Looking for home cured corned beef recipe..

[cayenne]

Hi all,
I'm wanting to try my hand at a home made smoked pastrami. I want to start totally from scratch...so, need to pickle a brisket into corned beef.

Strangely enough, having a tough time finding a good recipe on searching the web...as that most hits come up for recipes with pre-corned beef in them.

I've found this one:

Kosher-Style Corned Beef
This recipe is for 25 pounds of beef, but can scaled
down. Prague powder number 1 is a commercial curing product
that can be found at sausage supply shops. You may want to
reduce the amount of salt, as this amount was used as a
preservative. Prep Time: approx. 5 Minutes. Ready in: approx. 72
Hours 5 Minutes. Makes 25 pounds of corned beef (100
servings).
Printed from Allrecipes, Submitted by Gene
5 quarts ice water
6 ounces salt
3 ounces Prague powder number 1
3 ounces white sugar
2 tablespoons pickling spice
25 pounds beef brisket

Directions
1 In a large plastic bucket or tub, mix together the ice
water, salt, Prague powder, sugar and pickling spice.
Submerge meat in the mixture, and refrigerate for 3 to 4 days.
A weight may be placed on top of the meat to keep it submerged.
2 Cook corned beef as you normally would. Simmer or roast
for about 50 minutes per pound, or until tender.


Which looks close. Does anyone have any good experience with this? Is it better to start with a flat for this rather than a whole cryo-vac brisket?

I'm seeing times for curing from 3-4 days...to 5 days per inch thickness, to 3 or more weeks....a little confusing.

Anyway, I love good corned beef and good pastrami, and since I found the 'cure' for the fresh ham I did back on T-Day...wanting to start using it for other stuff like this.

Links and advice appreciated...

cayenne

[chad]

Go to the library and look for canning and preserving books from Rodale Press. Or, old copies of Mother Earth News.

You are in for a ride - corning beef is an involved and as you've seen, a multi-day process. You are actually salting the beef for preservation.

And yes, do a flat - all you're going to do is trim and throw away the fat anyway.

[BigBelly]

This will get you started. Now you have piqued my interests in making my own now...bored mod! I know me and my wife love some homemade smoked pastrami!

[ringo]

I have been corning my briskets for St. Patty's Day for two years now. I will get you the recipe. It takes 3 weeks to cure the beef but it does taste good. The recipe says to put the beef in a cool place to cure. In WY I can put it outside, you may want to consider where you will put it (I see you are from New Orleans) . If you know anyone in the restaurant business have them save you a bucket they get mayo or sour cream in as they work really well and are FREE. I will get back to you.

Ringo

[BigBelly]

Those 5 Gallon buckets are great, and free!

[cayenne]

Those 5 Gallon buckets are great, and free!

Yeah, I've got a few large containers to marinate and do large food items in. I used to work in the food business ages ago...from dishwasher, server, bartender and chef in my own restaurant for a short while during grad school. Over that time...I 'acquired' a number of things...and now Ilive near a food service place http://www.loubat.com/ You can get what you want there...

I also homebrew beer...so, I've got a 2nd refridge in the house just for kegs, bottles and anything I need to keep cool foodwise...

By the way...any good corned beef recipes or links? Still looking...

:-)

Cayenne :lol:

[BigBelly]

LOL - I told you previously that you may have inspired me to make some of the same. Yesterday I whiped up a batch of brine and went to the store and bought the spices I needed for pastrami. Today I'll head to Sam's Club and buy two 6-7 pound briskets.

Here is what I did for my brine and rub.

Brine for Corned Beef

Saltpeter, or potassium nitrate is a food preservative. It will give the meat a pink coloring and reduce the chances of spoilage. If you are careful with your food handling and don't need the pink coloring you do not need to add the saltpeter.

