Braised Corned Beef - advice please

[Janet H]

My adorable DH offered to take half the errand list yesterday

Nice right?

His half of the list included a trip to the local wholesale grocer for a number 10 can of artichoke hearts and a jar of capers (big pan of baked dip for an upcoming party). He came home with a few extra items and giant smile.

• Large tub of red vines... ok, well.. someone will eat them
• Can of stainless cleaner - great buy.
• A small tub of creme fraiche - what an awesome treat
• 12 lb corned beef brisket."Itwasonsalelookattheawesomeprice, ILOVECornedbeeftheleftoverswillbegreat, Icantakethemforlunch, ifyoucookitIwilldothedishes, paleeeeze..." How big?? GASP.

How do I cook this? I did some searching and it seems like the best plan is to soak it a bit to desalt, then slow cook, wrapped in foil for about 12 hours @275. Does this seem right? Any advice?

 

[Kayelle]

Holy bat guano! 12 lbs? Is it party time?

I'd cut that puppy in half or quarters, and freeze it for later.

 

[Whiskadoodle]

What is a tub of red vines?

The first thing I would do is divide the corned beef into several pieces and freeze parts for future use. 12 pounds is a lot of roast beast.

If you have a party coming up, hubs could sacrifice part of the leftovers to make corned beef egg rolls or a spread on little party rye breads. There's gotta be good recipes around here or on the net.

No recent advice on how to cook corned beef. Seems like this is about the time I got fresh coriander and mustard seeds and what-all. We quit making corned beef awhile ago. ALTHOUGH, this means there is a severe lack of reuben sammies the next day.

What we do is go to the St Paddy's parade in St Paul mid morning. It's over by about lunch time. While everyone else heads to the nearest pub, we do a sneak around and go to a pretty nice Irish- Brit restaurant for corned beef and cabbage for lunch. Not crazy wild, just good food.

Now for those still standing, in the later afternoon, one can head over to Mpls for its St Paddy's parade and continue the party. Or like we do, go home, put on a pile of Irish music discs and have the equivalent of an Irish siesta. Add in the annual viewing of Darby O Gill and the Little People, (1959!) with a vey young Sean Connery and that's our party.

 

[Janet H]

What is a tub of red vines? .

This is a tub of red vines



Here's how they are made...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVAnYMVRmdI


I don't think they are a good paring with corned beef.

 

[Cheryl J]

Wow Janet....that's one big corned beef brisket - I don't think I've ever seen one that big!

I would portion it out into thirds or quarters, but I'm cooking for one. If you're going to cook that big boy whole, 12 hours covered at 275F sounds about right. If I remember right from cooking one last year, it takes around 3 hours at low oven temp to get a 3 pounder nice and tender.

I usually soak them for several hours or overnight, but sometimes I don't. I'm a salt fiend. I know I wouldn't have a pot big enough to soak a 12 pounder.

I'm going to have to get to the store tomorrow and pick one up - the main reason I cook a corned beef is for the Reuben sandwich leftovers!

 

[Kayelle]

This is a tub of red vines
View attachment 24433


Here's how they are made...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVAnYMVRmdI


I don't think they are a good paring with corned beef.

I thought the tub of red vines would be tomatoes. Shows where my head is lately.

 

[Janet H]

I usually soak them for several hours or overnight, but sometimes I don't. I'm a salt fiend. I know I wouldn't have a pot big enough to soak a 12 pounder.

I figured the 5 gal bucket I use to brine turkeys would work. Still a bit nervous about cooking this packer brisket. It's huge and there will be left overs unless there's a party.

 

[Cheryl J]

The leftovers would slice up and freeze well. Reubens for quite a while!

 

[Steve Kroll]

Janet, it's super easy. For nice and juicy corned beef, all I do is brown it in a Dutch oven, add 2 cups of stock (beef, chicken, or vegetable... it doesn't really matter) and a half cup of white wine, then cook it covered in a 225F oven for 5-6 hours, or until tender. As long as you don't boil it like many recipes recommend, it's impossible to ruin it.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Your roasting/braising method sounds right, Janet. When I worked in the cafeteria, we would use shallow steam table pans and put plastic wrap over and then foil. Fat cap up, removing foil/plastic in the last hour to crisp them up.

Yum!

 

[GotGarlic]

I thought the tub of red vines would be tomatoes. Shows where my head is lately.

I thought the same thing

 

[Addie]

Your roasting/braising method sounds right, Janet. When I worked in the cafeteria, we would use shallow steam table pans and put plastic wrap over and then foil. Fat cap up, removing foil/plastic in the last hour to crisp them up.

Yum!

