So who's cooking corned beef today, and how ya gonna do it?

[Jenise]

I AM!!!

I love some culinary traditions, and cooking corned beef on the 17th of March is one of them. I'm doing a Snake River Farms Wagyu corned beef, the very beast first brought to our attention here by Walt Nissen and avidly followed by me ever since.

I vary my treatments, but I can't help but have a favorite: a version that's slightly Armenian with a lot of paprika to color and flavor the broth as well as sprigs of mint for extra content. With that, I'll serve a bulgar wheat pilaf instead of potatoes but include the traditional cabbage wedges. But I'm out of bulgar wheat and on Sunday there's nowhere to go to buy more, so I toyed with kasha (buckwheat) and finally decided to just skip an on-plate carb and bake a loaf of sourdough instead (I have starter now I'm playing with). There's some dough proofing as we speak.

Southern was another option, doing cornbread probably and adding collard greens to the pot in addition to the cabbage. But that would require a trip to the store (not easy where I live), so I'm otherwise good to go with ingredients on hand, though rudderless in terms of having an underlying theme. Maybe charred carrots and onion petals.

I did two point cut briskets ($1.99/lb. at Aldi's), cooked sous vide in my 20-qt. roasting pan. Redskin potatoes and whole carrots were cooked separately, then combined with the juices from the brisket and cabbage. While the cabbage was cooking, the briskets were kept in a 200 degF oven, then placed on top of the veggies. The entire roasting pan was then taken to my son's house, along with the Irish Soda Bread (Emeril's recipe) and my statue of St. Patrick.

[Jenise]

Well, Howie, looks like it was just you and me! Do all five of your sons live nearby? I have the impression that most or all are still right there, at least those not away in the service. Not sure if any of your boys are still in the service but I know several were.

For my corned beef I chose the brisket. Still the Snake River Farms Wagyu, but not the rump or round cuts I've used before. And here's what I think of the difference: the brisket doesn't win. There's a texture about the round cuts--it's like cutting pound cake--that's nothing short of miraculous. It's not when it's just supermarket beef, but texturally the Wagyu marbling makes a world of difference. I didn't find the brisket as enhanced--flavor yes, but not texture. Interesting.

I usually corn my own brisket but this year I ran out of time and didn't get around to picking one up. The abattoir down the street from us has some great ham and bacon so I figured I would give their corned beef a try. I cooked it per my usual recipe, bring to a boil and dump water. Refill and simmer for about an hour per pound. Check to see when the meat is tender. Remove to oven and add potatoes Cook until almost soft. Add carrots and cook them until almost soft. Add cabbage cut into wedges and cook for no more than 10 minutes (if you can smell it, it's over cooked).


While the beef had some decent flavor and wasn't overly salty - the one big fear I had with someone else's corned beef, it was good. If I do their CB next year, I will add some corning spices to the veggies since they were a little bland.


I have some pictures on my iPhone that I'll try and post when I have a minute. Just added the pics.

Well, Howie, looks like it was just you and me! Do all five of your sons live nearby? I have the impression that most or all are still right there, at least those not away in the service. Not sure if any of your boys are still in the service but I know several were....

3 of my sons and 4 of my grandchildren are local. 4 sons served in the military (3 Army, 1 Navy). One recently bought a very old farmhouse in Maine, while the other one is near West Palm Beach, FL with his wife and 18 month old son. I also have a granddaughter who lives with her mother in CA, but spends summers and alternate Christmases here, with her Dad.

Didn't see this earlier, was too busy getting stuff ready Sun. We decided to do late (after another party cancelled) so too late for local butcher. Got a 3.5 lb flat and a 1,5 point at supermarket (slim pickings). Clove studded onions, carrots, celeryBring to boil, skim, simmer 3 hours. Strain broth, then use to cook carrots and cabbage (no potatoes as we did a colcannon with kale and cabbage as well) A horseradish cream sauce. I think Silver Palate cookbook. Quite tasty.

Ah, glad you found their corned beef worthy of revisiting. We tend toward very traditional preparations, so it's a bottle of Guinness in the crock pot with the meat, set to low and cooked for 10 hours or so. For a side, something on the mashed potato / boiled cabbage spectrum. Served with rustic bread and butter.

It honestly never occurred to me to do anything different. We do have another one in the freezer so I will try a new preparation. I also didn't know they had different cuts. I should pay better attention!

[Jenise]

They very much have different cuts. I did a (traditional) brisket flat, which was good, but in the Wagyu I like the chunks of round even better (as was proven by the brisket) which I cooked one of two days ago. Did that fairly standard--no paprika or mint, just plain water--and added some cabbage toward the end of cooking. Celery, potato wedges and carrots had roasted independently in the oven. Topped them with charred green onions.

Only, I strangely forgot to plate the cabbage, which were these tiny heads barely larger than a tennis ball. I've never seen cabbage that small--I cooked two of them.

The broth was particularly outstanding, so much so that I imagined making a cabbage soup out of it, then had the bright idea of making a bean soup. So out came the cabbage and in went a 1 lb bag of unsoaked dried baby limas, some herbs de provence, a few jiggers of dry white vermouth, half an onion and half a fennel bulb, because I had one laying around unused. At the end of cooking I added back the cabbage, now sliced, and a handful of green kale also cut chiffonade. Holy bean bag, Batman, this is one of the best bean soups EVER!