Corned Beef At Home: Recipes, Tips, etc.

[rotuts]

wow !  17 c ?   pricey 

 

got mine for 12 c.

 

only two.

 

 

[kayb]

Pronouncing this year's edition of corned beef a success. Bottom round roast, brined in a 5 percent brine for 10 days, cooked SV 145F for 42 hours (it was going to be 36, but I forgot it), then chilled for a couple of days. Tonight, put potatoes and carrots in the IP, set a steamer basket on top, put the roast on one side and some cabbage wedges on the other, dumped the jus over the whole thing, steamed 18 minutes, qr. Veggies were a little soft, but still good. Corned beef was just excellent.

 

[Tri2Cook]

 to both of you. I got mine today for $1.69/lb... which is still $1.26/lb converted to U.S. 



Edit: Should have quoted Jo and rotuts regarding their cabbage purchases. That's what I was replying to.

Edited March 18, 2017 by Tri2Cook (log)

[Tri2Cook]

4 minutes ago, kayb said:

Pronouncing this year's edition of corned beef a success. Bottom round roast, brined in a 5 percent brine for 10 days, cooked SV 145F for 42 hours (it was going to be 36, but I forgot it), then chilled for a couple of days. Tonight, put potatoes and carrots in the IP, set a steamer basket on top, put the roast on one side and some cabbage wedges on the other, dumped the jus over the whole thing, steamed 18 minutes, qr. Veggies were a little soft, but still good. Corned beef was just excellent.

 

Looks good! I don't mind softer veggies in stuff like this. I always cook my potatoes and carrots in the roasting pan when I have a roast in the oven. They get softer than some would approve of but they taste so good when they've spent all that time in that meaty environment that I consider it more than worth any textural trade-off.

[johnnyd]

Wow, that's pink!  Served with cabbage heart, rutabaga, carrot and balsamic red onion pickle.  CB soaked for a 1/2hr in water and rinsed, then simmered in DL Geary's Wee Heavy and Eli's ginger beer for 4hrs. Horseradish sauce and mustards.  Wicked, wicked good! 

Edited March 18, 2017 by johnnyd
ingredients (log)

[Shelby]

I decided to use my Instant Pot to make our corned beef.  I wanted to test the slow cooker method.  Turned out very nice.  I added some cider vinegar and a bit of hot sauce as recommended by @HungryChris.  

 

[Tri2Cook]

Finally quit waffling and decided to go the sous vide route for everything. I tossed it all in the tank last night at 56C. Pulled the top sirloin after 12 hrs. The tougher stuff will stay in until tomorrow evening. Took a small taste of the stuff I pulled out this morning, I'm happy. Tasty, tender and juicy. Should make some nice sandwiches. I got less than 3/4 cup of liquid total from those 2 bags. I'll use it and whatever I get from the stuff still cooking to cook the veggies tomorrow night.

[Lisa Shock]

@ElsieD I believe I have the answer to the grey in the middle issue. I make two whole briskets yesterday. I cut each in half, approximately where the lean part ends and the fatty multidirectional meat begins. I simmered each separately, as I was working on delivering meals for several groups. For the most part I did ok; I had a probe thermometer stuck in two ends of each slab.

 

One piece in particular, I was able to keep at 158°-160° really consistently for about 5 hours. This piece was grey on the very outside (they were all grey outside) but really pink inside. That said, it could have used another 5 hours or so cooking; it was kinda chewy. (I sliced it paper thin with a ceramic knife, and apologized profusely.)

 

By the time I got to tending to my last hunk of brisket, I was pretty tired. This batch of beef and vegetables was to be delivered the day after, cold, for reheating. It was the fatty end hunk of the brisket. I had trouble keeping my temp stable. (I don't have a SV unit at home, because this is the one time per year I cook meat. Also, The slab in question was too large for my slow cooker.) I kept fiddling with the stove every 15 minutes or so. I made myself some food, sat down, and promptly fell asleep by accident. When I woke up, 5.5 hours in to the cook, and about an hour after I fell asleep, The internal temp was 189°. This meat was firmer, but much of the collagen had broken down. It was super-juicy, but a little bit like cutting wood. And, it had a grey patch in the center, about 2" in diameter.

