Corned Beef is the Ultimate 'Crock Pot' meat. You can put the Corned Beef in the crock pot before leaving the house in the morning and return home after a long day at work and it will be ready to enjoy!
Corned Beef is a cured meat. The cure is typically a heavily salted brine commonly containing Potassium nitrate which preserves the pink color. The cut of beef is often brisket or round steak, both considered tough cuts, the brining process tenderizes and preserves the meat.
Traditionally the meat is boiled - a common method is to boil it in water for 50 minutes per pound. Boiling the meat tends to reduce the salt taste in the meat. Other variations involve boiling it in beer, apple juice, or pineapple juice. The 'juice' contained in the package is part of the flavoring and goes in the pot. There's also a small spice packet in the package - open it and sprinkle the spices over the meat. Some people boil the meat then finish it off on a BBQ, adding a smokey dimension to the meat.
The Vegetables
Cabbage, potatoes, and carrots are another part of the traditional meal. Often they are cooked in the same pot as the meat. Since the cook time is rather long for these vegetables they are left in large chunks. Potatoes and carrots can be left whole, carrots should be pealed and have the tops cut off, potatoes may have the skin on or off. Cabbage it commonly cut into four large chunks.
Crock Pot Method
I prefer to put the meat, juice and spices in a crock pot, with enough apple juice to halfway cover the meat. Set the crock pot on low and cover. The apple juice adds a bit of sweetness as well as take out some of the saltiness. It's pretty hard to over cook a corned beef. I recently had a 4 pound corned beef in the crock pot from 7:00am till 6:00pm - that's 11 hours and it was wonderful!
Boiled Red Potatoes
I prefer my vegetables cooked separately. I prefer the small red potatoes boiled in heavily salted water. Once they are fork tender throughout. I drain them in a colander, placing the hot pot back on the stove and using the residual heat to melt some butter and sprinkling in some chopped fresh rosemary and chopped Italian flat-leaf parsley. The larger potatoes I'll cut in half or quarters, smaller ones I leave whole. Once the butter is melted and the herbs have had a chance to get heated, add the potatoes to the pot and stir.
Pan Fried Cabbage and Carrots
I prefer the cabbage, carrots stir fried with some onion. Peal the leaves off the cabbage head and stack them on a cutting board. Using a large chef's knife, thinly shred the cabbage. Thinly slice the carrots, using a knife, vegetable peeler or small mandolin
(theTitan Peeler works great!)
. Mince about half a cup of onion. In a large skillet over medium high heat, coat the bottom of the pan with a half cooking oil and half butter mixture, add a pinch of caraway seed, celery seed, and some fresh ground black pepper. Put he onions in first when they are translucent, add the carrots - if the carrots are on the thick side, let them cook a bit before adding the cabbage, otherwise add the shredded cabbage at the same time. Stir fry to the desired doneness. Some people like their vegetables heated through but still crunchy, some like them with a bit of scorch on them. Set the vegetables aside, while you carve the meat.
Carving the meat
Gently lift the meat out of the pot, using a sturdy spatula or straining spoon, and place on the cutting board. Using the spatula or spoon, gently scrape and peel off the layer of fat and discard. Once the fat layer is removed it's easy to see the 'grain' of the meat. Any and all meat should be carved across or against the grain this will yield short fibers and a tender slice. OK the the meat has been tenderized by brining and has now had the daylights boiled out of it so it's tender but do you really want to serve a chunk of stringy meat? So get out your carving fork and your longest, sharpest knife. Position the cutting board and the meat so that you can comfortably draw the knife across the grain of the meat. The REAL trick here is to put the fork at the side of (not in) the meat closest to you, placing the tine of the fork the width of one slice of meat inward from the edge. Place the knife as far as comfortably forward as possible, then draw the knife back towards you, using the tine of the fork as a guide, bull the knife directly against the tine of the fork. ALWAYS draw the knife towards you and against the fork tine, using a sawing, back and forth cutting action will guarantee you an unrecognizable pile of meat strands.
For Taste Sake
Over all corned beef with the fat layer removed is a rather low calorie source of protein. More calories can be saved by substituting broth in the skillet, instead of the half and half oil and butter mixture, steaming the vegetables instead of frying.
I think one of the greatest joys of eating corned beef is that it goes so well with mustard so we break out the mustard collection - coarse ground, Dijon, Wasabi , Hot Chinese.
The cabbage, carrots, and onions can be cut up the night before, stored in the refrigerator in plastic bags to make the preparation that much easier, the following day.
I love a good corned beef dinner but truth be told, I would cook corned beef simply for the leftovers - a Ruben Sandwich is one of my favorites but you haven't lived till you've had freshly made corned beef hash!
I promise to make that my next recipe.
