Do-It-Yourself Corned Beef

Do-It-Yourself Corned Beef FARM HOME Food 28-1-30 Instead of paying $4.95 a pound at the deli counter, Robert Foley of Bandera, Texas, saves a lot of money by making his own Texas-style corned beef at home. "Take two 4 to 5-lb. market-trimmed briskets, and cut them up into chunks that will fit into a large crock pot or glass jar and run 7 to 8 garlic cloves through a garlic press," he explains. "Then dissolve a third of a cup of common table salt and about one teaspoon of sodium nitrate (saltpeter) in two cups of warm water. Add about 3 tablespoons of pickling spice to finish your brine." Foley says the next step is to pour the brine down the side of the jar or crock pot, and then fill it up to the top with cold water. Then, take a glass saucer and lay it on top of the meat to keep it in the brine, and cover the whole thing with Saran Wrap. Next, cover it with a layer of tinfoil. If you're using a crock pot like he does, place the lid on top as a final coveringà otherwise you're ready to put it in the refrigerator. "Leave it in the fridge for no less than 14 days. Then, when you take it out, rinse off all the brine and you may have to pick some spices off," he says. "Lastly, place the meat in a baking pan and cook in the oven at 300 degrees for no less than three or four hours, until it is tender." Foley says the only thing left to do then is, "slice it real, real thin and make Rueben sandwiches, or corned beef on rye with a slice of swiss cheese." "I like it with a little hot mustard, myself," he says. "The hardest part of this whole program is waiting the 14 days, and when you smell it cooking for four hours, it's hard to stay away." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Robert Foley, 283 Big Rock, Bandera, Texas 78003 (ph 830 796-4878 before 9 a.m. CST).

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