 

My recollection of the last time I made corned beef, two years ago, was that I was doing ok, until a 'helper' wandered in and looked at my setup and decided something was wrong because the pot wasn't at a rolling boil -and turned up the temp. By the time I caught it, maybe 20 minutes later, the temp had risen a bit.

 

I think the answer is that grey in the center is well-done beef.

[gfweb]

@Lisa Shock The grey in the center is most likely beef that didn't get cured. The nitrate makes it pink, so if it is grey it never saw nitrate. Just not cured long enough for the thickness, I'd bet.

[dcarch]

I posted my corned beef on the Dinner thread.

 

dcarch

Edited March 19, 2017 by dcarch (log)

[Tri2Cook]

30 minutes ago, gfweb said:

@Lisa Shock The grey in the center is most likely beef that didn't get cured. The nitrate makes it pink, so if it is grey it never saw nitrate. Just not cured long enough for the thickness, I'd bet.

Yep, I've cooked corned beef at 132F sous vide, 225F in the oven and with the traditional ol' boil the crap out of it in pot of water method and have yet to encounter grey meat. I don't have enough experience with this to know what happens if you use too little nitrate, could that be a culprit? I remember reading somewhere that 40 parts per million was the lower limit if the pink color is the goal but I couldn't attest to the accuracy of that.

[kayb]

My 5 % Ruhlman brine, for 10 days (vs. the 5 days he recommends) left me with a small grey spot in the middle of one end of the bottom round I brined. Not certain if that was due to to the failure of the brine to penetrate or to the fact there was a vein of fat running through it.

 

In any event, it was quite excellent.

 

Ran by Aldi today. They had eye of round roast at a semi-reasonable price. I very nearly bought another one to corn, as we have pretty well decimated the bottom round I corned the first time. Perhaps @rotuts had the right idea when it comes to corned beef -- nothing succeeds like excess.

 

 

 

[Lisa Shock]

1 hour ago, Tri2Cook said:

Yep, I've cooked corned beef at 132F sous vide, 225F in the oven and with the traditional ol' boil the crap out of it in pot of water method and have yet to encounter grey meat. I don't have enough experience with this to know what happens if you use too little nitrate, could that be a culprit? I remember reading somewhere that 40 parts per million was the lower limit if the pink color is the goal but I couldn't attest to the accuracy of that.

 

There's a chance that it's a combination of lower nitrates and thick meat. This hunk of meat was the thickest one I cooked, and the most fatty. That said, it was in brine starting on March 5, which should have been plenty of time -unless there's some sort of physics issue affecting it. I did the math to use as little saltpeter as possible, same with salt. I was trying to make a dish that perhaps would be perhaps more historically accurate by being frugal. Plus, I wanted to emphasize the spice flavors. I am also cooking for senior citizens who are mostly on low sodium diets.

[johnnyd]

I did the Ruhlman method as posted in the NYT last week, curing for six days. After much searching, I found a butcher who gave the exact amount needed for my 4.5lb point in one gallon of water - he gave me one and 1/4 tblspoon. With 2 cups kosher salt, that brine was mighty salty. The cut was maybe two inch thick. It was pink all the way through, and damned tasty. We are on our third day and hate to see it go!

[rotuts]

the last of the CB this year :

 

 

2 bags of 3 + lb  trimmed and bagged into 6 bags.

 

i could not resist.   I was going to do 48 + at 131 etc

 

but these are 145 F  for 24 +    in this case 27 for conveniennce

 

I did note that these two bags  are OK  I hope but not as nice as the bags they stocked at S&S early on.

 

I can't imagine them grading them , and I can't imagine these have been sitting in the S&S meat bit for 2 weeks

 

go figure    :

 

Buy Early , and Buy Often.

 

 

[rotuts]

Yikes !  

 

the above , sampled one for dinner :

 

Goooooood !

 

Im pleased that St.P  didn't get a Month of Days !

