Ozark
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Reged: 12/14/05
Posts: 4012
Loc: out in the woods
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I just put 5 lbs. of beef brisket in brine, in the 'fridge, to cure into corned beef. I didn't use any pink curing salt - some say pink salt is a health hazard (I have no idea). Since it's only added to make the beef pink, and we don't care about the color, I've been leaving it out lately.
The brine I used is real simple: 2 quarts of water, 1 cup Kosher salt, 1 1/2 tablespoons Pickling Spices, 1/4 cup Brown Sugar. I just used Mrs. Wages Pickling Spices from the store.
During the next week, I'll turn the meat over a couple of times to make sure it's evenly exposed to the brine. After it's soaked for a week I'll rinse it several times and let it sit overnight in cold water to get the salt out - then we'll cook it.
It's only 5 pounds of meat, so I doubt we'll make corned beef and cabbage this time - we'll do that with another one for St. Pat's Day in about seven weeks. But boy, a couple of lunches with Reuben sandwiches on rye bread, homemade sauerkraut, and spicy mustard, AND a couple of breakfasts of corned beef hash and runny eggs - that's some good eating, there.
I need to remember to make corned beef more often!.
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griffin
administrator
Reged: 12/13/05
Posts: 9625
Loc: the most dangerous city in Ame...
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Wait.....how do you cook it? I love corned beef, and I like to cook beef.....but I've never done my own corned beef.
Give up the recipe or the ninja gets it! 
griffin
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"The Irish are one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever." - Sigmund Freud
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Ozark
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Reged: 12/14/05
Posts: 4012
Loc: out in the woods
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Here ya go, griffin. Here's the whole deal from start to finish, and paragraph #4 under "method" tells how to cook it:
http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/home_cured_corned_beef/
Me, I didn't mess with doing all those spices myself - Mrs. Wage's Pickling Spices comes in a green/yellow envelope at food stores for a couple of bucks. I got a little confused when I bought a new envelope yesterday because they've changed the label - it says "Create Your Own Bread and Butter Pickles" in big letters at the top now. Same stuff, and there's enough mixed spices in the envelope to make corned beef a bunch of times.
You'll notice that for mine, I cut all the brine ingredients in half. That's because with the size of the beef brisket I'm using and the container I've got it in, I only needed 2 quarts of brine, not a gallon. Adjust the amount of brine you make as needed to cover the meat - just keep all the proportions the same.
As stated, I didn't use "pink salt" in the brine. I don't know if there's any truth to the claims that the stuff is bad for your health - it's been used for centuries in curing meats to keep the color pink and bright. I think we eat it in ham, sausage, bacon, etc. all the time, but now some government scientist probably killed a mouse with a 55 gallon drum of the stuff, got awarded a big grant of tax money for doing so, and there ya go. Without "pink salt" the corned beef is brown, not pink, and that's fine with us since it tastes the same.
I'm telling ya, griff - beef brisket costs $3 a pound, store-bought corned beef costs $7, and the home-brined version is a lot BETTER. It's slap yo' mama good - and all it takes is to get it soaking a week ahead of time.
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countryside
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Reged: 12/15/05
Posts: 50
Loc: Edina mo
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Go to sausagemaker.com they have pre mixed spices for corned beef. You can buy enough to make 50lbs. cheap. Just follow directions. Very easy. Cure 1 day for every inch of thickness. I use this for corned venison. Most people that have tried this prefer it over beef. Less fat. I use a pressure cooker. Cook for 45 min. at 10 psi remove from heat add cabbage, potatos,carrots, onions and whatever else you want bring back to 10psi for 3 min cool and your done.
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"Wiskey for me beer for my labs."
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rb.
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Reged: 12/14/05
Posts: 1010
Loc: mo
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I have corned venison roast and beef. If you want lean corned beef use an eye of the round. If you corn a flat cut brisket smoke it after its cured and you have pastrami. I usually just use Morton's tender quick which is in all the grocery stores. Then you can throw in what ever spices you want on top of that. It is better than store bought.
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countryside
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Reged: 12/15/05
Posts: 50
Loc: Edina mo
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I usally make up 30-50 lbs at a time depending on how much deer I have. Some goes for pastrami some for corned venison and cabbage and some I make up corned venison hash then freeze it in small vacuum sealed bags. When I make pastrami I coat it heavily with coarse black peper then smoke.
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"Wiskey for me beer for my labs."
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redleg
Enzyte - one a day!
Reged: 12/13/05
Posts: 6002483
Loc: Big Rock Candy Mountain
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Never enjoyed pastrami until recently,,,I'm hooked 
Don't own a smoker but me and Pop think that is about to change Prolly go electric with the amazinsmoker for cold smokes....Looks like we could build one of those ..
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A gun is like a parachute, if you need one and don't have one, you'll prolly never need one again.
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rb.
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Reged: 12/14/05
Posts: 1010
Loc: mo
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Electric is the easiest to keep temp and won't run out of gas or charcoal. I have had a cheapie one for years and it works great. I wish I could cold smoke with it.
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Ozark
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Reged: 12/14/05
Posts: 4012
Loc: out in the woods
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Some friends and I made a smoker, years ago. We did it the cheap way, with an old refrigerator that didn't run and an electric hot plate in the bottom. It worked real well, considering that we didn't have any air vents, temperature control, or anything.
This was in CA and we were doing a lot of ocean fishing at the time. The fish that are strong-tasting and oily, like mackerel, bonito, and barracuda, make REAL tasty smoked fish. When we tried smoking mild, normally good-eating fish like halibut or fresh water crappie, they weren't near so good.
I remembered that last year and smoked several bunches of big white bass I caught out of Tablerock, thinking that they're strong-tasting and oily like some ocean fish. I was right - big white bass filets smoke up GREAT.
Now you've got me thinking about making pastrami. For the white bass, I just used our closed gas barbecue with a metal smoker box of apple wood on one burner, turned way down low. I bet I can make pastrami out of some home-brined brisket the same way. Thanks.
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Mac
Birding Moderator
Reged: 12/14/05
Posts: 3379
Loc: The Great State of Nebraskey
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Quote:
I didn't use any pink curing salt - some say pink salt is a health hazard (I have no idea).
I suspect that would be sodium nitrate you mean. It has been commonly used to keep fresh red meat/hamburger from turning brown (but the meat oxidizes anyway).
My dad used to smoke 2-pound carp in a home-made cold smoker....mebbe 20 at a time in an over-turned 40" x 48" x 40" fiberglass chamber. That damn smoked fish was a beer drinker's dream I tell ya!
I've only smoked turkeys for the most part. I need to get back to that mode!
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redleg
Enzyte - one a day!
Reged: 12/13/05
Posts: 6002483
Loc: Big Rock Candy Mountain
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here's a pretty good site on smoking lots of info if ya did around some http://www.smoking-meat.com/august-1-2013-amazingly-tender-smoked-brisket-tutorial
rb for cold smoke in yer electric I think the amazin smoker would work well for ya it's kinda like a smoke box but different it's more of a basket type deal.
Dig around on this site and you should be able to find out more about it. Hope this helps some.
Ozark I'm not a great fan of trout unless they are fresh out of the water, but I think the best smoked fish I ever ate was smoked trout ole boy smoked it with cherry. He also had salmon and sturgeon that evening, but the trout was killer.
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A gun is like a parachute, if you need one and don't have one, you'll prolly never need one again.
Edited by redleg (02/01/14 06:29 AM)
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