Go to the Recipe: Nine-Day Homemade Corned Beef
I am trying to write a HCCP variance for preparing corned beef and see the recommendations for the concentration of Prague Powder 1 as 0.25% the weight of the meat (and sometimes as the weight of the meat and water) and am curious how you calculated the Prague 1 weight (which seems closer to 0.5% the weight of the meat).
Thanks Nicholas. Yeah, I've got a three pound flat brining since Saturday. First time I've used your recipe, usually use Sifton's (although without the ginger beer) and finish it in a slow cooker. In an ideal world, I'd be brining a point but I buy most of my meat from family farms near me and because most of their customers are afraid of fat they typically sell only the point and throw the flats into ground. It's a shame.
I''ll likely pull this on Monday so it's in brine for the full nine days and SV for 24 hours at 172F. I think the meat texture will still be fine and I don't want to risk the meat not absorbing the brine all the way through.
One other question for you - would there be any benefit to sealing meat and brine under pressure in my chamber sealer? If so, how would you adapt brine quantity, timing, other factors?
Hey Jim, good call out!
You're right, salt and sugar will dissolve much more easily in warm water. Higher temperatures increase the kinetic energy of water molecules, causing them to have a little mosh pit with the salt and sugar dissolving the crystals and ions faster.
That being said I think Grants belief is (and I don't disagree) there is two ways to get to the same result. With Grants approach of using cold water it will take more stirring before the salt and sugar dissolves but doesn't have to deal with heating and cooling the water. But with his approach I strongly advise not moving forward with brining until all the sugar and salt is fully dissolved. Otherwise your % salt/sugar to meat will be wildly off. Regarding the spices I think you're right, you will get a bigger bang for your buck if you do a steep in water sitting in a range around 40–70°C / 104–158 °F for about 10-15 min. I like this range for optimal flavor extraction of these spices. Typically I'll grind my spices before doing the steep.
Great questions Jim, I'd love to do an update to this recipe soon to iron out some of the wrinkles but it sure does produce some great corned beef! Are you getting a batch of meat going this year? If so what cut of brisket did you get?
before or after brining do you separate? and do cook the same time/temp, just in different bags?
I'm surprised the salt, sugar and spices are simply added to cold water. Is there a reason for this? I added the salt, pink salt and brown sugar to half the water, warmed and stirred the mixture until everything was dissolved, and then added the remaining water as ice (by weight) to speed the cooling. I tossed the spices into the still-warmish water to steep, and then once everything had thoroughly cooled off, added the beef.
Is there anything inadvisable about my approach here? My thinking was that the salts and sugar would be more throughly and evenly dispersed throughout the solution, so it's not as crucial for me to be moving the solution around each day. But maybe you guys have your reasons for keeping everything cold?
Hello Harry. I'm assuming you're past your brining stages in this recipe now. Regarding the cooking temperature and time I would actually drop it now if you can.
162 °F / 72 °C—about 24 hours.
This sounds great! Full pressure for 90 minutes or the Meat/Stew button? Use the resulting liquid to cook the potatoes and cabbage for St. Pat’s?
Nick thanks so much! All I could get for cuts were much thinner anyways so I ended up using this “halfsies” method so to speak by default. A shorter cook time would be appreciated. I’m planing to serve this Sunday for dinner time around 5pm. It’s a casual get together so no major “presentation” concerns. I could even cut the meat in 1/2 again, bake instead of sous vide? Any advice is appreciated!
Hi chef,
For a shorter cook time (say 12 hours), would 150 sufficient?
I was planning on kicking the salt percentage up to 20% , brining for 4 days and then cooking for 12 hours sous vide at 150F with the goal being having St. Patrick’s day dinner on the table (just for me) Monday night
Also, would you recommend using a phosphate such as STPP to increase water holding/juiciness since the cook temp is higher?
Thanks,
H
Hello Rosalind. It's a little tricky for me to answer that without starting on one of my rambles because I want to help you get this on the table.
If time is a constraint and the goal with the corned beef is a super tasty, tender piece of meat that will be carved up and not a centerpiece I have a shortcut for you.
Step 1: After trimming, slice your chunk of brisket in half cutting through the middle of it (hamburger style). This will greatly help expedite the time needed in brine due to creating more surface area and cutting the thickness in half.
