Corned Beef

[ORChick]

I got a nice piece of beef brisket yesterday, and thought I would like to make some corned beef. I have never done this before, but found what sounds like a nice recipe http://meemoskitchen.blogspot.com/2008/02/cure-your-own-corned-beef.html. The thing is, we are only two in the house, and the brisket is 3 1/2 #. This is too much for us all at one time, so I would want to halve it, and freeze part. My question is, should I corn the whole thing, and then freeze half till St Patrick's Day, or freeze half now, and pull it out to corn in March? Does anyone have any experience in this? (I suppose I could corn half, and save the other half for something else )

 

[Occamstazer]

Corned beef

One of those favorite childhood memories of mine is peeling those long, stringy strips off the brisket after it was pulled out and cooled.
I would think it should freeze with no probs if you cook the whole thing and then put up half. I do that with pulled pork all the time.
I could be wrong though, I've never done a corned beef on my own.

 

[ORChick]

Thanks Occamstazer, but what I really would like to know is about freezing the meat after it has been in the pickle solution, but before it is cooked.
This is all new for me as it is not a fond childhood memory of mine. When I was young I did not like any cured meat - wouldn't eat ham (my mother made a really nice roast ham - I'm told ), or corned beef, or anything like that. A few years ago, at DH's request, I bought a piece of corned beef from Whole Foods (as part of my problem has always been the "unknowns" in the corning mixture, and I thought they probably put in fewer "undesirables"); it was a revelation! It was really good. I was quite amazed. Next step is to corn it myself, and that is what this piece of brisket is destined for.

 

[Occamstazer]

Oops, sorry, I misunderstood the question

All this talk of curing has me wondering if I was really eating corned beef. I remember Dad buying huge briskets, which he would spend all day boiling, and the pot had little sacks of spices and various things floating around in it.
Was I eating something else entirely?

 

[ORChick]

No, that sounds like corned beef. It is kind of a pickled meat (take a look at the recipe link I gave if you haven't already). I remember mustard seed and other things adhering to the meat - not my kind of thing at all, when I was younger. And also (and I think this was the major problem for me) always lots of salt - I have a really low tolerance for salt.
I'll let you know how this works out, once I do it. It sounds really easy, though it needs 2 weeks to finish.
A silly little side note on corned beef - when I moved to Germany in the 70's, and met my husband, I found that corned beef in the can had made it there before me, and everybody knew it by the English name. Only they pronounced it German, that is, every syllable sounded out: "corn-ed beef". I still giggle when I think of that (OK, I know, I'm easily amused )

 

[freemotion]

Back when I wasn't so watchful of what we ate, I would buy several pieces of corned beef and freeze them and they came out just fine. I forgot that it was on my project list! I think I'll go look for a brisket tomorrow....my mom made corned beef when I was a kid and we raised our own beef. It was SOOOOOO good!

 

[ORChick]

Thanks free! That's good to know. It makes more sense to corn the whole lot at once, and then freeze some, instead of going through the whole process twice.

 

[valmom]

Darn- the link says the blog doesn't exist. Corned beef is one of the meats left that SO will eat (no chicken- we have chickens for eggs and the conditions meat chickens are raised in eliminated that from our diet. No pigs because pigs are cute)

 

[ORChick]

Sorry about that, valmom. Apparently some of the address got left out the first time I tried.

http://meemoskitchen.blogspot.com/2008/02/ cure-your-own-corned-beef.html

ETA: This is odd - the address is just fine, until I hit submit! I divided it up - try using the link for the blog, and typing in the rest to get the right page.

Edited a second time to say that yes, this works. You will still get the error page for the link, but type (or paste) the second part on, and "enter", and it should get you there.