Corned Beef At Home: Recipes, Tips, etc.

[rotuts]

what Ive learned so far :

 

I put the iP'd meats in their liquid in the frig over night.

 

I had a sandwich of just the Point meat sliced w mayo and mustard

 

decently nice.  no pic

 

then I sliced up one of the flat and here it is :

 

 

i hr LP iP'd

 

you may note it quite lean.

 

what surprised me , compared w the Point similarly iP'd :

 

this was tough , and dry.  as we know the dry probably relates to there is little to no intramuscular fat

 

however , connective tissue  that turns to collagen is not fat.  this had little

 

so Ill leave the SV 140 flat cut in the SV'der until the AM , maybe 20 hrs  even it it had papain.

 

I was a bit disappointed

 

but probably knew in the back of my mind :

 

Point Cut  trimmed of fat . bagged and SV  140 X 24 H is the way to go.

 

reporting tomorrow ...................

[rotuts]

a quick P.S. :

 

when you see a possibly tasty piece of beef like this :

 

 

that's the Flat as above

 

there is no way in the world   its going to even taste, remotely,  as it looks,  at its price point.

 

reporting tomorrow from the 20 hr SV

 

[Porthos]

Do you all know just how jealous I am of you all finding corned beef on sale already. If things continue the way they have the last couple of years here in SoCal it will be on sale for 2 days with a limit of 2. Fortunately for my I know how the game the system so that I can acquire more than 2. (Pay cash, go to stores without the "loyalty" cards, etc.)

[rotuts]

in my area , the limit is for each purchase.   the cashiers or the self service slots give you the limit , then just buy the limit again

 

over and over , w a new transaction

 

even the cashier at Shaw's don't mind doing this 

 

Odd , yet effective.  consider it at the Self Check Out doing it twice and see !

[HungryChris]

19 minutes ago, rotuts said:

what Ive learned so far :

then I sliced up one of the flat and here it is :

 

 

 

In my opinion, that looks waaayyyyy too thick for sandwich slices.

HC

[rotuts]

indeed.  but the point cut as above , was far more flavorful and very tender.

 

this was a big surprise to me.

Edited March 4, 2017 by rotuts (log)

[ElsieD]

For those of you who will be corning their own beef, how do you avoid getting that grey middle?  The last time I corned some beef, I even injected some of the corning liquid into the meat and still got a grey band in the middle.  

[HungryChris]

1 minute ago, ElsieD said:

For those of you who will be corning their own beef, how do you avoid getting that grey middle?  The last time I corned some beef, I even injected some of the corning liquid into the meat and still got a grey band in the middle.  

I had that issue a few times on corned beef tongue, until I started injecting the meat and leaving it in the brine for 2 weeks. That took care of it.

HC

[rotuts]

if you used ' pink salt '  which keeps the meat ' red '

 

perhaps you didn't wait long enough for the brine to penetrate , invent w injections ?

[gfweb]

Corning salt/brine penetrates about a 1/4" at most/day. Nice piece here https://www.cooksillustrated.com/articles/171-homemade-corned-beef

[Tri2Cook]

2 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

For those of you who will be corning their own beef, how do you avoid getting that grey middle?  The last time I corned some beef, I even injected some of the corning liquid into the meat and still got a grey band in the middle.  

I haven't done this as much as most posting here but the times I have, it was never an issue. I don't inject the brine but I don't use pieces more than 3" thick and I leave it in the brine for a minimum of 7 days, usually 10 if it's more than 2" thick. I've always used a 10% brine but this year I'm going to give a 5% brine a shot. I'm cooking it sous vide for the first time and hoping the 5% brine will help avoid it being too salty. That shouldn't have any effect on how long it has to brine though, so I'm not altering that.

[rotuts]

@gfweb 

 

nice link , thanks

 

this was mentioned and featured in the Tk episode :  1704

 

they claimed using the above method  ( in the show ) had less salt that commercial preps.

 

i can't imagine them making this up.   I would love to see the " sur le plate "  conventionally cook results for each

 

re NaCl

[rotuts]

the A1704 Rx was :

 

4 Qts water    3/4 C table salt  1/2 C brown sugar  2 tsp Pink salt    and various flavorings ;  bay leaves , garlic , whole black pepper , whole coriander , and 

 

whole allspice

 

Flat cut was placed in the brine  for 6 - 8 days in the frig.  the flat cut did not look very very thick to me :

 

I completely

 

the picture I completely credit to America's test kitchen , A1704.  owned by Boston Common as far as I can tell

 

PS  the TK's also claimed in blind tastings , the pick cured CB tasted better , at the same ' salt point ' no data given.

Edited March 4, 2017 by rotuts (log)

[dcarch]

Cut off the fat layer and deep fry to crispy. 

 

Better than bacon.

 

dcarch

[kayb]

I'm putting my bottom round in a 5 percent brine tonight. Ruhlman says five days. I think I've done longer than that before. What's everyone's recommendation?

 

Plan to SV mine. It has some nice marbling. Time/temp on the SV recommendations?

