With St. Patty’s Day fast approaching, corned beef has started to make its appearance in the grocery store. It’s an interesting piece of meat, that a lot of people love to eat but many have no idea of really what it is, or how to make it themselves.
Corned beef is pickled brisket and it harkens back to the days before refrigeration where a popular way of preserving meat was to pack it in salt or pickle it. At one time, corn referred to the number of kernels or seeds including the coarse salt granules packed around the brisket. So, the meat was called corned beef in reference to the corns of salt. If you can brine a turkey for Thanksgiving then you most certainly can pickle a brisket for St. Patricks Day.
Most recipes call for pink salt which is a salt and sodium nitrate mixture. This preserves the pink color of the meat. I personally do not eat food with added nitrates or nitrites, so substituting some celery juice which has naturally occurring nitrates in it, is my choice.
The following recipe is very vague on purpose. If you are going to make your owned corned beef then you should also make your own pickling spice, so while i will provide suggestions on which spices to use, i will let you decide the amounts so that you can really own this corned beef! Don’t stress about this step, whatever spices and in whatever amounts you chose, will be fine. Just have fun in the kitchen and enjoy the results. You should start this in the next day or two if you want it to be ready for St. Patrick’s Day. Let me know how it turns out.