Corned Beef for St. Paddy’s Day

I’ve wanted to do this for years. Literally, many years.

Homemade corned beef is the stuff dreams are made from. I’ve had many corned beefs over the years from pre-cured store bought brands. Most of them were really good, but this is transcendent.

This is very straight forward, you just need room in the fridge for a week to allow the brine to complete. Many times when I’m brining something large, like a turkey, I stick in a cooler in the yard, but this worked out.

So my kitchen is not kosher, obviously, but, this dish is kosher by proxy.

Step 1 purchase a brisket
Step 2 Brine that brisket
Step 3, happiness

Ingredients:

For the brine:

1 gallon distilled water
8 oz of kosher salt
2 teaspoons of Prague powder #1
About 4 tablespoons of pickling spice.

Spice mix for the corned beef:

½ teaspoon ginger
½ teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon mustard seeds
1 bay leaf
½ teaspoon cardamom pods
½ teaspoon whole cloves

And then for the actual corned beef:

6 baby potatoes
2 carrots
½ head of cabbage

Dissolve the salts in the water and then submerge the brisket in the brine. Let it sit for seven days, yeah just like “The Ring”, only some creepy dead girl is not going to attack you.

After the meat has been in the brine for seven days you are ready to make the Corned Beef.

Place the cured brisket in a stock pot with enough water to just cover it. Add the spice mixture and simmer for about 2 hours

After the meat is tender, add the potatoes and carrots. Simmer for about ½ hour

Add the cabbage and simmer for another 20 minutes