| Make Your Own Corned Beef for St. Patrick's Day |
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Sweet Basil Cafe chef Tanya Newall offers a corned beef sandwich special once or twice a month and plans to have it available on St. Patrick's Day. (SHNS photo by Fran Durner/Anchorage Daily News.)
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By C. T. Mitchell
Anchorage Daily News
For many people, celebrating St. Patrick's Day wouldn't be complete without a pot of corned beef and cabbage simmering on the stove. Yeah, we know, St. Paddy's is still a little ways off, but if you really want to say "Erin Go Braugh," you need to get to work now, because making your own corned beef takes time. Time is the only real hurdle in creating corned beef because it's just a slab of meat, generally brisket -- a tough, but flavorful boneless beef shank cut from the breast -- marinated over a long period of time in a saline brine. Like any other pickling process, the secret is in the brine. So we can forgive Gary Custer, manager at Wayne's Meat Market in Anchorage, Alaska, if he's reluctant -- lets say stubborn -- about not releasing the ingredients in his brine recipe other than to say, "Water. Salt. Sodium nitrate. Sugar." Don't despair, though, we provide more specifics in the recipes with this story. One of the keys to a good piece of corned beef is, as Custer noted, saltpeter, or potassium nitrate. Sociological legends aside, the potassium nitrate is the reason a thin slice of corned beef is nearly as red as the day it stopped moving. Apparently the saltpeter, which is available at most pharmacies, acts as an agent to preserve the pH balance in the meat. The recipe we've given lists the saltpeter as optional, but most cooks agree it's integral to saving the deep coloring and some say the flavor as well. Custer's crew adds a step not indicated in the recipes we checked. They change out the brine about halfway through the 10-day to two-week process." The salt brine draws out the blood" in the meat, Custer said, so to keep the brine less bloody and more active, they drain off the old mixture and freshen the meat with a new batch. That technique could be necessary because Wayne's Meat Market works with large pieces of meat -- 20 pounds of round steak and 8 to 9 pounds of brisket at a time. In all, they process about a half-ton each year for St. Patrick's Day alone, the only time of the year they make their own. For home cooks working with 4- to 5-pound briskets, draining off the brine might be an unnecessary step. And that's really the point here. With planning, making your own corned beef isn't that difficult after the initial brine recipe is prepared. Make the brine, and sink the meat in it. Then it's merely a matter of turning the beef occasionally as you would any other marinade. When the day of the feast comes, corned beef can be cooked like a roast. The typical way is to boil it, but caution is advised here. Simmering is better than boiling. The reason brisket and round steaks are the favored cuts for corning is because they are rich in flavor but dense in texture. The pickling will help break down the sturdy texture but not to the point that it weakens. If you've had tough corned beef, it's because the meat was hurried into submission. Like Custer says, the meat should be fork tender, even flaking like tuna out of a can. The meat market manager says to cook the corned beef much like any other roast, particularly prime rib: Make sure every ounce of juice stays in it. When it's almost done, take it out of the oven and let it stand for 15 to 20 minutes before slicing. That allows the meat to retain its natural liquids and continue to cook itself at the same time. Then look at the meat much like you would a pine board and determine the way the grain of the meat runs. Cut thin slices across the grain rather than with it. Cutting the meat that way further breaks down the connective tissue for an even more delicate bite. And if you need even more reason to make your own corned beef, its already cooked and leftover recipes are abundant: hash, sandwiches, stir-fries, omelets. Get out the horseradish. One last thing. It's a myth that the Irish don't celebrate St. Paddy's with a little corned beef: They call it salt beef. But in Galway, smack on the coast of the Atlantic, "presalted" lamb is the first choice. Patrick Jullian, chef at River God Cafe above the pub Tigh Neachtain, explained presalted to mean the sheep eat grass on the coast where the salt air from the ocean has permeated the grass and, when the sheep eat it, they ingest large amounts of salt that inland ovine would not get. So it's the thinking of the Irish on the coast that the meat needs no further salting or corning. The expression corning is traced back to the English. Nobody seems to know for sure how salting became corning, but it's thought to be because rock salt particles have the appearance of kernels of corn.
