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DIY Corned Beef!

Homemade Corned Beef!!!    Why?  Because we can! 
 
This thread is open to anyone making corned beef from scratch.  Please post pics, recipes and results!
 
 
I've been wanting to try making corned beef since seeing an episode of Floyd on Food about 20 years ago.  Love Keith Floyd!  He's a hoot to watch, gets a bit mucky, overfills the cooking pot, he's my inspiration and the original Drunken Chef!  (well, maybe not the first, but in my opinion, the best on TV.  :lol:  ) Through the wonder of YT- here's the original episode.
 
AmazingRibs website has some good information-Quoted from AmazingRibs~
 
"Your first question has to be "Why bother?" And the answer is simple: Homemade corned beef is better.  Why? The commercial stuff, especially the cheap stuff mass marketed for St. Patrick's Day for Irish wannabes, is usually made by taking shortcuts that result in odd flavors and gelatinous textures.
Home made corned beef can also be cheaper. And it's easy. And you can customize it. Once you've had the real deal, you can't go back. It just takes time. So start now.
 
Corned beef has no corn. OK, maybe the steer ate some corn, but no corn is harmed in the process of corning beef. Actually, to be precise, corn was the old British name for grain before corn on the cob was discovered in North America and usurped the name. "A corn of salt" was as common an expression as a "grain of salt" is today. So corned beef is really just another name for salted beef.
So corning has become another name for curing or pickling. Yes, we are pickling this beef. These are ancient processes invented for preserving meat by packing it in salt or soaking it in a concentrated brine, long before refrigerators.
 
In recent years, curing is also done by injecting meat with salt. The process was probably discovered when some ancient hunter speared a deer and it fell into the ocean and washed ashore a couple of weeks later. Surprisingly instead of bloating and turning foul, the meat had been preserved, and tasted pretty good.
Corned beef was a World War II staple among civilians in Great Britain and among the troops in Europe because fresh meats were hard to come by. It came in a can. Sliced corned beef is especially popular in Jewish delicatessens where it is a sandwich staple."
 
 
 
 
Here's my first attempt at making corned beef-
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5# brisket
1 gal distilled water*
8 oz kosher salt by weight
2 tsp Prague powder
1/2 cup pickling spice
 
 
*We have good quality well water, if you are on a municipal water system with fluorides and chlorines, etc, consider using distilled water.
 
 
 
Pickling Spices-
2T black peppercorns
3" cinnamon sticks
2t allspice
 
Put the above spices in a thick plastic bag and smash with a meat mallet, framing hammer, or a heavy can.
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Add to-
2T dill seed
1T red pepper flakes
1T mustard seed
1T coriander seed
1T celery seed
4 bay leaves- broken up
1T dry thyme
1T ginger- not ground unless that's all you have*
1t clove
1 star anise
 
 
Or you could use commercial pickling spices, but I think mine looks better....more goodies in it! 
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*All the other spices are whole or coarse/chunky.  I didn't want to use ground ginger, so out to the Kitch for some dried shredded ginger in the little jar at 11:00 in the picture.
 
 
Heat up 1/2 gallon water, 2tsp prague powder, a heavy 1/2 cup pickling spices, 1 star anise, and 8 oz by weight kosher salt (about 1 1/2 cups) just to dissolve the salt and get everything happy~
 
After it came up to temp I turned off the heat and added 1/2 gallon ice water to cool down the brine.  I know...  in a hurry could of just let it cool.
 
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The butcher shop at Hank's hooked me up with a pretty well trimmed 5# brisket.  I trimmed just a bit more fat off.  I was kinda surprised at the $25 price tag, but then got to thinking that the other slabs of meat purchased in the plastic bags with spices are usually about $12 for 2#.  We'll see how this turns out and hopefully the flavor will trump the price. 
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Into a 2 gal plastic bag, tried to get all the air out so the meat is under the brine.  Flip it daily for 5-7 days.....  off we go!!!
 
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Pastrami update!!!
 
I started a brine on part of a flat I cut off a brisket last Sunday I went a little off recipe on this one but here's some of the stuff I used. That's ground ginger in the bottom container, terrible late night pic.
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I think I added brown sugar and a few other spices from researching a few recipes. If it's good then I'll have to backtrack and find out what I added.
 
I pulled it out of the brine, rinsed it and it's taking a nap in the fridge waiting for a smoke bath.
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I'm glad I left that layer of fat on, it should provide some flavor.
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Rajun Gardener said:
Pastrami update!!!
 
I started a brine on part of a flat I cut off a brisket last Sunday I went a little off recipe on this one but here's some of the stuff I used. That's ground ginger in the bottom container, terrible late night pic.
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I think I added brown sugar and a few other spices from researching a few recipes. If it's good then I'll have to backtrack and find out what I added.
 

I pulled it out of the brine, rinsed it and it's taking a nap in the fridge waiting for a smoke bath.

