Corning of the Beef

This year for St. Patrick's day we have decided to embark on a mission to produce our own homemade tasty corned beef. Because we've had good success in the past with Alton Brown recipe's we decided to give his version a whirl, because it generally tends to be pretty fool proof.

The recipe is here.

I made a few changes since I neglected to order juniper berries, and that's not something that typically is carried at the grocery store spice aisle, not even at Wegman's. Side note on spices... order all spices from Penzy's, I think it's generally of better quality, and much much cheaper than the rip off of the grocery store spice aisle, generally dominated by McCormick. They have some retails stores, but none in our immediate area.

In addition to omitting the juniper berries, we added some additional generic pickling spice mix, and substituted Instacure #1 in place of the salt peter. I was hoping to get a better cut of brisket than the cryovac bag that was at Wegman's but the local butcher shop was around $8.00 a lb, and the cuts at Costco were too small. I was able to get a six lb first cut piece from Wegman's for around $4.50 a lb. Which really got me thinking about the quality of the packaged corned beef we all generally buy at the store. That stuff is already processed, and costs 2 - 2.50 less a lb than just the fresh unprepared meat. What low grade product are we getting?

I'll give an update on how this worked out after the holiday. I'm hoping not to poison my friends and family with nitrates and botulism.

6 plus lbs of awesome

you can get the instacure #1 (or prague powder) from Amazon, Cabela's, or if you want to mortgage your house, it's available at Williams-Sonoma

All the spices, brown sugar, and salts.

Double, double toil and trouble;
    Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

10 days in the fridge, check daily to make sure the meat is covered with brine