By Jove, I think I've done it!
I've tried to cook corned beef a lot of ways over the years, and this was my most successful attempt yet. Traditionally my technique has involved some sort of a braise- immersing the beef at least partially in liquid, all the way to a completely immersed boil. My efforts, although flavorful and tender when sliced thinly, we never as tender as what I was shooting for.
This time I did it differently, and the results were tender beyond words. I started with a really nice Harris Ranch piece I picked up at Sprouts Market. I had been surfing a bit online, looking at lots of techniques, and settled on using my Dutch Oven with the meat on a steaming basket above my liquid, which was a few pints of Guinnes with some additional water. I used the seasonings as is, other than adding some Colman's mustard to the mix.
I cooked the beef in the oven around 325º for the most part for over 4 hours, the lid tightly closed except for about 45 minutes to let the peppercorns and the corned beef brown a bit.
During the last hour I decided to roast an onion, 4 carrots, and a half dozen Yukon Gold potatoes on a sheet pan to give them some color while I cut a small head of cabbage into wedges, keeping the stem intact to help hold them together.
I pulled the beef out, removed the steamer basket, and pulled out whatever bits were in the Guinness, then added more water and mustard, plus a generous squeeze of lemon juice to brighten the liquid up a bit. I added the cabbage to the bottom, along with the carrots and onion. The potatoes went on top of that, and the beef topped it all off. I took the picture at this point, you can see in the corner that the cabbage is still raw.
It boiled until everything was ready, then I sliced the corned beef for service.
I may tweak this a bit next year, but the results were amazing. Really amazing. There's a bonus picture in the extended entry.
Anybody else make some corned beef this year? Slainté!!!
