Homemade Corned Beef Cure Recipe
A recipe for curing corned beef, adapted from a Corned Beef Brisket recipe from Kenji Lopez-Alt of Serious Eats.
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
For every 5 lb of brisket (flat or whole):
- 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
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 2 tablespoons whole black peppercorns
- 1 tablespoon yellow mustard seeds
- 2 tablespoons whole coriander seeds
- 1 tablespoon allspice berries
- 6 whole cloves
- 6 bay leaves roughly crumbled
- Weigh your beef then do the proper conversion based on this recipe for 5lb.
Instructions
- Pat the brisket dry with paper towels.
- Combine the salt, pink (curing) salt, ground ginger, 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, then crush them coarsely with a mortar and pestle or in a tea towel with a rolling pin
- Rub the spices all over the brisket's surface.
- Cover the brisket and pan tightly with plastic wrap. (Or, as we did, use a very large zip bag meant for meat-brining.)
- 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...
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!