The New Best Recipe Corned Beef and Cabbage came out stellar. It was so simple I didn't even take pictures. I used the dry rub method and plain water poach. Meat was paper towel dried while the whole spice ingredients went into the coffee grinder for a quick blitz, and then pressed on by hand. I left the meat in the fridge for 5 days, weighted with my cast iron pot lid, then soaked it for several hours in cool water before cooking. CI says you should flip the meat at least every day or so, but I think I only turned it once. The roast looks pretty sad after a week, but not to worry, cooks up just fine! The recipe omits the salt peter, so the beef turns out more gray than the typical pink deli corned beef. I received the "tasty" stamp of approval from Alex and that was all the ego boosting I needed to purchase a 14+ lb brisket from Smart and Finals, cut into rough fourths and try again.
Cabbage, carrots and onions go in while the meat gets a rest. From the leftover beef broth, I flip a hearty barley vegetable soup with fennel, greens, carrots and mushrooms. Below is the second attempt with a longer 7 day corning and afternoon soak.
While it looks pretty good, the original 2.5 lb piece of point meat was from Schaub's and the quality of the dry aged beef really stood out in terms of texture and fork tenderness. Definitely spring for better meat. Also, the larger hunk seemed to benefit from twice the simmering time (just make sure not to boil the roast to death in the process). I found that 7 days of corning requires a much longer soak or else the meat is just overwhelmingly salt flavored rather than spiced. I also like the meat cooked without much rinsing so that the excess spices give the soup a little love too.
Current rub recipe, adapted from the book:
1/4 cup fine grained kosher salt
1 tbsp black peppercorn, cracked
3/4 tsp coriander seed, whole
1/2 tsp brown mustard seed, whole
3 bay leaves
3/4 tbsp thyme
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp California chili, or paprika
** optional
1 clove
2 juniper berries
1/2 tsp pink curing salt, for that candy color
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