Corned beef and pastrami
Nick Cramer
method. Corning is an ancient technique for preserving raw meat for long
periods. It involves rubbing the meat in a mixture of salt and spices and
then keeping it covered in the resultant juicy brine for a minimum of two
weeks or much longer. The familiar corned beef is one of the few remnants
of this practice still popular today. While it is very simple to purchase
corned beef in the supermarket, either in ready-to-cook bags or already
cooked and sliced, making it a home is almost as easy, will not contain
unknown chemicals or fluids and is much less expensive. You also have the
option of using different cuts of meat. If you like corned beef you will
like corned tongue. The flavor is identical, the only difference is in
texture and appearance. After the minimum period of curing, the meat can be
cooked and eaten and will be delicious. Longer curing will result in richer
flavor and will not harm the meat at all.
Several different cuts of beef as well as the tongue are excellent
candidates for corning, in fact, except for steaks, any cut can be brined.
Obviously, the brisket is a good choice.
The thing to remember is that while you are actually preserving the meat
with salt you are also adding a great deal of flavor with the additional
ingredients added to the curing mixture. You will be using black pepper,
allspice, thyme, sage, paprika, bay leaf, rutabaga (or turnip), onions,
carrots, and garlic.
THE INGREDIENTS
For 10 pounds of meat you will need 1 and a half cups of coarse or
non-iodized salt (kosher salt is good to use but regular granulated salt
without the iodine works just as well), 3 tablespoons of brown sugar, a
generous tablespoons of cracked black peppercorns, 2 teaspoons of allspice
berries, cracked, 2 tsp Instacure #1 or Prague Powder #1 (optional, but
highly recommended), five or six sprigs of fresh thyme, a teaspoon of
powdered sage, a teaspoon of paprika, 7 or 8 bay leaves, broken into small
pieces, a small coarsely-chopped onion, a small chopped rutabaga (or
turnip), a chopped carrot, and 6 cloves of garlic, either crushed or finely
minced. If you are only doing one tongue, reduce the amounts of ingredients
accordingly.
THE METHOD
The corning process can be done in a large stone crock but is really much
easier if you use freezer zip-lock bags. Assemble enough bags to hold all
your different cuts of meat, one cut to a bag. Mix all the ingredients
together in a small bowl. Place all the meat in a roasting pan and cover
all sides with the salt mixture, rubbing it in well. Put each piece of meat
into a bag and divide the remaining salt mixture among the bags. Remove as
much air as possible from each bag and seal. If you have one of those
vacuum sealers, this is a perfect use for it. You want the meat to be
bathed in the salt mixture at all times.
Pack all the bags into a large bowl or crock and weight them down under a
plate and about 10 pounds of weight (use canned tomatoes or the like).
Place in the bottom of the fridge. Check the bags in a few hours. The juice
should be running freely from the meat. Massage each bag to work the cure
into all the crevices of the meat. Repack into the container, re-weight and
return to the fridge. Turn the bags and massage twice a day to make sure
the cure is getting into all sides of the meat.
If a bag breaks, transfer the meat into a new bag with all the juices and
about a quarter cup of salt. Leave the meat to cure for at least two weeks,
three is better, before cooking one.
Before cooking, you will have to soak the meat in several changes of fresh
cold water to remove the excess salt. The longer the meat is cured, the
longer it will take to soak. Twenty-four hours should be enough. The meat
will lose its rubbery texture and begin to feel like fresh raw meat again.
Because there is no saltpeter in this curing mix, the meat will not be
bright red. Don't worry, you didn't do anything wrong, this is what it
should look like. If you really want it to look like purchased corned meat,
find saltpeter at a pharmacy and add a half-teaspoon to the cure, but this
is not necessary and only adds questionable, perhaps carcinogenic,
substances to your food. There is no good reason to add nitrates to your
food other than aesthetic ones. Get used to grayish-brown corned beef, it
is better for you!
At this point, you can also use the corned beef to make New York Deli style
pastrami [see below]
COOKING
Put the refreshed meat in a pot and cover with water and dry wine. Add a
carrot, some celery stalks with tops, a small onion, several sprigs of
Italian parsley, some sprigs of fresh thyme, 4 bay leaves, and 5 cloves of
garlic, flattened with the side of a knife. Bring to a boil and reduce to
simmer. Skim off any foam that rises for the first few minutes then cover
partially with a lid and cook at the simmer until the tongue or brisket can
be pierced easily with a fork. This will take 2 to 3-1/2 hours, depending
on the size of the meat cut.
If you will be serving the corned beef or tongue cold, allow to cool in the
cooking liquid. When cool, the tongue should be removed and the rough skin
carefully peeled off. It will usually come off in one or two large pieces
and this is MUCH easier if the tongue is still slightly warm. Discard the
skin. Also remove any small bones from the large end of the tongue and
discard. Put the meat in the fridge for several hours or overnight. Tongue
or corned beef should be sliced thinly and served with good rye bread or
rolls with mustard. Either corned tongue or other cuts of beef can be
heated and served as hot sandwiches too.
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Corned Beef & Cabbage
1 4-pound corned beef brisket
3 large carrots, cut into large chunks
4 onions, chopped
1 large sprig of fresh thyme
3 sprigs of fresh parsley
1 head of cabbage
Pepper, to taste
Place the first five ingredients in a Dutch oven. Add cold water and dry
wine or whiskey to cover. Bring water to a boil, lower heat and simmer,
covered, for two hours. Occasionally skim any fat that rises to the
surface during simmering. Quarter the cabbage and add to the pot. Cook for
another hour - or until the meat and vegetables are tender. Adjust
seasonings. Slice the corned beef and serve with the vegetables. This dish
goes well with boiled red potatoes and a hearty mustard or horseradish
sauce.
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Making New York Deli style Pastrami
Rub the corned beef again. This time with 4 or 5 Tbs coarse ground black
pepper, 2 Tbs ground coriander or cracked coriander seeds and 2 Tbs
granulated garlic or garlic powder. Smoke in a slow oven or outdoor smoker
at 225 F for around an hour. Apple or other fruit wood will be great!
Optionally, after smoking, you put it on a rack in a pan with a little
water, cover and slow steam over very low heat for a couple of hours. This
will make it really tender!
Some good rye bread, mustard, a dill pickle and a beer. Ahhh, batampt!
--
Nick, KI6VAV. Support severely wounded and disabled Veterans and their
families: https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/ Thank a Veteran!
Support Our Troops: http://anymarine.com/ You are not forgotten.
Thanks ! ! ~Semper Fi~ USMC 1365061
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