Corned beef is essentially beef cured in a salt brine, with some pickling spices for added flavor. It gets its name “corn” from an old English word for grain, or small pieces of hard things the size of grain, such as salt.
How Is Corned Beef Made?
Over the years, many of my friends have encouraged me to cure my own corned beef, insisting that it wasn’t hard to do, and well worth the effort. After finally getting around to it, I’m happy to report that my friends were right! It really is easy; it just takes about 5 days to cure. Here’s what to do:
How to Season Your Corned Beef
Because you get to choose what pickling spices to use, you can make your own distinctively flavored corned beef. You know how BBQ masters have their own favorite homemade dry rubs? It’s sort of like that. Pretty much every packaged corned beef brisket I’ve bought tastes about the same. The one I home cured? Wonderful and different. While I researched several online sources for curing your own corned beef, as well as interrogating my colleague Hank, the source I referred to the most was Michael Ruhlman’s brilliant Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing (high recommend). You can also see his instructions on Leite’s Culinaria. I played around a bit with the spice mix, and kept the garlic out of the brine, but other than that, pretty much followed Michael’s method.
What Makes Corned Beef Pink?
Corned beef gets its vibrant pink color from the use of sodium nitrite, a chemical compound that also adds flavor and helps inhibit bacterial growth. Sodium nitrite is sold for the purposes of curing meat in a form called “pink salt.” Since sodium nitrite is toxic in concentrated amounts, it is dyed pink so that we don’t mistake it for table salt. Note that curing pink salt is NOT Himalayan pink salt. You can use pink salt for this recipe or not. I’ve corned beef with and without pink salt. Both work. The curing salt adds a little more flavor and will help preserve the beef better if you don’t cook it right away after curing. There is some controversy over the use of sodium nitrite in curing meats, as the frequent consumption of cured meats (bacon, ham, pancetta, corned beef) is linked to an increased risk of certain types of cancer. I eat cured meat maybe once a month, so I’m not worried for myself, but it helps to know about the risks and the current research. To achieve a pink color without the use of curing salt, some people add a beet or two to the boiling water when it comes time to cook the roast. I haven’t tried that yet, but if you do, please let us know how it works out for you!
Tasty Sides for Corned Beef
Corned Beef and Cabbage Corned Beef Hash New England Boiled Dinner Red Flannel Hash
Pink curing salt, or sodium nitrite, goes by many names, such as Prague Powder #1 or DQ Curing Salt #1, and is available online and may be available at your local specialty market or butcher shop. If you don’t have it, you can still make corned beef, but it is necessary for that vibrant pink color we associate with corned beef. And it adds flavor too. Without it the corned beef will be a dull grey color. Note that pink curing salt is NOT Himalayan pink salt. Pink curing salt is toxic and can be deadly if ingested directly, which is why it is colored pink, so consumers do not mistake it for table salt.
1 tablespoon whole allspice berries 1 tablespoon whole mustard seeds (brown or yellow) 1 tablespoon coriander seeds 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes 1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns 2 teaspoons whole cloves 9 whole cardamom pods 6 large bay leaves, crumbled 2 teaspoons ground ginger 1/2 stick cinnamon
For the brine
1 gallon (3.8 liters) water 300g kosher salt (2 cups of Diamond Crystal brand Kosher Salt OR 1 cup 3 1/2 tablespoons of Morton’s Kosher Salt) 5 teaspoons pink curing salt, optional, see Recipe Note 3 tablespoons pickling spices 1/2 cup (90g) brown sugar
For the brisket
1 (5-pound) beef brisket 1 tablespoon pickling spices
Remove from heat and place in a small bowl. Use a mortar and pestle to crush the spices a little (or the back of a spoon or the side of a knife on a flat surface). Add to a small bowl and stir in the crumbled bay leaves and ground ginger. Alternatively you can use a 2-gallon freezer bag (placed in a container so if it leaks it doesn’t leak all over your refrigerator), place the brisket in the freezer bag and about 2 quarts of brine, squeezing out the air from the bag before sealing. Place in the refrigerator and chill from 5-7 days. Every day flip the brisket over, so that all sides get brined equally. Add a tablespoon of the pickling spices to the pot. Bring to a boil, reduce to a very low simmer (barely bubbling), and cook 3-4 hours, until the corned beef is fork tender. (At this point you can store in the fridge for up to a week.) To make the meat easier to cut, cut it first in half, along the grain of the meat. Then make thin crosswise cuts, across the grain to cut the meat to serve.
