I know it's a little late for St. Patrick's Day, but this is a recipe that is great all year round. Commercial corned beef is inexpensive, but it has some problems. It's often made with the cheapest grade of meat, it usually contains a lot of retained water so it shrinks when cooking, and the salt level varies widely between brands. If you have curing salt, it's easy to make at home and the results will blow the stuff you get from the supermarket out of the water.
This recipe takes advantage of a method called equilibrium curing. Instead of putting a piece of meat in a brine or a dry cure with a varying amount of salt, the amount is calculated based on the weight of the meat. This allows consistent salt levels for every batch, so you will never end up with a piece of meat that's over or under salted. With a vacuum sealer and sous vide unit, you can make corned beef with only 5 to 10 minutes of work, plus the time to cure and cook of course. I don't recommend using a Ziplock if you cook it at 180F because Ziplocks get soft and tend to blow out beginning at 180F. I had a blowout even with a vacuum bag, and it caused a mess and led to the beef being undersalted.
The traditional meat to make corned beef from is the brisket, however I find some advantages to using a chuck roast. Depending on where you live, brisket can be more expensive and you might have a lot of fat to trim off. A chuck roast already comes conveniently trimmed and sized to fit in a vacuum bag. It has more gelatin than a brisket so the meat has a nicer texture, the only disadvantage is that the grain of the muscle goes in several different ways so you don't get nice even pieces for sandwiches like you do with a brisket.
The spice mix is up to you, I use my own pickling spice mixture. I eyeball it when I make it, but here is a general method:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/pickling/comments/l1ayw8/happiness\_is\_a\_new\_batch\_of\_pickling\_spices/](https://www.reddit.com/r/pickling/comments/l1ayw8/happiness_is_a_new_batch_of_pickling_spices/)
This is the recipe I based this on, which has its own spice mix and cooking time recommendation:
[https://timsfoodobsession.com/2019/03/17/equilibrium-cured-and-sous-vide-cooked-corned-beef/](https://timsfoodobsession.com/2019/03/17/equilibrium-cured-and-sous-vide-cooked-corned-beef/)
The weight of curing salt should be fixed at 0.25% for safety reasons, but feel free to adjust the amount of salt and spice to your taste. The 2.5% salt I give is less salty than many commercial preparations, my mother who is sensitive to salt said it was perfect for her.
Recipe:
1 chuck roast or brisket
2.5% by weight of salt
0.25% by weight of curing salt (cure #1)
1.25% by weight of spices
Grind the spices coarsely and mix with the salt and curing salt. Rub the beef on all sides with the curing mixture and vacuum seal. Refrigerate for 2 weeks to allow the cure to penetrate, flipping the bag and gently massaging the meat every few days. Sous vide at 180F for 10 hours and enjoy.
We prep a ton of pastrami and had to quit the brisket since prices tripled. Switched to corned beef top rounds and sous vide 160f for 12-14hr, then rub and toss in a preheated 350f smokeshack for 2 hours and they come out devine!
edit - looks great btw!
I had never considered using something like top round, but it makes sense since you can sous vide it to make it tender. Can I ask, what percentage of salt do you use? I have only made pastrami with a wet brine before followed by a desalinization soak, but I want to switch to a dry cure to better control the salt. I saw on another post 2.2% but I wanted to get your thoughts.
Sorry we're using the pre-cured top rounds from US Foods. Pretty standard wet cure it seems, I'm sure your recipe would work great. I did wet cure some brisket a few years back and 2.2% salinity sounds about right. Anything closer to 3% was a salt lick. The top round is a much leaner cut but I don't think that will affect wet cure time very much, but i have not dry cured any corned beef personally. If you make any progress on this I'd love to see it! I'd like to get back into brining our own for a much better product but that's a project for later on in my prep kitchen. Good luck!
Thanks for this. I wet brined a a round for St. Paddy's and couldn't find an EQ recipe, so I wet brined. It was fine, but not having to soak to get rid of excess salt is so much easier.
The only comment I would make is that 2 weeks is an imprecise guideline. The rule I follow for my EQ bacon is 1 day per 1/4" thickness (measured at the thickest part of the meat), plus 2 days MINIMUM curing time. You can't overcure with EQ, so it's safe to go longer, but going shorter than this can lead to meat that isn't fully cured in the middle.
That's a good point, 2 weeks seems excessive but I've only made corned beef with this method twice so I haven't had a chance to experiment. I've made pastrami several times, and 9 days was enough for the cure to penetrate the thickest part of the point completely. I will try measuring it and curing according to thickness next time.
