Brining Your Own Brisket

Traditional corned beef dinner with boiled potatoes, cabbage and carrots.  This is basically the boiled dinner so popular in the Maritimes.

I have never cooked a corned beef brisket.  Ever.  It is so easy but just has not been on my radar.  So I decided it was time.  Then go back one step and I wondered how much fun it might be to brine my own beef?  My butcher cut me a 9 pound brisket tip and I was on my way.
 

I used the bottom drawer of my fridge to brine it…works like a charm, and there’s no worry about rips in a ziploc bag or dripping onto other food! It was a great tip I read somewhere.

There was way more food than I could eat so I pressure canned some of the corned beef and I can enjoy it later.

From Michael Ruhlman's blog

The following recipe is from Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing.

Home-Cured Corned Beef
2 cups kosher salt*
½ cup sugar
4 teaspoons pink salt (sodium nitrite), optional
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 tablespoons pickling spice
1 5-pound beef brisket
1 carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
1 medium onion, peeled and cut in two
1 celery stalk, roughly chopped.

In pot large enough to hold brisket, combine 1 gallon of water with kosher salt, sugar, sodium nitrite (if using), garlic and 2 tablespoons pickling spice. Bring to a simmer, stirring until salt and sugar are dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until chilled.
Place brisket in brine, weighted with a plate to keep it submerged; cover. Refrigerate for 5 days.

Remove brisket from brine and rinse thoroughly. Place in a pot just large enough to hold it. Cover with water and add remaining pickling spice, carrot, onion and celery. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat to low and cover. Simmer gently until brisket is fork-tender, about 3 hours, adding water if needed to cover brisket.

Keep warm until ready to serve. Meat can be refrigerated for several days in cooking liquid. Reheat in the liquid or serve chilled. Slice thinly and serve on a sandwich or with additional vegetables simmered until tender in the cooking liquid.

*A note about the salt. Salt level not hugely critical here because it’s basically boiled and excess salt moves into cooking liquid.  You can weigh out 10 ounces here if you feel better using a scale.  Or you can simply make a 5% brine of however much water you need to cover (6.4 ounces per gallon).  When you cook it, season the cooking liquid to the level you want your meat seasoned.  Another option is wrapping the brisket in foil and cooking it in a 225 degree oven till tender.
Yield: 8 to 10 servings.

Pickling Spice
2 tablespoons black peppercorns
2 tablespoons mustard seeds
2 tablespoons coriander seeds

2 tablespoons hot red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons allspice berries
1 tablespoon ground mace
2 small cinnamon sticks, crushed or broken into pieces
24 bay leaves, crumbled
2 tablespoons whole cloves
1 tablespoon ground ginger

Combine peppercorns, mustard seeds and coriander seeds in a small dry pan. Place over medium heat and stir until fragrant, being careful not to burn them; keep lid handy in case seeds pop. Crack peppercorns and seeds in mortar and pestle or with the side of a knife on cutting board.
Combine with other spices, mix. Store in tightly sealed plastic or glass container.

I love this mace.  I bought it in India at least 4 years ago and just grind it as I need it.  I swear it is as potent as the day I bought it.  And it is so moist and soft when it is freshly ground.

If I can borrow a corny phrase from Rachel Ray or Emeril Legasse, I wish there was 'smell-a-vision".  The aroma from this spice mixture is amazing!  I cannot imagine buying pickling spice ever again.