Oh, I think most folks have marinated meat and many have seasoned meat and tossed it into the freezer for a version of ‘dry curing’… however, I have to confess that curing my own meat was new to me and I took my time to study what everyone else had done before making my first corned beef.
There are quicker ways that the 3 week method I adapted, but I can’t think I would like any recipe better. In fact, I always liked corned beef… but now I LOVE it! The difference is — of course — all the wonderful things you can do that most commercial folks leave out due to time or expense. Making the corned beef only gets you half way to making a finished Pastrami ( smoked corned beef is now called Pastrami)… which I have to tell you was really superb!
In the first “In laws” movie, they discussed a recipe where the pollo (chicken) had to be marinated for 6 weeks… well we’re talking only 3 weeks or so for corned beef. Obviously, there are a wide variety of food safety issues that you need to become familiar before you attempt this… but once you have it down… it is a wonderful experience!
Here are the basic ingredients for the corned beef step …
5 cups water, 2 Heineken beers
1 1/2 cups salt
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons Prague Powder (a preservative and really not good for you… oh well!)
1 crumbled cinnamon stick
12 allspice berries, 8 cloves, 9 juniper berries
1/2 tablespoon each of: ginger and mustard seed
1/2 teaspoon each of: red pepper flakes, caraway seed and coriander
3 bay leaves crushed
After three weeks or so, I will drain soak in fresh water to reduce the salinity and rinse several times before I re-season and then smoke the beast!
So, why do I go to the effort? Laura loves Pastrami… now she loves mine, better.
Roger