 

Id have to get F_C  , F_D   etc

[kayb]

And on the Saturday after St.Patrick's Day, one must have corned beef hash. I think it's a law.

 

 

I saw nice eye of round roasts at Aldi yesterday. I'm thinking I may have to corn something else. There's maybe one meal worth of corned beef left out of that bottom round. It also made a quite excellent sandwich this morning, with some horseradish cheddar.

 

[Tri2Cook]

5 minutes ago, kayb said:

 

I'm thinking I may have to corn something else.

 

I'm thinking the same thing. But now that the corned beef has been done, I'm thinking about making the base 5% brine (water, salt, sugar, curing salt) and playing around with other flavors besides the traditional pickling spice. I already have some flavors in mind for both beef and pork.

[Tri2Cook]

I'm very happy with the salt levels of the finished product using the 5% brine. Without the need for the preservative aspect of a heavier brine and since I won't likely be going back to the boil it in a big pot of water method of cooking corned beef, I don't see a situation where I'd ever use the 10% again.

[Tri2Cook]

And because where I live always seems to be just slightly behind what's happening everywhere else... this weeks grocery store flyer is advertising "whole beef brisket" for what is a good price for here.

[Tropicalsenior]

At Groundhog's Day each year I start hunting for a good piece of meat to make corned beef for Saint Patrick's Day. I found the perfect piece yesterday and I have the perfect recipe (I found it 20 years ago on Food Network).

I'm all set except that I have a small problem. My recipe calls for saltpeter and my supply is running low. I'm all set for now  but saltpeter is impossible to find in Costa Rica. I usually have my grandson bring some when he comes but he almost always has a panic attack when he does it. I just can't imagine why he gets so nervous just bringing a little white bag of powder through customs. However, I can buy curing salt here. I've been on Google trying to find a pundit  who can give me an amount substitution for curing salt and saltpeter. They all said that it can be done but no one seems to have a clear idea of how much to use and by how much I need to adjust the salt in the recipe. Because we have some real experts among our members I'm hoping someone can give me an idea about how to do this. Please, I need your help.

Homemade Corned Beef

I started my Saint Patrick's dinner yesterday. I used a homemade corned beef recipe that I have had a lot of success with. Corned beef is totally unheard of in Costa Rica so it is homemade or nothing. I love it so much that I make it at least two or three times a year.

My biggest problem has been finding the meat that I need. The only type of cattle raised here are a big Brahma cross and they are all pasture-raised. The meat is lean and stringy and they always cut the brisket into small strips to be used for soup. To get a brisket you have to go to a slaughterhouse and buy the full brisket. Recently, I found a cut of meat that is not sold in the supermarkets or in the 'boutique butcher' shops. It is considered peasant food and it is wonderful. It is called giba (HEE-bah) and it is the hump of the Brahma bull. It's nice and marbled and very tender. They only sell it in the small local butcher shops and usually they have to order it for you.
My two pound piece of meat ready to go.

In the brine.

Two weeks to go but it's going to be worth it.

If anyone would like the recipe, I will post it on Recipe Gullet.

Update: The recipe is here.

Edited February 4, 2018 by Tropicalsenior
addition (log)

[HungryChris]

I can understand your grandson's lack of enthusiasm in bringing a bag of white powder through customs. Because it is also a component in gun powder, even if they knew for sure what it was, it would still be a little dicey. I have been using Morton Tender Quick to make corned beef for years, with great success. I think that if you, or your grandson could get your hands on some of that, there would be much less concern at customs. It's worth a try.

HC

[Tropicalsenior]

@HungryChris Thank you. I'm going to post my recipe in Recipe Gullet. I do have some Tender Quick. Do you have any idea what proportions of change I should make in my recipe?

[demiglace]

3 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

@HungryChris Thank you. I'm going to post my recipe in Recipe Gullet. I do have some Tender Quick. Do you have any idea what proportions of change I should make in my recipe?

 

 

The answer to any question about sharing recipes is always YES. 

[HungryChris]

When I use it, I make the brine. One and a half cups of TQ and 6 cups of water, simple as that. I inject the meat with the solution and brine for at least 2 weeks.

HC