Raw corned beef - give me some tips!

[NatrlCatholicMama]

I'd love to try the NT corned beef recipe. Has anyone tried it? I assume that using whey is NOT the traditional way to make it, but since I can't find any other recipes that cure or otherwise prepare it w/o cooking, I have only that to go with. Sooo...

If I can only find conventional brisket, can I use it? (fermented conventional beef is not sounding good right now!) Suggestions for other cuts to use if I can't find grassfed brisket? Substitute salt for whey?? I have no idea. I've never made a raw meat recipe before. TIA!

[Feb2003]

I'm curious about this, too! : I hope *someone* here has made it!!!

[tabitha]

i am hopeful to try corned beef soon. not NT 's- Julia Child's. i have a recipe i the Way To Cook. it is all natural and cured raw for 2 or 3 weeks.

i admit i dont have my copy of NT here. is that recipe somehow different?

[westcoastmom]

I tried Sally Fallon's recipe in NT and we followed it to the letter. It was a TOTAL DISASTER!

After that and a few other disasters, and reading about other people's problems with her recipes, I rarely try anything in her book..... although I sometimes compare her recipes to others before choosing/adapting one I want to try.

I will have to check Julia Child's book.

[cristeen]

I have a very old recipe (that I have yet to try) for making corned beef that does not involve cooking. And it calls for 4-6 pounds of Beef Brisket, Rump, Bottom Round or Eye of the Round. It goes on to say "try corning a beef tongue or a shoulder of pork", "use your own combination of spices in place of the pickling spice", "the only thing that should not be changed is the strength of the brine".

If you'd like this recipe, let me know.

[CluckyInAZ]

wow, this is a timely post! I was just about to do SF's corned beef! *sigh* why is that the one traditional foods cookbook I bought, when it is the one with the useless recipes?

Tabitha -- recipe please!

cristeen -- recipe please!

:

[cristeen]

Corned Beef
4-6 pounds of meat (Beef Brisket, Rump, Bottom Round, Eye of Round, Pork Shoulder, Beef Tongue, whatever)
4 qts cold water
1 1/2 c salt
1 T brown sugar
2 T pickling spice
6 bay leaves
1/2 oz saltpeter*
6 cloves garlic, sliced
1 onion, sliced

Combine the water and spices in a large sauce pan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Place the beef in a crock (any container as long as it is not unlined metal). Add the pickling liquid, the garlic and onion. Weigh the meat down with a board and osme kind of non-metal weight (like a sterilized brick or a sterilized Mason jar full of water). Do not allow any meat to project above the liquid, or it will spoil.

Cover the crock and store in a cool corner for 12-14 days. If the cut of meat is quite thick, it may take a bit longer. A mold of sorts will very likely develop on the brine. Don't panic, simply rinse it off.

The * on the saltpeter reads: ... saltpeter is responsible for the beautiful pink color most people look for... more and more people... want to avoid the use of nitrates... the saltpeter can be omitted [in which case the meat will turn brown/grey]. A fairly good color can be achieved by substituting cream of tartar in place of saltpeter.

The notation next to the recipe talks about how the author's father (a butcher) taught him to make corned beef. "Put about 4 gallons of water into the crock, then add enough salt to make a brine that will float an egg". The spices are a matter of taste, but the salt is not.

[NatrlCatholicMama]

AWESOME!!! Thanks so much! Now

-is salt peter the "pink salt" (sodium nitrate) that was used in traditional amounts for brining, even centuries ago? Moreover, where do you get it?

-would you use a grocery store piece of meat? I have no source for large roasts of pastured anything ... and even brining (rather than fermenting a la NT recipe) sounds scary to me if I don't know the source. WWYD?

I'd love to see the other recipe, too. Thanks a ton, y'all!

[cristeen]

Originally Posted by NaturalCatholicMam

-is salt peter the "pink salt" (sodium nitrate) that was used in traditional amounts for brining, even centuries ago? Moreover, where do you get it?

