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Corned Beef Project 2020

Since St Patrick's Day is around the corner, I though I'd give another go at corning my own beef brisket. I made my spice mix early as I usually have to wait for it to cool, and I set out to buy some meat!

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I bought a 4.75 pound beef brisket from The Fresh Market on March 4th and brought it home.

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Trimmed the fat off and proceeded to put it in my brining bag. Unfortunately, I either 1) could not find my brining bag, or 2) I was out. Have to make another road trip. I went to my trusty Food Lion because I know I've seen them there, nope. Went to Wegmans because I know I've seen them there as well, nope. As I was heading to Walmart, I recall that Bed Bath and Beyond sold them, so I picked up two!

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Got home and put the meat in the bag, filled it with the brine and put it in the fridge.

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As I type this, it's been in the fridge for roughly 5 days.

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I had a planned on leaving on a trip to Baltimore for a system operators conference, so the timing would have been good that I wouldn't be messing with the bag while I was gone. But due to this corona virus thing, the conference was cancelled altogether. Bummer, as I like the getaway and always enjoy staying at one of the nicest hotels I've ever been stayed at, the Four Seasons in the Inner Harbor. I'll post more pics as the beef becomes corned and we eventually cook it.

BTW, I am using Alton Browns method for corning the beef, if anyone is interested.
 
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I wish the pictures were bigger. Did this on my phone again, but without the forum app. It was terrible!
 

ajkel64

Check Out Chick
Staff member
Sounds interesting. The photos aren’t showing for me on the iPad. I do love corned beef.
 
I’ll be interested to follow the results. I corned my own packer brisket a few years ago. I wasn’t overly impressed with my results and decided that it wasn’t worth my effort. Maybe I used a bad recipe?
 
This is the recipe I used, minus the cloves:

RECIPE COURTESY OF ALTON BROWN
Corned Beef





149 Reviews


Save Recipe

  • Level: Easy
  • Total: 10 days 3 hr 20 min
  • Prep: 20 min
  • Inactive: 10 days
  • Cook: 3 hr
  • Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Share This Recipe
Ingredients
2 quarts water
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons saltpeter
1 cinnamon stick, broken into several pieces
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
8 whole cloves
8 whole allspice berries
12 whole juniper berries
2 bay leaves, crumbled
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
2 pounds ice
1 (4 to 5 pound) beef brisket, trimmed
1 small onion, quartered
1 large carrot, coarsely chopped
1 stalk celery, coarsely chopped


Directions
WATCH
Watch how to make this recipe.

  1. Place the water into a large 6 to 8 quart stockpot along with salt, sugar, saltpeter, cinnamon stick, mustard seeds, peppercorns, cloves, allspice, juniper berries, bay leaves and ginger. Cook over high heat until the salt and sugar have dissolved. Remove from the heat and add the ice. Stir until the ice has melted. If necessary, place the brine into the refrigerator until it reaches a temperature of 45 degrees F. Once it has cooled, place the brisket in a 2-gallon zip top bag and add the brine. Seal and lay flat inside a container, cover and place in the refrigerator for 10 days. Check daily to make sure the beef is completely submerged and stir the brine.
  2. After 10 days, remove from the brine and rinse well under cool water. Place the brisket into a pot just large enough to hold the meat, add the onion, carrot and celery and cover with water by 1-inch. Set over high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover and gently simmer for 2 1/2 to 3 hours or until the meat is fork tender. Remove from the pot and thinly slice across the grain.
 

oc_in_fw

Fridays are Fishtastic!
This is the recipe I used, minus the cloves:

RECIPE COURTESY OF ALTON BROWN
Corned Beef
149 Reviews

Save Recipe

  • Level: Easy
  • Total: 10 days 3 hr 20 min
  • Prep: 20 min
  • Inactive: 10 days
  • Cook: 3 hr
  • Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Share This Recipe
Ingredients
2 quarts water
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons saltpeter
1 cinnamon stick, broken into several pieces
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
8 whole cloves
8 whole allspice berries
12 whole juniper berries
2 bay leaves, crumbled
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
2 pounds ice
1 (4 to 5 pound) beef brisket, trimmed
1 small onion, quartered
1 large carrot, coarsely chopped
1 stalk celery, coarsely chopped


Directions
WATCH
Watch how to make this recipe.