Step 2: No changes to this step. Step 3: The time needed in brine is hard to be exact. It all depends on the thickness of your meat. If you're still able to brine your meat for 5 days and it's cut in half that will be enough. If you're trying to serve on St. Patricks day that wont be enough time for the brine to reach the center. I would recommend using store bought corned beef and cooking it sous vide.
Step 4: Scale ingredients down to 1/4 of the recommended amount. Pro tip, coarsely grind ingredients for the rub
Step 5: Apply a fine dusting of rub on all sides of the brisket Step 6: 140 °F / 60 °C for 48 hrs is our favorite but if you need a shorter cook time let me know and I can share one.
Is it worth it to do this with a brine time of only 5days?
there are other names for it, like pink salt # 1 but if you don’t use it you won’t get that pink color. At butcher shops you’ll see corned beef offered red or grey, grey meaning they didn’t use Prague powder (sodium nitrite)
What else can I use instead of Prague powder?
Hello, what would be the time and temp for cooking in the oven?
J. Kenji Lopez Alt recommends 10hrs at 180. I tried it this past weekend, with a flat cut, and it was excellent.
It is listed in step 6 (Heat water to 140 °F / 60 °C.)
I have about 18 hrs to sous this and I can’t find the recommended Joule tempos guessing at 170. Does that sound right?
We make this every year now and it’s still the best.
Excel brining tool to get the meat, water, seasoning, and salt concentrations right. Joule cook over two days. The best. We keep upping the quantity we make as we send it out to friends and family.
Points and flats living together. Mass hysteria!
Can reserve the juice made and more water to cook cabbage and carrots for 20-30 mintes
Yes. This is the way to go. I make wagyu pastrami at our restaurant and this is how i tackle it.
Using a whole packer Waygu brisket. Any thoughts on separating the point from the flat, then brining and cooking as separate pieces per recipe?
I'm making this corned beef for the second time. The first time around was fantastic but I saw that the pink color from the prague powder penetrated between 1/2" and 1". Deeper into the brisket the color was the usual brown/gray you would expect from boiled beef. I've seen recipes that skewer the brisket with a fork 20 to 30 times prior to brining. Is that a reasonable strategy?
I feel like a missed a step between sous vide and serving. The step/images show sous vide with whole spices, but the serving step is showing a rub with ground spices. When I made this I have a bunch of whole spices on the meat that I had to scrape off. Great flavor, but I feel I missed a step, especially after watching the new Pastrami video
Brining and cooking came out great. The rub was a bit too strong for my wife and I. After sampling I removed the rub and rinsed the cuts, patted dry. After that we liked it. I'll adjust the rub next rime or simply eliminate but that's just a tweek IMHO. The whole process and technique worked great. I might modify the brine next time as well - but all good.
Happy St Patrick’s Day! Corned beef on rye with colcannon. Best corned beef ever per my Mom and best compliment every from my daughter. “This is actually delicious, I thought I’d hate it”. Thanks ChefSteps!
Out of the brine, rub on, now taking a Joule hot tub...although St. Patricks Day is a state holiday in Massachusetts (Evacuation Day) we will be celebrating with Sunday brunch of corned beef three ways. Sharing this recipe has definitely created a spike in the number of "Irish" friends I have. Who knew....
Hmm - the video does not show any use of rub even while serving no sign that it was sousvided with rub. Application guide says to prepare about 26 oz. of rub. Doesn't say to grind it, - seems by the pictures you bounced yours a bit in a blender or worked it in a M&P.
I do like the pictures in the recipe showing the rub picks.
Curious which you liked better? What are you recommending?
I've made dry and wet brined a number of times previous. And pastrami. But not sous-vide. This one is coming out of the brine tommorow.
I also added a bit more Prague 1 after about 3 days. Moved it to 100g for the 8L of water.
Thanks Kyle--helpful to know the rationale.
We don't typically rinse liquid brines, especially when they go to sous vide since it looses liquid and salt content while cooking as well.
I don't see mention of rinsing after pulling it from the brine. Just pat dry. Given how meticulous you are I can't think it was an oversight--however most recipes call for rinsing the salt off--some times quite aggressively. I have time before pulling it next week but would love your thoughts.