Sounds right to me. I made a huge one a few years back for a party. I soaked it first as most of the guests were on a limited salt diet. I used a large roasting pan for soaking and cooking it in the oven. They could always add it when it was on their plate. When it was done, some of it was sliced, placed on a platter along side to the rye bread, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, thousand Island dressing in a bowl, with additional fixing for a Reuben sandwich. What is left over can go in the freezer.

Just keep in mind, low and slow and there will be less shrinkage. Corn beef loves to shrink on you.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Alternatively, place the corned beef onto a slow barbecue, with the charcoal divided into to piles opposite each other, with no more than ten or so briquettes or chunks per pile. Light them off and let sit while you prepare the corned beef.

Remove the corned beef from the packaging, and rinse thoroughly with fresh, cold water. Use a pepper grinder to apply freshly ground coarse black pepper to both sides. Make a drip pan, the same size as the corned beef by placing two sheets of equal size, heavy duty aluminum foil. Fold 2 inches or so of each side up, and crimp the corners inward and to the side. Fold a little of the top edge down to create a stronger drip pan. Place the drip pan between the charcoal piles and add two cups of water. Place wood chips of choice onto the coals to cover, but not smother. Put the top grate on, and place the corned beef directly over the wood chips. Put the lid on the barbecue and close all vents half way. let cook for twenty minutes before checking the roast and fire. Using a meat thermometer, check the meat temp. You may baste this roast with beef broth to help add flavor and moisture. When the roast reads 190' F, remove it from the grill and let it rest. It should be wonderfully flavored and tender. This process should take about 2 hours and 20 minutes; figure about 12 minutes per pound. Test it by slicing a thin slice from the middle, cutting against the grain. If it is not done enough, seal in foil and cook in a 300' oven for another hour.

When checking the fire, add a few unlit pieces of charcoal to keep the temperature stable, and replace wood chips as they burn up.

One more thing, you've just made home-made pastrami, which is, smoked corned beef.

Seeeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[Sir_Loin_of_Beef]

This is how I did it in the Amoretti Kitchen and it came out perfect!

Corned Beef & Cabbage
​

Ingredients:

1 corned beef brisket, 3 to 5 pounds
1 medium head of cabbage
4 to 6 red potatoes
4 to 6 carrots
1 medium onion
2 cups low sodium beef broth
1½ cups Guinness stout
3 bay leaves
1 Tbs coarse ground, whole grain mustard
½ tsp black peppercorns
½ tsp white peppercorns
Instructions:

Cut the onion and carrots into half inch slices, cut the potatoes into quarters, and put them in the bottom of the slow cooker. Rinse the corned beef brisket, pat it dry with paper towels, and place it in the crock pot on top of the vegetables. Add the bay leaves, peppercorns, and whole grain mustard.

Pour the stout and the beef broth into the crock pot, making sure the liquid comes about two thirds of the way up the brisket. If not, add more broth. Put the cover on the crock pot, set it to LOW and allow the brisket and vegetables to cook for 6 to 7 hours.

Roughly chop the cabbage, add it to the slow cooker and cook the brisket about 30 minutes longer, until cabbage is just tender.

Remove the brisket to a cutting board, tent it with aluminum foil, and allow it to rest for 15 minutes. Remove and discard the bay leaves. Remove the vegetables from the crock pot with a slotted spoon or a coarse mesh skimmer and put them in a serving bowl. Slice the brisket about ½ inch thick against the grain and lay it out on a serving platter. Serve the corned beef and cabbage with ramekins of coarse ground, whole grain mustard for dipping.

 

[RPCookin]

I made a more standard size 4 pound corned beef for dinner on Sunday. I used my large oval dutch oven. First I sliced some onions 3/4" thick, then cut carrots to pieces about 2" long and layered them in the bottom of the dutch oven. Then added the meat with its spice packet, and preheated low sodium vegetable and chicken stock (about 50-50 mix) to about halfway up the beef. I intended to add some wine, but I forgot it. Into a 325° oven for an hour.

After one hour I added red potatoes, quartered. A half hour later I put in the cabbage, quartered with the stem core removed. Half hour after that, dinner was ready. Not sure how it would have been with a cup of white wine, but it came out great anyway, so I was satisfied.

 

[Steve Kroll]

The corned beef I bought over the weekend is about 6 pounds and it was one of the smaller ones I saw. I'll cook it tomorrow. That's way too much for one person, so I'm still trying to decide if should cut it up and freeze part of it, or just make the entire roast and eat off of it for the next week.

With the first option, the other half will probably never get used since I only eat corned beef once a year. With the second option, unless I can come up with a creative use for leftovers, I know that I'll be sick of it after about three days.

I have to go to a function on Sunday where it's potluck and I'm signed up to bring an appetizer dish. I was thinking of bringing individual quiches, and possibly incorporating some of the leftover meat.

