razbry wrote:Tell me about smoking corned beef. What do you end up with? Interesting

Basically, something similar to pastrami: Fauxstrami

Binko wrote:

razbry wrote:Tell me about smoking corned beef. What do you end up with? Interesting

Basically, something similar to pastrami: Fauxstrami

Exactly.







Enjoy,
Gary

Bridgestone wrote:Looks wonderful, Gary but I think you owe it to yourself to start checking the expiration date on your bagels a little more closely...

You funny for a Swedish guy.................

As a follow up, I did make my annual corned beef in the oven this year. I used beer and pickling spices, and cooked it for about 9 hours at 225. It was much more flavorful than the traditional simmering or using of the crock pot methods of cooking corned beef. I got one slice, and my 16 year old ate the rest! That is about the best testimony I can give, as my son is the pickiest eater known to mankind. I will confess, so that others may learn from my mistakes, that I also cooked cabbage, potatoes, and carrots along with the corned beef. The results of this experiment were not good as the vegetables and potatoes ended up sodden, over cooked and had a funny taste. I ended up pitching it all. However, I did enjoy my one slice of corned beef!

Gary, once again you have inspired me. I did smoke a brisket (as per your instructions) this past weekend. It was one of the best things I have produced from my smoker. As always, excellent instructions. Now I must confess that you are now part of a couple of goals in my life. In the short term, I want to buy your new book and have you autograph it for me. In the long term (one of those things you want to do before you die) I want to come to Chicago and have a meal with you and other LTHers at LTH. As I understand it, when you are in charge of the meal, the entire staff at the restaurant "snaps" "hops" and "sings" to make it exactly to your specifications. To me that would be a once in a lifetime experience. Someday...someday!

razzy, I'm not sure how big a corned beef you were cooking, but 9 hours does seem a bit long to me. I say that only because of your bad experience with the veggies. I think my 18 pounder cooked for about 9 hours; anything smaller than that would take considerably less time. At that low temp I don't think the extra time hurt it any, it may have been more than was necessary though. Another option, of course, if you do want to cook the corned beef for that length of time, would be to hold off on the vegetables until the last two or three hours of roasting time and then put them in.

Otherwise, I'm glad this method worked out for you.

Buddy

Buddy Baby! (I always wanted to say that). You are right...9 hours was a long time for the size of corned beef that I cooked. It was one of those deals where you chuck the meal in the oven, go off to work, and hope for the best when you get home. Excellent advice about putting the veggies in for the last couple of hours. As they say on the north side...next year!

razbry wrote:Now I must confess that you are now part of a couple of goals in my life. In the short term, I want to buy your new book and have you autograph it for me. In the long term (one of those things you want to do before you die) I want to come to Chicago and have a meal with you and other LTHers at LTH.

Razbry,

Thank you for the kind words, it would be my honor to autograph a book for you. Far as going with an LTHForum group to 'Little' Three Happiness, sounds like a plan, let's work up a date and then put it on the Events Board.

Enjoy,
Gary

razbry wrote:Buddy Baby! (I always wanted to say that).

Look at us-Razzy and Buddy Baby; we're like a couple of big shot Hollywood producers!

Glad everything worked out for you, more or less. Fine tune the veggies and I think you will be very happy with the end result.

Buddy (Baby)

I must say that I'm a new fan of the oven method of cooking a corned beef. Being in a corporate apartment these days without access to my crock pot, I soaked my corned beef for about 24 hours in water to leach the salt, the braised it overnight in a 250 degree oven- a total of about 8 hours. The braising liquid was Guiness, onions, carrots, pickling spice and big, thin slices of elephant garlic.

The end product, made from a normally tough brisket flat, shredded easily for hash this morning. which consisted of the onions and garlic from the braising liquid, some diced potatoes left over from dinner last night, salt, pepper, a dash of chipotle and a little bit of the incredibly flavored braising liquid.

Can anyone offer or point to a good crock-pot recipe for corned beef? Quantity of liquid and cooking time are my main questions.

Katie, in my experience, just enough liquid to come to the top of the meat without covering it is the right amount. Too much liquid will dilute the flavor of the corned beef. Too little may evaporate and cause the meat to taste something like a salt lick.

Depending on how much marbled fat it has, makes a big difference in cooking time. For a flat brisket with littler marbled fat, I prefer 10-12 hours in the crock pot. For a fattier piece, 8-10 hours.

