Home » Thermal Tips: St. Patrick’s Day Corned Beef
Thermal Tips: St. Patrick’s Day Corned Beef
Author: Kim Allison
See for our Irish Soda Bread post (the perfect complement to Corned Beef on St. Patrick’s day).
Outside the realm of the Reuben sandwich and the occasional hash, most people think of corned beef as a dish for St. Patrick’s day. But that needn’t be so! Amazing corned beef has a place on your table all year long, and we have the time and temperature tips to be sure your corned beef is as flavor-packed, tender, and juicy as it can be. So grab a Thermapen® and let’s make this tasty dish!
Corned beef is Irish…kind of. It’s an iconic meal that was developed out of necessity by early Irish immigrants. Before immigrating to the United States, a typical meal for an Irish family would have been cured pork with potatoes. After traveling to the U.S. in the 1800s, cash-strapped Irish immigrants found that pork and potatoes were far too expensive.
The Irish immigrants shared neighborhoods and shops with Jewish immigrants who didn’t sell pork in their butcher shops, and who had learned to cure cheap cuts of beef. The Irish took the cured beef brisket and boiled it with cabbage rather than potatoes to create hearty meals. Corned beef and cabbage may not have originated in Ireland, but it’s authentically Irish-American. A great dish to celebrate Irish-immigrant heritage!
Where’s the corn?!?
People often ask about the corn in corned beef. And the truth is, there is none. The “corn” in corned beef comes from the coarse-grained salt that was originally used to cure the meat. These kernels of salt gave the name “corned” to the beef, with the word corn not referring to a specific grain, but to the old word for anything the size of a grain. So that’s why there’s no corn in the dish!
Corning is a common term for the method of curing meat with salt. And while preserving meat by way of salt-curing has been in practice for centuries (the chemical composition inhibits bacterial growth), we mainly cure meat now for the flavor and texture qualities inherent in the process.
To properly cure a brisket for corned beef, Prague powder #1 (pink curing salt) is an essential ingredient. The sodium nitrite slowly decomposes into nitric oxide, which reacts with myoglobin in the meat to create the pink color of the brisket. This reaction is also what gives cured meat its slightly tangy flavor.
Why pink?
Curing salt is pink to distinguish it from table salt. The chemical reaction during curing is what turns the meat pink, not added pink coloring.
A note on brisket
Beef brisket is one tough piece of meat. This cut is from the pectoral muscle and is heavily worked from bearing much of the animal’s weight. Protein fibers of weight-bearing muscles are very tough and are held together with a web of connective tissue that is primarily comprised of collagen.
The cut’s tough texture and connective tissue require it to be cooked slowly and held for a longer time at a higher temperature to adequately break down the collagen, transforming it into gelatin. Once gelatin is formed, it can absorb six to ten times its weight in water. Gelatin is essential in arriving at the desired moist and silky texture so commonly associated with tough cuts like brisket and pork shoulder.
Why time and temperature matter for cooking corned beef:
For food safety, the meat’s internal temperature only needs to reach 145°F (63°C), but collagen doesn’t begin to dissolve until 160-180°F (71-82°C). Heat applied to the protein needs to be low and slow to keep it tender, but the tender protein won’t matter unless the connective tissue has rendered down to perform its silky magic. For optimal collagen breakdown and gelatin development, we recommend cooking brisket to an internal temperature of 190-205°F (88-96°C).
A note on curing salt: curing salt is to be added by the weight of the meat. For every 5 lb meat, use 1 tsp curing salt. WEigh your brisket, then make the conversion for how much salt you need. Too much curing salt can be toxic, so don’t just assume that if some preserves it, more will do better.
Ingredients
1 brisket flat
3/4 cup kosher salt
1 teaspoon pink curing salt (Prague powder #1, NOT Himalayan pink salt, which is entirely different)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons whole black peppercorns
1 tablespoon yellow mustard seeds
2 tablespoons whole coriander seeds
1 tablespoon allspice berries
6 whole cloves
1 tablespoon ground ginger
6 bay leaves, roughly torn
Instructions
Pat the brisket dry with paper towels.