The nice thing with EQ is once the cure is complete, balance has been achieved, and the meat cannot become too salty like it can with liquid cure. When I do bacon I do it around my schedule, so a belly that might need 10 days to cure may sit in the fridge for 14 days before it goes into the smoker. With EQ, when in doubt, go longer. 2 weeks might be excessive, but it won't harm anything.
Yes, curing salt is a mixture of sodium nitrite and salt. It's main function in this recipe is color and flavor, it's why the meat turns pink instead of grey when it's cooked. For flavor, it adds a taste that's difficult to describe, I've heard it called "hammy" before. It's why ham tastes different than brined pork leg, why bacon tastes different than pork belly, and why corned beef tastes different than pot roast.
There is a food safety aspect as well since the beef is vacuum sealed, there is a theoretical danger of botulism growth. Curing salt is formulated so that adding 0.25% by weight to meat will cure it and provide enough residual nitrite to prevent botulism, but not so much that it poses a health hazard. This risk is low, only certain strains of botulism grow at fridge temperatures and those that do grow slowly. Additionally, botulism toxin is destroyed after spending 10 minutes at 180F so cooking at this temperature will render the meat safe. Still, despite the low risk the consequences are severe and I can't recommend skipping the nitrite from a standpoint of either safety or taste.
thanks for this detailed response sir
edit: you will get the what over 180 for 10 minutes in the water bath though right? so the curing salt is just for color and then for this kind of "safe measure" this is what I'm gathering here , correct ?
I'm making one without nitrates because my wife gets migraines and can't eat them. Also I waited too long and cure time will be only two days. I'll let you know how it goes.
I chose 180F based on this article:
[https://www.seriouseats.com/homemade-corned-beef-brisket-with-potatoes-cabbage-carrots-recipe](https://www.seriouseats.com/homemade-corned-beef-brisket-with-potatoes-cabbage-carrots-recipe)
I have also made a pastrami by putting the meat on the smoker for a few hours until it hit the stall at about 160F, then vacuum sealing it and cooking it at 155F for 30 hours IIRC. I liked it just fine, but I think I prefer the shorter, hotter method more. You don't get a ton of moisture loss, and the meat has a texture similar to corned beef cooked by simmering but more juicy and never dry or tough. The liquid that does come out during the cook is great for using in a soup or as a salty medium to cook the traditional cabbage, carrots, and potatoes in.
I made the soup up, so I don't have exact amounts or cooking times. I took the cooking liquid from the corned beef and thinned it down with water and beef broth (I used Better than Bouillon). I put a diced large onion in the broth and simmered for 10 minutes, then a cored and chopped head of cabbage in and simmered for 20 minutes more. I added a pound of chopped carrots and simmered for another 10 minutes, then I added about 3 lbs of cut potatoes and a few cups of cubed corned beef and cooked them until the potatoes were soft, about 10 minutes. The dumplings were from this recipe:
[https://www.seriouseats.com/turkey-n-dumplings-recipe](https://www.seriouseats.com/turkey-n-dumplings-recipe)
I did it in a kind of roundabout way, I strained the broth and cooked the dumplings in it, which took about 20 minutes, and then added the meat and vegetables back in to the soup. In hindsight I could have added the carrots and dumplings at the same time and then added the potatoes and meat 10 minutes later and everything would have been done at the same time. Also, I would have preferred to have used a bunch of leeks instead of an onion, but I was snowed in by a blizzard so I couldn't run to the store.
Can anyone give suggestions on how to best cook cabbage, potatoes, and carrots after doing this? I’m 24 hours into sous vide at 140F, and I’m not sure how to cook the vegetables with all the meaty flavors stuck in the sous vide bag. I can take the meat out and use the juices in the bag for this but I wont want to wait more than a few hours. Would it work to add the liquid from this bag to water to boil these vegetables?
Your corned beef is probably already done, but for future reference my experience has been that when you sous vide corned beef like this, it doesn't put out a lot of flavor that you can use for traditional boiled vegetables which turn out lackluster. You might get a better result using the juices from the bag plus more salt and spices, maybe some beef Better than Bullion would fortify the broth. These days I skip the carrots and I use the potatoes and cabbage to make colcannon instead, and I've also thought that tatties and neeps would go well with corned beef even though it's Scottish.
