Stock Corned Beef: A cooking Guide
What is corned beef?
Picture it: England, 1700’s, just pre-refrigeration. Preserving meat with salt was just about the only way to give it any semblance of shelf life. The common practice was to cover sliced beef in coarse salt pebbles, then known as “salt corns,” acting as a crude dry-cure. Fast forward 300+ years, add refrigeration and a more thorough and nuanced sense meat preservation science coupled with folks having taken a shine to even, juicy meat-curing practices, and we can suffice it to say that to “corn” is to “brine,” and to “brine” is to immerse an edible object in, at most simple, salt water, for a specific amount of time. Here at the shop, we make many different brines, each tailored for a specific preparation; our corned beef brine involves salt, white sugar, curing salt, alliums, and 11 different spices. Through osmosis, the cut of beef is infused with salt as well as the flavor of the aromatics administered, which also increases water-holding capacity and tenderness as salt unwinds the protein structure of muscle fibers and fibrils. Put it all together, and you have the foundation for the corned beef flavor profile. We have brined (or corned) this beef for you, so you don’t have to.
How do I cook it?
The meat is brined and raw, and we must braise it to make it tender and delicious. Fill a large pot–ideally a dutch oven (6 quarts capacity or greater)–with water, leaving enough headspace so the beef doesn’t displace water to overflow. Cut open your spice packet and dump the contents into the pot; bring to a boil over high heat. Once boiling, reduce heat to a simmer and let the water infuse with the spices for about 10 minutes. Carefully lower the corned beef (out of its package, any liquid discarded) into the pot and cover with more water if necessary. Return pot to a simmer, cover with a tight-fitting lid, and place in a 275 degree oven. Check your status after about 10 minutes or so to ensure that you’re maintaining a gentle simmer; you’re looking for little bubbles merrily breaking the surface. A rapid boil can dry out your beef, and a flat surface isn’t hot enough and will elongate your cook time. Adjust your oven temperature to achieve this state, and if it’s too low, you might need to return your vessel to the stovetop to reinstate your simmer.
The whole braising process will take about 2.5-3.5 hours. We are looking for a few different things:
-Tenderness. Stick a fork in the beef and twist; if the meat gives and tears easily with the fork, it’s done. If the beef provides some resistance, return the pot to the oven and check every 30 minutes.
-Salinity. About 1.5 hours into the braise, with the beef still in the pot, slice off a small bite and taste it. If you think it needs salt, add a few big pinches to the pot. If you think it tastes great, return the pot to the oven and continue to cook. If you think it’s too salty, ladle out a few cups of cooking liquid and replace with fresh water. This will pull more salt out of the meat. Another good salinity-testing measure is to taste the cooking liquid, as this is a fairly accurate representation of the salinity of the beef. Perform these tests a few times throughout the cooking process to ensure perfect flavor balance.
Once the beef is done cooking:
Let the beef rest briefly in its cooking vessel, about 15-20 minutes. Without further ado, slice against the grain and serve. If serving with cabbage and potatoes, you can combine them in their already cooked state with the fully cooked and tender corned beef in a saucepan, add a few ladles of cooking liquid if you like, and warm all together for a few minutes. Serving thusly can make for a striking and comforting presentation.
