Corned beef 101

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inchrisin

Senior Cook
Joined
Nov 5, 2010
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I'm looking around online and I'm preparing to make some corned beef from scratch. I'm definiately going to get a brine with some extra flavors together. I am also hoping to post on here and get some pointers from people who have done this before. I'll get a flat brisquet and brine it from 3-7 days. Question 1: Is there a big difference between 3 days and 7? I'd think there's only so much a brine will do over time.

I don't know much about nitrates. To my understanding it will help keep the color and will preserve a certain flavor. I'm not against using them, but I wonder what color the beef would be otherwise. Question 2: To nitrate or not? Where would I buy pink salt or salt peter?

Question 3: I understand that I'll be braising the beef when it's time to cook. After it cooks for 3ish hours is there anything I can do with the liquid, or is it just disgarded like the brine?

I plan on getting about 10 pounds and hope to make corned beef and cabbage the first night and hopefully have lots of left-overs for reubens and hash. Question 4: Pastrami also sounds nice. Is there a good way to make pastrami from already cooked corned beef, or does that have to get baked? Should I be looking to portion this off separately before cooking any of the beef?
 
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Without nitrates the corned beef will be grey. It looks like boiled meat.

You can get that stuff online

When my mom used to make CB dinner, she would boil the veggies in that liquid.

When I made CB I brined it for 10 days.
 
We've made this recipe from David Rosengarten from one of his old Taste shows on Food Network multiple times.

1-1/2 pound whole brisket
4 quarts water
2 cups Kosher salt
1 teaspoon saltpeter (this is your nitrate, we just leave it out)
5 bay leaves
7 cloves garlic, smashed
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 teaspoons whole peppercorns
1 teaspoon allspice berries
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup white sugar


Place all ingredients except garlic and brisket in a large pan and bring to a boil and cool. Place garlic and brisket in non-reactive pot and cover with brining liquid, cover with a plate and weight for 3 weeks, turning after 1- 1/2 weeks. Recipe doesn't say to but we keep it in the refrigerator as we don't have any type of "root cellar" storage in S. Florida.

After it's done brining and you are ready to cook:
Add to a steamer pot:
1/4 teaspoon cloves
2 teaspoons peppercorns
1 teaspoon allspice berries
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup salt

Remove meat from the brine and rinse. Add enough water to the steamer pot to reach just below the bottom of the steamer. Place meat in steamer. Steam for 3 hours, until tender.

You might want to "desalinate" the meat before cooking by placing it in fresh water for several hours just before cooking, just depends on your salt tolerance. I'm probably going to next time we make this since my salt tolerance seems to be getting lower over the years. It was really salty tasting to me the last time and we followed the recipe exactly as always.

If you want pastrami, you brine the meat as above, maybe desalinate?, then rub it with a mixture of black pepper and spices (varies from recipe to recipe) and then smoke it. We've talked about doing this, just never have.

You will probably have to buy pink salt from an on-line source unless you can get some from a butcher locally that cures his/her own meat. That's one of the reasons we leave it out besides the fact that since it's just for us, not really worried about meat not being pink.
 
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Oh, forgot to add, I usually throw the garlic in the brining mixture as soon as I turn it off from boiling so it's not totally raw in the brine mix, besides the fact that I feel it flavors the mixture more if it's put in while the brine is still hot.

AND, I just realized I made a typo above, it should be one 12-pound brisket (or thereabouts), not 1-1/2 pounds.
 
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