For St. Pats we do our own. Use the recipe from the Complete Meat Book. It has always been very good. We brine for 10-15 days with NO NITRATES.
Had a taste for Corned Beef last week. Bought one at Sunset. Tender, but the amount of nitrates, turned us off.
Whole Foods only carries nitrate free for St. Pats.
Still have a taste for corned beef, anyone know where you can buy Nitrate Free in the Chicago area.
Thanks,

Wally Wade

I have been buying uncooked corned beef brisket from Sinai Kosher on the South Side for many years and now, with them closing their doors, am trying to find an alternative. I like to get the uncooked brisket and boil it myself at home to serve with some buttered boiled potatoes with parsley.

Does anybody have any suggestions?

The Jewel on Howard near McCormick in Evanston has an expanded Kosher meat section and they frequently have pickled brisket in their meat cooler. They run from 4-7 pounds usually and give that Passover is approaching they should be carrying it regularly for at least the next couple of months.

Hi,

Peoria Packing House has corned beef as full briskets, flats and points/deckle. I buy almost exclusively the points for the richer flavor. They are there all year long against the wall near the butcher counter. I have been known to sort through a couple of boxes to find weight and size approximately the same. I prefer to have them finish around the same time instead of staggered.

Packing Butcher Shop
1300 West Lake Street
Chicago, IL 60607
312-738-1800
Monday - Saturday: 6am-5pm
Sunday: 9am-3pm

Regards,

Thanks for the info. I'll give them a shot.

Planning ahead for St. Patty's Day...

Haven't found good corned beef around here since Stein's Deli in Lyons closed some years ago. Actually, the Clarendon Market in Clarendon Hills made some really excellent CB, but they're long gone, too.

I'd appreciate some suggestions for a place out this way. Casey's in Western Springs does their own, but I wasn't blown away the last time I tried it.

Any help would be appreciated.

Mike

...Anybody remember the classic TV commercial for Stein's?
Mr. Stein has been kidnapped by a gang of desperadoes, who were holding him for ransom, demanding - and receiving - a huge platter of Pastrami sandwiches from his deli. Pretty funny.

Not sure if it's close enough for you but Winston's in Tinley Park makes their own corned beef (also boiling bacon, white and black puddings etc). I haven't had it for years but remember it being very good. While you're there you can pick up all your Irish groceries, including good soda bread and brown bread. Winston's also has a smaller branch, actually the original store, near Midway.

Winston's Market
7961 159th St
Tinley Park IL
708-633-7500
http://www.winstonsmarket.net/

Winston's Sausage
4701 W 63rd St
Chicago
773-767-4353

LTH,

Great news on the corned beef front, just in time for Saint Paddy's Day Fresh Farms, Niles is now carrying Ex-Cel Corned Beef. Ex-Cel, no relation to mega meat company Excel, is a small local producer of the best commercial corned beef I've had, so good in fact for years I centered a Saint Paddy's Day party around both simmer and smoked Ex-Cel. Its been a bit of a chore to source Ex-Cel corned beef for the regular consumer, aside from being wholesale only, they keep meat-packer hours, 5 AM - 1 PM, and only sell whole packer cut corned beef which run approx 15-lbs.

Fresh Farms, has both Point (deckle/fattier part) and Flat (leaner section) for $2.69/lb and $2.99/lb respectively. This is cured but raw/uncooked corned beef and Must be cooked prior to consuming.

While Fresh Farms, Niles has a large selection of Ex-Cel corned beef I am not sure if it is being sold system wide or only at the Niles location.

Ex-Cel corned beef, count me a fan.

Enjoy,
Gary

Fresh Farms
5740 W Touhy Ave
Niles, IL 60714
(847) 779-7343

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

Peoria Packing House has corned beef as full briskets, flats and points/deckle. I buy almost exclusively the points for the richer flavor. They are there all year long against the wall near the butcher counter. I have been known to sort through a couple of boxes to find weight and size approximately the same. I prefer to have them finish around the same time instead of staggered.

Packing Butcher Shop
1300 West Lake Street
Chicago, IL 60607
312-738-1800
Monday - Saturday: 6am-5pm
Sunday: 9am-3pm

Regards,

We bought four points from Peoria this year and were very happy with the results (pretty cheap, about $1.69/lb, I believe)...though using The Wife's time-tested boil/bake technique, we've never had a corned beef that wasn't delicious.

