Its well past Saint Patrick’s Day, but here in the Antediluvian Kitchen we’re making corned beef, and everything in the fridge must make way for our enormous enameled dutch oven with its precious cargo of beef brisket floating in a sea of spiced brine.
Corned beef, that lovely salty meat that we cant imagine making Reuben sandwiches without, is beef that has been cured or preserved by allowing it to soak for some time in a bath of salt, herbs, and spices. (The word ‘corned’ refers not to the vegetable but to an old English term for a grain of salt.) Before the 20th century ushered in the widespread use of chemical refrigeration, the preservation of meat, for storage or for transportation, was a hot issue. In the past decay was staved off (albeit temporarily) by smoking, drying, canning, and, our method for this article, salt curing.
Simply put, salting preserves meat by depriving bacteria and mold of the water that they need in order to survive and reproduce. The addition of salt creates such a high concentration of sodium chloride ions outside of the microbes, that water is drawn out of their cell walls, salt is drawn in, and they either die or their reproduction slows to a snail’s pace. Meat preserved in such a way will keep uncooked for many months. Today of course we don’t need to resort to complicated methods of preservation, but the process of salt curing meat can still be appreciated for its contributions to appearance and texture.
But how did corned beef come to find its well-known association with Saint Patrick’s day? Despite the popular assumption that the dish is part of traditional Irish cuisine, its connection with the holiday actually stems from Irish American culture and is more often a part of celebrations here in the US than it is overseas. For a more in-depth analysis check out Francis Lam’s article St. Patrick’s day controversy; Is corned beef and cabbage Irish?
To make our own exploration of this old fashioned method of meat preservation, we referred to Nick Sandler and Johnny Acton’s recipe in their book Preserved.
This is a wonderful guide to traditional methods of preservation that covers such wide ranging topics as drying, salting, smoking, fermenting, preserving with sugar and alcohol, and air exclusion. And this is no dry tome my friends, it is filled with enough glossy photos to please any foodie porn addict.
Their recipe calls for 5-9lbs of meat, which was a bit much for us to tackle, so we ended up halving the measurements.
1 ½ Cups sea salt of kosher salt (we used pickling salt)
7Cups Fresh water
2 cloves garlic
½ a large onion, roughly chopped
1 tbs whole mustard seeds
1 tbs whole coriander seeds
½ tbs whole cloves
1 ½ tbs whole peppercorns
1 large bay leaf
½ tbs thyme
1 beef brisket, about 3lbs (we used a lovely cut of grass-fed beef from Skagit River Ranch )
You will need a non-metallic vessel for brining. The only thing that we had in the house that was large enough was our enameled cast iron dutch oven. If we ever decide to increase the amount of meat we're going to have to get more creative...
Mix the salt and water and stir until the salt has dissolved. (The brine is the correct strength when a fresh uncooked egg will float in it). Add the remaining ingredients and the brisket. The meat must remain submerged at all times so weigh it down. I found that a good heavy ceramic plate did the trick.
Cover the brining vessel and refrigerate for 10 days , turning the brisket over every other day. The smell will be intoxicating but you must remain patient! When the beef has finished curing you can use half of it immediately and freeze the rest for another day.
When you remove the beef from its brine you will notice that its texture has become much denser and that the outer layer has changed color- something more akin to the color of cooked meat. The inside of the brisket will still be pink.
To cook the corned beef on its own, cover it with water, bring to a boil, skim the surface, and simmer for 4-5 hours. That sounds like alot of time, especially if you cut your brisket in half, but trust me, that meat will be tough and the long slow cooking is important. It will be ready when fork-tender.
We noticed that the meat had a distinct gamey flavor, but whether this was due to the curing process or the fact that our cow spent most of its life prancing around green pastures, rather than standing in a stall, I cant say. Perhaps further experimentation with salt curing will help me answer this question.
We'll be using some of this corned beef in homemade Reubens later this week so stay tuned!
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