Combine the salt, pink (curing) salt, and sugar together in a bowl.
Place the brisket in a rimmed baking sheet.
Rub the brisket all over with the salt/sugar mixture. If there is any extra salt mixture, pile it on/under the brisket in the pan.
Combine the spices in a bowl.
Rub the spices all over the surfaces.
Cover the brisket and pan tightly with plastic wrap.
Place in the refrigerator.
Unwrap it, flip it and rewrap it a few times over the next 7-10 days.
Now you just need to wait 7-10 days…
Cooking Corned Beef
Traditional method for cooking corned beef: boil it hard
Now that the corned beef is cured, it’s time to cook it. But how? The traditional means of preparing corned beef is to put it in a pot and boil it all day, adding cabbage, carrots, and potatoes in the last 40 minutes or so. Thus it has been for generations. Of course, previous generations were notorious for overcooking vegetables, and they also didn’t have the benefit of high-precision thermometry!
Why boiling hard all day works
Collagen breakdown
As we said above, brisket is tough meat, chock-full of connective tissue. All that collagen makes for chewy corned beef if it isn’t broken down into gelatin, and the long hard boil will get the meat up into the collagen-melting temperature range —above 160°F (71°C)—it needs to turn that hard, chewy collagen into soft and yummy gelatin.
No stall
If you’ve ever smoked a brisket, you are familiar with the dreaded ‘stall.’ This phenomenon occurs when the collagen in the brisket starts to break down, releasing water. As the water evaporates in the heat of the smoker, it acts as perspiration and cools the brisket so that the temperature doesn’t rise, sometimes for many hours, and won’t stop until enough water has exited the meat to allow the temperature to rise again. Bother.
Cooking the corned beef by boiling it avoids the stall altogether. If the beef is covered in water, there is no evaporation, and therefore no cooling. The only route for heat to escape the water directly is through the surface, and a flame under the pot keeps enough heat going in that the relatively small amount of heat venting out the top doesn’t hinder your cook.
Easy to do
Putting a slab of beef in a big pot and hitting ‘go’ is about as easy as cooking gets. Busy immigrant families probably thought of this as an ideal way of cooking (except for the cost of fuel for an all-day stove flame) if there were other things to be done.
Why an all-day hard boil doesn’t work
Too much breakdown
We all know you can overcook a steak and dry it out—let it hit 150°F (66°C), and you may as well give it to the kids, who don’t know any better. And while brisket can take a much higher temperature, it too can be overcooked. If all the collagen turns to gelatin, that’s good, but if all the gelatin cooks out of the corned beef, you’ll just have a crumbly, dried out piece of salted beef.
Flavor loss
Also, boiling meat hard all day is going to leach flavor out of it, leaving it a pale shadow of what it could have been.
What would the ideal method be?
In researching how to achieve corned beef perfection, we looked closely at what J. Kenji López-Alt had to say on the subject. After multiple cooks for multiple times and multiple temperatures, Kenji reported the best method for his taste preference was to cook the corned beef for ~10 hours at 180°F (82°C). This resulted in a texture that he liked best with a happy medium between structural breakdown and juiciness.
Mind you, that’s his preference. His experiments showed that you can get a flakier—though somewhat drier—texture by cooking the corned beef at a higher temperature for a shorter time.
What’s going on here?
Collagen breakdown is a function of time and temperature. Once you breach the threshold of gelatin creation—about 160°F (71°C)—the meat will begin to soften. But at that temp, it will take 36 hours to get tender! At 205°F (96°C), that time is reduced to a mere 3 hours. But because the total internal temp will have climbed so much higher, other protein reactions will have happened that make the meat flakier and drier.
How to cook corned beef perfectly
What we’re looking at here is a fine difference between tradition and modern science. The traditional method is a hard boil all day. This is a soft simmer for as little as 3 hours, but up to all day depending on your textural preference.
To achieve that level of textural accuracy, temperature control is key. So how do you get that control? You could sous vide it. Sous vide is all about careful temperature control, but this recipe for corned beef will be a little too salty, I believe, if you sous vide it. Simmering it in open water draws some of the salt out, vac-sealing it for sous vide will give that salt nowhere to go.
