Corned Beef At Home: Recipes, Tips, etc.

[mgaretz]

I'm not sure I ever ate corned beef warm/fresh before, but reading this thread made me curious. I happened to walk by a display of uncured (scam!) ready to cook corned beef at Trader Joes and got me one, made it last weekend.

I must have been at the same Trader Joes. Railroad Ave. in Danville? I also sampled the "uncured" corned beef and it was very similar to the way mine turns out with the overnight soak (with regular corned beef).

Since tomorrow is St. Patty's day, I just now headed down to the kitchen to trim the beef and start the soak.

[dcarch]

I corned my own brisket. No nitrates. Low salt. It's in the water bath. Tomorrow will be 48 hours.

Can't wait. :-)

dcarch

[gfweb]

Just brought out a corned round roast from the sous vide. Tender, tasty, not fatty. It may not last till st Patty's day!

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[David A. Goldfarb]

One of the great pleasures of making one's own corned beef is the fantastic aroma when opening the bag it's been sealed in before cooking it. After doing this myself for several years I noticed a Freirich corned beef on sale at the supermarket after St. Patrick's Day, and thought, "what the heck, I'll dredge it in pepper, garlic, and coriander and smoke it in the wok, and make a pastrami" as I've occasionally done with my own corned beef, and it is presently smoking on the stovetop, but there was no particular pleasure in opening the bag. It had the aroma of nothing in particular--old wet meat. It will be okay, I'm sure, but I think that's my last store-bought corned beef.

[gfweb]

I find it amazing how great the whole process is. I know it sounds silly to get excited at the transformation, but pulling the corned beef out of the water bath always makes me smile and marvel.

[Shel_B]

Gonna cook the corned beef tonight.  Was thinking that a long, slow braise would be the way to go - maybe 300-deg F. until done.  Comments or suggestions welcome.

[Anna N]

Gonna cook the corned beef tonight.  Was thinking that a long, slow braise would be the way to go - maybe 300-deg F. until done.  Comments or suggestions welcome.

300 F is a good staring point but that is all. Check after 15 minutes. If it's bubbling away reduce the temp, if nothing is happening increase the temp. I learned from experience that there is no magic braising temp. Depends on the oven, the cooking vessel, the amount and type of food/liquid etc. for most things my oven which is bang on needs to be at 280 F to maintain a very gentle simmer.

[heidih]

As Anna notes you just want that bare burble of bubble. I use the crockpot with the clear lid and that is the level of "simmer" I aim for. That said, I have left the house and forgotten it perfuming the garage on high, turned it down upon return and still had happy eaters. Relatively forgiving unless you pop it in a hot oven with no liquid

[Shel_B]

It's in the oven now. I brought the water up to about 290-deg on the stovetop while preheating the oven to 300-deg.  Slid in the beef, and put the pot into the oven.  Checked after about 40-min and there was but the slightest hint of bubbles.  Read your messages, and it looks like we're on the same page.  Thanks for your help and suggestions.

 

Gonna check again and use the thermometer to check the liquid temp.  Looking forward to a nice dinner.

[dcarch]

It's in the oven now. I brought the water up to about 290-deg on the stovetop while preheating the oven to 300-deg.  Slid in the beef, and put the pot into the oven.  Checked after about 40-min and there was but the slightest hint of bubbles.  Read your messages, and it looks like we're on the same page.  Thanks for your help and suggestions.

 

Gonna check again and use the thermometer to check the liquid temp.  Looking forward to a nice dinner.

 

You should check the accuracy of your thermometer.  It is impossible to heat water to 290F.

 

Perhaps you meant set the dial to 290F?

 

dcarch

[Shel_B]

You should check the accuracy of your thermometer.  It is impossible to heat water to 290F.

Perhaps you meant set the dial to 290F?

 

No, I meant 190-degrees ... (typo ... brain fart ... senior moment ... ) choose one <LOL>

Edited April 27, 2014 by Shel_B (log)

[gfweb]

Newborn Pastrami. Cured x 1 week...cold smoked x 45'...cooked at 60C SV for two days. Moist, smoky, spicy brisket. Reuben for lunch tomorrow!

 

 

 

[rotuts]

St.P's day is coming up.

 

what are your plans for Corned Beef ?

 

in the past , being a student of CB and massive sales and SV  I used to make a lot of it

 

SV it , and then put a fair amount of the hunks on the Weber @ 130 w smoke  from wood chips and then re-bag and have the

 

tastiest sandwiches when Heat and Humidity and Mosquitos  showed up over the summer.

 

now  it didn't even closely approach Montreal Smoked Meat  from Schwartz's,

 

and I have not been there is a long while.  [ im guessing its changed hands , but still making fine stuff ]

 

but that smoked CB was stunning.

 

Ive been tossing and turning for some time , and Ive come up w a plan to study the Added Papain :

 

early on during Sale Days  Ill buy a single large Hunk.  Ill so my usual trim, and make say 6 SV bags

 

Ill look up my preferred temp   ( in the Sv Rsd Book )  but start to pull out the bags , say at 4 hours and every 2 hours to

 

get tenderness W/O mushiness from the enzymes.  early bags will be rebated and returned to the Experiment

 

so that when i hit a time that works , all the bags will be in there then they get to visit the weber for some smoke.

 

of course i could by CB at 4 times the price W/O the papain , but that's no fun at all !

