How to cook corned beef?

Get a time machine and start last week ;)

Most experts say to brine/ cure for 10 days prior to cooking. Those packets and briskets at the grocery store work ok though. Simmer slowly for about 1-1 1/2hr per pound. I like to cool it before I carve.

Alton Brown is the man, here's his version:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/corned-beef-recipe/index.html

Good Luck!

I saw a recipe for broiling it, what do you think?

I'm not certain, but I think ilovetoledo is asking how to cook a vacuum-packed corned beef brisket you buy at the store. If so, here is my input:

Remove corned beef from package
Set aside little package of extra corning spices
Rinse corned beef under cold water and pat dry
Sprinkle extra corning spices on fat side
Double wrap corned beef fat side up in foil and place in 9" × 13" baking dish
Put in a 225 degree oven for five or six hours. Even overnight.
Remove from oven. Do NOT open foil for 30 minutes.

For best slicing, re-wrap corned beef in plastic wrap and put in fridge until chilled through.

We like running ours through our meat slicer with the deli blade for paper thin slices for sandwiches.

Addendum: A family friend liked our corned beef prepared this way so much that he bought us, and himself, an awesome meat slicer to celebrate. He had tried for 60+ years to make a good corned beef at home, and with this method he was finally satisfied.

There are as many "best ways" as their are corned beef briskets to cook!

Here's what I do:

I buy briskets that are already corned. IMHO, one of the best are the "Sy Ginsberg" brand at Costco. Here's what I do:

Place the briskets (always cook more than one!) in a large pot that will allow you to completely cover them with water. Add the contents of the seasoning packets that are included.

Make a bouquet garni with bay leaves, whole cloves, whole peppercorns and some dried parsley - amounts to your taste. Toss it in the pot. Add a couple of peeled, quartered onions, a couple of ribs of celery and about 6 cloves of peeled garlic. Toss in about 1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes. Cover completely with water, bring to a boil then reduce to somewhere between a simmer and a gentle boil. Cover and cook for several hours - turning the briskets in the pot about once an hour. Make sure enough water is maintained in the pot. When done, turn off the heat, leave the pot covered and let it rest for at least an hour. If you remove the briskets as soon as they are cooked, they tend to dry out. I always cook my cabbage, carrots, turnips and additional onions in a separate pot and then add some of the broth from the brisket pot for flavor. Enjoy!

ilt: broiled corned beef will be as tough as shoe leather - unless it was cooked via one of the above methods first.

gamegrrl: I like the look of that recipe - may break with tradition and try that one this year.

Foodie pretty much the way we just cooked ours day before yesterday. Minus the garlic and red pepper flakes. We got one of them steel balls to put all the spices in. Boiled it about 5 hours, turned it off and let it cool in pot, removed while still a little warm, removed all the fat and wrapped it in aluminum foil, put it in refrigerator overnight, sliced it up the next day. Make your own sandwich however, I like mine with just butter and mustard on bread with a slice of swiss cheese. Nuke it in the microwave for about 25 seconds = hot corned beef sandwich, yum.

what does anyone think about a store-bought corned beef in a slow-cooker in beer? The Hub bought a big one last year that we never got around to doing, went out instead, and I want to rescue it this year. I read online last year about the beer thing, like a medium dark, not Guinness but not any domestic crap, and 5-6 hours in the pot with spices, but I like what I read above, too. Is it going to be worth doing a year old beef?

Afraid not nana - sadly, I'd give that poor old brisket the pitch.

However, a new one in the Crockpot covered in beer.....hell yes I'd try that!

I liked ahmahler's link, which is what you're going to do if you actually want to corn some beef. Very few people actually want to do something like this, but the link shows a very good method. This is a bit like making your own mincemeat. It sounds good, but it's a ton of work.

Foodie and gamegrrl have the voices of experience here, and between the two I would try gamegrrl's recipe first - no offense to Foodie.

Also, while I'm thinking about it:

From Foodie: Afraid not nana - sadly, I'd give that poor old brisket the pitch.

Bluntly, after a year this is no longer a brisket. This is dog food. No offense intended.

The idea of the crock-pot and beer, especially a medium dark beer, appeals to me. I think this would produce an excellent result. You could also use red wine in place of the beer.

The more I look at gamegrrl's recipe, the more I want to try it. It's got that nice look about it, and I think you could use a crock-pot and a little broth and water in place of the oven; but I'd use the oven method first.

Thanks to Linecrosser for the mention of the steel ball for spices. Now I know what to get my brother for his birthday.

Now I'm hungry.

Instead of cooking something American you should cook a actual Irish dish.

http://www.pbs.org/food/features/traditional-irish-food-america-accurate/

"Irish-American cookbook author Margaret Johnson, said that corned beef and cabbage is really an American interpretation of bacon and cabbage – a more traditional Irish food"

The same is true of the "irish drinks" we drink.

I was going to make bangers and mash, but my wife bought the corned beef, so if I change the menu, it will be an incident...

One of the more interesting recipes I have found but since lost involved cooking the corned beef in the traditional manner (simmering water for about 3 hours) but then packing it in a glaze of liquid, brown sugar and mustard and baking it for about 30 minutes. I located a similar recipe with a link below. I believe my initial recipe strangely used a little "Seven Up" as the liquid you combine the mustard and brown sugar with. This was one of the most delicious things I had eaten. The pictures on the recipe really do not do it justice. If you cook it at a little higher temperature then the recipe below calls for the glaze hardens a bit which was more enjoyable - you just have to be more delicate when slicing.

http://www.food.com/recipe/brown-sugar-and-mustard-glazed-corned-beef-141522

I've done a brown sugar and mustard glaze after baking, and it's right tasty. Not your typicaly corned beef taste, by any means, but it's very, very good.

