Remember him? Last saturday I rubbed him down with a lovely spice mixture and put him in the refrigerator? Do you have one in your refrigerator? Did you flip him every day?
No? Well that's okay, baby steps . . . maybe you have this instead
You can start from here too. Just insert an image of a day glow red piece of nitrate laden meat in for my nice au natural meat.
The meat is gritty with spices and you want to get them off of there. They've done their work! Their legend will live on.
Throw it in a nice big beautiful pot! You want one that will allow your meat to be covered with water!
Cover it with nice cold tap water and if you're feeling frisky a bay leaf. If you're dealing with the pink stuff then go ahead and use the little seasoning packet! Bring it to a boil.
Action shot! Brisket is tough and I'm going to cook it till it's "less tough." I don't want it falling apart because that's not conducive to slicing! When you've got it simmering throw a lid on it and let it bubble for a couple of hours. You want to be able to stick a meat fork in it easily.
If you need to get to work I'd recommend throwing this puppy in a crockpot on low with about a quart of water. It'd do the work all day long!
Two hours later it looks gorgeous!
But it is still seriously tough! So I flipped it over. I have trouble leaving things be, but we've discussed that before right? Put a lid on it and let it go some more! Two hours later it was good to go. It held together as one piece of meat but the surface meat started to separate when I stuck a fork in it. So I threw the meat in a pan in the fridge.
Brisket cuts so much better chilled! It's so beautiful! I could break out in song . . .
It slices so pretty! Oh my german half wants to break out the pumpernickel and saurkraut right now!
So I threw it in an oven safe pan and poured a few cups of broth from the pot over it. Go ahead and put it in the refrigerator until 20-30 minutes before you're ready to eat. About the time you start to cook the potatoes, carrots, and cabbage you'll want to throw it in the oven to reheat at about 325 deg F.
This meat is so tender and lean. It retains all its beefy character. It has the saltiness and aroma of a good corned beef. That broth is meaty and rich. It's the perfect sauce for your potatoes. I do cook those little red potatoes in the broth. Then I cut them open, butter them and pour ladle fulls of broth all over everything! The corned beef is full of wonderful salty tang. The spices and herbs rubbed into it balance the salt with wonderful aromas, they're our bitter component you know! This meat cries out for a sweet foil thus cabbage and carrots are a must! I like to steam them separately in plain water so that they're as sweet as possible. We also enjoy some nice beets with our corned beef too! Their metallic earthy sweet flavor pairs extremely well with the meat and the orange, fuschia, green, white combination on the plate sets my heart all aflutter! Oh and I've got to have some horseradish sauce too. The tang and heat are the only flavor component missing!
Erin Go Braugh!
