Right before St. Patricks day, my local supermarket was offering
corned beef brisket for a ridiculously low price, so I bought 3 and
froze them. Someone in another thread mentioned they didn't freeze
well, so I was a little concerned. Oh well... the deed was done.

A few days ago, I defrosted one of the briskets and put it in the
crock pot with enough water to make it float. I added the spice
packet it came with (because I like mustard seed) and also added some
pickling spice that I recently bought from Penzey's specifically for
this meat. It took a lot longer than I expected (about 7 hours), but
we had it for dinner that night along with some stir fried cabbage. I
don't like steamed cabbage, but I really enjoy stir fried with Asian
condiments. It was really tasty. My only disappointment came in
slicing it. Of course, I sliced across the grain, but several times
bits of stringy meat broke off from the slice. It wasn't that big a
deal, but I wonder if that had anything to do with it being frozen
beforehand? Oh... and how do you all handle the layer of fat? I tried
to slice it off, but close to the meat, it got mushy and gross.

Ginny

Ginny Sher wrote:

> Right before St. Patricks day, my local supermarket was offering
> corned beef brisket for a ridiculously low price, so I bought 3 and
> froze them. Someone in another thread mentioned they didn't freeze
> well, so I was a little concerned. Oh well... the deed was done.

Nope, they freeze fine. I buy 8 or 10 of them on sale and bring them out
throughout the year, sometimes just cook 'em up for cold sandwiches.

>
> I sliced across the grain, but several times
> bits of stringy meat broke off from the slice. It wasn't that big a
> deal, but I wonder if that had anything to do with it being frozen
> beforehand?

Nope. Corned beef is just like that, when it gets tender it practically
falls apart. Sometimes I just give up and get a big spoon.


>Oh... and how do you all handle the layer of fat? I tried
> to slice it off, but close to the meat, it got mushy and gross.
>

I pull the brisket out of the water when it is done and put it on a big
tray and use the back side of a big knife to scrape the fat off. It is
mushy and gross. Just keep scraping. Sometimes you have a layer of fat
in between two pieces of meat, it's ok to separate them to get the fat
out. Then throw the fat out, put the beef back in the liquid to keep it
from drying out, and then when you're ready to serve you pull out a nice
lean brisket for the guests to enjoy.


Dawn

Ginny Sher wrote:


>I sliced across the grain, but several times
> bits of stringy meat broke off from the slice. It wasn't that big a
> deal, but I wonder if that had anything to do with it being frozen
> beforehand?

do you have a really sharp knife? i can tell when my knives are getting dull.
there's a lot more sawing and a lot less cutting going on.

Interesting. I was just cruising to find out about ways to cook it
other than the traditional cabbage. Would like to try to use like Texas
BBQ brisket. Found today that the local market had it on sale for
99cents a lb so I bought a bunch and threw in the freezer.

Dawn wrote:

> Ginny Sher wrote:
>
>> Right before St. Patricks day, my local supermarket was offering
>> corned beef brisket for a ridiculously low price, so I bought 3 and
>> froze them. Someone in another thread mentioned they didn't freeze
>> well, so I was a little concerned. Oh well... the deed was done.
>
>
> Nope, they freeze fine. I buy 8 or 10 of them on sale and bring them
> out throughout the year, sometimes just cook 'em up for cold sandwiches.
>
>>
>> I sliced across the grain, but several times
>> bits of stringy meat broke off from the slice. It wasn't that big a
>> deal, but I wonder if that had anything to do with it being frozen
>> beforehand?
>
>
> Nope. Corned beef is just like that, when it gets tender it
> practically falls apart. Sometimes I just give up and get a big spoon.
>
>
>> Oh... and how do you all handle the layer of fat? I tried
>> to slice it off, but close to the meat, it got mushy and gross.
>>
>
> I pull the brisket out of the water when it is done and put it on a
> big tray and use the back side of a big knife to scrape the fat off.
> It is mushy and gross. Just keep scraping. Sometimes you have a layer
> of fat in between two pieces of meat, it's ok to separate them to get
> the fat out. Then throw the fat out, put the beef back in the liquid
> to keep it from drying out, and then when you're ready to serve you
> pull out a nice lean brisket for the guests to enjoy.
>
>
> Dawn

"Jim Davis" > wrote in message
...
> Interesting. I was just cruising to find out about ways to cook it other
> than the traditional cabbage. Would like to try to use like Texas BBQ
> brisket. Found today that the local market had it on sale for 99cents a
> lb so I bought a bunch and threw in the freezer.
>

If you use a corned beef it would be more like Pastrami than bbq brisket as
bbq is not cured.

Dawn > wrote:

> I pull the brisket out of the water when it is done and put it on a big
> tray and use the back side of a big knife to scrape the fat off.

In my family, the fat's the point.

serene
--
http://serenejournal.livejournal.com
http://www.jhuger.com

On Thu, 28 Apr 2005 21:56:08 -0400, "A.C." > wrote:

>
>Ginny Sher wrote:
>
>
>>I sliced across the grain, but several times
>> bits of stringy meat broke off from the slice. It wasn't that big a
>> deal, but I wonder if that had anything to do with it being frozen
>> beforehand?
>
>do you have a really sharp knife? i can tell when my knives are getting dull.
>there's a lot more sawing and a lot less cutting going on.
>
I thought so, but maybe not sharp enough. That is a good point (no pun
intended). I hadn't thought of that.

Ginny