Sister in law is coming to town next week and she loves corned beef. I
have brisket in hand and was wondering: since I won't really be corning
this thing for presevation purposes, can I get away with just a regular
brine and spices?. If so, how strong a brine and for how long. (I've
never brined beef)
Thanks in advance.
Bubba

--
You wanna measure, or you wanna cook?

"Bubba" wrote in message
news
Sister in law is coming to town next week and she loves corned beef. I
have brisket in hand and was wondering: since I won't really be corning
this thing for presevation purposes, can I get away with just a regular
brine and spices?. If so, how strong a brine and for how long. (I've
never brined beef)
Thanks in advance.
Bubba

--
You wanna measure, or you wanna cook?


This should help you out:

http://www.zenreich.com/ZenWeb/cornedbeef.htm


--
__________
ht_redneck

For email replies, remove an l

"Tyler Hopper" wrote in message
...
"Bubba" wrote in message
news
Sister in law is coming to town next week and she loves corned beef. I
have brisket in hand and was wondering: since I won't really be corning
this thing for presevation purposes, can I get away with just a regular
brine and spices?. If so, how strong a brine and for how long. (I've
never brined beef)
Thanks in advance.
Bubba

--
You wanna measure, or you wanna cook?


This should help you out:

http://www.zenreich.com/ZenWeb/cornedbeef.htm

Bubba,

Alan Z's method is a dry cure, which he prefers. I like a brine, which I
think penetrates the meat faster and more thoroughly. If you want to
shorten the process you can inject the pickle (brine) into the thickest part
of the meat in several places. TenderQuick is basically salt and a small
amount of nitrate. You can use regular salt instead as long as you are
careful about maintaining refrigeration until you're ready cook the meat.
Without the nitrate the cooked meat won't have the pink color, but will be
brown. Tastes the same.

1 cup Morton Tenderquick
4 cups of water
1-2 cups of ice to bring the water temp down
2 TBS pickling spice
6-8 cloves of mashed up garlic
Mix all above until it's in solution, then soak a 10-11 lb brisket flat in
it, in the fridge for 72 hours, stirring or flipping the brisket
occasionally.

Remove from the brine, rinse and boil (or follow your favorite corned beef
recipe) until done.

Jack Curry

Jeeze-us did I see you say boil?
BGnGB

Jeeze-us did I see you say boil?
BGnGB

Jack,

As you know, I used to do the brine technique and switched to the dry rub
technique.

I prefer the latter for a couple of reasons:

1) I think it's quicker for similar results. In my attempts, 7 days dry
corning gave similar results as 2-3 weeks brining.
One thing to make sure of doing with the dry technique is to stab holes all
over the meat with a pot fork... this allows very good penetration of the
rub.

2) It's much easier to deal with in the refrigerator. Easy to find the
space, trivial to turn the meat each day.

I certainly recommend that people try corning their own brisket. You can
easily adjust the corning spices to your tastes, and you know EXACTLY what
you're eating... no need to wonder about what the processors have added.

Also, I still don't understand why people want their corned beef to be
pink... enough so to intentionally add nitrites...

I guess it's the same phenomenon as why so many people with iPods want white
earphones, even if they don't sound very good , but ooooh they're white s


Regards,

Alan Z.



"Jack Curry" Jack wrote in message
...

"Tyler Hopper" wrote in message
...
"Bubba" wrote in message
news
Sister in law is coming to town next week and she loves corned beef. I
have brisket in hand and was wondering: since I won't really be corning
this thing for presevation purposes, can I get away with just a regular
brine and spices?. If so, how strong a brine and for how long. (I've
never brined beef)
Thanks in advance.
Bubba

--
You wanna measure, or you wanna cook?


This should help you out:

http://www.zenreich.com/ZenWeb/cornedbeef.htm

Bubba,

Alan Z's method is a dry cure, which he prefers. I like a brine, which I
think penetrates the meat faster and more thoroughly. If you want to
shorten the process you can inject the pickle (brine) into the thickest
part
of the meat in several places. TenderQuick is basically salt and a small
amount of nitrate. You can use regular salt instead as long as you are
careful about maintaining refrigeration until you're ready cook the meat.
Without the nitrate the cooked meat won't have the pink color, but will be
brown. Tastes the same.