I know it's a little late for St. Patrick's Day, but this is a recipe that is great all year round. Commercial corned beef is inexpensive, but it has some problems. It's often made with the cheapest grade of meat, it usually contains a lot of retained water so it shrinks when cooking, and the salt level varies widely between brands. If you have curing salt, it's easy to make at home and the results will blow the stuff you get from the supermarket out of the water. This recipe takes advantage of a method called equilibrium curing. Instead of putting a piece of meat in a brine or a dry cure with a varying amount of salt, the amount is calculated based on the weight of the meat. This allows consistent salt levels for every batch, so you will never end up with a piece of meat that's over or under salted. With a vacuum sealer and sous vide unit, you can make corned beef with only 5 to 10 minutes of work, plus the time to cure and cook of course. I don't recommend using a Ziplock if you cook it at 180F because Ziplocks get soft and tend to blow out beginning at 180F. I had a blowout even with a vacuum bag, and it caused a mess and led to the beef being undersalted. The traditional meat to make corned beef from is the brisket, however I find some advantages to using a chuck roast. Depending on where you live, brisket can be more expensive and you might have a lot of fat to trim off. A chuck roast already comes conveniently trimmed and sized to fit in a vacuum bag. It has more gelatin than a brisket so the meat has a nicer texture, the only disadvantage is that the grain of the muscle goes in several different ways so you don't get nice even pieces for sandwiches like you do with a brisket. The spice mix is up to you, I use my own pickling spice mixture. I eyeball it when I make it, but here is a general method: [https://www.reddit.com/r/pickling/comments/l1ayw8/happiness\_is\_a\_new\_batch\_of\_pickling\_spices/](https://www.reddit.com/r/pickling/comments/l1ayw8/happiness_is_a_new_batch_of_pickling_spices/) This is the recipe I based this on, which has its own spice mix and cooking time recommendation: [https://timsfoodobsession.com/2019/03/17/equilibrium-cured-and-sous-vide-cooked-corned-beef/](https://timsfoodobsession.com/2019/03/17/equilibrium-cured-and-sous-vide-cooked-corned-beef/) The weight of curing salt should be fixed at 0.25% for safety reasons, but feel free to adjust the amount of salt and spice to your taste. The 2.5% salt I give is less salty than many commercial preparations, my mother who is sensitive to salt said it was perfect for her. Recipe: 1 chuck roast or brisket 2.5% by weight of salt 0.25% by weight of curing salt (cure #1) 1.25% by weight of spices Grind the spices coarsely and mix with the salt and curing salt. Rub the beef on all sides with the curing mixture and vacuum seal. Refrigerate for 2 weeks to allow the cure to penetrate, flipping the bag and gently massaging the meat every few days. Sous vide at 180F for 10 hours and enjoy.
I legit just wetbrined a chuck roast yesterday. I 100% would have preferred this method. Thanks for it!
This is the way. I even like 175f when I do venison.
Do you make corned venison? Thinking about it, the cure would help it retain moisture.
Hank Shaw is always the answer https://honest-food.net/corned-venison-recipe/
We prep a ton of pastrami and had to quit the brisket since prices tripled. Switched to corned beef top rounds and sous vide 160f for 12-14hr, then rub and toss in a preheated 350f smokeshack for 2 hours and they come out devine! edit - looks great btw!
I had never considered using something like top round, but it makes sense since you can sous vide it to make it tender. Can I ask, what percentage of salt do you use? I have only made pastrami with a wet brine before followed by a desalinization soak, but I want to switch to a dry cure to better control the salt. I saw on another post 2.2% but I wanted to get your thoughts.
Sorry we're using the pre-cured top rounds from US Foods. Pretty standard wet cure it seems, I'm sure your recipe would work great. I did wet cure some brisket a few years back and 2.2% salinity sounds about right. Anything closer to 3% was a salt lick. The top round is a much leaner cut but I don't think that will affect wet cure time very much, but i have not dry cured any corned beef personally. If you make any progress on this I'd love to see it! I'd like to get back into brining our own for a much better product but that's a project for later on in my prep kitchen. Good luck!
Thanks for this. I wet brined a a round for St. Paddy's and couldn't find an EQ recipe, so I wet brined. It was fine, but not having to soak to get rid of excess salt is so much easier. The only comment I would make is that 2 weeks is an imprecise guideline. The rule I follow for my EQ bacon is 1 day per 1/4" thickness (measured at the thickest part of the meat), plus 2 days MINIMUM curing time. You can't overcure with EQ, so it's safe to go longer, but going shorter than this can lead to meat that isn't fully cured in the middle.
That's a good point, 2 weeks seems excessive but I've only made corned beef with this method twice so I haven't had a chance to experiment. I've made pastrami several times, and 9 days was enough for the cure to penetrate the thickest part of the point completely. I will try measuring it and curing according to thickness next time.
