Home Cured Corned Beef
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Category
Main Dish
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Cusine
American
What do you need?
How to make?
Ingredients
1 Tbsp whole allspice berries
1 Tbsp whole mustard seeds
1 Tbsp coriander seeds
1 Tbsp red pepper flakes
1 Tbsp whole black peppercorns
2 teaspoons whole cloves
9 whole cardamom pods
6 large bay leaves, crumbled
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 stick cinnamon
1 gallon water
300 g Kosher salt
5 teaspoons pink curing salt *
3 Tbsp pickling spices
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 5-pound beef brisket
1 Tbsp pickling spices
Directions
You can either used store-bought pickling spices or you can make your own. To make your own, toast the allspice berries, mustard seeds, coriander seeds, red pepper flakes, peppercorns, cloves, and cardamom pods in a small frying pan on medium heat until fragrant. Note that it is pretty easy to burn spices; you want enough heat to release their flavors, not so much that they get burned.
Remove from heat and place in a small bowl. Use a mortar and pestle to crush the spices a little . Add to a small bowl and stir in the crumbled bay leaves and ground ginger.
Add about 3 Tbsp of the spice mix , plus the half stick of cinnamon, to a gallon of water in a large pot, along with the Kosher salt, pink salt , and brown sugar. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat and let cool to room temperature. Then refrigerate until well chilled.
Place the brisket in a large, flat container or pan, and cover with the brine. The brine should cover the meat. The meat may float in which case you may want to weigh it down with a plate.
Alternatively you can use a 2-gallon freezer bag , place the brisket in the freezer bag and about 2 quarts of brine, squeezing out the air from the bag before sealing.
Place in the refrigerator and chill from 5-7 days. Every day flip the brisket over, so that all sides get brined equally.
At the end of the cure, remove the brisket from the brine and rinse off the brine with cold water. Place the brisket in a large pot that just fits around the brisket and cover with at least one inch of water. If you want your brisket less salty, add another inch of water to the pot.
Add a tablespoon of the pickling spices to the pot. Bring to a boil, reduce to a very low simmer , and cook 3-4 hours, until the corned beef is fork tender. Notice the visible lines on the meat; this is the "grain" of the meat, or the direction of the muscle fibers.
To make the meat easier to cut, cut it first in half, along the grain of the meat. Then make thin crosswise cuts, across the grain to cut the meat to serve.