carinamdee: Corned Beef // Food for St. Patricks Day

Soooo... St. Patricks day is almost here. I'm sure you are all blissfully aware. This coming holiday is really not a big whoop on my list of important days; but I do celebrate it by wearing green, and pretending I am Irish. I like to eat mostly green foods, and authentic Ireland cuisine while talking in an Irish accent. and maybe do a little Irish jig too, why not-thats what the days for, right?

This year, I wanted to step it up a notch.

I've never been a real big fan of corned beef, but thats kinda a big deal to eat on St. Patties day-so I felt it must be done. Hoping to have a scrumptious piece of meat, I decided to season it myself.

You know me, just corning my own beef 'cause I can.

It was really pretty simple to do, it just requires A LOT of patience. Patience while it brines and more patience while it cooks. But if you can plan in advance, and get it in the fridge on time-you'll have yourself a nice piece of salted beef.

Corned beef, is not meat made in corn, despite how it sounds. Its actually just salt brined beef. Back in the day, they used salt corns, which is how it got its name.

To make it, you first create a brine which is made with water, salt, and various seasonings. One of the recipes I was going off of to create this little guy, called for a saltpeter to put in the brine. First of all, what the heck is a saltpeter, and second, where on this planet would I find one. Certainly not areound these parts. So I replaced it with pink salt, which I saw used on a different recipe, and I did have that in my kitchen.

Once your brine is cooled off, you add your brisket and plop in the fridge for 10 days. But I only did mine for 9 and it was just fine. (starting RIGHT NOW, is 10 days until the 17th. get it goin'!)

After a couple days, the meat became a funny color. I was slightly worried about it, but it was just fine. No food poisoning over here.

See? It looks a bit gross.

After the 10 days (or however many you choose to do) you pull it out of the brine and boil it for a few hours. Boiled meat. I know. Not my first choice either, but being authentic remember?