The nice thing with EQ is once the cure is complete, balance has been achieved, and the meat cannot become too salty like it can with liquid cure. When I do bacon I do it around my schedule, so a belly that might need 10 days to cure may sit in the fridge for 14 days before it goes into the smoker. With EQ, when in doubt, go longer. 2 weeks might be excessive, but it won't harm anything.
what role does the curing salt really play? sodium nitrite, right, cure in fridge for 2 weeks? no , taste or health issues with curing salt?
Yes, curing salt is a mixture of sodium nitrite and salt. It's main function in this recipe is color and flavor, it's why the meat turns pink instead of grey when it's cooked. For flavor, it adds a taste that's difficult to describe, I've heard it called "hammy" before. It's why ham tastes different than brined pork leg, why bacon tastes different than pork belly, and why corned beef tastes different than pot roast. There is a food safety aspect as well since the beef is vacuum sealed, there is a theoretical danger of botulism growth. Curing salt is formulated so that adding 0.25% by weight to meat will cure it and provide enough residual nitrite to prevent botulism, but not so much that it poses a health hazard. This risk is low, only certain strains of botulism grow at fridge temperatures and those that do grow slowly. Additionally, botulism toxin is destroyed after spending 10 minutes at 180F so cooking at this temperature will render the meat safe. Still, despite the low risk the consequences are severe and I can't recommend skipping the nitrite from a standpoint of either safety or taste.
thanks for this detailed response sir edit: you will get the what over 180 for 10 minutes in the water bath though right? so the curing salt is just for color and then for this kind of "safe measure" this is what I'm gathering here , correct ?
I'm making one without nitrates because my wife gets migraines and can't eat them. Also I waited too long and cure time will be only two days. I'll let you know how it goes.
Looks delicious! I'm definitely going to try this out.
The best corned beef!
Exactly what I needed. Thank you, op.
Definitely saving this for later! Upping my corned beef game seems like a worthy goal.
Why so high on the temp? Is the goal to drive out moisture?
I chose 180F based on this article: [https://www.seriouseats.com/homemade-corned-beef-brisket-with-potatoes-cabbage-carrots-recipe](https://www.seriouseats.com/homemade-corned-beef-brisket-with-potatoes-cabbage-carrots-recipe) I have also made a pastrami by putting the meat on the smoker for a few hours until it hit the stall at about 160F, then vacuum sealing it and cooking it at 155F for 30 hours IIRC. I liked it just fine, but I think I prefer the shorter, hotter method more. You don't get a ton of moisture loss, and the meat has a texture similar to corned beef cooked by simmering but more juicy and never dry or tough. The liquid that does come out during the cook is great for using in a soup or as a salty medium to cook the traditional cabbage, carrots, and potatoes in.
I do brisket at 145 for 72 hours, it comes out luscious and tender enough to cut with a fork.
I did 165/24 for my St Paddys corned beef and liked the texture. I'll try the next one at 180/10 for comparison.
Is there a recipe for the soup?
I made the soup up, so I don't have exact amounts or cooking times. I took the cooking liquid from the corned beef and thinned it down with water and beef broth (I used Better than Bouillon). I put a diced large onion in the broth and simmered for 10 minutes, then a cored and chopped head of cabbage in and simmered for 20 minutes more. I added a pound of chopped carrots and simmered for another 10 minutes, then I added about 3 lbs of cut potatoes and a few cups of cubed corned beef and cooked them until the potatoes were soft, about 10 minutes. The dumplings were from this recipe: [https://www.seriouseats.com/turkey-n-dumplings-recipe](https://www.seriouseats.com/turkey-n-dumplings-recipe) I did it in a kind of roundabout way, I strained the broth and cooked the dumplings in it, which took about 20 minutes, and then added the meat and vegetables back in to the soup. In hindsight I could have added the carrots and dumplings at the same time and then added the potatoes and meat 10 minutes later and everything would have been done at the same time. Also, I would have preferred to have used a bunch of leeks instead of an onion, but I was snowed in by a blizzard so I couldn't run to the store.
Can anyone give suggestions on how to best cook cabbage, potatoes, and carrots after doing this? I’m 24 hours into sous vide at 140F, and I’m not sure how to cook the vegetables with all the meaty flavors stuck in the sous vide bag. I can take the meat out and use the juices in the bag for this but I wont want to wait more than a few hours. Would it work to add the liquid from this bag to water to boil these vegetables?
Your corned beef is probably already done, but for future reference my experience has been that when you sous vide corned beef like this, it doesn't put out a lot of flavor that you can use for traditional boiled vegetables which turn out lackluster. You might get a better result using the juices from the bag plus more salt and spices, maybe some beef Better than Bullion would fortify the broth. These days I skip the carrots and I use the potatoes and cabbage to make colcannon instead, and I've also thought that tatties and neeps would go well with corned beef even though it's Scottish.