You could use a slow cooker. Every slow cooker is different, and they all try to maintain different temperatures. If yours keeps a temp that you like for the cook, go for it. But the ThermoWorks demo kitchen doesn’t have a slow cooker, so we broke out the thermometers and rigged up our own system!
We put our beef in the pot and covered it with water. Then onto the stove it went, and we started to monitor the temp once it started to visibly simmer. We tried to maintain a water temp of ~195°F (91°C) to balance texture and speed. Because we were taking a more scientific approach to this cook, we used a SmokeTM dual-channel thermometer and a Pro-Series Waterproof Needle Probe to monitor both the temperature of the water and the internal temperature of the corned beef. We wanted to know exactly what was going on with the beef temperature, etc. But if you don’t have a Smoke or ChefAlarm when you cook yours, sporadic monitoring of your water temperatures with an instant-read like the Thermapen® will also work.
What temperature is corned beef done?
You’ll want to keep your water temperature at a high simmering temp—if you want very firm but tender corned beef that means 180°F (82°C), 190-195°F (88-91°C) for flakier but faster corned beef.
Using Smoke’s receiver is nice for this, as you don’t have to be by the pot to know what’s going on. But until the internal temp of the beef and the temp of the water start to equalize a bit, there’s going to be a lot of back-and-forth on your stove heat to maintain the temperature you want.
Once your corned beef reaches the internal temperature you want, it will still need to have time for the collagen to break down. Our target temp was 190°F (88°C), and it took 2 hours after reaching that temp for the meat to reach the consistency we wanted. Yours may take more time depending on your temperature and texture preference.
How to Cook Corned Beef—simmering
Rinse the excess salt mixture from the corned beef.
Place the beef in a pot. If it’s too big to fit, cut it into smaller pieces and wedge them in together.
Cover the beef with at least an inch of water.
If you are using Smoke to track your cook, use the Smokehouse probe and a pot clip for the water temp and a waterproof needle probe for the meat.
Bring your water up to your target temperature, and maintain it there by adjusting the heat on your burner.
Monitor the internal temp of your corned beef, either with the Smoke or with a Thermapen. Once you reach your target temperature, let the meat cook until it can be easily pierced by a knife—at least 2 hours after the temp is reached.
You may need to add more water in the course of the cook, as some will be lost to steam.
Once your beef is tender enough, add any veg to the pot that you want to boil with your beef: carrots, potatoes, turnips, cabbage, etc. Let them simmer with the beef until they reach the texture you like.
Remove the beef from the pot and let it cool enough to handle.
Slice the beef to your liking and serve with the cooked veggies and some good mustard.
How to Smoke Corned Beef
Smoking is a non-traditional but delicious way to prepare corned beef. You still want to cook it in water at least part of the time to let some of the salt out of it, but smoking it before a steam/braise cycle will imbue it with a deep, smoky flavor. We followed the advice given at Taste of Home to get ours just right. This is a great way to jazz up a store-bought cured corned beef that won’t have as much depth of flavor as a home-cured version.
Using a leave-in probe thermometer like the Smoke X4™ to monitor the cook is a great way to make sure you hit your critical temperatures.
Ingredients
1 corned beef, raw, about 3 –5 pounds
water
Instructions
Preheat your smoker to 275°F (135°C). If you’re using the Billows™ BBQ control fan with your Smoke X4, set the fan temp for 275°F (135°C), otherwise, set your high-temp alarm for 300°F (149°C) your low-temp alarm for 250°F (121°C) and monitor your smoker with the receiver to make sure it stays in the proper range.
Rinse your corned beef and pat it dry.
Insert the penetration probe into the corned beef and place it in the smoker. Set the high-temp alarm on the meat channel for 160°F (71°C).
When the alarm sounds, place your beef in a pan and add water to come 1/3 of the way up the side of the meat.
Wrap the pan tightly in foil, insert the probe through the foil into the meat, and reset your high-temp alarm for the meat to 203°F (95°C).
Cook the corned beef in the pan until the alarm sounds. Verify that the meat has reached 203°F (95°C) throughout by spot-checking with a Thermapen®.
Remove the corned beef from the water pan and wrap it tightly in two layers of foil, then wrap it in a few towels and stash it to rest in a cooler for at least an hour, preferably two.
Slice thinly and serve!
And there you have it! Home-cured, carefully cooked corned beef is far better than the commercial stuff you have tried before. And with our temperature hints and a Smoke or a Thermapen® you can get exactly the corned beef texture you like!
Great question! This recipe from Pressure Cooking Today goes through how to prepare corned beef in a pressure cooker. You could follow the corning instructions in our post, and continue on with the rest of the recipe after using your pressure cooker. It’ll certainly speed up the process!
Question…after you boil the brisket, do you drain the water? Do you just leave it in the Dutch oven or put it on a broiling pan? Everything else sounds pretty straightforward, but having trouble following that part of the process…
I’m sorry the process wasn’t more clear to understand. After the brisket is brought to a boil on the stovetop it’s transferred directly into the oven–still submerged in water in the Dutch oven. After cooking in the oven the brisket is allowed to rest in the cooking liquid. I hope this helps. Please don’t hesitate to ask any more questions you may have.
I’m sorry the process wasn’t more clear to understand. After the brisket is brought to a boil on the stovetop it’s transferred directly into the oven–still submerged in water in the Dutch oven. After cooking in the oven the brisket is allowed to rest in the cooking liquid. I hope this helps. Please don’t hesitate to ask any more questions you may have.
Great question! This recipe from Pressure Cooking Today goes through how to prepare corned beef in a pressure cooker. You could follow the corning instructions in our post, and continue on with the rest of the recipe after using your pressure cooker. It’ll certainly speed up the process!
The current format we have isn’t the most user-friendly, and we’re working toward restructuring some areas of our website. Thank you for your feedback!
You state that it can take from 8 to 10 hours to cook to reach a tender stage. How does one know when it’s tender enough, and not overly tender that it falls apart?
You make a good point. The larger the piece of meat, the longer it will take to reach target temperatures and judge doneness. Check out this article by Steven Raichlan about Brisket FAQs. He has a couple of tips, but one is to insert a thermometer probe inside the meat. It should go in out without any resistance–like butter. Best wishes with your corned beef cook!
I cooked mine differently as per another source and it turned out amazingly good. Smoked the meat at 240 deg until the internal temp reached 160 deg. Then I wrapped it with foil (I do the same for ribs) which will keep the juices in the meat and tenderizes it. The temp rose from 160 to 180 deg in about 1.5 hours. Then coated it with a glaze and cooked it until the internal temp reached 195. Let it rest for 30 minutes. The meat was very tender and tasted great by itself. The next day my wife made the corn beef and cabbage meal which always is great. Definitely a recipe that I will add to my “Favorites” list.
Your smoked method sounds wonderful! The temp ranges you mentioned are so critical that tough piece of meat. There really are so many different ways to prepare a brisket whether it’s corned, smoked, cooked sous vide, or simmered. Thank you for sharing!
Your smoked method sounds wonderful! The temp ranges you mentioned are so critical that tough piece of meat. There really are so many different ways to prepare a brisket whether it’s corned, smoked, cooked sous vide, or simmered. Thank you for sharing!
The current format we have isn’t the most user-friendly, and we’re working toward restructuring some areas of our website. Thank you for your feedback!
You make a good point. The larger the piece of meat, the longer it will take to reach target temperatures and judge doneness. Check out this article by Steven Raichlan about Brisket FAQs. He has a couple of tips, but one is to insert a thermometer probe inside the meat. It should go in out without any resistance–like butter. Best wishes with your corned beef cook!
I heard from a butcher friend that the use of celery salt may be just the same as pink salt. Is this true. Our conversation was on… Should I say it.. Nitrates. Easy now! I just want to know about the celery substituting pink salt.
Great question! It looks like celery salt, or cultured celery powder, is used as an alternative to curing salt–they aren’t the same thing. The cultured celery powder contains some preformed nitrites. Check out this article from Malabar Spice. If you give it a try let us know how it goes!
Great question! It looks like celery salt, or cultured celery powder, is used as an alternative to curing salt–they aren’t the same thing. The cultured celery powder contains some preformed nitrites. Check out this article from Malabar Spice. If you give it a try let us know how it goes!
I cure the meat in liquid for 1 1/2 to 2 weeks, using a similar spice mix to yours. I toast the spices lightly and grind them in a mortar to release more flavor.
I always boiled it and didn’t think to use my ThermaPen. The poke-it-with-a-fork method has worked for years and I got no complaints. Maybe I’ll shake it up and get scientific this year.
We get good results using our slow cooker with a mixture of Guinness, brown sugar,home made pickling spice,two split heads of garlic and one quartered onion cooked on low setting around five hours.Never took an Internal,always went by feel but will use my “Smoke” this time to compare.We sear cabbage wedges in bacon fat then some cooking liquid,carrot and taters put on a lid till crisp tender.Say no to soggy veg.Also flats and points cook different from one another,we like points for fat content.
Love your detailed article. I like to keep my corned beef for a few days for sandwiches or just to munch on. Will it stay moister if I slice it and store it in a Tupperware covered with the cooking liquid or will it stay moister than if I put it in the container dry?
There are so many temperatures discussed in this article-I’m confused! The water temp should be 195°, but maybe 180?
For the meat temp, I don’t understand this sentence. “Once your corned beef reaches the internal temperature you want, it will still need to have time for the collagen to break down. Our target temp was 190°F (88°C), and it took 2 hours after reaching that temp for the meat to reach the consistency we wanted. Yours may take more time depending on your temperature and texture preference.”
What is the range of internal temp I may want? Target temp 190°, but after you reached 190°, it took 2 more hours? To what eventual temp?
Thank you.
Good questions, I see that is less clear than it seemed when I wrote it. You can cook it in water that is at 180°F for much longer, but I like it closer to 195°F. The meat will equalize with the water temperature, but just because it bets up to that temp doesn’t mean that it is already tender…not necessarily.
If you cook it at 180°F it will take several hours to get tender enough. If you cook it at 190 it will go faster. You’ll hit “water temp” and then need to hold it at that temp for more or less time, depending on your textural preference.
The temperature here is giving us a guide to making sure we don’t overcook it and boil all the gelatin out of it.
I cooked two corned beef roasts, both about 4 lbs, one using Lopez-Alt’s method and one using the simmering method in this article. I used a Joule sous vide unit and a Thermoworks Smoke X2 to monitor the temperature for the first, and a Samsung induction cooktop and the Smoke X2 for the second.
The Lopez-Alt recipe was crap. After 8 hours (not 10) at a rock-solid 180F, the meat was cooked to the consistency of baby food. Even allowing it to cool overnight in its bag didn’t improve it. I can’t believe anyone wants it this way.
So my meal was screwed. now I had to cook the second one and have the NE Boiled Dinner on the 18th.
So the next day I try again using the Thermoworks simmering recipe. Reach an internal temp of 190, hold two hours. Similar results though not as bad. Overdone, overdone. Tasted fine but would not hold un for slicing for a sandwich.
Harvey Brotman says
EXCELLENT article. Thanks so much.
Kim says
Harvey,
Glad you enjoyed the article! This was a fun project for us to work on.
-Kim
Basem Kandah says
What is the cooking procedure for a pressure cooker?
Kim says
Basem,
Great question! This recipe from Pressure Cooking Today goes through how to prepare corned beef in a pressure cooker. You could follow the corning instructions in our post, and continue on with the rest of the recipe after using your pressure cooker. It’ll certainly speed up the process!
Thanks,
-Kim
Guy Sulzberger says
Question…after you boil the brisket, do you drain the water? Do you just leave it in the Dutch oven or put it on a broiling pan? Everything else sounds pretty straightforward, but having trouble following that part of the process…
Thanks!