We have a whole page on it here.
https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/marinade-resource-page
Wait - Are there TWO Seth Ratners in this universe? Is this possible? Bobzooki
Is the brine actually affect the flavor? Of course the salt, sugar and the prauge salt penetrate the meat but the other flavors molecules are much bigger. On my opinion the flavor stays on the surface of the meat only. What's your experts opinion about that?
I have done 3 corned beef bought at store and had no problem. I drained the juice, dried it off and then rubbed on the spices. Cooked at 150 for 48 hours. All were delicious.
Wet brining still works! We grabbed a turkey brining bag from the grocery store, loaded the brisket, spices, and brine in and tied if off. Then we dropped the double bagged brisket and brine bag into a proper cooler and just loaded a new 5 or 10 lb bag of ice onto it every 2 days or so. Saves a ton of fridge space!
Is there an altered recipe for this for dry brining? Or what alterations I could make? I don't have a ton of fridge space to wet brine a whole brisket but if I could dry brine it would make it much easier. I'd appreciate any help anyone can give. My main concern is the altered quantity of salt and pink curing salt for this.
If you check out the Joule app, we give options of temp and time for this dish that vary from 48-16-8 hours.
Can I cook it for 24 hours? If yes what temp? Thanks
Can I cook it for 24hours ? If yes on what temp? Thanks
My third time to make this recipe, first time with the point half of the brisket and rather than sous vide, I pressured cooked it for 90 minutes. Based on past experience and my own taste preference, I halved the coriander and upped the mustard seed. IT IS AWESOME!
I injected the brine, too, and only brined for 6 days. You can see from the photos and I can tell you from the taste that 6 days works.
Thank you for another amazing recipe.
If you inject brine you can cut the time down to 3-4 days in the brine.
What if you don't have 9 days. Can you inject the brine into the meat to cut the brining time?
It is still going to be pink on the inside Matt. This long of a brine tends to still discolor use on the surface.
Hi - in day 7 or 8 or brine and nothing is pink yet. I thought 14g of the prague powder seemed light. I have a 15 lb packet brisket that is just brown on the surface. HELP! - matt
My third or fourth and the best yet. This recipe is worth the wait and great with some colcannon.
Agitation will be enough to dissolve the salt and sugar but starting with a spot of hot water will also help. Then if the brine is too warm you can use some ice as part of the water measure to cool.
When making the brine, you dont heat up the brine to maximize flavours, and disolve salt/sugar? keep up the good work in here:) greets Koen from Holland
Hi Chris, It would be better to pull it and sous vide it. Once its cooked just pull it right out and cool it down in the bag. It will hold for a long while, then you can just reheat when needed. At the times and temps for the brisket you are going through a pasteurization process and as long as you don't open the bag after the cook it will hold well for a few weeks.
I'm making this for the first time for a group dinner I had planned but the dinner was postponed...is it ok to keep the brisket brining for twice as long, like 20 days instead of ~9 days?
Turned out perfect! Worth the wait.
What about different cuts of meat? Brisket is extremely hard to come by around here, but I found a nice Chuck roast. According the the Cuts page, the best cook time for that is 24-28 with a max of 33. I'm planning on taking a peek at the bag after 24 hours to see if it's falling apart, but should I worry about it disintegrating after a 48 hour cook?
The weight shouldn't matter. It is the size and thickness that matters to reach core temperature. Do you have a bag large enough? If not, just split in half and proceed in two bags with the same recommended 48 hour cooking time.
Is there a table for using a bigger (packer) size brisket? I am guessing around 15 lbs?
Okay...I just made this with a store corned beef (vacuum pack) and it turned into mush. 48 hrs at 140°F. DON'T USE A STORE-BOUGHT PRE-CORNED BEEF! Was fine out of the bag; smelled good, solid, normal. After cooking: beef pudding. My fingers slid into the center. It turned into paste and was smearable. Turns out the pre-packaged corned beefs often use Papain as a natural tenderizer...and it's completely activated at sous vide temps, especially for 2 days. If I'd corned the meat myself, it would've been fine.
After 9 days in the juice, they came out glorious. Air fryer for the leftovers with some potatoes topped with an emoji egg is going to make a killer hash.
For reheating prior to serving, I recommend putting it directly under the broiler, a 3-5 minutes on each side. Sheet pan with a cooling rack. It gets reheated and the crispy outside is fantastic.
Also, Hugh made me LOL. I thought the exact same thing... "Now they send this?!"
