St.Patrick , AKA CornedBeef 2018

[rotuts]

please consider telling us [ ed.: me ] about your techniques.

 

its the first day of the Sale, and after many years of study , 'burbs of BOS its

 

Stop & Shop   O'Donnell point cut. You have to get to the store on the earlier side of the sale as it gets picked over fairly quckly

 

the sale BTW is maybe 10 days or more

 

$ 1.57 / lb until St.P's day.

 

I look the packs over carefully , as some do not have a big gob of fat on the meat, under the label.

 

I trim off any external fat , but Im not obsessed with making the surface fat free.

 

Ive found if you are careful in selecting the PointCut , there is little external fat and not too much intra-muscular fat either

 

the fat that's left after the trim adds flavor .  the flat is more expensive and can end up dry.

 

I trim the large portions into about 1+ lb sections , then vacuum bag

 

I always SV , 140 F x 48 H , rapid chill,  then freeze for The Season.

 

plenty of snow to help out just now.

 

I reheat the smaller SV bags for a hot meal , and use the Jus that is rendered in the SV bags in the iPot for the potatoes , carrots and cabbage.

 

this years 6 bags :

 

about 17 lbs ,  $ 110 regular price , savings $ 78.57  , price to me  $ 31.42.

 

 

commercial CB  ( or possible your own cure / )  really shines w SV.

Edited March 9, 2018 by rotuts (log)

[gfweb]

I just made the first CB of the season (shown over on the breakfast thread).

 

Costco brisket.  5 day dry rub with pink salt, salt, allspice, dry mustard, pepper, garlic.  Cooked SV at 140F for 2 days.

[rotuts]

interesting.

 

maybe this year Ill add some Penzey's granulated garlic to a few bags.

 

its a good product , and not a powder so it has decent garlic flavor for a dried product.

Edited March 9, 2018 by rotuts (log)

[Toliver]

I've posted about this before. Corned Beef and Cabbage is my New Year's Day "good luck" meal (it's no Hoppin' John and Ham, but you eat what you want to eat for good luck and I'll eat what I want to eat for good luck ).

I wait to buy my corned beef until the grocery store coupons for corned beef come out. Usually there's a limit of two packages per coupon. I put one package in the freezer for my eventual New Year's Day meal.

I cook my corned beef in a slow cooker that looks sort of like this - click. My slow cooker's heavy glass lid has a glass knob on it.

The corned beef usually comes with a package of the spice mixture included (one year it didn't have a package of spices so I bought some pickling spices and used waaay too much with my corned beef...it tasted like a cross between corned beef and bread and butter pickles!  ). I never trim the fat off before cooking the beef.

I put the beef in my slow cooker, fat side up, add the spice mixture, then add water until it covers the beef. Put the lid on, turn the slow cooker on high, and come back in an hour to turn the cooker down to medium (it will have come to a boil by then). I never "peek" (remove the lid) until it's done cooking...about 4 to 5 hours or so later. Usually the last hours I turn the heat of the slow cooker down to low.

Then remove the corned beef from the water. Although I can use the slow cooker pot on my stove top, I have found I like a bigger pot to cook my potatoes and carrots. I pour the corned beef water into the larger pot. I take about a cup or so of the water and put it in a smaller pot in which I will steam/boil my cabbage. In the larger pot, I add the red rose potatoes (you don't have to peel them), and a bag of baby carrots (already peeled and cut down to size so there's no work there either). Add more water to the large pot if needed. Bring both pots to a boil and cook the respective veggies. When the veggies are close to being done, slice up your corned beef. It takes about a half hour for everything to be cooked and ready to eat.

At dinnertime, I like to slather prepared horseradish on my corned beef. 

 

[rotuts]

@Toliver

 

nice.

 

no mustard ?

 

Ive found that CB , along with the potatoes , carrots and cabbage

 

arfe ideal agents to soak up a lot of mustard.

 

I use TJ's Dijon

 

but last year Stop  Shop has a significant sale on French's  Deli Brown mustard in a squeeze container 

 

it was excellent

 

guess this year its called :

 

http://www.frenchs.com/products/mustard/spicy-brown/

 

 

[MelissaH]

Does Aldi have good corned beef? And is it less expensive than supermarket CB in your area?

[kayb]

1 hour ago, MelissaH said:

Does Aldi have good corned beef? And is it less expensive than supermarket CB in your area?

 

When I was in there early this week, they had none. 

 

My brine is cooling and the brisket (about a five-pounder) will go in this afternoon. The Ruhlman recipe.

 

[IowaDee]

Aldi ad that came yesterday advertised flat cut USDA Choice corned beef brisket for $2.89 per pound.

I think the ad is only good for a week but the regular price is only $3.29 per pound.  I plan to get  a hunk

or two while it is super cheap.  Never had meat from Aldi's but I'll sure give it a try.  Also curious to see

what they may have in the way of lamb.

 

[kayb]

Just now, IowaDee said:

Aldi ad that came yesterday advertised flat cut USDA Choice corned beef brisket for $2.89 per pound.

I think the ad is only good for a week but the regular price is only $3.29 per pound.  I plan to get  a hunk

or two while it is super cheap.  Never had meat from Aldi's but I'll sure give it a try.  Also curious to see

what they may have in the way of lamb.

 

 

FWIW, I often buy their small pork shoulder roasts, and have bought eye of round and similar when I wanted a specific cut and didn't have it in my freezer. And I'll recommend again (though this is on the wrong thread for same) Aldi's Appleton Farms spiral sliced ham. $1.69 a pound, and damn good ham.