1 cup Morton Tenderquick
4 cups of water
1-2 cups of ice to bring the water temp down
2 TBS pickling spice
6-8 cloves of mashed up garlic
Mix all above until it's in solution, then soak a 10-11 lb brisket flat in
it, in the fridge for 72 hours, stirring or flipping the brisket
occasionally.

Remove from the brine, rinse and boil (or follow your favorite corned beef
recipe) until done.

Jack Curry

Jack,

As you know, I used to do the brine technique and switched to the dry rub
technique.

I prefer the latter for a couple of reasons:

1) I think it's quicker for similar results. In my attempts, 7 days dry
corning gave similar results as 2-3 weeks brining.
One thing to make sure of doing with the dry technique is to stab holes all
over the meat with a pot fork... this allows very good penetration of the
rub.

2) It's much easier to deal with in the refrigerator. Easy to find the
space, trivial to turn the meat each day.

I certainly recommend that people try corning their own brisket. You can
easily adjust the corning spices to your tastes, and you know EXACTLY what
you're eating... no need to wonder about what the processors have added.

Also, I still don't understand why people want their corned beef to be
pink... enough so to intentionally add nitrites...

I guess it's the same phenomenon as why so many people with iPods want white
earphones, even if they don't sound very good , but ooooh they're white s


Regards,

Alan Z.



"Jack Curry" Jack wrote in message
...

"Tyler Hopper" wrote in message
...
"Bubba" wrote in message
news
Sister in law is coming to town next week and she loves corned beef. I
have brisket in hand and was wondering: since I won't really be corning
this thing for presevation purposes, can I get away with just a regular
brine and spices?. If so, how strong a brine and for how long. (I've
never brined beef)
Thanks in advance.
Bubba

--
You wanna measure, or you wanna cook?


This should help you out:

http://www.zenreich.com/ZenWeb/cornedbeef.htm

Bubba,

Alan Z's method is a dry cure, which he prefers. I like a brine, which I
think penetrates the meat faster and more thoroughly. If you want to
shorten the process you can inject the pickle (brine) into the thickest
part
of the meat in several places. TenderQuick is basically salt and a small
amount of nitrate. You can use regular salt instead as long as you are
careful about maintaining refrigeration until you're ready cook the meat.
Without the nitrate the cooked meat won't have the pink color, but will be
brown. Tastes the same.

1 cup Morton Tenderquick
4 cups of water
1-2 cups of ice to bring the water temp down
2 TBS pickling spice
6-8 cloves of mashed up garlic
Mix all above until it's in solution, then soak a 10-11 lb brisket flat in
it, in the fridge for 72 hours, stirring or flipping the brisket
occasionally.

Remove from the brine, rinse and boil (or follow your favorite corned beef
recipe) until done.

Jack Curry

Alan Z. wrote:

Jack,

As you know, I used to do the brine technique and switched to the dry rub
technique.

I prefer the latter for a couple of reasons:

1) I think it's quicker for similar results. In my attempts, 7 days dry
corning gave similar results as 2-3 weeks brining.
One thing to make sure of doing with the dry technique is to stab holes all
over the meat with a pot fork... this allows very good penetration of the
rub.

2) It's much easier to deal with in the refrigerator. Easy to find the
space, trivial to turn the meat each day.

I certainly recommend that people try corning their own brisket. You can
easily adjust the corning spices to your tastes, and you know EXACTLY what
you're eating... no need to wonder about what the processors have added.

Also, I still don't understand why people want their corned beef to be
pink... enough so to intentionally add nitrites...

I guess it's the same phenomenon as why so many people with iPods want white
earphones, even if they don't sound very good , but ooooh they're white s


Regards,

Alan Z.

I'll have you know that I have black noise cancelling earphones for my
iPod, thanks you very much! ;-)


--
Steve

Who was the first person to say, "See that chicken there... I'm gonna
eat the next thing that comes outta it's ass?"

Alan Z. wrote:

Jack,

As you know, I used to do the brine technique and switched to the dry rub
technique.

I prefer the latter for a couple of reasons:

1) I think it's quicker for similar results. In my attempts, 7 days dry
corning gave similar results as 2-3 weeks brining.
One thing to make sure of doing with the dry technique is to stab holes all
over the meat with a pot fork... this allows very good penetration of the
rub.