This also sounds pretty good:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/reuben-dip.html

If anyone has other ideas, I'm open to suggestions.

 

[Aunt Bea]

The corned beef I bought over the weekend is about 6 pounds and it was one of the smaller ones I saw. I'll cook it tomorrow. That's way too much for one person, so I'm still trying to decide if should cut it up and freeze part of it, or just make the entire roast and eat off of it for the next week.

With the first option, the other half will probably never get used since I only eat corned beef once a year. With the second option, unless I can come up with a creative use for leftovers, I know that I'll be sick of it after about three days.

I have to go to a function on Sunday where it's potluck and I'm signed up to bring an appetizer dish. I was thinking of bringing individual quiches, and possibly incorporating some of the leftover meat.

This also sounds pretty good:
Reuben Dip Recipe : Food Network Kitchen : Food Network

If anyone has other ideas, I'm open to suggestions.

I would cook it all and freeze meal size portions for a quick Reuben, minus the bread, or corned beef hash made with cauliflower.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

The corned beef I bought over the weekend is about 6 pounds and it was one of the smaller ones I saw. I'll cook it tomorrow. That's way too much for one person, so I'm still trying to decide if should cut it up and freeze part of it, or just make the entire roast and eat off of it for the next week.

With the first option, the other half will probably never get used since I only eat corned beef once a year. With the second option, unless I can come up with a creative use for leftovers, I know that I'll be sick of it after about three days.

I have to go to a function on Sunday where it's potluck and I'm signed up to bring an appetizer dish. I was thinking of bringing individual quiches, and possibly incorporating some of the leftover meat.

This also sounds pretty good:
Reuben Dip Recipe : Food Network Kitchen : Food Network

If anyone has other ideas, I'm open to suggestions.

1. New England Boiled Dinner is great when made with corned beef.
2. Don't forget Reuben Sandwiches
3. Home-made corned beef hash.
4. Cheat and add a little liquid smoke to turn you corned beef into something like pastrami
5. For an appie, use shredded corned beef, combined with swiss cheese, and 1 inch squares of rye, or pumpernickle bread to make mini corned beef sandwiches, with fancy toothpics in them, of course.
6. Corned beef can be put into a Bechemel to make something wonderful, and similar to creamed chip beef, served open-faced on your favorite bread.
7. Ever make pasties? I suspect that you could sub the corned beef for the beef.
8. Add the same ingredients that you would use for a good beef stew, but using the corned beef. Use the corned beef braising broth, and thicken with a roux, or a cornstarch slurry.
9. Cabbage rolls with diced corned beef instead of ground beef. Use a cornstarch gravy made from the corned beef broth.
10. Think Philly Steak, but with corned beef.
11. Corned beef with navy beans, like a cassoulet.
12. Classic meat pie, but with corned beef.
13 Minced corned beef with fried rice. Add green onion, and whatever else you like.
14. corned beef slices served with buttered egg noodles.

Just a few ideas for you.

Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[Roll_Bones]

I just rinse well with cold water and put in dutch oven and cover with water. I do use the spice packet that comes with the meat.
I then simmer/braise it covered for about 3 hours until fork tender.
Always buy a bigger piece than you think you need.
By the time you pile a few sandwiches high with the sliced meat, you will wish you listened. Think Carnegie deli. More is better.

 

[Steve Kroll]

1. New England Boiled Dinner is great when made with corned beef.
2. Don't forget Reuben Sandwiches
3. Home-made corned beef hash.
4. Cheat and add a little liquid smoke to turn you corned beef into something like pastrami
5. For an appie, use shredded corned beef, combined with swiss cheese, and 1 inch squares of rye, or pumpernickle bread to make mini corned beef sandwiches, with fancy toothpics in them, of course.
6. Corned beef can be put into a Bechemel to make something wonderful, and similar to creamed chip beef, served open-faced on your favorite bread.
7. Ever make pasties? I suspect that you could sub the corned beef for the beef.
8. Add the same ingredients that you would use for a good beef stew, but using the corned beef. Use the corned beef braising broth, and thicken with a roux, or a cornstarch slurry.
9. Cabbage rolls with diced corned beef instead of ground beef. Use a cornstarch gravy made from the corned beef broth.
10. Think Philly Steak, but with corned beef.
11. Corned beef with navy beans, like a cassoulet.
12. Classic meat pie, but with corned beef.
13 Minced corned beef with fried rice. Add green onion, and whatever else you like.
14. corned beef slices served with buttered egg noodles.

Just a few ideas for you.

Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

Thanks, Chief. All great suggestions for most people. Unfortunately, every last item is also chock full of carbs, which I'm trying to avoid.