Corning Beef

I love corned beef! Here in New England all types of beef roast were corned. Historically some say beef corned in the summer will sour but with refrigeration that is now not true.

In the Nor'east, Gray, corned beef was the normal kind. My FIL bought his at certain meat dealers in the Boston market made the traditional way. This was 20 years before the new Faneuil Hall market that put the street and small shop vendors out of business.

South of New England the red corned beef ruled as they added Sodium nitrates to help preserve the meat making the meat red when corned.

Today I took an on sale roast of 6 pounds and started to corn it in brine in my fridge. Anyone else tried corning their own?? Please discuss with your methods.

I've never corned beef, but I used to corn venison quit often. I like it. Here's how I do it.

Corned Venison

4-5 lb. good cuts of venison
2 quarts water
1/2 cup salt, I use kosher
1 teaspoon saltpetre, potassium nitrate
4 bay leaves
6 cloves garlic, sliced
1 1/2 tablespoon pickling spices
12 whole peppercorns

Heat the water and dissolve the salt and saltpetre in it. Allow to cool. Trim the meat and place in a 1 gallon zip-top freezer bag. Add the salt solution and the other ingredients. Express all air as the bag is sealed. Place the bag in a shallow dish in the fridge and leave for at least 3 weeks, turning 1-2 times per week.

When the time is up, remove the meat and rinse well, discarding the corning solution. Cover the meat with water in a pot and bring to a boil. Skim any foam. Add to the water 1 tablespoon pickling spices, 2-3 cloves garlic and 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar. Reduce to simmer and cook for 2-3 hours, until desired tenderness is achieved.

I've also cooked it in a crockpot for 30 minutes on high and then 7 hours on low, that worked well.

Spence

One of my 1800's cookbooks has directions for cooking corned beef and pork

It also contains this recipe...

Recipe for corning Beef

For one hundred pounds of beef, take Seven pounds of salt, Two pounds of sugar, two ounces of saltpeter, two ounces pepper, two ounces soda, dissolve in two and a half gallons of water, Boil, skim, and pour on hot.

We corn beef and venison hearts sometimes. Yumm!

Had the beef I corned. It was corned for a while and the frozen. Thawed , boiled twice to remove the salt and it was eaten last nite.

Very good.

Hearts or brisket?

I used a sirloin roast to make it

I knew a guy that years earlier worked in Maine camps of some sort. He said all they ate was corned beef- was stored in barrels so I assume it was a way to preserve it.
BTW- when I went to New England I found out their "Boiled Dinner" was a whole bunch of veggies- cabbage, potato, rutabaga, onion, carrots, etc.- really makes a big improvement. I love Florida but folk down here try to ROAST corn beef. Egads.
And...they call St. Paddy's Day St. Patty's Day and draw Shamrocks with 4 petals. :grin:

That is how mine was cooked, boiled with all the veggies and my folks always called it a boiled dinner. Some also make it the same way but use a pork smoked picnic shoulder instead of the corned meat.

The real secret is getting the salt out of either meat so you don't go dry and have to drink the well dry.