Corned Beef (How To Cure Your Own)
Submitted by Mrs. Scepkeatingski
Cure your own corned beef at home with a 7-day salt and pickling spice brine, then simmer in beer and bake for the best homemade deli-style corned beef sandwiches.
YIELD
10 servingsPREP
1 hrsCOOK
READY
8 daysWhy buy corned beef when you can make it yourself? It takes patience (seven days of curing), but the result blows store-bought out of the water.
A boneless beef roast sits in a salt, sugar, garlic, and pickling spice brine for a full week, getting flipped daily as the cure works its magic. Then you simmer it in beer with Italian dressing and peppercorns before a final low bake that produces sliceable, tender, deeply seasoned corned beef.
Slice it thin against the grain when it’s cold and you’ve got deli-quality sandwich meat that freezes beautifully for up to three months.
Pro Tips
- Use a glass or plastic container for brining. Metal can react with the salt and throw off flavors.
- Flip the meat once a day in the brine. This ensures even curing on all sides.
- Soak the cured beef in cold water before cooking to draw out excess salt. Skip this and your corned beef will be painfully salty.
- Slice when cold for clean, thin deli-style cuts. Warm meat shreds instead of slicing.
Variations
- Pickle brine shortcut: Sub equal parts dill pickle juice and dry vermouth for the brine. Unconventional, but it works.
- Reuben-ready: Pile slices on rye with sauerkraut, Swiss, and Thousand Island dressing.
- Corned beef hash: Dice leftovers and fry with potatoes for a killer breakfast.
Ingredients
Directions
Place meat in an accomodating glass or plastic refrigerator container.
Mix all remaining ingredients together in saucepan or bowl and pour over meat.
Seal tightly with lid or plastic wrap, secured with rubber band.
Refrigerate meat mixture for 7 days.
Once a day turn meat over in marinade.
On 7th day, remove from marinade and soak meat in cold water, covered, from water, draining it well.
Prepare for sandwiches this way: Place drained, cured, beef roast in an accomodating pot.
Add beer, Italian Dressing and peppercorns and bring to boil.
Cover andamp; reduce heat to gentle simmer for 2½ hours.
Remove from beer mixture.
Add only 1 cup of beer mixture to beef in a shallow, small oblong roasting pan.
Seal in plastic wrap and; refrigerate several hours or overnight.
Place in oven to bake at 350℉ (180℃) F for 2½ hours, sealing pan in foil.
Cool and slice across grain for sandwiches.
Slices best when well chilled.
Freeze in family portions, sliced, to thaw and serve in 3 months.
Refrigerate well-wrapped, to use in 4 or 5 days.
Allow ½ lb. per serving.
OPTIONAL BRINE: Drain juice from bottled dill pickles (any kind), mixing in equal parts with dry vermouth, sufficient to submerge beef instead of mixture given above.
Comments
I don't understand this sentence "On 7th day, remove from marinade and soak meat in cold water, covered, from water, draining it well." So I soak it in water.. for how long? Then I assume draining it well.. I might set it in a colander? Thanks!