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Corned beef again 
Reply With QuoteSunny <Sunny> wrote:
> Here's Morton's corned beef recipe. I'm about to do my first corned
> beef. Can other beef be substituted for brisket? Any suggestions
> would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Regards,
> Lou
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Deli Style Corned Beef
> Prep Time: 5 Days
> Servings: 4-6 pounds
>
> Ingredients:
> One beef brisket, 4-6 lbs
> 5 tablespoons Morton® Tender Quick® mix or Morton® Sugar Cure® (plain)
> mix
> 2 tablespoons brown sugar
> 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
> 1 teaspoon ground paprika
> 1 teaspoon ground bay leaves
> 1 teaspoon ground allspice
> 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
>
> Directions:
> Trim surface of fat from brisket. In a small bowl, mix Morton® Tender
> Quick® mix or Morton® Sugar Cure® (plain) mix, remaining ingredients
> and spices. Rub mixture into all sides of brisket. Place brisket in
> "food grade" plastic bag and tie end securely. Refrigerate and allow
> to cure 5 days per inch of meat thickness.
> Place brisket in Dutch oven. Add water to cover. Bring to boil; reduce
> heat. Simmer until tender, about 3-4 hours.
Preserving meat for winter by soaking in salt brine is a time-honored
method. Corning is an ancient technique for preserving raw meat for long
periods. It involves rubbing the meat in a mixture of salt and spices and
then keeping it covered in the resultant juicy brine for a minimum of two
weeks or much longer. The familiar corned beef is one of the few remnants
of this practice still popular today. While it is very simple to purchase
corned beef in the supermarket, either in ready-to-cook bags or already
cooked and sliced, making it a home is almost as easy and much less
expensive. You also have the option of using different cuts of meat. If
you like corned beef you will like corned tongue. The flavor is identical,
the only difference is in texture and appearance. After the minimum period
of curing, the meat can be cooked and eaten and will be delicious. Longer
curing will result in richer flavor and will not harm the meat at all.
Several different cuts of beef as well as the tongue are excellent
candidates for corning, in fact, except for steaks, any cut can be brined.
Obviously, the brisket is a good choice and boneless chuck roast or round
roast are also very fine. An entire eye of round will make a splendid
corned beef subject and would be very nice served cold on a buffet. You do
not have to limit yourself to beef, either. For the truly adventurous
foodie, a corned pork roast is sure to be a big hit. Occasionally pork or
lamb tongues are sold at the supermarket, these are also very good corned.
If you live in a rural area where there is a slaughterhouse, call and
inquire about getting tongues. Often these tasty items can be gotten for
free or a very small cost.
The thing to remember is that while you are actually preserving the meat
with salt you are also adding a great deal of flavor with the additional
ingredients added to the curing mixture. You will be using black pepper,
allspice, thyme, sage, paprika, bay leaf, rutabaga, onions, carrots, and
garlic. If doing pork, be sure to collect some juniper berries as they add
a special dimension to the flavor of corned pork.
THE INGREDIENTS
For 10 pounds of meat you will need 1 and a half cups of coarse or
non-iodized salt (kosher salt is good to use but regular granulated salt
without the iodine works just as well), 3 tablespoons of brown sugar, a
generous tablespoons of cracked black peppercorns, 2 teaspoons of allspice
berries, cracked, 2 tsp Instacure #1 or Prague Powder #1 (optional, but
highly recommended), five or six sprigs of fresh thyme, a teaspoon of
powdered sage, a teaspoon of paprika, 7 or 8 bay leaves, broken into small
pieces, a small coarsely-chopped onion, a small chopped rutabaga, a chopped
carrot, and 6 cloves of garlic, either crushed or finely minced. For pork,
add two tablespoons of fresh juniper berries, broken with the flat of a
knife. If you are only doing one tongue or roast, reduce the amounts of
ingredients accordingly.
THE METHOD
The corning process can be done in a large stone crock but is really much
easier if you use freezer zip-lock bags. Assemble enough bags to hold all
your different cuts of meat, one cut to a bag. Mix all the ingredients
together in a small bowl, except the juniper berries. Place all the meat in
a roasting pan and cover all sides with the salt mixture, rubbing it in
well. Put each piece of meat into a bag and divide the remaining salt
mixture among the bags. If you are doing a piece of pork, add the juniper
berries to that bag. Remove as much air as possible from each bag and seal.
If you have one of those vacuum sealers, this is a perfect use for it. You
want the meat to be bathed in the salt mixture at all times.
Pack all the bags into a large bowl or crock and weight them down under a
plate and about 10 pounds of weight (use canned tomatoes or the like).