 

6 hours ago, rotuts said:

 St.P's day is not until March 17th

 

DownTown here  there was green beer, lots o vomiting , and maybe a Parade

 

its colder here than in N'Oleans

 

same sort of thing

 

Id guess

 

 

I spent St. Patrick's Day in downtown Chicago once. Never saw so many drunk folks in one place in my life. Green river and all.

 

5 hours ago, HungryChris said:

I got 2 flats at S&S today, biggest and leanest ones I could find. They are in the freezer and will soon be joined by several of their mates. 

HC

 

No freezer cleanout points for YOU!

 

[gfweb]

@rotuts I don't see why a corned beef brine needs to be so salty if one is corning for taste rather than preservation. Might be a good topic for experimentation. Looking at weight gain/loss during the cure as well as the cook...and taste/texture.

 

If I ever stop traveling it will be first on the list.

[HungryChris]

3 hours ago, kayb said:

No freezer cleanout points for YOU!

 

There is a time for every purpose. 

HC

[rotuts]

I let my CB go overnight and pulled a pack out at about 21 hours  , 140 F

 

 

 

 

this was still on the tough side , which surprised me.

 

I also leaned that the papain added at least to this brand made no difference at all w the tenderness. at leaf at 140 X 21 H

 

I assume that the papain was denatured early on , when the core got to say 62 C   2 hours ?  + /- ?

 

I looked over my old notes and Ive done CB ( point , trimmed  ) at 145  x 24 and  142.5 x 24 and 140 x 24.  the last notes suggested

 

that those CB did best at 140 .  that's what I chose here.

 

the above would make a good sandwich , with some chew left in the CB.   

 

If I ever bothered to take my ChefChoice slicer out of the Box  and sliced this thinner , it would be fine

 

however , sometimes thin slices make up for too tough meats.

 

I put three bags back in the water and set the Anova for 145 and will leave it in for 6 and see

 

my take :  point tastes better , and gets tender sooner than this very lean flat

 

trimming point to my liking takes some time , and has quite a bit of waste.

 

Ill see how the 6 h at 145 changes this cut 

 

then Ill have to decide my Bulk Plans soon to get the better Bags

 

years ago when I and the problem w the papain bags making the final CB mushy might have had more to do w the fact I

 

kept the bags in the refrigerator , still very cold for some time before I got around to SV.   shy of the use by date l,

 

but there were in there a while until I had time to do a bulk SV

 

 

[rotuts]

@kayb  

 

before a even heard of St.P'day

 

I spent 4 years on the Chicago  S. Side.

 

to get to the middle of chicago from the Sw.Side

 

you took the IC  ( a commuter train -- double decker !)  also known  as the 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois_Central_Railroad

 

 

once I went down town

 

and noticed at each intersection

 

there was stenciled on tha pavement so you could not miss it :

 

"" Mayor Daley  wishes you and your family a happy St.P's day  Please enjoy the parade "

 

no kidding

 

tje IC also stopped in mid Chicago

 

no need to go to the North Side !

 

Just saying

 

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

 

Edited March 5, 2017 by rotuts (log)

[Lisa Shock]

BTW, I use a modified version of Ruhlman's recipe.

I use 1/4 less salt.

I don't use cloves because I don't like them and usually don't have them around. I substitute juniper berries.

I add a tablespoon of molasses to the brine.

[HungryChris]

I did up the Cattlemans's Ranch flat cut Corned Beef from Aldi tonight. It has been in the freezer for a few weeks and does contain papain. I did it in the IP, covered with water, about a 1/2 cup of cider vinegar, a half cup of Crystal hot sauce, 5 bay leaves, 5 cloves of garlic, peeled, for 90 minutes at high pressure. Natural release (took about 25 minutes) and wrapped it in foil and put it into a warm oven. Then I put the potatoes, cabbage and carrots in the IP with the pot liquor at high pressure for 5 minutes and pressure release at 10 minutes. Nice and tender and sliced well hot, which means it will slice even better for sandwiches, when chilled. We loved it.

HC

 

Edited March 6, 2017 by HungryChris (log)

[ElsieD]

@HungryChris. Oh, Lordy, that is one of my favourite meals.  Looks delicious.

[rotuts]

Im going to have to give this a try , esp w the seasonal additions to the CB , and then the potatoes etc

 

did the cabbage have some firmness left in it ?   I like it that way.

[HungryChris]

1 hour ago, rotuts said:

Im going to have to give this a try , esp w the seasonal additions to the CB , and then the potatoes etc

 

did the cabbage have some firmness left in it ?   I like it that way.

Yes the cabbage and carrots were al dente in a good way.

I will be heading out to S&S for flat cut # 5 & 6 today, then I may get a few points for smoking pastrami. Shoprite has a coupon for one flat cut @ $1.88pp starting Wed and I'll do that as well.

HC

[rotuts]

I just went to S&S to pick up twi more flats.  I looked over the point

 

and was surprised how much better it was trimmed that the stuff at marketBasket.

 

I have not opened the packs yet , I got two , but I didn't see those huge globs of fat between and at the ends of the meat.

 

these looked like the larger hunks of point , and the gobs of fat may have mostly been trimmed away.

 

im sure there is going to be some attached to the meat on the opposite side that you can't see , but that's true for flat.

 

I might put these two in the SV'd early this PM and Ill take a pic.