  1. Place the water into a large 6 to 8 quart stockpot along with salt, sugar, saltpeter, cinnamon stick, mustard seeds, peppercorns, cloves, allspice, juniper berries, bay leaves and ginger. Cook over high heat until the salt and sugar have dissolved. Remove from the heat and add the ice. Stir until the ice has melted. If necessary, place the brine into the refrigerator until it reaches a temperature of 45 degrees F. Once it has cooled, place the brisket in a 2-gallon zip top bag and add the brine. Seal and lay flat inside a container, cover and place in the refrigerator for 10 days. Check daily to make sure the beef is completely submerged and stir the brine.
  2. After 10 days, remove from the brine and rinse well under cool water. Place the brisket into a pot just large enough to hold the meat, add the onion, carrot and celery and cover with water by 1-inch. Set over high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover and gently simmer for 2 1/2 to 3 hours or until the meat is fork tender. Remove from the pot and thinly slice across the grain.
That was the one I used. I don’t know what I did wrong, but it just seemed “ok” to me.
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
Real corned beef is generally unavailable here in the Philippines, only the canned mush from Argentina. I have been corning and cooking my own corned beef here for the past 10 years - about once every two weeks. My girlfriends and I love it.

Where we are fortunate in the Philippines is that we have ready-made Tocino Marinating Mix powder available that is made up of just the right mixture of sugar, saltpetre and spices. 120g of Tocino mix plus 100g of sea salt, half a ball of fresh garlic (crushed) and 750ml of water all cooked up and then cooled makes an ideal corning liquid for about a 1.5kg piece of beef brisket.

I cook my corned beef in a pressure cooker for about 45 minutes (after the pressure is established) with water, vinegar, quartered onion, cloves, garlic pieces, bay leaves, bouquet of garni, raw sugar and peppercorns. Let it cool naturally before opening the pressure cooker.

Overall, my home-made corned beef is half the price of the tinned mush and WAY better.
 
Butt is on the smoker. Have the brisket soaking in water now. Two more water changes, one today then an overnight until Tuesday when we cook it. I got lucky in that I have to telecommute until March 31st, so I get to stay home and can do the cooking instead of letting my wife do it.
 

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Crud, I saw corned beef on sale at the grocery store last week and picked up two and boiled them over the weekend and tossed in some cabbage. My theory was the extra one was going to be sliced for sandwiches. Well the leftovers were put in the fridge and a couple days later I found out that they were gone. So either I have fridge gnomes or everyone in the house was sneaking sandwiches and not telling me... I might have to trek to the store and see if I can get some more to put on the stove for tonight.

Ruckin (totally forgot about the st patricks day thing...)
 
I love corned beef, but never attempted "making" one. I just buy the one in the bag at the store. And the canned "mush" lol
 
TODAY'S THE DAY! Leaving it out to get to room temperature for an hour or two before putting it in the oven.
 

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oc_in_fw

Fridays are Fishtastic!
Crud, I saw corned beef on sale at the grocery store last week and picked up two and boiled them over the weekend and tossed in some cabbage. My theory was the extra one was going to be sliced for sandwiches. Well the leftovers were put in the fridge and a couple days later I found out that they were gone. So either I have fridge gnomes or everyone in the house was sneaking sandwiches and not telling me... I might have to trek to the store and see if I can get some more to put on the stove for tonight.

Ruckin (totally forgot about the st patricks day thing...)
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It was delicious! However, it took FOREVER to get to temperature. It got stuck at 165 ish degrees and it ended up cooking for 3 more hours longer than I* anticipated. Caused a big ruckus with the wife because I wanted who ever woke up first to take it out of the fridge. She got up first, (I was on call and working from home and went to bed late, so I woke up late) and didn't take it out. She said it won't cook as long as I thought it would (the * above is HER anticipated time, lol.) My first mistake was pointing out that my timeline would have had dinner on the table at the prescribed time. My second one was agreeing with her to begin with. We ended up going to bed mad at each other. Not the way I wanted my St Patrick's day to be. Although she did say it was delicious too! Probably one of my best ones, albiet not on time. I'll post a few pictures later.
 
I’m glad you were happy with the results, makes me want to give it another shot. Surprised it took so long to cook, it wasn’t particularly large either. Ever since I cooked one in the Instant Pot I can’t go back to oven or slow cooker, 90 mins and it’s perfect.
 
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