Well after all the hype, I better get something posted! OK, Here's the story... (I forgot to take pictures as I was stressing because the meal wasn't cooking like it was supposed to.)
I used the OP brine recipe, set in 2 gal zip bags for 8 days. The day of the dinner was moving day for the 'kid. He had peeps helping and I was to bring the food.
Day Of (saturday), I got things in the oven at 9am, 350F. I ended up using a 6" hotel pan for all the meat plus 2 pounds red potatoes, 1 pound carrots and 1 medium cabbage cut into 8ths.
ticktockticktock...this thing was NOT getting cooked! After 4 hours, we had to go as people were starving.
It was edible, but not good. The meat was still tough, larger potatoes not cooked. (WTH???) After we got home with most of the 6" hotel pan of food, I plopped it into a large stock pot and set it on the hob...for another 3 hours!!!! FINALLY it got tender after 7 hours of cooking.
First lesson learned- if there is a set serving time, cook the stuff the day ahead! This dinner re-heats very well.
OK, moving on-
After putting a large portion in the freezer, it was time to make the corned beef pie I promised hubby.
Digging thru the cold container of left-overs, I separated out each item so they could be pulsed in the food processor to different size pieces. The original dish didn't have onions, so I minced a small half onion and microwaved it to cook the onions. Everything else was cooked, basically only needed to be heated in the bake. I did keep one dish of the original CB&C for Hubby.
Homemade butter pastry crust- Blind Bake, Fill with the CB mix, Top Crust and make some cinnamon sugar treats with the leftover pie crust scraps.
Verdict from the 'dude... "delicious!"
PS- Second lesson learned...my oven thermostat is NOT accurate! Figured that out today when it took about 40 minutes to blind bake a crust that should of taken 15 minutes.
