I have always wanted to try and make my own brine for making corned beef at home and a couple of months ago I was able to find pink curing salt online; which is the salt used to give corned beef its recognizable pink/red appearance. When we had gotten a 1/4 cow from my son back in June, we had two beef briskets that came in the order. And brisket can be a tough cut of meat. Unless you braise it for hours on end, it will be tough and chewy. It's just not a pleasant cut of beef. So two weeks ago I took one of the brisket and decided to experiment with making the corned beef I've longed to try.
RECIPE
- 1 gallon water
- 1-1/2 cups kosher salt
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/3 cup pickling spice
- 4 cloves of minced garlic
- 4 teaspoons pink curing salt
- 3-5 pounds beef brisket
Combine kosher salt, brown sugar, pickling spice, garlic and pink curing salt in an oversized pot and bring to a low rolling bowl; just enough to dissolve the sugar and salt. Then cool down to room temperature. Place the beef brisket in the mixture and, using a plate weigh down the brisket to make sure it is completely submerged under the brine. Leave in the refrigerator for 7-10 days. I left mine in there for 10 days.
Cook corned beef as desired.
I put mine in an Instant pot and set the cooking setting to high pressure for 85 minutes.
We could not get over the flavor of this homemade corned beef. When I told Mr Golden D I was making it, his first question was, "you have to make corned beef? It just doesn't come that way?"
Silly man! I almost said, " no, it comes from the corned cow. Just like chocolate milk comes from brown cows." But, I held my tongue. I lost count of how many times he said, "this is the BEST corned beef I've ever had."
This is definitely going to be a repeat recipe! I'll be taking the other brisket out of the deep freezer in the coming weeks to make another corned beef.