Guy
Kim says
Guy,
I’m sorry the process wasn’t more clear to understand. After the brisket is brought to a boil on the stovetop it’s transferred directly into the oven–still submerged in water in the Dutch oven. After cooking in the oven the brisket is allowed to rest in the cooking liquid. I hope this helps. Please don’t hesitate to ask any more questions you may have.
Thanks!
-Kim
Kim says
Harvey,
Glad you enjoyed the article! This was a fun project for us to work on.
-Kim
Kim says
Guy,
I’m sorry the process wasn’t more clear to understand. After the brisket is brought to a boil on the stovetop it’s transferred directly into the oven–still submerged in water in the Dutch oven. After cooking in the oven the brisket is allowed to rest in the cooking liquid. I hope this helps. Please don’t hesitate to ask any more questions you may have.
Thanks!
-Kim
Kim says
Basem,
Great question! This recipe from Pressure Cooking Today goes through how to prepare corned beef in a pressure cooker. You could follow the corning instructions in our post, and continue on with the rest of the recipe after using your pressure cooker. It’ll certainly speed up the process!
Thanks,
-Kim
james says
I enjoy your emails and information but I find it difficult to print and save the information
Kim says
James,
The current format we have isn’t the most user-friendly, and we’re working toward restructuring some areas of our website. Thank you for your feedback!
Sincerely,
-Kim
Nathan Sternfeld says
You state that it can take from 8 to 10 hours to cook to reach a tender stage. How does one know when it’s tender enough, and not overly tender that it falls apart?
Kim says
Nathan,
You make a good point. The larger the piece of meat, the longer it will take to reach target temperatures and judge doneness. Check out this article by Steven Raichlan about Brisket FAQs. He has a couple of tips, but one is to insert a thermometer probe inside the meat. It should go in out without any resistance–like butter. Best wishes with your corned beef cook!
Thanks,
-Kim
BobK says
I cooked mine differently as per another source and it turned out amazingly good. Smoked the meat at 240 deg until the internal temp reached 160 deg. Then I wrapped it with foil (I do the same for ribs) which will keep the juices in the meat and tenderizes it. The temp rose from 160 to 180 deg in about 1.5 hours. Then coated it with a glaze and cooked it until the internal temp reached 195. Let it rest for 30 minutes. The meat was very tender and tasted great by itself. The next day my wife made the corn beef and cabbage meal which always is great. Definitely a recipe that I will add to my “Favorites” list.
Kim says
Bob,
Your smoked method sounds wonderful! The temp ranges you mentioned are so critical that tough piece of meat. There really are so many different ways to prepare a brisket whether it’s corned, smoked, cooked sous vide, or simmered. Thank you for sharing!
-Kim
Kim says
Bob,
Your smoked method sounds wonderful! The temp ranges you mentioned are so critical that tough piece of meat. There really are so many different ways to prepare a brisket whether it’s corned, smoked, cooked sous vide, or simmered. Thank you for sharing!
-Kim
Kim says
James,
The current format we have isn’t the most user-friendly, and we’re working toward restructuring some areas of our website. Thank you for your feedback!
Sincerely,
-Kim
Kim says
Nathan,
You make a good point. The larger the piece of meat, the longer it will take to reach target temperatures and judge doneness. Check out this article by Steven Raichlan about Brisket FAQs. He has a couple of tips, but one is to insert a thermometer probe inside the meat. It should go in out without any resistance–like butter. Best wishes with your corned beef cook!
Thanks,
-Kim
Justin L says
I heard from a butcher friend that the use of celery salt may be just the same as pink salt. Is this true. Our conversation was on… Should I say it.. Nitrates. Easy now! I just want to know about the celery substituting pink salt.
Kim says
Justin,
Great question! It looks like celery salt, or cultured celery powder, is used as an alternative to curing salt–they aren’t the same thing. The cultured celery powder contains some preformed nitrites. Check out this article from Malabar Spice. If you give it a try let us know how it goes!
Thanks,
-Kim
Kim says
Justin,
Great question! It looks like celery salt, or cultured celery powder, is used as an alternative to curing salt–they aren’t the same thing. The cultured celery powder contains some preformed nitrites. Check out this article from Malabar Spice. If you give it a try let us know how it goes!