I neglected to mention how I handle the vegetables if I'm doing my St. Paddy's Day corned beef. Keep in mind that the timing of all this depends on whether I'm cooking for 'today eating' or 'later eating'.

After I've re-wrapped the corned beef, I take the lovely liquid and put it in my big Pyrex measuring cup. I cut my carrots, potatoes, onions, leeks (if you wish) into bite sized pieces. I chunk my cabbage up into manageable pieces, but not tiny. Pieces about 1/8 the size of the surface of the head, if that makes sense.

Now the fun begins! Preheat your oven to about 250 degrees. Put a Dutch oven on the stovetop with a bit of fat/oil. Brown/sear your veggie bites in the Dutch oven, then add cooked corned beef liquid halfway up the veggies. You're going to braise them, not boil them.

Pop the pot into the oven, and before you know it you will have heavenly veggies to go with your corned beef. Veggies that have taken on the wonderful flavor of the corned beef, yet maintaining their individuality. So often, corned beef and cabbage can end up being a homogenized amalgam bearing little resemblance to its parts.

Oh! I wanted to mention that Prairieson has not only corned his own beef (and no, that's not a metaphor!), but he has also made his own from-scratch Pastrami. Which is, at one point, corned beef. Who knew?!?

gamegrrl: Thanks for the braised veggies tip - that sounds so much better than the traditional boiled method.

You're welcome, Foodie! I hope if anyone gives my method a go that they'll post their thoughts here: Good, bad or otherwise.

I love corned beef. Yum!

Me too. Ever make Reuben soup out of leftover cb? Mmmmmm.........good stuff........

John makes Reuben soup! Frankly, it freaks my mouth out to have soup taste like a Reuben, but I am sure it's very, very good to normal people. LOL!

For some reason, the Reuben pizza at Gino's Original is fine in my mouth. Go figure.

Don't forget the warm Reuben Salad at Grumpy's! For all of the talk of the Garbage Salad, I can never order anything but the Reuben Salad when I go. Perfection on a plate.

So we were at Fresh Market today, and they were dishing up samples of corned beef and cabbage. OMG. It was AWFUL. I didn't realize until after I tasted it that it was that pre-cooked deli stuff that they had just sliced up and thrown in a pan with some cabbage and a bunch of what Prairieson called "dirty hotdog water".

It will take at least two of these chocolate turnovers to get that skanky taste out of my mouth. LOL!

BTW, Costco is OUT of corned beef. The Kroger at Monroe/Secor is out of cabbage. It's every Irisman-like person for himself, peeps.

I used gamegrrl's low and slow method today, just finished eating dinner that method worked out great.

Glad to hear it, jhop! Tomorrow is day around here. I can't wait!

ok, so The Hub was not happy about tossing that big hunka year-old beef, so Friday he just went ahead and did the slow-cooker thing with the seasonings and water for 6 hours, no veggies, no beer, and it turned out fine, lol. We did let it sit wrapped in the fridge overnight and it is pretty dense and easily sliced. We had Reubens yesterday and they were tasty, then he made himself a corned beef and cheese omelet this am after snacking on pieces of it all evening, and we have enough for more Reubens today. Glad to have that thing out of my freezer, lol! Erin Go Bragh!! :)

Of course, I overslept today. I NEVER OVERSLEEP. Well, except for this weekend, for some reason.

Corned beef is about halfway through the cooking process. Veggies are chunked and ready for browning/braising. I am SO HUNGRY!

Happy St. Paddy's Day to all!

Had the best corned beef ever thanks to you! Cooked it with the veggies in a slow cooker for 9 hours covered in beer! Took it out and put it under the broiler with the veggies for a few minutes to crisp them! It was awesome!

I tried a new - to me - brand of corned beef. O'Brian's from Anderson's. I just followed the package directions, slow boil for 3 hours, removed the corned beef, then cooked cabbage, onions, carrots and red skin potatoes in the broth. It was by far the best corned beef I've ever fixed.

I'm sure all the recipes offered here were really great. But my family isn't anxious to have a food adventure with an old favorite, so I stick the tried and true.

I dropped a couple (~5 lb each) of corned beef into the crock pot with some potatoes, onions and carrots on Saturday morning. Eight hours later we had awesome corned beef. I baked a few potatoes as well to set aside in the fridge.

Sunday morning, I chopped up the cold bake potatoes and some of the corned beef to make corned beef hash. Put a very runny sunny side up egg on the top of it and kids couldn’t get enough.

For lunch yesterday I made Rueben sandwiches, one of my favorites. The left over water/fat from the crock pot is in a Tupperware container in the fridge as well. I’m thinking beefy noodle soup next weekend.

Today I start my aspirin regiment.

I also have a large amount of yummy broth leftover. I will find a us for it!

I reserve some of the broth to cook fresh green beans.

I ended up eating the broth with noodles...delicious!

SensorG: It's my opinion that homemade corned beef hash is one of the best, most wonderful dishes EVER. Thank you for reminding me -- I think that's what I'll be having for dinner tonight!

Original Pancake has great corned beef hash that's made in-house. Whenever I see it on a menu, I ask if it's made in-house or not. The vast majority of the time, it's just that canned crap that looks/smells/tastes like dog food.

gamegrrl: We finally had our Jiggs dinner yesterday. My sister-in-law couldn't make it in last week hence, the delay. I tried your braised vegetables method and have to say we all loved it. Getting that bit of browning and crust on the veggies prior to adding the liquid for the braise really takes it to another level. So much better than the usual boiled to death offering.

Thanks for the tip! Think I'll try the slow, oven roasted corned beef method next.

Tonight is Reuben sandwich night with some of the leftover meat. Can't wait.

So glad to hear it, Foodie!