>one of the other guests said that they thought it hadn't
>been cooked long enough.

>Can we do our own corned beef using a different cut
>of meat?

Indeed, but if the problem really is that it hadn't been cooked enough,
what's wrong with working with the usual old brisket, just simmered as
it should be?

I can't agree that leaving out the non-sodium salts is justifiable.
The main element of the flavor of New England Boiled Dinner is those
salts--not the spice bag ingredients.

I prepare a packaged brisket by putting an inch of cold water in a
12-inch-diameter stock pot, adding the contents of the spice bag, the
juices in the sack, and four cloves of chopped garlic, bringing it to a
boil, adding the brisket (fat side up), bring it to a boil again, and
piling on the vegetables, establishing a very low simmer, covering, and
ignoring for 2 hours (except to check on the vigor of the simmer . . .
let it boil hard and the brisket falls apart).

Toughness has not been a problem; unless I overcook it (which hasn't
happened in the last 20 years), it has a pleasantly firm grain but is
by no means tough. The leftover liquor is not so salty that it doesn't
make a pleasant broth for a winter evening, nitrates/nitrites
notwithstanding.

By the way, in this age of inflationary beef prices, it's odd that
corned beef is now relatively cheap--Safeway just had a $2.99/pound
sale PLUS "buy one, get one free." Shelf life must still be the issue
for meat.

Neil