Thanks,
-Kim
stanley Nack says
Great article. I love corn beef on rye. must be the Irish in me!
Kim says
Stanley,
Nothing really compares to well-made corned beef. Glad you liked the article.
Thanks!
-Kim
Kim says
Stanley,
Nothing really compares to well-made corned beef. Glad you liked the article.
Thanks!
-Kim
gary p says
I cure the meat in liquid for 1 1/2 to 2 weeks, using a similar spice mix to yours. I toast the spices lightly and grind them in a mortar to release more flavor.
I always boiled it and didn’t think to use my ThermaPen. The poke-it-with-a-fork method has worked for years and I got no complaints. Maybe I’ll shake it up and get scientific this year.
Martin says
I love the idea of toasting and grinding the spices first. Excellent tip!
lowandslow says
We get good results using our slow cooker with a mixture of Guinness, brown sugar,home made pickling spice,two split heads of garlic and one quartered onion cooked on low setting around five hours.Never took an Internal,always went by feel but will use my “Smoke” this time to compare.We sear cabbage wedges in bacon fat then some cooking liquid,carrot and taters put on a lid till crisp tender.Say no to soggy veg.Also flats and points cook different from one another,we like points for fat content.
Happy Cooking!
Martin says
“Say no to soggy veg.” Love it!
Gary says
Love your detailed article. I like to keep my corned beef for a few days for sandwiches or just to munch on. Will it stay moister if I slice it and store it in a Tupperware covered with the cooking liquid or will it stay moister than if I put it in the container dry?
Martin says
It should stay moister in the cooking liquid.
Jane says
There are so many temperatures discussed in this article-I’m confused! The water temp should be 195°, but maybe 180?
For the meat temp, I don’t understand this sentence. “Once your corned beef reaches the internal temperature you want, it will still need to have time for the collagen to break down. Our target temp was 190°F (88°C), and it took 2 hours after reaching that temp for the meat to reach the consistency we wanted. Yours may take more time depending on your temperature and texture preference.”
What is the range of internal temp I may want? Target temp 190°, but after you reached 190°, it took 2 more hours? To what eventual temp?
Thank you.
Martin says
Jane,
Good questions, I see that is less clear than it seemed when I wrote it. You can cook it in water that is at 180°F for much longer, but I like it closer to 195°F. The meat will equalize with the water temperature, but just because it bets up to that temp doesn’t mean that it is already tender…not necessarily.
If you cook it at 180°F it will take several hours to get tender enough. If you cook it at 190 it will go faster. You’ll hit “water temp” and then need to hold it at that temp for more or less time, depending on your textural preference.
The temperature here is giving us a guide to making sure we don’t overcook it and boil all the gelatin out of it.
Michael Asbury says
If I’m not mistaken, when smoking corned beef, it becomes pastrami. Correct me if I am wrong.
Martin says
Close! Pastrami also needs to be coated in a pepper/coriander/spice mixture.
HPoole says
I cooked two corned beef roasts, both about 4 lbs, one using Lopez-Alt’s method and one using the simmering method in this article. I used a Joule sous vide unit and a Thermoworks Smoke X2 to monitor the temperature for the first, and a Samsung induction cooktop and the Smoke X2 for the second.
The Lopez-Alt recipe was crap. After 8 hours (not 10) at a rock-solid 180F, the meat was cooked to the consistency of baby food. Even allowing it to cool overnight in its bag didn’t improve it. I can’t believe anyone wants it this way.
So my meal was screwed. now I had to cook the second one and have the NE Boiled Dinner on the 18th.
So the next day I try again using the Thermoworks simmering recipe. Reach an internal temp of 190, hold two hours. Similar results though not as bad. Overdone, overdone. Tasted fine but would not hold un for slicing for a sandwich.
Martin says
I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you. A shorter hold time at the temperature will make it more sliceable. I’m glad it at least tasted good!
Denny Dillavou says
Will the Square Dot oven temp probe also monitor water temp averages?
Martin says
Yes! But you might wan to use the optional waterproof needle probe for that. It works just as well with the Square DOT, but is meant for submersion.