Yes, it is. You used to be able to get it at the drug store, but you may have to ask the pharmacist to order it for you. Because it can be used to make explosives, very few places carry it anymore. You can order it online, Id check with sausage making websites like sausagemaker.com.

Originally Posted by NaturalCatholicMam

-would you use a grocery store piece of meat? I have no source for large roasts of pastured anything ... and even brining (rather than fermenting a la NT recipe) sounds scary to me if I don't know the source. WWYD?

I probably would, for the same reason you're asking the question. Honestly though if I were thinking about corning a bunch of meat, I would be calling the local butchers until I found one that carried grass-fed/pastured meat. I know of 2, Whole Foods and a local independent that do, just off the top of my head. I do have access to some reasonably local ranches for pastured beef, but it's the storage of a half cow that's the problem. I do know that you can order cuts of pastured beef online and have it shipped, but that is, naturally, expensive. So to make a long story short... I might use a cheap piece of meat the first time, but beyond that, and if I were going to make a large quantity, I'd invest in some good quality meat.

[ChristieB]

Could I ask a really stupid question? What do you do with corned beef? : I grew up in a family that ate very little meat, so things like this aren't familiar to me. We eat a huge amount of meat now, and I've learned a fair amount, but I've still got a lot to learn.

Also, "store in a cool corner for 12-14 days", does that mean not in a fridge? And how cool is cool enough?

This is intriguing, and our half cow came recently with a brisket (or two?).

For where to get grass-fed brisket, you could order online. This is where we get our grass-fed beef. I find the prices reasonable and the shipping is reasonable, too. Plus they have specials every month (you have to subscribe to their monthly email newsletter to hear about them, but they would probably tell you about them if you called). When I talked to her last, she said that they now have a contract with UPS, which has lowered their shipping prices, and they are usually able to ship for less than $1.00/lb. My last order was less than $.75/lb. for shipping. Their really nice people, too! I often find that the sale prices make up for the shipping.

These are their beef specials this month (they also sell lamb), just to give you an idea:

We have a number of Bottom Round Roasts available, marked down from $5.99 per pound to $4.49 per pound. Sirloin Tip Steaks are $7.89 per pound, marked down from $10.49 per pound. Beef Kabob/Stew Meat is $4.99, a real bargain from the regular price of $6.99 per pound.

Beef Soup/Stew Bones will also be 50% off of the regular price of $2.49 per pound, marked down to $1.25 per pound. Be sure to take advantage of this one! And last, but never least, if you order 10 pounds of Ground Beef you will get 10% off, and if you order 20 pounds of Ground Beef you will get 20% off, so fill out those orders with Ground Beef for maximum savings on your shipping costs.

And honest, they're not paying me to say these things. I just think they have good meat and they're good people.

[nicolelynn]

What to do with corned beef? Make a sandwich with sauerkraut and mustard. Warm it and eat it with potatoes and sauerkraut. Make corned beef and hash (mash it up with grated cooked potatoes, diced onions and fry up). Make it the Irish way- in a casserole with cabbage, potatoes and carrots. Or just eat it cold as a snack.

[cristeen]

Originally Posted by ChristieB

Could I ask a really stupid question? What do you do with corned beef? :
Also, "store in a cool corner for 12-14 days", does that mean not in a fridge? And how cool is cool enough?

Do with it... mostly I make corned beef hash. This is what we've been eating for breakfast the last few weeks. I roast potatoes with spices, then toss it with chopped corned beef, top it with a fried egg and some melted cheese. :

We also love it with sauerkraut and mustard or fried cabbage and mustard. Sliced on rye bread with some swiss.

As for store in a cool corner, yes that means not in the fridge. You're fermenting the meat, and the cold temperature of the fridge will prevent that. Cool would be a corner not near the stove or a heat register or the dishwasher or fridge, in a house that is not heated unduly. If your house is heated, I'd do it in the garage or basement.