Corned Beef Ingredients: One 4 lb. brisket of beef
1/4 cup large-grained kosher salt
1 tsp. freshly ground pepper
2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
2 bay leaves, crumbled
1 Tbs. brown sugar
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. paprika
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbs. saltpeter (optional, can be found in pharmacies)
1/2 cup warm water Preparation: Wash and remove most of the fat from the brisket. Mix together all the spices and the garlic and rub well into the brisket. Dissolve the saltpeter in the warm water and pour over the meat. Place in a large, nonmetal container. Weight the meat down with a stone or brick and cover it with plastic wrap or aluminum foil. (You can also place the ingredients in a plastic bag and weight it down.) Refrigerate for 10 days to 2 weeks. Turn the meat every 2 to 3 days. Place the meat in a large pot of cold water. Bring to a boil and throw away the water. Repeat 3 times. Cover with cold water again, bring to a boil and cook over low heat, covered, for about 2 hours or until tender. Cool, slice thin and place on a platter. Serve with mustard or horseradish. Serves: 8 to 10
Corned Beef on Rye with Onions and Sauerkraut Ingredients: 3 cups thinly sliced onion
2 Tbs. vegetable oil
3/4 cup drained sauerkraut
1/2 Granny Smith apple, grated coarse
3 Tbs. water
Unsalted butter, softened, for buttering bread
8 large 1/2-inch-thick slices rye bread
1 large garlic clove, halved
1 large dill pickle, sliced paper-thin
3/4 lb. thinly sliced chilled cooked corned beef (about half a cooked 3-1/2 lb. corned beef)
1 cup coarsely grated Swiss cheese
Mustard as an accompaniment Preparation: To prepare onions and sandwich: In a large heavy skillet cook onion in oil over moderate heat, stirring, until golden. Stir in sauerkraut and apple and cook, stirring, 5 minutes. Stir in water and salt and pepper to taste and transfer to a bowl. Mixture keeps, covered and chilled, 1 week. Preheat broiler. Butter one side of bread slices. On a baking sheet, set 4 inches from heat, broil both sides of bread until toasted lightly. Rub buttered side of each toast with garlic. Arrange 4 toasts, garlic side up, on a baking sheet and divide pickle and corned beef among them. Top beef with onion mixture and cheese and broil under broiler about 4 inches from heat until cheese is melted. Top sandwiches with remaining toasts, garlic-side down, and halve. Serve sandwiches with mustard. Serves: 4 sandwiches
Corned Beef Hash Ingredients: 1 lb. baking (russet) potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice
1 lb. cooked corned beef, cut into chunks
1 cup chopped onion
1 large red bell pepper, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
2 Tbs. unsalted butter
1/4 cup heavy cream
4 large eggs (optional)
1 Tbs. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley Preparation: Cook potatoes in boiling salted water to cover until just tender, about 3 minutes, then drain. Pulse corned beef in a food processor until coarsely chopped. Saute onion and bell pepper in butter in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over moderately high heat, stirring, until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add potatoes and saute over moderately high heat, stirring occasionally, until browned, about 5 minutes. Stir in corned beef and salt and pepper to taste, then cook, stirring occasionally, until browned. Add cream and cook, stirring, 1 minute. If desired, make 4 holes in hash and break 1 egg into each. Cook over moderately low heat, covered, 5 minutes, or until eggs are cooked to desired doneness, and season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle hash with parsley. Note:If you choose to make this hash with eggs, you've got breakfast. Take away the eggs, pair it with a green salad, and dinner is served. Serves: 4
Shortcut Corned Beef Hash Ingredients: 2-1/2 cups frozen cubed hash brown potatoes, thawed
6 oz. diced cooked corned beef (about 1-1/2 cups)
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1/2 medium green bell pepper, chopped
1 tsp. dried thyme
1/4 tsp. ground pepper
1-1/2 Tbs. olive oil Preparation: Combine potatoes, corned beef, onion, bell pepper, thyme and ground pepper in bowl; toss to blend well. Heat oil in heavy medium skillet over medium heat. Add potato mixture; press to flatten with spatula. Cover and cook until bottom begins to crisp, about 5 minutes. Using metal spatula, turn over browned bottom in sections. Cook uncovered until hash is thoroughly flecked with brown bits and onion and bell pepper are tender, turning over browned bottom in sections 2 more times, about 10 minutes longer. Divide between plates and serve. Note: Using frozen hash brown potatoes really reduces prep time. This easy hash goes well with fried or poached eggs and some steamed broccoli. Serves: 2 (can be doubled)
Stir Fried Red Flannel Hash Ingredients: 1 Tbs. unsalted butter
1 Tbs. vegetable oil
3 cooked beets (about 3/4 lb., peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3 cooked carrots, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 cooked boiling potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/4 lb. piece of corned beef, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
1 bunch of green onions, sliced thin Preparation: In a heavy skillet heat the butter and the oil over moderately high heat until the foam subsides and in the fat stir-fry the beets, the carrots, the potatoes, the corned beef and the onions with salt and pepper to taste for 6 minutes, or until the hash is browned. Note: Stir-frying yields a dish whose components are crisp and separate rather than melded into a cake, as is traditional. Serves: 4
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.)
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