Friday, March 18, 2011

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Corned Beef Experience

Corned Beef
My corned beef was a success, all things considered. I botched the preparation because I put the meat into a pot of boiling water instead of letting it heat up slowly as the water heated up. The meat came out a little tough and Alex kept telling me that brisket, in general, is a very tough meat so not to worry about toughness. I've never made corned beef so I was expecting a really juicy cut of meat. Could putting it in the boiling water really have messed things up? Or maybe it's because I sliced the meat really thick?
 Corned Beef
Also, I think because of the size of the meat (2 lb) they didn't include a seasoning pack. I was counting on that! I did a google search and decided to just throw my spice rack into the pot. My meat was already in the water and I didn't want to take it out and start messing with it. I added whole coriander, black peppercorn, bay leaves, salt, a few cloves of garlic, and mustard seed. So while the meat was a little tough and not as juicy as I expected, it did come out delicious. It was salty, sweet, and a little smokey. We were too full from lunch so we ended up having corned beef sandwiches with Dijon mustard and, oh my, was that good.

There wasn't much leftover but I am looking forward to using the bit we have to make corned beef hash. Yum! I hope everyone else's St. Pat's meal was a success!
Stephanie

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Here back in Boston I've never seen a seasoning pack. I just throw the whole thing in water and let it simmer away for a super long time. I put mine in at 9am and it cooked until 4:00!! The veggies cooked for about a half an hour in the broth after I removed the beef with some of the juices and put it in a covered foil pan in a low oven. At that point it wasn't even sliceable...but very very tender. I think next year you just want to simmer it for a really long time.