Our Secret Corned Beef Recipe

The Secret is in the Swim 

Justin is a huge fan of corned beef and not just for St. Patrick's Day. The kids and I like it too, but it's one of those things that I've adapted my own recipe over time to get the finish we all enjoy. I brine chuck roasts because they're my favorite, but any roast or brisket will work. Just wait until you taste how delicious homemade corned beef can be - way better than what you can buy at the grocery store!

Here's our brine:

1 gallon of water
2c. kosher salt
1/2c. sugar
2t. pink salt (see below)***
3 garlic cloves, minced
3T. pickling spice (purchased, or DIY recipe below)
4-5lb roast or brisket - with plenty of fat cap cover

Heat the water in a pot long enough to dissolve the salt and sugar. Add the rest of the ingredients and place roast in the brine in a non-metallic container and hold it under with weights or a plate. Keep in your garage fridge for at least 3 days and up to 5 days, turning twice. Remove the roast from the brine and rinse with cool water.

To cook the roast/brisket add enough water to the pot to submerge it, add 2 more tablespoons of pickling spice, bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 3 hours or until fork tender. Add water if too much evaporates. You can also add in cabbage, carrots and chunks of potato towards the end of the simmer time (30 minutes should do it) if you want to have all the traditional St. Patrick's Day fixings.

You can also use the corned beef for corned beef hash, with reubens right away, or wrap it and place it in the fridge for a few more days and slice for sandwiches! Our new favorite variation is a REUBEN PIZZA, hello! It's got a crust, thousand island dressing, pressed sauerkraut, plenty of corned beef chopped thin and a layer of mozzarella crisped up on a hot grill. Yum!  

DIY Pickling Spice:

2T black peppercorns
2T mustard seeds
2T coriander seeds
2T crushed red pepper
2T allspice berries
1T ground mace
2 med cinnamon sticks, broken in small pieces
3 bay leaves, crushed
2T whole cloves
1T fresh ground ginger root

***A note about pink salt***  It's a curing salt containing nitrite, it changes the flavor and preserves the color. It's not Himalayan pink salt.  Use tinted cure mix (TCM) or curing salt #1.  (Also, do not use Instacure #2 - that's for air cured meats.)

Enjoy our corned beef brine recipe for your next corned beef!

XOXO, 

Louisa

PS.  My personal take on using 21 day Dry Aged Beef for Corned Beef:

You’re paying for flavor you’ll hide

Dry-aging is a labor of love that creates a deep, nutty, "steak-house" umami flavor. When you "corn" a brisket, you are submerging it in a heavy brine of salt, sugar, and very loud spices (cloves, allspice, mustard seed). By the time it’s done, you can’t taste the dry-aging anymore, you just taste the brine.

The Texture is already superior

The "corning" process was originally designed to make "commodity" (grocery store) beef edible and tender. Because our beef is dry-aged for 21 days, the enzymes have already done the work of breaking down those tough fibers. It’s already tender!

The "Un-Corned" St. Paddy’s Feast

If you want that traditional Irish dinner but want to actually taste the premium beef you bought, do a Guinness Braise instead of a salt brine.

Skip the 7-day salt bath

Follow our Oven Brisket Recipe, but use a dark Irish Stout as your braising liquid. Add the cabbage, carrots, and potatoes in the last hour of cooking.

When should you corn dry aged beef?

There is only one reason I’d tell you to go ahead and corn it: If you absolutely LOVE the specific "pink meat" texture of traditional deli corned beef. If you do decide to go for it, use the Brisket Flat. The flat holds up much better to a week-long brine than the point does.

Just promise me you won't over-salt it, the dry-aging process already reduces the moisture in the meat, so it will absorb that salt much faster than a standard brisket would!