How To Make Homemade Corned Beef
Making your own homemade corned beef from scratch is so much fun, and a healthier and less expensive option than purchasing it from the grocery store. We raise our own beef, and I enjoy making corned beef every spring around St. Patrick’s Day. If I don’t have brisket, I just use roast and it makes a delicious corned beef. Follow this step-by-step guide to learn how to brine and cook your own homemade corned beef.
Ingredients
- Brine Ingredients:
- 4 cups of water
- 2 cups of salt I like to use Redmond salt
- ½ cup sugar
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 2 Tablespoons black peppercorns
- 1 Tablespoon mustard seeds
- 1 Tablespoon juniper berries or 4 drops juniper essential oil
- 1 teaspoon curing salt/prague powder optional (you can also use Tenderquick)
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 10 allspice berries
- 4 bay leaves
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 5 lb. beef brisket or roast
- Corned Beef & Cabbage Ingredients:
- 1 brined corned beef
- 1 onion roughly chopped
- 4-6 cloves garlic
- 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
- 3 bay leaves
- 5 allspice berries
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 pound red potatoes
- 4-5 carrots
- 1 head of cabbage
- Water
Instructions
Brining The Beef
- Place all of the brine ingredients except for the beef in a large stockpot and bring to a gentle simmer.
- Once the salt and sugar are dissolved, remove from heat and allow to cool completely.
- Place the entire brisket or roast in a large non-reactive container and cover with the cooled brine. Add more water if necessary so that the beef is under the water. As a general rule you want 1 cup of salt per 2 quarts of water. Increase the salt amount if you add more than 2 quarts of water. I usually weigh my beef down with a plate so it stays under the water.
- Cover the brine and place it in the refrigerator for 5-10 days. The longer you brine the meat, the better the flavor will be.
- Cook in a slow cooker (see below instructions). I like to add the veggies to make corned beef and cabbage. The vegetables take on the flavor of the corned beef and are very tasty.
How To Cook Corned Beef
- Rinse the beef under water to remove any excess brine. This prevents the meat from being too salty.
- Put the onions and garlic on the bottom of a slow cooker.
- Place the beef on the top of the onions and garlic, fat side up if it’s a brisket.
- Add the mustard seeds, bay leaves, allspice, pepper, & salt. Fill the slow cooker up with water until it almost covers the beef.
- Cook on low for 5 hours or until beef is fork tender.
- Then add the potatoes and carrots on top of the beef if desired. Cook for another 2 hours.
- Then if you’re making corned beef and cabbage, you can add cabbage on top of the potatoes and carrots and cook for one more hour or until all the veggies are tender.
- Thinly slice the corned beef on a cutting board and serve with the veggies.
- Use the leftover corned beef to make corned beef sandwiches or reuben pizza with homemade sauerkra
Video
Notes
- You can make corned beef out of a brisket, or a roast. The brisket will have a more distinct grain which is typical of a corned beef, but the roast turns out almost the same. You can even brine tough cuts of roast, and they will turn out nice and tender after being brined.
- If using a roast wrapped in butchers twine, leave the twine intact until after the cooking is complete.
- You can make your corned beef and cabbage in a crock pot, a large pot on the stove top, or baked in the oven in a dutch oven pot at 350 degrees for about 3 hours. Cooking a corned beef is very similar to cooking a roast.
- To make instant pot corned beef and cabbage, just cook the corned beef in water in the instant pot for 90 minutes on high pressure. Then add the veggies and cook on high pressure for another 4-5 minutes.
- Leftover corned beef can be made into reuben sandwiches, reuben pizza, or I like to fry up the leftover meat and veggies in a cast iron skillet. If you add some beets to the skillet, it’s called red flannel hash. SO good!
- Corned beef and cabbage is the traditional meal for st. patrick’s day and we make it every spring.