Place in the bottom of the fridge. Check the bags in a few hours. The juice
should be running freely from the meat. Massage each bag to work the cure
into all the crevices of the meat. Repack into the container, re-weight and
return to the fridge. Turn the bags and massage daily to make sure the cure
is getting into all sides of the meat.
If a bag breaks, transfer the meat into a new bag with all the juices and
about a quarter cup of salt. Leave the meat to cure for at least two weeks,
three is better, before cooking one.
Before cooking, you will have to soak the meat in several changes of fresh
cold water to remove the excess salt. The longer the meat is cured, the
longer it will take to soak. Twenty-four hours should be enough. The meat
will lose its rubbery texture and begin to feel like fresh raw meat again.
Because there is no saltpeter in this curing mix, the meat will not be
bright red. Don't worry, you didn't do anything wrong, this is what it
should look like. If you really want it to look like purchased corned meat,
find saltpeter at a pharmacy and add a half-teaspoon to the cure, but this
is not necessary and only adds questionable, perhaps carcinogenic,
substances to your food. There is no good reason to add nitrates to your
food other than aesthetic ones. Get used to grayish-brown corned beef, it
is better for you!
At this point, you can also use the corned beef to make New York Deli style
pastrami [see below]
COOKING
Put the refreshed meat in a pot and cover with water and dry Marsala wine.
Add a carrot, some celery stalks with tops, a small onion, several sprigs
of Italian parsley, some sprigs of fresh thyme, 4 bay leaves, and 5 cloves
of garlic, flattened with the side of a knife. Bring to a boil and reduce
to simmer. Skim off any foam that rises for the first few minutes then
cover partially with a lid and cook at the simmer until the tongue or roast
can be pierced easily with a fork. This will take 2 to 3-1/2 hours,
depending on the size of the meat cut.
If you will be serving the corned beef or tongue cold, allow to cool in the
cooking liquid. When cool, the tongue should be removed and the rough skin
carefully peeled off. It will usually come off in one or two large pieces
and this is MUCH easier if the tongue is still slightly warm. Discard the
skin. Also remove any small bones from the large end of the tongue and
discard. Put the meat in the fridge for several hours or overnight. Tongue
or corned beef should be sliced thinly and served with good rye bread or
rolls with mustard. Either corned tongue or other cuts of beef can be
heated and served as hot sandwiches too.
Corned pork roast can be served hot with noodles and a fresh tomato sauce,
or with cabbage. Applesauce or fried apples with cranberries added is also
a nice touch.
JUNIPER BERRIES, THE HOW AND WHERE
If you cannot find juniper berries in your local market, look around the
neighborhood for juniper bushes. These shrubs are very common in landscapes
and you may have some in your own yard. They are usually prickly and bluish
or grayish green, some are very spreading in growth, some upright, and some
literally hug the ground. If you see an evergreen you suspect is a juniper,
crush a sprig (careful of the prickles) and sniff. If it smells like gin,
you have a juniper, start searching for berries, they may be green or
purplish-black. You don't need a lot, gather about a cup-full into a small
baggie and take home. They can be used fresh and the rest dried on the
counter and kept in a small jar until you need them again. Juniper berries
are an interesting addition to many different recipes, but especially nice
with game meats and pork.
******************************
Corned Beef & Cabbage - Faith and begora! Is it St Paddy's Day awready?
1 4-pound corned beef brisket
3 large carrots, cut into large chunks
4 onions, chopped
1 large sprig of fresh thyme
3 sprigs of fresh parsley
1 head of cabbage
Pepper, to taste
Place the first five ingredients in a Dutch oven. Add cold water and dry
Marsala wine (or Jameson's Irish Whiskey) to cover. Bring water to a boil,
lower heat and simmer, covered, for two hours. Occasionally skim any fat
that rises to the surface during simmering. Quarter the cabbage and add to
the pot. Cook for another hour - or until the meat and vegetables are
tender. Adjust seasonings. Slice the corned beef and serve with the
vegetables. This dish goes well with boiled red potatoes and a hearty
English mustard or horseradish sauce.
****************************************
Making New York Deli style Pastrami
Rub the corned beef again. This time with 4 or 5 Tbs coarse ground black
pepper, 2 Tbs ground coriander or cracked coriander seeds and 2 Tbs
granulated garlic or garlic powder. Smoke in a slow oven or outdoor smoker
at 225 F for around an hour. Apple or other fruit wood will be great!
Optionally, after smoking, you put it on a rack in a pan with a little
water, cover and slow steam over very low heat for a couple of hours. This
will make it really tender!
Some good rye bread, mustard, a dill pickle and a beer. Ahhh, batampt!
--
Nick, KI6VAV. Support severely wounded and disabled Veterans and their
families: https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/ Thank a Veteran!
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Thanks ! ! ~Semper Fi~ USMC 1365061