2) It's much easier to deal with in the refrigerator. Easy to find the
space, trivial to turn the meat each day.

I certainly recommend that people try corning their own brisket. You can
easily adjust the corning spices to your tastes, and you know EXACTLY what
you're eating... no need to wonder about what the processors have added.

Also, I still don't understand why people want their corned beef to be
pink... enough so to intentionally add nitrites...

I guess it's the same phenomenon as why so many people with iPods want white
earphones, even if they don't sound very good , but ooooh they're white s


Regards,

Alan Z.

I'll have you know that I have black noise cancelling earphones for my
iPod, thanks you very much! ;-)


--
Steve

Who was the first person to say, "See that chicken there... I'm gonna
eat the next thing that comes outta it's ass?"

Steve, we must be kindred spirits...

I use (black) Etymotic ER4p with a (black) 75 ohm converter and a (black)
Xin SuperMicro amp.... now if I can only get a black SIK DIN cable for the
lineout instead of the white one s

Of course, this message should really have some BBQ content.
So, I humbly offer that one way to make your white iPod headphones black, is
to put it in the smoker while you're cooking some BBQ. Generally I cook
with apple or cherry wood, but for really black headphones, one should
probably use hickory or mesquite.



"Steve Calvin" wrote in message
...
Alan Z. wrote:

Jack,

As you know, I used to do the brine technique and switched to the dry rub
technique.

I prefer the latter for a couple of reasons:

1) I think it's quicker for similar results. In my attempts, 7 days dry
corning gave similar results as 2-3 weeks brining.
One thing to make sure of doing with the dry technique is to stab holes
all over the meat with a pot fork... this allows very good penetration of
the rub.

2) It's much easier to deal with in the refrigerator. Easy to find the
space, trivial to turn the meat each day.

I certainly recommend that people try corning their own brisket. You can
easily adjust the corning spices to your tastes, and you know EXACTLY
what you're eating... no need to wonder about what the processors have
added.

Also, I still don't understand why people want their corned beef to be
pink... enough so to intentionally add nitrites...

I guess it's the same phenomenon as why so many people with iPods want
white earphones, even if they don't sound very good , but ooooh they're
white s

Regards,

Alan Z.

I'll have you know that I have black noise cancelling earphones for my
iPod, thanks you very much! ;-)


--
Steve

Who was the first person to say, "See that chicken there... I'm gonna eat
the next thing that comes outta it's ass?"

Steve, we must be kindred spirits...

I use (black) Etymotic ER4p with a (black) 75 ohm converter and a (black)
Xin SuperMicro amp.... now if I can only get a black SIK DIN cable for the
lineout instead of the white one s

Of course, this message should really have some BBQ content.
So, I humbly offer that one way to make your white iPod headphones black, is
to put it in the smoker while you're cooking some BBQ. Generally I cook
with apple or cherry wood, but for really black headphones, one should
probably use hickory or mesquite.



"Steve Calvin" wrote in message
...
Alan Z. wrote:

Jack,

As you know, I used to do the brine technique and switched to the dry rub
technique.

I prefer the latter for a couple of reasons:

1) I think it's quicker for similar results. In my attempts, 7 days dry
corning gave similar results as 2-3 weeks brining.
One thing to make sure of doing with the dry technique is to stab holes
all over the meat with a pot fork... this allows very good penetration of
the rub.

2) It's much easier to deal with in the refrigerator. Easy to find the
space, trivial to turn the meat each day.

I certainly recommend that people try corning their own brisket. You can
easily adjust the corning spices to your tastes, and you know EXACTLY
what you're eating... no need to wonder about what the processors have
added.

Also, I still don't understand why people want their corned beef to be
pink... enough so to intentionally add nitrites...

I guess it's the same phenomenon as why so many people with iPods want
white earphones, even if they don't sound very good , but ooooh they're
white s

Regards,

Alan Z.

I'll have you know that I have black noise cancelling earphones for my
iPod, thanks you very much! ;-)


--
Steve

Who was the first person to say, "See that chicken there... I'm gonna eat
the next thing that comes outta it's ass?"

Hi Alan,

Welcome back, I haven't seen you here in awhile.