INGREDIENTS:
4 quarts water
2 cup brown sugar
1 cup kosher salt
12 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
3 tablespoons pickling spices
4 teaspoons thyme
8 bay leaves
1 teaspoon saltpeter (optional)

The beef brisket should remain in the brine stored in a cold, dark place for anywhere from seven days to three weeks. You do need to regularly check on the meat and turn it to prevent spoilage


-------------------------


Pastrami Rub

5 tablespoons kosher salt
4 tablespoons paprika
3 tablespoons coriander seeds
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons black peppercorns
2 tablespoons yellow mustard seeds
1 tablespoon white peppercorns
8 cloves garlic, minced


Combine coriander seeds, peppercorns and mustard seeds in a spice grinder. Grind coarsely. Add in remaining ingredients and mix well. Rub is now ready to use. It may be stored refrigerated in an airtight container.

[BigBelly]

Hey, I have one question about Corned Beef. I had heard that some folks smoke their corned beef after curing it. Is that true?

I know that if you were making Pastrami you would smoked the brisket, but what about just plain old Corned Beef?

By the way, I have two nine pounders resting in a nice little brine just waiting for the 7-10 days to expire.

[cayenne]

Hey, I have one question about Corned Beef. I had heard that some folks smoke their corned beef after curing it. Is that true?

I know that if you were making Pastrami you would smoked the brisket, but what about just plain old Corned Beef?

By the way, I have two nine pounders resting in a nice little brine just waiting for the 7-10 days to expire.

Hey, good looking recipes. Well, as far as your pastrami question...I may be mistaken, but, I thought that pastrami WAS a smoked corned beef brisket...?? Or at the very least grilled/roasted corned beef brisket.

Make sure and report back how yours turned out!!!

I may try to whip up a brine myself next weekend and run by Sam's for briskets too...

C

[BigBelly]

I have pictures of each step thus far. I will be posting them here in a week or so once the corning process is complete.

Let me clarify really fast. I know that Pastrami is a smoked, cured, beef brisket. What I want to know is what about just the Corned Beef? Is that commonly smoked?

From what I have read some folks steam the fully cured brisket in order to make just plain ol' corned beef and a few smoked theirs. Some have stated that they boil their corned beef. Now to me boiling does not make sense because you will loose some flavor in the boiling water.

I figured since I was smoking the Pastrami I may as well smoke the corned beef. The wifeys told me last night she was boiling her portion of the corned beef and that was that! I still wanted to know of anyone here knew of or has had experience with smoking their own corned beef--thats all.

Pics and Pastrami/ corned beef 101 coming shortly!

[cayenne]

Let me clarify really fast. I know that Pastrami is a smoked, cured, beef brisket. What I want to know is what about just the Corned Beef? Is that commonly smoked?


Ok...well, from what I've always undersood...corned beef, was brisket, brined/pickled...and cooked by boiling (I'd never heard of steaming it, but, makes sense).

If it was smoked either just out of the brine, or after boiling...it was pastrami. That's the way I'd always thought of the difference between the two. If it is not smoked...it is corned beef, if it was, it was pastrami.

But...I'm no expert...
:-)

K

[kcquer]

Ok...well, from what I've always undersood...corned beef, was brisket, brined/pickled...and cooked by boiling (I'd never heard of steaming it, but, makes sense).

If it was smoked either just out of the brine, or after boiling...it was pastrami. That's the way I'd always thought of the difference between the two. If it is not smoked...it is corned beef, if it was, it was pastrami.

But...I'm no expert...

This is basically how I understand it too. Except technically, I think pastrami is brisket point only.

[cheez]

I watched Emeril make pastrami once. It sure looked good! Recently picked up a second refrigerator for the basement, so now maybe I have room to try something like this (also gotta try that buckboard bacon stuff, but that's another topic).

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_9447,00.html

[BigBelly]

Ok, sounds good to me. Being the wifey insisted on NOT smoking the Corned Beef, and you folks have confirmed my suspicions of doing such, I'll just leave her to her boiling but will recommend steaming it.

I should of knew better. Out of 15 + websites talking about Corned Beef only one recommended that you smoke it after curing it when the other 14 were steaming or boiling it. Go figure...

The Pastrami is all mine to play with!

Thanks for keeping me honest gang.