 

[menuinprogress]

We also take advantage of the St. Pat's Day sales to stock up on corned beef, but we use ours for making pastrami. We currently have two 3lb packages in the fridge waiting to be soaked, coated with spices, dried and smoked.

[rotuts]

@menuinprogress

 

wow

 

love to hear what you do with it.

 

what do you get ?

 

then what do you do with it ?

 

sad it not Montreal Hot Smoked Meat

 

but still what i make is tasty.

[Tri2Cook]

I put beef in brine earlier this week. 5% brine with pickling salt, brown sugar, pickling spice, fresh garlic and prague powder #1. It's difficult to get uncured brisket where I live and ridiculously expensive on the rare occasions the local store brings it in. I'm using eye of round because it's lean and, based on past experience, nice after brining. I used top sirloin last year and was very happy with the result but the difference in price between the on-sale round and not-on-sale sirloin at the time I needed to get it in the brine was enough to make it an easy decision. So 5 lbs. of beef is brining until early next Friday morning when it'll go in the sous vide tank before work and get 36 hours or so at 55 C in time for St. Patrick's day dinner.

[scubadoo97]

My favorite thing to do with these prepared corned beefs is to leach out salt and to a pastrami rub then smoke them

[Tri2Cook]

23 minutes ago, scubadoo97 said:

My favorite thing to do with these prepared corned beefs is to leach out salt and to a pastrami rub then smoke them

I wanted to add a more fatty cut to my brining bucket along with the lean stuff to throw in the smoker but it's not looking like the weather is going to be smoker cooperative where I live by next weekend. I may give it a shot this summer though.

[menuinprogress]

5 hours ago, rotuts said:

@menuinprogress

 

love to hear what you do with it.

 

It is pretty much the same process as making pastrami from scratch, but you can skip the brining stage since that has been done for you. Instead of using the spices that come with the packaged corned beef, you rub the meat with pastrami spices and cook it on a smoker.

 

It is basically just a shortcut to making pastrami, and takes advantage of the inexpensive corned beef that is available this time of year.

[FeChef]

@rotuts

 

I literally bought the same brand/cut, same amount at GIANT last night. They were $1.67/lb. I even thought of you when i was filling my shopping cart. My wife wants me to make pastrami out of 5 of them and leave one for CB & cabbage for St. pattys.

[rotuts]

@menuinprogress

 

would you share your spice mixture ?

 

a few years ago , after doing the SV on my CB's

 

I put a few of the CB's out of the package 

 

on my Webber   

 

w the gas off

 

but with a hardwood pellet thing-ey

 

and smoked the cooked tranche's  for a bit

 

then re-baged them and froze them

 

finest smoked CB Ive ever had

 

Id like to add your ' not so secret '  spice mix to a few of my haul

 

and try that 

 

cheers

 

' Happy Cooking '

 

       Jacques Pepin 

[ElsieD]

@rotuts  I am interested in your SV method for corned beef.  How differently does sving  the CB affect the texture as compared to cooking it in the more traditional way?

[Tri2Cook]

Halfway through, still swimming happily in the brine bucket...

[rotuts]

@ElsieD

 

its a temperature thing

 

 SV, 

 

at lower temps

 

130  - 140

 

at the right amount of time

 

allows the meat to  not contract so much

 

as in a traditional Braise

 

and thus more flavor is left in the meat 

 

that's where Id like it

 

tough meat  , after the right amount of time SV

 

becomes tender  but much of the meat flavor stays in the meat.

 

now to your real question 

 

texture is very much better with SV'd

 

folk tender

 

w much of the jucymess and flavor kept in the meat.

[ElsieD]

17 minutes ago, rotuts said:

@ElsieD

 

its a temperature thing

 

 SV, 

 

at lower temps

 

130  - 140

 

at the right amount of time

 

allows the meat to  not contract so much

 

as in a traditional Braise

 

and thus more flavor is left in the meat 

 

that's where Id like it

 

tough meat  , after the right amount of time SV

 

becomes tender  but much of the meat flavor stays in the meat.

 

now to your real question 

 

texture is very much better with SV'd

 

folk tender

 

w much of the jucymess and flavor kept in the meat.

9

Thank you.  I bought one yesterday and will try it SV.  Ours, however, was "on sale" for $5.99/lb.  I'll cook the veggies separately in the jus.

 

They used to be a bit cheaper but I doubt that we'd ever see them for $I.97/lb.

[rotuts]

@ElsieD

 

sorry for the price difference.

 

if you can , take your Cb out of the bag, 

 

perhaps dry it or not

 

then seal it in a new bag

 

'' as irt '

 

don't worry too much about the feat etc

 

you can deal with that after the Cook.

 

@140 x 48 hrw

 

then chill in the manner of SV

 

then 

 

make your CB w the trimmings later

 

and re therm the meat but use the ' jus' for you potatoes , carrots and cabbage

 

make sure you have plenty of Mustard of your Choice !

 

 

 

 

[ElsieD]

45 minutes ago, rotuts said:

@ElsieD

 

sorry for the price difference.

 

if you can , take your Cb out of the bag, 

 

perhaps dry it or not

 

then seal it in a new bag

 

'' as irt '

 

don't worry too much about the feat etc

 

you can deal with that after the Cook.

 

@140 x 48 hrw

 

then chill in the manner of SV

 

then 

 

make your CB w the trimmings later

 

and re therm the meat but use the ' jus' for you potatoes , carrots and cabbage

 

make sure you have plenty of Mustard of your Choice !

 

 

 

 

 

Will do.  Thank you.

[rotuts]

@ElsieD

 

Im very keen to hear about what you think!

[ElsieD]

15 minutes ago, rotuts said:

@ElsieD

 

Im very keen to hear about what you think!

 

Tune in on the 17th!