hello Maggie,
Provided you have all of you ingredients on hand, proceed as follows.
IF you have only a 3- 31/2 piece of brisket, start thusly.
A 1 gallon pot filled with 2 quarts of water. Add: 1/2 cup Kosher salt, 1 TBLSP cracked black pepper, 1 TBLSP dried ground thyme, 1/4 cup of Juniper berries, 2 tsp paprika, 1/4 tsp all-spice, 3 large Bay leaves cumpled, 3 large cloves of fresh minced garlic, 2 TBLSP of sugar, and 2 tsp of the pink curing powder (Prague #1).
Bring the water to a boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and COOL TO ROOM TEMP ! this is critical !
When water/brine mix is very cool, take your meat out of the ref and poke it all over with a lg sharp cooking fork. be sure to poke it all around and poke as DEEPLY as you can, maybe 40-50 times.
Now, take a smallish 2 qt pan and set a 1 gallon zip-lock bag inside (this will keep the bag from tipping over as you fill it). Put the brisket inside the bag. (If you have a piece of meat or pieces of meat that are too large, feel free to use 2 zip lock bags).
Now. assuming you have one piece of meat that fits comfortably inside the bag, begin to pour the brine (it will be VERY dark looking) into the bag. Begin to zip the bag closed BUT not all the way shut. Carefully squeeze all of the air out of the bag and finish zipping it closed.
At this point it is a matter of personal preference. I usually put my meat/brine and bag into the refrigerator, lower veg chiller. Hint: it helps to jam something up against it to keep it from tipping over. 3 or 4 times /week turn the bag over. This is to insure that all of the meat is evenly brined during the next 14-21 days. The longer you leave it in the brine, the more intense the flavor.
Almost done now. On cooking day, dump and discard all of the old brine. Once again take a 1 gallon pot and add meat. Fill the pot with enough water to cover it with 3 inches of water. Add new spices : 2 crumpled Bay leaves, 12 TBLSP of whole mustard seed, 2 lg cloves of minced fresh garlic, 1 tsp all-spice, 1/4 tsp ground cloves, 1/2 tsp black pepper, 1/4 cup of white vinegar.
With fire turned on low, simmer the meat for 70 minute/lb. Example: if your piece of meat is 4 lbs, you will need to keep it simmering (covered) for 280 minutes (4 and 1/2 hours) add more water as needed to keep the meat covered IMPORTANT : never let the water come to a full boil, that would toughen the meat.
At this point you have several options, when meat is almost done you may elect to put your vegies (lg chunks of carrots, new potatoes or any "waxy potatoes" and one head of cabbage quartered) into the pot with the meat. Or you may elect to wait until meat is 100% tender remove the meat and wrap it in alum foil, set aside,and strain the broth, discarding any solid pieces of spice and then use the stained broth to cook your veggies. I prefer the latter method.
I generally have some melted butter on hand to pour over the cooked veggies.
I also serve with several kinds of mustard depending upon the taste of your guests And I like to serve with the best rye bread I can get my hands on.
When slicing the corned beef be sure to cut thinly ACROSS THE GRAIN an leave the heavy layer of fat on. (depending upon health choices) But fat is one of the primary things which makes food taste wonderful.
You may now sit back and bask in the glory of your achievement.
This may sound like a lot of work but actually most of it is waiting for the meat to brine and later to cook.
On a cold winter's day there is nothing like a hot corned beef and cabbage meal to put a smile on everyone face. ENJOY !:yougogirl:
