Corned Beef

[Lynan]

Mmmmm, Corned Silverside with Mustard Sauce. I simmer my C'Beef in water with golden syrup and malt vinegar added. No salt. The water needs to have a balance of sweet and sour so if you are going to try this way, taste the water!. For a 2 kg piece of beef just covered with water, I would use about 2 to 3 tablespoons vinegar and same of golden syrup.
Also in pot are whole peeled onions, whole peeled carrots, parsley stalks, orange rind, bay leaves and peppercorns.
Toward end of cooking I salt the water a little and add kumara and potatos. Cabbage done seperately of course and I never add water to cook it, just the rinsing water attached. When done its lots of butter and black pepper.

For the sauce, beat 2 eggs with 2 tablespoons sugar. Put into pan and add 4 tsps dry mustard powder and 2 tablespoons plain flour. Stir to combine and then add 2 cups of the cooking liquid and 1/2 cup malt vinegar. Cook on low heat until thickened, stirring. Add salt and pepper if required.
This sauce should have a sweetness cut with the acid of the vinegar. It is my favourite sauce with corned beef.

 

[attie]

Oh! Lyn, that sauce sounds just me, and here I am having to have sausages and vegies for dinner.

 

[VeraBlue]

I was brought up that way, too...but have since discarded that method. I sear and braise the corned beef with sauteed onions and garlic and a bit of white wine.

I prefer to roast the potatoes after tossing them with olive oil and thyme, S&P.

I cut the cabbage into large chunks and sautee them in bacon fat with apples, a bit of marmalade, some cider vinegar and sherry.

I've got nothing against the all in one pot method, but I believe that method does no justice to the flavours of the individual foods.

 

[XeniA]

I used the following ingredients to make the brine for curing the fresh corned beef. You can choose any recipe you like, there are a ton on the internet.

5-6 Lb Beef Brisket
4 Qt Water
2 C Kosher Salt
2 C Brown Sugar
1 Tb Juniper Berries
2 tsp Allspice Berries
2 Bay Leaves
6 Garlic Cloves, peeled


Your butcher can get you a whole fresh brisket. Using a jacarding tool or similar implement, pierce the meat liberally on both sides. put it into an appropriately sized SS, ceramic or glass container.

Prepare the brine by combining all the ingredients and stirring until the salt and sugar are dissolved. Pour over the meat, cover and refrigerate for 10 days. You may want to weigh down the meat if it floats so it is completely submerged.

As this is a very salty mixture, use not materials that are prone to corrosion.

When the 10 days have passed, remove the meat and rinse it well in cold water. Cook as you would any corned beef.

And that's it?! You mean I could theoretically be eating real corned beef within a fortnight? This IS good news!

Okay Andy, I'm in ... but I'm confused by your next post re the spices. So you don't use the above recipe? What do you use? (and BTW, there will be zero possibility of me getting a commercial mix ready for corning, so bear that in mind please).

(And be nice. I know I teased you mercilessly about your blossom-strewn salt shaker, but that's no excuse to deliberately doctor this recipe, Andy, now is it?)

 

[Little Miss J]

Corned tounge was one of my favourite foods as a kid until I found out it was a real tounge.

I dont cook my vegies with the corned beef and and don't serve it with cabbage as I never really been keen on cooked cabbage (love cabbage in coleslaw and wombok/chinese cabbage in a thai chicken salad). I usually have it with white sauce with parsley if any but a horseradish cream sauce sounds a whole lot nicer.

 

[XeniA]

Corned tounge was one of my favourite foods as a kid until I found out it was a real tounge.

I dont cook my vegies with the corned beef and and don't serve it with cabbage as I never really been keen on cooked cabbage (love cabbage in coleslaw and wombok/chinese cabbage in a thai chicken salad). I usually have it with white sauce with parsley if any but a horseradish cream sauce sounds a whole lot nicer.

That's why at my house if friends were over for dinner and we happened to be having tongue, we'd serve it sliced. Everybody loved it that way!

Hope you haven't given it up Little Miss J? It's one of the nicest meats around!

 

[Little Miss J]

I have given up on it I must admit. I think its a case of mind over matter though. Will have to conquer my fear/hesitations and try again!

 

[Andy M.]

And that's it?! You mean I could theoretically be eating real corned beef within a fortnight? This IS good news!

Okay Andy, I'm in ... but I'm confused by your next post re the spices. So you don't use the above recipe? What do you use? (and BTW, there will be zero possibility of me getting a commercial mix ready for corning, so bear that in mind please).

(And be nice. I know I teased you mercilessly about your blossom-strewn salt shaker, but that's no excuse to deliberately doctor this recipe, Andy, now is it?)

I'm always nice.

I don't make my own corned beef any more. I gave up trying to get the flavor I was looking for. The spice mix I listed above makes a tasty corned beef. It's just not what I wanted.

I was referring to buying commercial corned beef, NOT a commercial spice blend, I have never seen corned beef spices marketed separately.

When I was looking for spice blend recipes, I found plenty on the internet. Just google curing corned beef or something like that. There are a number of spices common to all the recipes and various others that can vary.

If you can't get corned beef you like (or can't get it at all), making it is easy, you just have to plan ahead.

Just make sure to use nothing in the curing process that can be corroded by salt. I did my first one in a cheapo SS pot that had some other metal for the rivets that held the lid handle on. The rivets corroded and the handle fell off. The SS was fine.

 

[jayco]

I do mine exactly like that but I like to add whole peeled onions timed to just get done as the corned beef gets done. I like to have a whole onion to eat along with the taters, carrots and cabbage.

And I use straight horseradish as a condiment for the beef. And since I'm from the Southern part of the U.S. the bread is cornbread!

Leftovers go into classic Ruebens.

 

[XeniA]

Thank you Andy! Can't get it all here (the real stuff, that is) and I want to introduce my hubby to it, so this is great. Thanks for the hint regarding the corroding too!

 

[Nicholas Mosher]

Sorry I took so long to post.
I forgot all about it!
Short on time, so at least here are a couple shots.
I'll post recipes/notes tomorrow.

My Old Stand-By Recipe

My Old Stand-By upgraded w/Creamy Horseradish White Sauce

#2 is good!

 

[T-roy]

Two words; Guinness extra stout. Well that's three words, & here's a few more.

• 4 pounds corned beef brisket
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle Irish stout beer (e.g. Guinness®)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Rinse the beef completely and pat dry.
2. Place the brisket on rack in a roasting pan or Dutch oven. Rub the brown sugar on the corned beef to coat entire beef, including the bottom. Pour the bottle of stout beer around, and gently over the beef to wet the sugar.
3. Cover, and place in preheated oven. Bake for 2 1/2 hours. Basting often. Allow to rest 5 minutes before slicing.

 

[Robt]

Andy, I use pink salt to make my corned beef. Do you use it in your brine or the simple salt sugar brine mix above. My method is nearly the same but I view corned meat as a "cure". Without the insta-cure you don't get the pink color. I only brine for 5 days as that is what I was taught.

Also I usually have corned pork -Boston Butt- as we like the texture better than brisket.

 

[Andy M.]

I use kosher salt and get gray corned beef. The pink color for the meat is not a big deal for me. I grew up with the gray stuff.

 

[Robt]

I use kosher salt and get gray corned beef. The pink color for the meat is not a big deal for me. I grew up with the gray stuff.

I was confused by this and have found that at least in the northeast it is quite common to brine briskets as you do, Andy, and still refer to the product as corned beef. I've never had it so now I'll have to try it and see th3e difference in taste.

Most have never had their own 'Corned Beef 'made at home so I think most think of store bought that is corned with nitrites as well as the rest of the brine. Easy to spot, it is pink meat. the sodium nitrites are what gives corned meat and ham and and bacon and hotdogs and... their pink color and unique taste.

I will give here the Ruhlman book, Charcuterie version of corned beef:

1 gal water
2 cups Kosher salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 oz pink salt*
3 garlic cloves minced
2tablespoons pickling spice

5# brisket well marbled (first cut) beef [as I said before I use pork Boston butt instead]


1 place brisket in cooled brine, weight down to keep submerged refrigerate for 5 days. [ my note: after this time it starts getting too salty and can start to get mushy]

2 Remove and rinse it thoroughly.

3 cook as above for about 3 hours- water should always just cover brisket- or until fork tender

4 slice and eat


I think the above covers how to cook it in many well thought out manors so all I'm really trying to illustrate is how to make and use your own. Corning is a way to preserve meat for another time rather than eat it now, otherwise lets brine for flavor and eat it now.

*pink salt is a mix of 93.75% pure salt [NaCl}like we all know and 6.25% potassium nitrite another salt

 

[Nicholas Mosher]

Jeese, sorry I forgot the white sauce recipe. It's a slightly modified version of the one in the CIA text.

Horseradish White Sauce

2-C Bechamel Sauce
4-fl.oz Heavy Cream
2-oz Ground Horseradish
Freshly Ground White Pepper & Kosher Salt

Make the bechamel using 50% whole milk and 50% corned beef cooking liquid for the fluids. Whisk in the the cream and horseradish, and simmer until it reaches a good consistency. Season with the freshly ground white pepper and kosher salt. Strain through a fine mesh filter to remove any fibrous horseradish bits (if desired).

I tossed the potato and carrot wedges with some of the sauce. It is perfumed with the aroma of all the meat and vegetables from using some cooking liquid in the bechamel, and has just enough richness to complement the veggies. I drizzled a bit over the meat as well. It's definetly the way I will make CB&C when doing the "Boil" method from now on! The milk/cream balance the sharpness of the horseradish so that it's primarily just the flavor that comes through (which goes excellent with the flavors of the cabbage and corned beef).

I still want to try a braised version with beer too. I'd also like to try and make my own someday!

 

[FraidKnot]

We love corned beef and cabbage and I cook it like you do Nicholas, all in one pot. Beef, cabbage and carrots and then I put it all on one large platter and set on the table.Now I'm really getting hungry

While I adore the saltiness of corned beef brisket, I tend to think the cabbage tastes overly salty if I cook it all together. When the brisket is done (I often use a crock-pot for the brisket and cook it on LOW for hours), I quarter the cabbage and place the wedges in a steamer basket in a large pot. I add a ladel-full of the cooking liquid from the brisket and steam the cabbage over it until tender. Works a charm!

Fraidy

 

[Gretchen]

I soak the corned beef prior to cooking to get some of the salt out so the end product is not so salty.
Re pink salt? Is this the gourmet variety of salt? That is usually used as a final sprinkle, not in a brine where it is dissolved as NaCl. I think the pink of corned beef is created by a curing product such as nitrites which aren't present in most home corned beef recipes.

 

[Robt]

Re pink salt? Is this the gourmet variety of salt?

No, the pink is added to the mix of 93+% normal kosher salt and 6+% potassium nitrite that are used as a cure so that you don't use it by mistake for regular salt. It is called by other names as well, one being insta-cure #1- I think that is the name given by [ butcher-packer.com ] Butcher & Packer Supply Company out of Detroit.

For those interested in preserving - really another subject for another forum - let me recommend the book I referenced above Charcuterie by Micheal Ruhlman & Brian Polcyn; a really great book.

Lastly, FraidKnot is right about the cabbage, I like his steamer method but often will steam Brussels sprouts instead of the big cabbage.

 

[Dinner Sinner]

corned beef stock

hi........has anyone made a successful soup from the left over stock. I hate throwing it out, I have tried to make a soup but it is missing something???
Any suggestions peeps??