Corned Beef First Timer

As you all remember from Friday's post, we finished off the week last week with a "traditional" corned beef and cabbage feast for St. Patrick's Day ("traditional" because I'm not sure our mates over in Ireland really had it as a traditional meal).

Well the corned beef making started early last week, Tuesday actually. I wanted to get the beef brisket "corning" before that, but alas, we were enjoying our "break" from the winter in Arizona. However, it appeared from the wide variety of recipes that I read, that 3 days of brining would be sufficient. So it was off to the grocery store for my first ever brisket, and I went for the biggest one they had 3.5 pounds to be exact. Yes, I was only cooking for two, but I was already dreaming of the leftovers...corned beef hash...grilled sandwiches....mmm.....

The brine was pretty easy, and included your typical suspects: salt, water, sugar, mustard seed, allspice, peppercorn, etc.... It was a good thing I had recently reinforced my spice collection, because I'm not sure I would have necessarily had all of the requisite spices. But I was lucky enough to find all the ingredients in my "pantry." The only issue with the brining process was, as you can imagine, I needed to brine it in my biggest pot, and I needed to keep this biggest pot in my fridge, and well, my fridge isn't so big. We pretty much lost an entire shelf for the week, but it was well worth it. Every few days I'd peer in and make sure everything was a-ok with my brisket. Not much to look at really, but to make sure it was still completely submerged.

As Friday approached I began to get a little nervous, I've never had a ton of luck with the slow cooking, it never seems to be quite as tender as I'd like. I checked in with my mom probably about 3 or 4 times during the week, over IM, over the phone, over e-mail, then double checking again with Grammy. I wanted to make sure it was going to work, but my mom had always made her corned beef from pre-corned (brined) meat and always in a slow cooker/roaster.

One of the things that I was debating was cooking it on the stove top or in the oven. For some reason I wanted to do it on the stove top, I think I was afraid of repeating the pork butt dry out. So I did in fact start the corned beef on the stove, but after an hour of running in and out of the kitchen adjusting the temperature of the burner, I decided to throw it in the oven, at 300 deg. I was really nervous because when I pulled it out to put in the veggies it seemed to be boiling pretty hard and part of the meat kept poking up above the water. I was convinced that it was going to be dry and tough.

As the 3 hour witching hour approached I was standing over the oven. And almost exactly three hours after I started the whole cooking adventure I checked in on my corned beef. To my surprise, it seemed like it was relatively tender, not quite as tender as I would have liked, so (and I'm not sure why I made this call) I decided to let it go for about 20 more minutes (until Jeff would be home). When I finally pulled it out, the potatoes were perfectly soft and the carrots were tender, and it appeared as though the meat was falling apart tender, stringy and perfect. The only thing left was the flavor. I was sure, again, that it wouldn't really taste like corned beef as I know and love. It certainly didn't have the distinctive red color on the outside (which I think is from the nitrite saltpeter that is used by manufacturers who corn it for you), but all my worries floated away instantly when I took my first bite.

It was perfect, just as corned beef should be. Jeff, who's not even really a fan of corned beef to begin with, described it as "exceptional." And it was even better the next day when I made reuben's, my way, with just cheese, coleslaw and russian dressing (but it probably was made better by the fact I did make the coleslaw and russian dressing myself), and then even better in my corned beef hash Sunday morning.

I think corning it myself and going through all the trouble was well worth it. It's definitely going to be a yearly thing for me, but, even if it's not appropriate, I may need to do it even more often than that. Being patient for half of a week is difficult, but definitely a good thing in this case.

Here's the recipe I used, from the Food Network (I kind of combined a few recipes), although I changed the method a bit. And I did cook the cabbage separately (Jeff does not like cabbage and won't touch it with a 30 foot pole) but still in the same cooking liquid.

Corning Brine and Corned Beef Recipe
Water (to cover)
1 c salt
1 c brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons whole coriander
1 1/2 tablespoons whole mustard seeds
1 1/2 tablespoons whole black peppercorns
1 1/2 tablespoons whole allspice
4 sprigs fresh thyme leaves
2 bay leaves
1 (2 1/2 to 3 1/2 pound) brisket

I threw all the spices in the pot and then rubbed it on the meat and then covered with water, as the originally recipe said, but I think it would be better if the water was heated and the salt and sugar was dissolved first while the remaining ingredients were rubbed on the meat, but either method should be fine. Let it sit in the brine for 3 - 10 days in the fridge.

2 sprigs of thyme
4 sprigs of parsley
1 bay leaf
1 t black peppercorns

1 - 2 c of baby (or cut up) carrots
2 c of baby potatoes
1 small head of cabbage (or 1/4 to 1/2 of a large head)

Pre-heat the oven to 300 deg. Take the meat out of the brine and thoroughly wash it off. Put it in a dutch oven, and cover with water. Bring the water up to a boil and turn the heat down and simmer for 10 minutes, skimming off scum as it appears. After 10 minutes, taste the water, if it's too salty, start over with fresh water. Add the thyme, parsley, bay leaf and peppercorns and put in the oven. After about 2 hours, add the carrots and potatoes and cook for an additional hour or so, until the meat is very tender. Pull out the meat and veggies, put the pot back on the stove, bring to a boil and cook the cabbage for about 10 - 15 minutes until tender.

Enjoy the leftovers in sandwiches, hash or whatever you can come up with!