Last night was St. Patty's day @ our house(no time to cook a corned beef properly on a work night)

Traditional method of cooking as it has alwas been done in the O'Quinn family. 1- 3.5# corned beef, 1 can of beer, 3 cloves of whole garlic(peel on), 1/2 onion, celery scraps, pickling spice,& enough water to cover the corned beef. Simmered on really low temps for 4 hours, turned off the stove & then left it in the corned beef broth for 30 minutes before taking it out, then rested 10 minutes before slicing. Really tender, served with red potatoes and cabbage I steamed in a seperate pot, and some home made garlic bread. Brilliant..!

Balance of the corned beef will be sliced thin and turned into reuben sandwiches tomorrow night with some Russian dressing I made.

David Hammond wrote:we've never had a corned beef that wasn't delicious.

Agreed*

What I particularly like about Ex-Cel corned beef is they skew more toward spicy and aromatic than salty, that plus the fact they use choice brisket which helps insure a tender end result. Its all good though, its all good.


*With the exception of AP Deli on Wabash.

G Wiv wrote:LTH,

Great news on the corned beef front, just in time for Saint Paddy's Day Fresh Farms, Niles is now carrying Ex-Cel Corned Beef.
Ex-Cel corned beef, count me a fan.

Gary, Thanks for the "heads-up" on this. I will be stopping in tomorrow to buy some.

Are they loose in a bin, or are they cryovac-ed?

Hopefully the latter so I can stock-up.

cito wrote:
Hopefully the latter so I can stock-up.

Definitely stock up. I have a feeling that once these are gone, they won't be restocked again until next St. Patrick's day.

cito wrote:Are they loose in a bin, or are they cryovac-ed?

The Ex-Cel points and flats are in cryovac.

stevez wrote:Definitely stock up. I have a feeling that once these are gone, they won't be restocked again until next St. Patrick's day.

I hope that's not the case, but you may be right.

this is how my 3rd generation South Side of Chicago Irish-American family rolls for St. Patty's day(observed 3/14):

Ever since the first time I prepared a corned beef in the oven, I was a fan. I haven't prepared one any other way since.


What I do...

(in a nutshell) I like to score the brisket and set into a roasting pan and pour one Guinness Stout . Next I'll mix up my own pickling mix and crush to a powder with my mortar and pestle. I sprinkle the spice mix on top of corned beef and spreading the rest into the liquid. I'll turn the heat up in the oven for 30min or so...just so you get a little bit of color on the top of the brisket. Then I lower the temp, cover and cook until it's near slicing tender. I finish by removing the top to finish the color and get the fat crisped up, just a little.

If you like you can ladle some of the juice from the roasting pan into your veggie/cabbage pot. But for me...the improvement in the taste of the corned beef, cooked in the oven, is so much better.

What I call slicing tender? Tender enough that it is fork tender, but still can be sliced @ 3/16" and keep it's shape without breaking.

dan

Hi,

My niece is making her first corned beef. The meat case had flat, point and round. I know the flat and point are known brisket sections. I never heard round described as part of the brisket, rather they pickled another meat cut. Is is possible round is part of the brisket? (I don't think so, but then again, I could be wrong.)

She did buy the round, because she couldn't reach me when she was shopping.

Regards,

A few years ago I had corned beef cooked with beans at a friends and I've cooked it that way myself since. I don't claim to be an expert at corned beef, but it always turns out well and the beans are almost as popular as the beef.

Basic process: Soak the beans overnight. Drain. Then toss the corned beef and bean in my cast iron dutch oven. Add a can of PBR. Bring to a simmer, cover, and into a 300 F oven for 4 or more hours. When it's done, I remove the beans and beef from the broth, toss in potatoes and cabbage and boil for 20 min or so on the stove.

G Wiv wrote:

David Hammond wrote:we've never had a corned beef that wasn't delicious.

Agreed*

What I particularly like about Ex-Cel corned beef is they skew more toward spicy and aromatic than salty, that plus the fact they use choice brisket which helps insure a tender end result. Its all good though, its all good.


*With the exception of AP Deli on Wabash.

While shopping at Fresh Farms this week, I saw these - the visual difference between Ex-Cel and the other corned beefs was striking - you can see whole mustard and herbs (must be crumbled bay leaves) very clearly, rather than the usual muddy mush of spice glop. Nice find, G -looking forward to tasting it tonight.