 

BTW :  a four leaf green clover for @Anna N  which allowed me to have plenty of freezer space for this project.

 

the FCO expires in March , eh ?

 

and its a new meat so its going to be allowed in no matter what.

 

so : how do you do your CB ?   have you come over to SV ?

[HungryChris]

Well, since you have asked, bottom round roasts were on sale for $1.99 pp recently at Shoprite near here. So I decided to try my hand at corned beef. I picked a few of them with decent marble and froze all but 1, which is brining as I type. As with the beef tongue I do, when I find it on sale, I mix up a batch of Morton Tender Quick ( 1 1/2 cups in 6 cups of water), inject it well into the beef, add spices (bay leaves, garlic, peppercorns and rosemary) and let it brine in the fridge for 2 weeks. It has been only one week so far. The first one I plan to do in the Instant Pot, but if that works out well, I will try the others in SV. I will report with results on the first one.

HC

[rotuts]

thanks

 

very interesting project.

 

Im interested in your results  iPot vs SV

[Porthos]

I have considered SV but haven't commited myself so far.

 

My CB is rather simple. The meat goes into some form of temperature-controlled slow cooker, I add Guinness stout and then cook for 8 hours at 235 F. The long, slow cook allows a good deal of fat to render off. After cooking I scrap the remaining fat cap of, slice and serve.  The ren faire variation is that the meat is cooked in advance, refrigeratred, then the fat cap is scraped off, it is cut into chunks, reheated in a sealed container, then served.

 

I have had numerous people over the years say that they don't like CB but they do like mine. I suspect that the much lower fat content has something to do with that. I don't know for sure. I do know that it works and I intend to continue forth.

 

My thoughts on SV are for ren faire only. I'm thinking bagged with some Guinness then 165 F for at least 12 hours. Have to figure out how long to render out enough fat.

 

 

[weedy]

I'll do colcannon. Or bubble and squeak. Or bangers and mash. Or Guinness pie. Or anything really Irish. 

 

 

[rotuts]

@Porthos  

 

based on personal economics , time  etc etc

 

please consider looking over the CB on the SV threads.

 

conventional CB is a mighty fine dish.  I like the Guiness suggestion.

 

but based on understanding of toughness , meat fibers contracting  , and thus making soup 

 

which is fine for the carrots , cabbage , potatoes  ;

 

SV CB at the time and temp of your personal choice for the final result

 

is in a dimension that once tasted   Hot or for sandwiches later  will be the dimension of choice

 

for 130 lbs of CB , lets day trimmed down to 110 lbs is a different story.

 

 

[weedy]

it is indeed (a fine dish).

especially on rye bread with mustard.

 

it's just not got any real connection to Ireland or St Patrick's Day (which is also an American invention and obsession, mostly ignored in Britain and Ireland)

 

 

Edited February 10, 2017 by weedy (log)

[Toliver]

I've posted my method on eGullet before...

Corned beef in a slow cooker. Could take 8 hours or a little less...

Remove the meat when it's done cooking and use the meat-flavored water to boil red-skinned potatoes and carrots (my mom would also boil some turnips and onions). I use the red-skinned potatoes because you don't have to peel them and I use baby carrots because you don't have to peel them.  Anyone sense a theme going on here?

Then in a separate pot I'll use some of the meat-flavored water to steam cabbage.

Eat it for days on end until it's gone and you're tired of looking at it. 

 

7 minutes ago, weedy said:

it's just not got any real connection to Ireland or St Patrick's Day (which is also an American invention and obsession, mostly ignored in Britain and Ireland)

Yes, this has been discussed on eGullet before. It's unabashedly an American invention. Corned beef became the center of the meal because it was a cut of meat the poor Irish-Americans could afford and that no one else was buying at the time. How the times have changed...

 

edited to clarify

Edited February 10, 2017 by Toliver (log)

[rotuts]

@weedy  

 

""   an American invention and obsession ""

 

indeed.  the obsession  in areas that had or still have  a tradition of the immigrant Irish

 

is more or less to get drunk.  Big Time Drunk

 

this does not demean The Irish, after all most that get Big Time Drunk  do it with Green Beer 

 

not Irish Coffee 

 

so think of this as 

 

a corned beef thread

 

in my area  it a a big deal as its price drops  89 %

 

thats all

[Porthos]

For Monday night's dinner I am going to cook a 3.37 pound corned beef I just pulled from the freezer. As research for ren faire CB I will be doing it SV, 165 F for 18 hours.

 

Still have one left in the freezer.

 

No Guinness in the house. Oh shuckydarns! I will have to buy some.  The things I do to take one for the team.

Edited February 10, 2017 by Porthos (log)

[scubadoo97]

With all these prepared corned beefs going on sale soon, I'll restock the freezer.   I like to smoke them for pastrami.  I like corned beef but like pastrami even more 

[rotuts]

please consider, say  145 for the CB.  you might cut in half and compare ?

 

the the strengths of SV is simple  :  at a lower temp , for a bit longer at that temp :

 

more meat flavors stay in the meat .  you get your tenderness by time , not temp

 

at 145 or so there is some Jus

 

keep it and savor it as you then put it over the carrots , potatoes and cabbage  

 

sur le plate.

[rotuts]

@scubadoo97

 

good idea   but please look carefully at your selection

 

it will be in very small print

 

if they add enzymes  such s papain

 

hopeful there will be a way around this