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I'm glad I left that layer of fat on, it should provide some flavor.
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You are like a cooking technical wizard RG. So many people miss the equilibrium resting stage after the rinse/soak. Any kind of cooking I have seen you do, you have the fine details on lock. :)
 
Thanks Ashen I'm following a recipe, kinda and a little time researching always leads me to different things to try.
 
I can't wait to see that pastamitized leg of lamb, TGCM is the most creative cook I've ever seen. I still don't know how he comes up with some of the dishes he makes and on a daily basis.
 
The smoker is rolling and I coated the brisket with brown sugar, coriander, black pepper, allspice, ground mustard and granulated garlic mixed in my BBQ rub. I didn't think of the salt in the rub so I hope it's not too much.
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This could've been labeled, "How many dishes can you make with one head of cabbage". I had cabbage not knowing what the meal was gonna be so I've been busy throwing it all together.
 
First one finished is the New England boiled dinner AKA soup.
I used the brisket trimmings and cooked them in the PC for 7 minutes then cut it up.
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I'm glad I saved all those trimmings, now this gives me another reason to buy briskets. I could've eaten that whole board of meat, it amazing that when it's not soo salty that you can actually taste the brisket flavor.
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Chopped up a few veggies and an onion not in the pic and cranked up the PC again for another 7 minutes then let it sit for another 5.
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This was too easy.
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The flavor was amazing and I even had to add a little salt. I just killed two of these test bowls and it's hard not to get another one.
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This is so fun!
Happy St. Paddy's Day, Everyone!
 
Rajun~ Looking good so far, I'm looking forward to that Leg 'o Lamb from TGCM also.
 
Here's 1/2 of the brisket after the first simmer and a toss of the 'heads'....to use a moonshine-ing term.  :lol:  Gently simmer for 20 minutes in plain water, toss the water, refill and then proceed with the 2-3 hour cook. 
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*#%^@&##!!!!!  Left the stove on High to post this, and forgot about it!!!!   :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:   I don't think it's ruined, just have to keep it on low for a looooong time.
 
Also, the other half, which was brined, is in the freezer for a later day.
 
 
Rajun Gardener said:
This could've been labeled, "How many dishes can you make with one head of cabbage". I had cabbage not knowing what the meal was gonna be so I've been busy throwing it all together.
 
First one finished is the New England boiled dinner AKA soup.
I used the brisket trimmings and cooked them in the PC for 7 minutes then cut it up.
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I'm glad I saved all those trimmings, now this gives me another reason to buy briskets. I could've eaten that whole board of meat, it amazing that when it's not soo salty that you can actually taste the brisket flavor.
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Chopped up a few veggies and an onion not in the pic and cranked up the PC again for another 7 minutes then let it sit for another 5.
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This was too easy.
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The flavor was amazing and I even had to add a little salt. I just killed two of these test bowls and it's hard not to get another one.
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That's a good lookin jiggs dinner there RG.
 
Second dish is done and I'm stuffed. 
Since I had cabbage I decided to throw together a quick stuffed cabbage dish. I used sausage that I made as the meat portion, it's really spicy and seasoned with onions, garlic, bell peppers and celery so it took little seasoning in the mix.
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I dug through the cabinets and found tomato stuff to make a gravy and mixed some of it with the rice and meat.
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Used those old rolling skills and loaded up a pan and sauced it, wrapped in foil and into the oven for an hour.
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Not bad for a quick dish
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It even tasted good and was juicy compared to most that are dry on the inside.
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My sister lives next door and already planned on cooking lunch so I brought over these two dishes to eat with oven bbq ribs, homemade Mac-n-Cheese and onion, bell pepper stuffed french bread.
 
The brisket is done and resting. Since I'm full it's gonna be served later after a chill period so I can slice it as thin as possible.
 
 
 

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Mine turned out just fine, good enough that we ate it all in one sitting. No leftovers. :( might have to cook the other half now instead of saving it for later.
 
I forgot to take a final pic of the leg of lamb, because as as soon as I took it off the grill my wife and guests devoured it! Here is a pic with it half way cooked. It was sooo good! No final plating pics

I also made papa a la huancaina, anticuchos, and juanes de pollo. Here are a few pics as I was cooking. I cooked the cabbage in the leftover broth from cooking the chicken for the juanes.

Great job everyone on your corned beef this St. Paddy's! All of your dishes looked killer!
 

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Lots of interesting brisket recipes, thanks for sharing.

We cooked the 2nd half of the brisket I'd started before Paddys Day about 2 weeks ago. O!M!G!!!! Sooo good! The original Floyd on Food TV show had the brisket brining for 3 months. Dont know if I could wait that long.

Quite fun~
SL
 
Time to get this post rocking again! We did the corned beef last year in the quarantine cooking thread.

Spices for the brine.
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Whole brisket at 2.99 per pound versus 4.99 for the shop to trim it.
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Trimmed and bagged
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The trimmed fat...prolly just made that back up to 6.99 per pound...
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