March is here, which means both spring and St. Patrick's Day are right around the corner. If you ask me, both are worth getting excited about!
Does your family enjoy a meal of corned beef for St. Patrick's Day? For my family, March 17th means we break out our big 22 quart roaster (yes, the one that is otherwise only used for grad parties and summer get-togethers to hold a ridiculous amount of sloppy joe meat) and fill it to the brim with corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, carrots and rutabagas. After a full day of cooking and making the house smell wonderful, we feast on a meal that we only get to enjoy once a year. I guess that's what makes it so special!
Sure, you can buy pre-brined corned beef in the store, but it just doesn't compare to making your own. Not only can you control the quality of the ingredients you use, but the flavor is just SO much better! Once you try it homemade, you'll see how much store-bought pales in comparison.
Corning Your Own Beef Brisket is Easy!
Like a lot of great recipes, the process of making homemade corned beef isn't complicated, it just takes time. 7-10 days worth of time, to be exact, so be sure to plan ahead. While it only takes minutes to prepare the brine, the beef brisket will sit in the brine for up to 10 days, meaning if you are planning to enjoy the corned beef on St. Patrick's Day, it's best to start the process around March 7th-10th.
Start with a High-Quality Beef Brisket
One of the most important steps in this whole process is choosing a great piece of meat to start with. Traditional corned beef is made from beef brisket. While you may be able to find brisket in a grocery store, the quality and flavor won't be near as good as if you sourced your brisket from a local farmer. Reach out to your local farm and ask them if they have brisket available.
We keep brisket in stock here at the farm store ALL year round. Perfect for corning or smoking, you'll blow your taste buds away either way ;) Once you have your brisket, you are ready to get started with the rest of the process.
One nice thing about making homemade corned beef is you don't need a long list of fancy ingredients. In fact, you may only have to buy a few things you don't have on hand already. For making my brisket, I had to buy pickling spice, course kosher salt, and pink curing salt. Note: pink Himalayan salt is not the same as pink curing salt and cannot be supplemented here.
While the kosher salt was readily available at my local grocery store, I had to order the pickling spice and curing salt online. You'll also need brown sugar and garlic cloves. Then you're ready to get started!
Making the Brine
I've included a recipe above for easy use, but will explain the steps here too. This recipe was adapted from, Kevin is Cooking, which I'll link below!
To make your brine, you'll start with a large stock pot and add all of your brine ingredients. You'll bring this to a boil and whisk to dissolve the sugar and salt. Once boiling, reduce to a simmer and stir until dissolved. Then simply cool the brine and you're ready to brine the brisket!
Find a large pot, pan or container that will fit your brisket and brine
You'll want to find a large container that will fit your brisket and brine. You can cut your brisket in half to fit if you need to! Both pieces can brine together in the same container. A large pot, pan or plastic container all work well. Just make sure you can get the vessel fairly air tight. You can use plastic wrap to help with this too.
Pour the cooled brine into your chosen container and add the brisket to the liquid. Make sure the brisket is fully submerged. You may have to set a plate on top of the meat to make sure it stays submerged.
Then, cover your container tightly and place it into the fridge. This is where all of the magic will happen over the next 7-10 days. You don't have to stir or flip the brisket at all. There's really no maintenance throughout the brining process. You can check to make sure it is still submerged after a couple of days, but that's really all that needs doing.
After 7-10 days, you are ready to cook
The first thing you'll do before cooking your brisket is remove it from the brine and rinse it really well. You can dispose of the brine, you won't need it anymore. Then you'll add the brisket to your cooking vessel and add 4 cups of beef broth and a tablespoon of pickling spice.
There are a few different ways to cook brisket. You can cook it in a pot on the stove, in a dutch oven in the oven, in a slow-cooker or in an Instant Pot. It's completely up to you. I will link the the recipe I used below. It explains the cooking process and time for each of these methods.
That's It!
Simply add your desired veggies, such as potatoes, carrots, cabbage and rutabagas towards the end of the cooking time and cook them until tender. Then you're ready to eat! You just can't beat a good corned beef meal, and making it homemade makes all the difference.
Enjoy!
Here's the link to the recipe I used: How to make corned beef. You can read through the recipe to see different cooking methods and a few more details on the process. I hope you enjoy!
Reach out anytime to get your own farm-fresh brisket from the farm store! We're open daily on an appointment basis and would love to help! Call or text 715-214-5220 and let's get you stocked up :)
~Hannah
