Corned Beef Brine
Often reserved for St. Patrick's Day, this corned beef recipe is succulent and redolent of premium spices.
Yield: 6 to 8 pound corned beef brisket
Preparation Instructions:
Brine:
- Pour 2 cups warm water into large deep roasting pan. Add salt, sugar and curing salt and stir until dissolved.
- Add remaining 6 cups of liquid and mix in the pickling spices, coriander, and garlic.
- Submerge the brisket in the liquid, then top with heavy platter to weigh down. This is important, the brisket must be completely submerged.
- Cover and refrigerate for two weeks. Stir the mixture about every three days. This will aid in even flavoring of the brisket.
To Make a Reuben:
- Remove brisket from brine. Rinse under cold water to remove spices that may have adhered to brisket.
- Place in large pot and add enough fresh water to cover brisket. If you like to cook with beer, a 12oz. Bottle of Guinness stout can be substituted for an equal amount of water.
- Add 5 teaspoons pickling spices and 1 teaspoon coriander to a muslin bag or tied in cheesecloth (this time we don’t want loose spices getting all over the brisket) to pot.
- Bring to boil and simmer for three hours. Trim off fat and slice for sandwiches.
- The traditional Reuben is grilled or toasted rye bread, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, thousand island dressing and of course your fresh corned beef.
Cooking for Corned Beef and Cabbage:
- Cook following Reuben directions. Remove the brisket from pot. Add the following vegetables:
- 8 medium carrots, peeled
- 12 unpeeled medium red potatoes
- 4 medium onions, peeled and halved through root ends
- 2-pound head of cabbage, quartered
- Bring to gentle boil and cook about 25 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.
- Using slotted spoon, transfer vegetables to serving tray. Discard spice bag.
- Return beef to pot for about five minutes to rewarm.
- Cut beef against the grain into ¼ to ½ inch slices and arrange with vegetables on platter. Serve with condiment of your choice. Traditionally, mustard or horseradish would be used.
thespicehouse.com
I made this starting in the first week of the year. I had bought a very large sirloin steak, 2 large chuck steaks and a few round. Total about 15+ pounds of beef to cure, for corned beef.
I goofed on my dates and thought it would be ready for St. Pats. and realized a few weeks in, that I was a month off; silly me! Nevertheless, I persevered! I let it cure for 36 days in the fridge, as per the recipe. I used 2 teaspoons of the Prague Powder 11 as per most reviews and Altons’ recipe guidelines as well.
It came out PERFECTLY!!! Very little saltiness, rich in the spices, tender, juicy and delicious!!! I rinse the daylights out of it, after the cure, then slow boiled it for 3 hours. Froze all of it except one small chunk for tasting, a few sandwiches.
This is far, far superior to store bought corned beef!!! Absolutely the best! And the really good thing is, it doesn’t shrink down to nothing like the store bought!!!
I highly recommend this and their spices/ seasonings and the curing chemical! Nice people to do business with too! Big thank you for the nice phone call/ customer service!!!
I made 15 kilos of this recipe for an embassy party in Sri Lanka (that’s like 33 lbs). Huge hit, delicious great taste of home.
I’ve always made dry rub gray corned beef, but I thought I’d try the Spice House mixture and recipes. My corned beef now looks great, tastes great and what was good is now better. I give a 30 day cure and the results always win praise. This last weekend I presented a corned beef to friends and of the 5 pound brisket only a half pound remains.
My wife and I used this recipe this year and it looks like it’s going to be a tradition. Real good and not to salty.
This was my first attempt at brining my own corned beef. I used two smaller briskets (2.5 -3 lbs each) and this recipe still worked well. It was sooo easy to do I don’t think I’ll ever buy a corned beef from the store again.
Well I did it and it turned out good. Even my son who doesn’t like Corned Beef was eating it like crazy and told everyone last night what I did. First time I ever brined something and will try it again. Best part it wasn’t as salty as the store bought brands.