It takes about two weeks to make corned beef from scratch

[Norm Matthews]

Just FYI, if anyone would like to make homemade corned beef for later this month, it's time to start now.  I understand that corned beef isn't a traditional Irish dish but rather it is a meat that  Americans often serve on St. Patricks Day.

Edited March 2, 2014 by Norm Matthews (log)

[Tri2Cook]

Not according to Ruhlman.

[gfweb]

Takes me a week max. I've done a 24 hour corned beef with a short rib where the rib was corned and cooked sv over 24 hrs. Looked and tasted perfect.

[Norm Matthews]

I have made it with a small brisket in less time even without pink salt or Tender Quick or SV and the results were OK but the full cure without  sodium nitrate or special equipment takes about two weeks.   Ruhlman said that sometimes his method does not cure all the way through.

 

Edited March 2, 2014 by Norm Matthews (log)

[gfweb]

It takes a small cut to do it in a day. Big cuts can be sped up by injecting the cure

[Tri2Cook]

Ruhlman said that sometimes his method does not cure all the way through.

Yeah, I think I'd go with the thinner end of the 1" - 2" thickness recommendation if I decided to give it a shot. But I'll probably end up doing the full-week cure. I actually had corned beef already planned for next weekend, mixed up a batch of spices for it yesterday. I completely forgot St. Patrick's Day was coming up until I saw your post... maybe I'll hold off for another week.

[Norm Matthews]

Last year when I first moved back to Kansas City, I could not find everything I wanted to make corned beef so I used a small end tip... enough for three people to have one meal ...with kosher salt for the cure and it was ready in less than a week. I don't have SV and it never occurred to me to try a pressure cooker.

[scubadoo97]

Yeah, I think I'd go with the thinner end of the 1" - 2" thickness recommendation if I decided to give it a shot. But I'll probably end up doing the full-week cure. I actually had corned beef already planned for next weekend, mixed up a batch of spices for it yesterday. I completely forgot St. Patrick's Day was coming up until I saw your post... maybe I'll hold off for another week.

This is my first time corning a brisket flat. I'm using an 8 lb brisket flat cut in two. Used Rulman's recipe and am curing for 10 days, dry for a day and then coat in pastrami spices for a day and smoke it to make pastrami. Have a couple of people from Chowhound coming over next Sunday for pastrami sandwiches.

I'll smoke it next Saturday and then cool, slice and steam it the following day. Hope it works well. Usually just use prepared corned beefs but didn't see them in the grocery store and had a large brisket flat in the fridge wet aging in cryo for 30+ days so figured it was a good time to try doing it from scratch. Wish me luck. I had considered SV but thought this wasn't a good time to further the experiment

[Kerry Beal]

SV is a fabulous way to cook your corned beef – 80º C for 16 to 18 hours.  

[scubadoo97]

SV is a fabulous way to cook your corned beef – 80º C for 16 to 18 hours.

What about pastrami? Just smoke it before SV?

[gfweb]

cold smoke then sv

[dcarch]

Last year, I did an experiment.

 

Same slab of corned beef cut evenly into two equal weight pieces.

 

One sous vided

 

One pressure cooked.

 

Sous vided one was 5.17% less shrinkage. (and fork tender).

 

It also means if you sous vide, the meat is 5.17% cheaper.

 

dcarch

[gfweb]

Last year, I did an experiment.

 

Same slab of corned beef cut evenly into two equal weight pieces.

 

One sous vided

 

One pressure cooked.

 

Sous vided one was 5.17% less shrinkage. (and fork tender).

 

It also means if you sous vide, the meat is 5.17% cheaper.

 

dcarch

 

which tasted better?

[dcarch]

which tasted better?

They taste exactly the same. I used the same seasoning in identical quantities.

 

Just different mouth feel. 

 

dcarch

[gfweb]

I imagine the PC CB was pretty dry compared to SV

[dcarch]

I imagine the PC CB was pretty dry compared to SV

 

5.17% dryer, at least.

 

dcarch

[scubadoo97]

SV is a fabulous way to cook your corned beef - 80º C for 16 to 18 hours.  

 

From my online searching on brisket I've found SV time and temps to vary wildly.  All these different times and temps.  I'm unsure which one to trust.  My last brisket done SV @149f/45 hrs was very dry yet close to what Thomas Keller recommended.  I've seen 135f/48h on many online brisket searches.  80C/176F seems like a high temp relative to many other recipes but of course the time is far less.  Searches on Egullet have yielded quite vary responses as well.

 

Since I'm entertaining and it's not just a home experiment I'm unsure I want to vary from what has worked for me in the past.  Standard low slow smoking which will also give a nice pastrami spiced bark

[rotuts]

look in the C.B. thread

 

some stunning pic  fork tender

 

for me 140 x 24.

 

I then sometimes smoke on the weber 1 - 2 hrs w fruit wood at no higher temp than 135

 

to die for.

Edited March 3, 2014 by rotuts (log)

[gfweb]

I am like rotuts

 

sort of

 

140 x 24 h for brisket

 140 x 38-48 for cheaper cuts like chuck or round

[rotuts]

you might run through this thead

 

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/144654-corned-beef-st-pats-and-sous-vide/page-3?hl=+st++p#entry1916475

 

Im the on with the Very Old Weber 

[Tri2Cook]

Made my brine today. Beef's going in tomorrow. There wasn't a brisket to be found anywhere in the area where I live so I tossed caution to the wind and went with an eye of round. Never had a corned eye of round but I figured there's only one way to find out...

[gfweb]

Made my brine today. Beef's going in tomorrow. There wasn't a brisket to be found anywhere in the area where I live so I tossed caution to the wind and went with an eye of round. Never had a corned eye of round but I figured there's only one way to find out...

You just need to cook it longer to tenderize it.  Sous vide is perfect for this application. I've done it many times.

[scubadoo97]

I cooked one half on the smoker to 185 and finished in the oven over steam to 205. The other I did SV 140f/24hr. The SV was not as tender nor moist. The collagen was not broken down enough to pull apart easily.

This is the traditional smoke one

And the SV one

I also did a store bought corned beef on the smoker which was also moist and tender

Not sold on the SV method from this experiment. It appears 24hrs wasn't long enough to break down the collagen at this temp. Not giving up but haven't found the magic combo of time and temp

[gfweb]

When I cook SV corned beef I usually do 1.5 to 2 days.  Comes out nice.

[Kerry Beal]

I'm thinking that 60º C is way too low for corned beef.