Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Mixed question, so I wasn't sure what board to put this one on - mods, feel free to move it as desired.

I am thinking of corning my own beef for St Patty's day. Yes, I know it isn't Irish. However my second generation Irish father adores it, and even more so on St Patty's. So there.

Any comments on the Ruhlman recipe? I have corning spices from Penzey's and curing salt, so as long as I do my weights and measures I should be okay with the cure.

Now for the cooking. I saw an old post of Amy's for sous vide-ing it at 140F for 48 hours. I think the beef would be perfectly cooked at that point. But... but... no broth to cook the veggies in! So what to do to get around that? Put a couple of cupps of water in the bag (ice)? Sacrifice an end piece to be boiled or pressure cooked for broth? Any ideas here? I'll boil it before I will do without the broth...

Thanks,

--Lisa

I prefer dry-brined, uncured (no pink salt) brisket. I use CI's recipe and vacuum seal the brisket in a large food-saver bag. I weight it with a large bag of rice if am only doing one brisket. If I am doing a few, I just stack them and rotate them every day. Then I cook the brisket in some stout in the slow-cooker. I'm just not wild about boiled dinner, though I will often accompany the brisket with traditional boiled-dinner veggies, prepared some other way -- matchstick root veggies or braised cabbage, for instance.

My favorite beef to use is the point cut from the local grass-fed beef grower. They raise Highland cattle, which are smaller and leaner than the Holsteins and Angus usually grown for beef in this country. However, with conventional beef, I prefer the flat cut as the point is way too fatty.

I've used the Ruhlman recipe and like it. The curing salt is essential, IMO, unless you're a diehard New Englander (I never liked corned beef growing up in Vermont - couldn't get over the appearance).

I just bought a couple of cheap corned beefs (beeves?) at Price-rite but I'll cure my own if I find a reasonably-priced brisket in the next couple of weeks.

I'm ignorant on the topic but my first guess would be that CB benefits less from SV cooking than other cuts.

While the SV corned beef did work, I guess I'm ultimately not the biggest fan of it. Although pastrami is calling my name...

Amy