As you know, I used to do the brine technique and switched to the dry rub
technique.

I prefer the latter for a couple of reasons:

1) I think it's quicker for similar results. In my attempts, 7 days dry
corning gave similar results as 2-3 weeks brining.
One thing to make sure of doing with the dry technique is to stab holes
all
over the meat with a pot fork... this allows very good penetration of the
rub.

Having experimented a fair amount as you did, I've found that the cure I
posted does a great job in 72 hours and I certainly can understand why a 2-3
week brining time drove you to a shorter dry cure. I tried your dry cure
first, smoking the brisket to pastrami as you did, but my results were far
too salty for my tastes. I should perhaps try your method again, just
adding a lengthy soaking to remove the salt. Instead, I went to brining
with TenderQuick followed by a 2-3 day fresh water soak with several changes
of water prior to smoking.

In the case of corned beef, since the meat is boiled in fresh water, all the
soaking and water-changing isn't necessary, since the salt will leech out
into the cooking water.

2) It's much easier to deal with in the refrigerator. Easy to find the
space, trivial to turn the meat each day.

I use a food-grade 4 gallon bucket I got from my supermarket for brining.
It takes up a good bit of shelf space, but works well.

I certainly recommend that people try corning their own brisket. You can
easily adjust the corning spices to your tastes, and you know EXACTLY what
you're eating... no need to wonder about what the processors have added.

Right and it's fun.

Also, I still don't understand why people want their corned beef to be
pink... enough so to intentionally add nitrites...

Me either grin, but I don't add the TenderQuick to make the meat pink. I
may try a pastrami with salt only some day, but the TenderQuick pastramis
I've produced made everybody mighty happy...and the pink does look nice even
if it's a by-product.

I guess it's the same phenomenon as why so many people with iPods want
white
earphones, even if they don't sound very good , but ooooh they're white
s

Thanks for showing up. For those of you who don't know Alan, he's deserving
of much respect, both as a cook and website master.

Jack Curry

Alan Z. wrote:

Of course, this message should really have some BBQ content.
So, I humbly offer that one way to make your white iPod headphones black, is
to put it in the smoker while you're cooking some BBQ. Generally I cook
with apple or cherry wood, but for really black headphones, one should
probably use hickory or mesquite.


I humbly apologize for the lack of Q content in my post. hanging head

In this case I think that apple would be more appropriate. ;-)

--
Steve

Who was the first person to say, "See that chicken there... I'm gonna
eat the next thing that comes outta it's ass?"

"Alan Z." wrote in message

1) I think it's quicker for similar results. In my attempts, 7 days dry
corning gave similar results as 2-3 weeks brining.


Interesting. I've never brined mine for more than 4 or 5 days. Did you
inject it? I've not tried the dry cure yet but perhaps I will nest time.
The refrigeration aspect would be easier.





Also, I still don't understand why people want their corned beef to be
pink... enough so to intentionally add nitrites...

Because the stuff my mother bought was pink and therefore all corned beef
must be pink?


I guess it's the same phenomenon as why so many people with iPods want
white earphones, even if they don't sound very good , but ooooh they're
white s

I feel so out of it. I don't have an iPod.

Edwin,

No, I didn't inject the meat. I did some research into NYC delis that made
their own corned beef (I used to live a few blocks from Pastrami King, in
Queens NY). One of the things that separated the good corned beef from the
best is that those who made the latter brined for 3 weeks... so I followed
their lead (and techniques).

Oh, and you must have looked absolutely adorable in pink vbg

Regards,

Alan Z.

"Edwin Pawlowski" wrote in message
. com...

"Alan Z." wrote in message

1) I think it's quicker for similar results. In my attempts, 7 days dry
corning gave similar results as 2-3 weeks brining.


Interesting. I've never brined mine for more than 4 or 5 days. Did you
inject it? I've not tried the dry cure yet but perhaps I will nest time.
The refrigeration aspect would be easier.





Also, I still don't understand why people want their corned beef to be
pink... enough so to intentionally add nitrites...

Because the stuff my mother bought was pink and therefore all corned beef
must be pink?


I guess it's the same phenomenon as why so many people with iPods want
white earphones, even if they don't sound very good , but ooooh they're
white s

I feel so out of it. I don't have an iPod.