[Rainbow2911]

I'm really interested in trying this! But I was wondering how long the meat would keep? There is just me and two little ones who would be eating it (as ds2 has sworn off solid food while his molars are coming in) and we wouldn't eat all that much at a time. Could you take it out and slice it and then freeze slices? Would it keep wrapped in the fridge? Could you keep it under the brine and slice bits off as you used them? Or do I just need to make a little at a time?

Thanks!

[cristeen]

You can keep it in the brine indefinitely. You can also freeze it.

I don't eat it raw, since I"m not making it myself at this point, so I cook it up, then freeze half or 2/3 of it for later. It does just fine.

[Metasequoia]

I'll post this in the other post I just wrote (didn't see this one.

I was just cruisin' some sites about traditional Irish food & the recipe for corned beef was *really* simple - just a slab of brisket, some molasses & large "corns" of salt. The beef is left to cure for 4 days, then boiled (according to Irish tradition.) I'll try to find the recipe....

[Metasequoia]

Here it is:

Corned beef was very popular in colonial America because it was an economical and effective way to preserve meat. The following corning directions are from The Virginia House-Wife by Mary Randolph, 1824, pages 22-23:

"To corn beef in hot weather
Take a piece of thin brisket or plate, cut out the ribs nicely, rub it on both sides well with two large spoonsful of pounded salt-petre; pour on it a gill of molasses and a quart of salt; rub them both in; put it in a vessel just large enough to hold it, but not tight, for the bloody brine must run off as it makes, or the meat will spoil. Let it be well covered top, bottom, and sides, with the molasses and salt. In four days you may boil it, tied up in a cloth, with the salt, &c. about it: when done, take the skin off nicely, and serve it up. If you have an ice-house or refrigerator, it will be best to keep it there.--A fillet or breast of veal, and a leg or rack of mutton, are excellent done in the same way."

Source

Wonder if I could sub honey or something for the molasses (I'm reacting to cane sugar.)

The more flops I hear about or experience from NT, the more I think that whey is the biggest mistake ever suggested in cooking. :

[cristeen]

Originally Posted by Metasequoia

Wonder if I could sub honey or something for the molasses (I'm reacting to cane sugar.)

The main problem I see with this is the salt-peter. In this recipe, it's really the salt peter doing most of the corning. Since the point (for me anyway) of making my own is to avoid the nitrates/nitrites, I wouldn't want to follow that recipe as written. And I have no idea whether the molasses and salt alone would be enough to prevent spoilage. TBH, the sugar in honey would provide a happy breeding ground for bacteria, and I'd be worried that all that sugar would mean the bad bacteria would win out. Although, if you corn it in the fridge with just the honey and salt, for 4 days, you'd wind up with something that was still edible, although probably not completely pickled (I'd use a thinner cut of meat).

[Metasequoia]

Originally Posted by cristeen

The main problem I see with this is the salt-peter. In this recipe, it's really the salt peter doing most of the corning. Since the point (for me anyway) of making my own is to avoid the nitrates/nitrites, I wouldn't want to follow that recipe as written. And I have no idea whether the molasses and salt alone would be enough to prevent spoilage. TBH, the sugar in honey would provide a happy breeding ground for bacteria, and I'd be worried that all that sugar would mean the bad bacteria would win out. Although, if you corn it in the fridge with just the honey and salt, for 4 days, you'd wind up with something that was still edible, although probably not completely pickled (I'd use a thinner cut of meat).

I thought she just meant salt, ick, potassium nitrate, huh? ITA.

Well then, how did the old, old Irish corn their beef? Do you really think they used whey?

[cristeen]

Originally Posted by Metasequoia

I thought she just meant salt, ick, potassium nitrate, huh? ITA.

Well then, how did the old, old Irish corn their beef? Do you really think they used whey?

See the recipe in post 7 of this thread. Salt and water brine with flavors.

[tabitha]

the julia child's recipe does not involve saltpeter. i will post it asap. sorry for the delay!