St. Patrick’s Day will be here in one week. In America, it's nearly a national holiday right up there with um, Halloween. The notion of dressing up in kelly green clothes to march down the road on the way to drinking way too much green beer, and turning our rivers green is truly an American way of recognizing the saint who, ironically, wasn’t even Irish. St. Patrick was actually born in Britain but was taken to Ireland as a captive slave in his teens. He later returned there as a bishop.
According to the National Geographic, St. Patrick’s Day was considered a minor holiday in Ireland for most of the last century until the 1970s. Our love of green beer has since worn off on those who used to mark the day in a low key way.
Even the food we celebrate with - corned beef - is an American notion. While the history of corning, or pickling, meat dates back to the 18th century, it was mostly to accommodate the long-term storage of meat on trans-Atlantic trade routes, particularly on slave-trading routes. As a result, it was looked down upon as food only fit for slaves and the impoverished.
The growth of St. Patrick’s Day in America changed all that. We can thank the early Irish immigrants who wanted a day to remember their homeland. They may not eat it in Ireland but here in the US, we consider corned beef to be the national food of March 17th. The sales start up in the supermarket the week prior and for just a few dollars, you can buy a chunk of industrial cured beef and throw it in a pot of simmering water for several hours and pretend to be Irish, if only for a day.
Or you can plan ahead and make your own corned beef.
Recipes for homemade corned beef are as plentiful this time of year as green bandanas printed with an image of a leprechaun and trite sayings such as, “Kiss me, I’m Irish”. The key is to plan ahead. It takes about 5 – 7 days to properly cure the beef depending on the size. It also requires a bit of space in the refrigerator.
I usually buy a whole brisket and cure the entire thing. It will keep for some time or what isn't cooked immediately can be frozen. Once cooked, it can also be stored in the cooking liquid under refrigeration for several days.
Nitrites or no nitrites?
I prefer to use sodium nitrite, also known as curing salt or pink salt, when I cure meat. My reasoning is three-fold: the meat will retain the pink color when cooked. It’s overall more visually appetizing than gray meat, which is the color your beef will turn when cooked if nitrites are not used. More importantly, I prefer not to entertain botulism bacteria in my gut. The nitrites inhibit the growth of dangerous bacteria, which can kill you. Cooked properly, botulism should be killed off but some spores are able to survive prolonged high temperatures. There are many recipes out there that do not use curing salt. If you choose to use one of those recipes, please follow your nose and know the source of your beef. I personally would not cure supermarket meat without nitrite due to the botulism danger. Lastly, it imparts flavor that you want. It makes the corned beef taste like corned beef.
You can purchase pink salt online or from a decent butcher shop. At the butcher shop, you’ll probably need to ask really nicely but most are willing to sell a small amount. Experience has taught me that you’ll need to be prepared to tell them that you have an idea of what you’ll be using it for and that you know how to use it. Once you obtain the pink salt, be careful you don’t ingest it in its raw form. They make it pink so you don’t confuse it with table salt. After you make your brine, be sure to wash your hands and cooking utensils thoroughly. Consumed raw, it can kill if you consume enough of it. Please don’t try to sprinkle it on your dinner tonight for an extra kick. Right about now, you may be asking yourself why you would put something that can be poisonous into your food. I had a feeling you would ask that question and included some links for more information on nitrites and why it is important in curing meats: meat curing safety issues as well as the no nitrite label hoax.
Onto The Meat Of The Diary
Home Cured Corned Beef
1 5 – 7 lb brisket (smaller or larger is fine – the key is having enough brine to cover the meat)
1 gallon of water
2 cups kosher salt (can sub pickling salt – 1 ½ cups or so)
½ cup brown or regular sugar
1 oz (about 5 teaspoons) of pink salt
2 or 3 tablespoons of pickling spice
3 or 4 cloves garlic
(Or make your own pickling spice with bay leaves, coriander, peppercorns, mustard seeds, garlic powder, onion powder, etc. If you make your own, I recommend avoiding cinnamon. Some recipes call for it but it’s rather distasteful to me. But you might like it. You can play around with the seasonings to suit your own taste. If you use fresh herbs and spices, be sure to add them into the brine pot before boiling to kill off any bacteria they may be harboring.)
The most important ingredients are the salt, the pink salt, and the sugar. Everything else is just flavoring.
Bring all ingredients except the beef to a low simmer while stirring to dissolve the salt and sugar. Remove from heat and allow it to cool down to room temp. Refrigerate until chilled. Once chilled, add your meat making sure it is covered. Use a plate and a weight to keep it submerged under the brine. Every couple of days, flip it over in the brine. I’ve also used a large two-gallon zipper bag rather than a hard sided container. The key is to make sure it cures evenly over the next 5 – 7 days. If you use a bag, just rotate it a few times each day.
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that a few more days in the brine will make it even better; it just gets saltier. If you are concerned about salt, it’s okay to soak the cured meat in plain water for a couple of hours in the refrigerator prior to cooking. Just make sure you change the water out a few times. This is more important if you choose to bake the meat. Boiling it moves the salt out during the cooking process.
So you’ve cured your beef. Now what?
Remove from brine and rinse it off. Discard the brine.
You can cook it however you like it. At this point, it’s the same process as the industrial corned beef you buy in plastic at the market. I prefer mine prepared in the slow cooker.
No matter what cooking method you want to use, you can put a whole onion, carrot, celery stalk, etc. in the cooking vessel for flavoring, if you desire. Any aromatic vegetables and herbs are fine.
Slow Cooker Corned Beef
Make a layer of onions and put the beef on top of it with the fat side up,
Add in 8 oz. of dark beer and enough water to braise in an inch or so of liquid.
Add additional pickling spice if desired.
2 cloves of garlic
5-6 hours on high, 8-10 on low until fork tender.
Add small red potatoes and cabbage or any other vegetables you like during the last hour or so.
Finish the meat (and the veggies if you want) in the oven at about 400 degrees for about 15 to 20 minutes. You want to brown it up some. You can finish it with a glaze (optional)
Corned Beef Glaze
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup dijon mustard
2 – 3 tablespoons of cider vinegar.
Stir together until it is a medium paste.
Coat the cooked meat with the glaze and bake at 400 degrees for 15 - 20 minutes.
Other methods of cooking:
Dry slow roast. Roast at 300 degrees for 3 - 4 hours until tender. Roast it fat side up. Add your veggies in towards the end. Use the above glaze for the last 20 minutes at 400 degrees, if desired.
Braised. Add some dark beer or water in the bottom of the pan. Roast at 300 degrees as directed above. Use the above glaze for the last 20 minutes at 400 degrees, if desired. This is my second favorite cooking method.
Boiled. Add additional pickling spice if you prefer it boiled. Simmer until tender, about 3 hours. If you would like it glazed, follow the above directions for finishing in the oven.
No matter how you cook your pickled beef, it's best served with some Guinness or other dark beer along with sour or half sour pickles.
And if you really can’t stand the thought of corned beef, put your chunk of pickled beef in a smoker for a few hours and call it pastrami. You’ll need to bake it for a few more hours until tender after you smoke it.
I hope you enjoyed reading about what you might be eating next week around this time. In the meantime, pour yourself a beer, sit back, and enjoy the noshing and good conversation. And remember, it's always impolite to argue politics and religion at the dinner table.