK yesterday was a completely different episode.  Why?

And...in my area "Cooks Country" isn't even on PBS.  I have to go to a completely different cable channel for that. 

 

[rotuts]

PBS no longer broadcasts many of its cooking show in sync for some reason.  in my area Test kitchen is a few weeks later than others

[Toliver]

Regarding the Corned Beef, once plated I forgot to mention slathering some prepared horseradish on the meat. That's good eatin'...

[FeChef]

If you looking for a good dish that works well with CB in a PC then roasted cabbage and noodles (Halushki) is something my wife begs me to add chopped CB. Its pretty simple. Just caramelize chopped cabbage and onions, and combine with buttered noodles and a hunk of CB cooked in the PC for 90 minutes so it can be chopped. You can pull it also, but texture wise i prefer it chopped rather then stringy.

[Tri2Cook]

This is probably going to sound like silly overkill but I'm thinking I'm going to toss a small cheap hunk of beef in some brine at the same time I'm brining the roast for my corned beef. That way I can cook the roast sous vide and cook the other piece in a pot on the stove with the potatoes and cabbage. It's purpose will be to add flavor to the vegetables but I'm thinking I could use the meat for hash or something.

[Porthos]

On 2/10/2017 at 1:53 PM, Porthos said:

 

I will try 145 F. I hope it renders enough fat out of the meat.

 

I pulled the bag out of the bath after it's 18 hour cook, chilled it, and now it is in the fridge waiting to be dinner tomorrow night.

 

One thing is certain. I can tell just looking through the bag that very little fat was rendered out of the meat.  I have one more CB in the freezer and I will pull it out in a couple of weeks and try a higher temp/shorter time to see if it comes closer to what I am looking for.

[Porthos]

On 2/11/2017 at 5:57 PM, Tri2Cook said:

I try my best to steer people away from that idea. The idea that food safety has a direct correlation to how difficult an ingredient is to pronounce. There are a lot of completely natural and safe ingredients or ingredients derived from completely natural ingredients that don't just roll off the tongue when trying to pronounce them. I don't in any way try to tell people how to eat or how to decide what to eat or not eat, it's just that particular phrase in regards to food safety has been a pet peeve of mine since they started using it as a marketing gimmick in commercials.

 

When we had a Fresh and Easy down the street I didn't really shop there much. My DW and I were not their target demographic. One of the large banners hanging down in the store proclaimed, "Food with ingredients you can pronounce." I would always laugh to myself and say, "I can pronounce Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene. I'm not too worried about your ingredient lists."

[Tri2Cook]

Just realized St. Patrick's Day is on a Friday this year. I'm probably going to have to settle for a St. Patrick's weekend corned beef.