Home Cured Corned Beef is easy to make, if you plan ahead. You can also use other lower cuts of beef.
Ingredients:
1 brisket, 6-9 pounds
3 C kosher salt
5-7 quarts of water
3 cloves of garlic, peeled
20 whole peppercorns
20 whole cloves
4 bay leaves
6 springs of thyme or 1T dried
Dissolve salt in water. Add rest of the ingredients. Place in a large zip lock bag. Place in a glass baking dish and place a heavy object on top, to weight down the bag.
Turn meat every six-ten hours.
Keep refrigerated, and turned for 5-12 days.
Rinse and cook.
Here is how I cook the corned beef.
Place the rinsed brisket in a big pot and cover with water.
Add 1/2 onion, unpeeled, and two-three stocks of celery, left whole.
Bring the water to a soft boil, then lower to your lowest setting and cook slowly for three-four hours.
At this point, test the meat. If it cuts easily, remove the brisket from the broth, and keep it warm in some broth in another pot, and add these vegetables to the original pot.
7 carrots, cut in chunks
3 potatoes cut in bigger pieces
3 rutabagas left whole
4 stalks of celery cut small
Cook another hour before adding quarters of cabbage and a bunch of parsley.
Within fifteen minutes, or when the vegetables are all soft, slice the brisket on the bias and serve two-three slices on a plate with vegetables, and a generous dollop of mustard and butter on the side.
Cold beer will do it justice.
(Save the broth! It will be used as flavoring stock for your future soups. I freeze mine in quart jars, easy to freeze, and easy to defrost too.)
