How to Brine A Corned Beef

If the idea of brining your own corned beef sounds terrifying, it’s not. It’s actually a lot easier than you think. Have you ever made homemade pickles or veggies? Have you ever cured your own Thanksgiving turkey or cheeses? Well, that’s exactly what brining a corned beef is: Pickling.

Corned beef is a salt-cured meat, generally made from brisket. And you add in spices you generally would when pickling. That’s it. It’s very simple and straightforward.

If you haven’t cured or pickled before, then don’t worry. Learning how to brine corned beef is so easy, you will want to do this every year. It tastes so much better than store bought and everyone at the table will be impressed after taking their first bite.

There are a lot of recipes showing a different list of ingredients and techniques on how brining a corned beef should be. To the point it can be overwhelming. There are many preferred seasoning choices, a lot of methods and/or special equipment to use. But it doesn’t have to be complicated. I’m going to tell you what the most important part of making corned beef and it’s this.

Salt.

That is what’s important. The rest is optional and can be adjusted based on the flavors you enjoy most. If you don’t know where to start, try this one. This recipe on how to brine corned beef tastes absolutely amazing without all the preservatives and metallic tastes you get from the market.

This recipe calls for a pink curing salt to help create that beautiful pinkish hue over the meat. If you need a suggestion, here is the pink salt I use and it works great! I also have a roasted corned beef recipe here to try out!

How to Brine a Corned Beef

thedishnextdoor

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 1 hour hr

Total Time 10 days d 1 hour hr

Equipment

• 2 Liner bags, such as a slow cooker or turkey bags (I prefer turkey oven bags. The Reynolds brand works great)
• 1 Plastic bin or plastic bucket Large enough to flatly lay the brisket down. Do not use metal materials for this recipe. It will affect the result of the corned beef.

Ingredients

  

• 3-4 lbs. Beef Brisket
• 1 Cinnamon Stick
• 1 Tbl. Peppercorn (Black peppercorn, Medley or Rainbow blend)
• 1 Tbl. Juniper Berries
• 1 Tbl. Coriander Seeds (or ground)
• 1 Tbl. Whole Cloves (or ground)
• 1 Tbl. Celery Seeds
• 1 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp. mustard seeds (or ground)
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 2 Bay leaves
• 5 Cups Water
• 1 cup Kosher Salt
• 1 Tbl. Pink curing salt
• 1/2 cup Brown Sugar
• 6 cloves garlic, peelings removed + crushed

Instructions

 

• Before starting, you will want to remove some of the fat from the brisket. You don't want to remove all of it, but discard any of the tough parts and thin out the thicker parts. Once done, place it into a large bag that can be sealed and flatly so the beef is resting on top of itself.
• In a small or medium bowl, combine the whole spices: cinnamon stick, peppercorns, juniper berries, coriander seeds, whole cloves, celery seeds, red pepper flakes, mustard sees, and bay leaves. Then place the ground spices in another small or medium bowl. Do not combine the ground and whole spices together. The whole spices will go through a toasting process and if the ground spices are mixed in, it could burn your mixture.
• In a large pot over medium heat, add in the whole spices, cinnamon stick, and bay leaves only. Stir the mixture and continue to cook for 3-5 minutes or until you hear a popping sound. This step helps open the spices and to get as much of the aromatics as possible.
• Add in all of the ground spices. Then slowly stir in the water.
• Add the kosher salt, pink curing salt, brown sugar, ad garlic cloves.
• Continue to cook the mixture over medium heat for 5-10 minutes or until the salts are completely dissolved. Remove from the heat and allow to cool completely.
• Once cooled, carefully pour the mixture over the brisket inside the bag. Then before sealing, make sure to get out as much air as possible. This helps submerge all of the meat in the brine. If parts of the meat is exposed, you can use heavy objects to helps push it under the liquid, such as a plate, or canned goods/jars.
• Seal the bag tightly and place inside a plastic bin. If you do not have a bag to seal the beef and brine in, you can place the beef and mixture directly into the bin but it needs to be plastic (a "non-reactive" material). Do not put the ingredients in a metal storage container because the brine will interact with the the metal and it will affect the outcome of the corned beef.
• Place the bin into the fridge. Every 2-3 days turn over the meat once so the bottom side faces upward, making sure it's submerged every time. You will continue this routine for a total of 10 days, 14 days max.
• At the end of the 10-14 days, remove the corned beef from the bag and discard the brine. Under cold water, wash off the excess brine from the meat. It's important to do this step so the curing salt is almost entirely removed.
• At this point, you can follow any recipe to slow cook, bake, or smoke your brined corned beef. I also have a corned beef roast recipe here!

Keyword Brining

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