There are two sections to a beef brisket - the flat and the point (also called the deckle). The best corned beef or pastrami is made from the meat where the two sections meet - dead center. If you can't find whole packer cut briskets where you live, you will be stuck with flats. No problem. Use them but cut the pieces paper thin. With the mid-section you can get thicker slices and a lot more flavor.

I couldn't wait for the 17th........I already cooked mine :-) I prefer the flats for the traditional boiled dinner - they come with decent layer of fat on one side that IMO, improves the flavor of both the meat and the broth while cooking. And is easy enough to trim off before serving if you wish. I find the points will have fat throughout the cut that can be less appealing.

Plan on making hash with the leftovers tonight!

I can get the whole packer cut. Must have learned that from Ricky last year. I might just get two being a good price this week. I remember cutting off the tip and the other end and food saver separately. Sous Vide the three packets and froze the other two for the 4th of July smoker bbq. Excellent.

So thank you for the reminder!

Will have to check costco for the whole packers, thanks for the note.

Side note, try adding a can of Guiness to your cooking liquid, we find that it gives it a great flavor. I normally cook mine in the crock pot and normally use 1/2 Guiness and 1/2 Beef Stock. Yumm.

Stop & Shop (NY) corned beef, $1.67 a lb.

dcarch

Steve, any beer will work. Thanks for the reminder.

I wouldnt say ANY beer, but yes, most beers will work.

Wow, dcarch, here I was thinking that $2.99 (at Aldi this week) was great price -- at least it will be the best that I will see.

I was comparing point vs. flat, and the points were about 30% solid fat (beyond the marbling) -- so the cheaper per pound price didn't seem to really work out.

Points are on sale for $1.99/# while the flats are as high as $8/# here in Chicago. I like them both. I have in the freezer a point, but one market has the Vienna corned beef for $5, so I grabbed the flat for Saturday. I am not sure yet if it will go into the Instant Pot or the slow cooker.

I just found this out:

I drained the liquid out from the packaged corned beef and weighed the beef. It appears that the store charged money for the liquid and the packaging as well.

There was about 1/2 lb of liquid.

Check out yours.

dcarch

Pretty much standard operating procedure, unfortunately, DC.

Maybe even worse are those 'enhanced' chicken breasts that they package with what looks like an oversaturated disposable diaper...and the breasts are still swimming in 'solution' in spite of the sopper upper.

Stop-n-shop is the last place I would purchase any meat or seafood....that market meat counter stinks like teen dirty sox in a damp dumpster. Never go there. Who cares the sales....I prefer a good quality product.

$1.99 lb here for point. Test SV'd mine for Sunday. three days 138 degrees. Half bottle of stout. gads, it was sooooo good. Even my wife, who usually complains about the salt, was impressed. She doesn't appreciate my SV, but never complains when I mysteriously cook something great with the 'fish tank heater' ...

Hosting a St Paddy's day party Saturday. Picked up lovely flats for $3 a pound at Publix. Happy dance!

Will serve with colcanon and soda bread......have to make Nana O'Grady proud

I did mine 72 hours at 135F.

There was never any need to slice thin across grain. It was fork tender. Corned beef medium!

Interesting also, I did a side-by-side test, a couple of years ago, traditional boiled vs. SV, SV had significantly less shrinkage because of low heat. I forgot the % gained.

dcarch

Dcarch, most stores weigh the pre-packaged meat juice and all. So whatever is in that package is part of the per pound cost.

It's not just corned beef, it's ham or chicken, whole turkeys, whatever. All that "flavor enhancer added" stuff is just salt and water, and you pay meat price for it. Chicken comes on those styrofoam trays with an absorbent mat in the bottom and those are always heavy and soaked with that salt solution. They think we don't notice, I guess.

I always use the flat, it makes a nice neat slice and there's a lot less fat than on the point. I just picked up our beef today, so I do have briskets, but I've got another venison roast "corning" in the fridge, that's what we're having. It's probably a lot more authentic anyway, LOL. This was my last one and it was delicious.

Annie

DH picked up a couple packages of flats the other day, on sale for $1.99/lb. The points were $2 or $3 more. We'll be having this later today!

Steve J - In the crockpot on Low or High? Tks

"Steve J

Dcarch, most stores weigh the pre-packaged meat juice and all. So whatever is in that package is part of the per pound cost."

I think that's illegal. No?

dcarch

No.

dandy, low for 8 hrs, or high for 4. Low and slow is preferred.

dcarch, the ones in my supermarket are pre-packaged, If you can think of way for them to open the package, remove the liquid, weigh it, put the liquid back in it, and seal it without contaminating the contents without adding a lot of expense, I'm sure they'd love to hear that.

annie, corned venison. Damn, that sounds like it would be interesting. Though i tend to think the roast needs a bit of fat on it to keep it moist/tender/flavorful. Have you done this before?

"Steve J

dcarch, the ones in my supermarket are pre-packaged, If you can think of way for them to open the package, remove the liquid, weigh it, put the liquid back in it, and seal it without contaminating the contents without adding a lot of expense, I'm sure they'd love to hear that."

I do believe that it is against the law to charge for packaging and extra liquid. I saw that on a program, a store was caught and fined.

I just came back from Costco with a pack of corned beef, no liquid, just beef.

The package weighted 3.6 lbs on my scale. The label marked 3.56 lbs. So Costco did not charge for extra liquid and did not charge for the plastic wrap.

If it is not against the law, they would be doing the same as other stores.

dcarch

Just got home. Mine is cryovac tight. Hard skin removed and left a nice layer of fat. So no trimming by me and did not pay for that hard skin.

Now on to a dry rub. Keeping it simple. Wondering if I should leave it open in the fridge to dry a bit overnight like I do steak....

I just got home with my corned beef. One half pound Boar's Head from the deli. LOL. Husband doesn't like it and I can't eat a whole roast.

dcarch, being that they are sealed from their supplier and unweighed how would you expect them to weigh it without the liquid?

And I believe the rule only applies if the added water or liquid is not identified on the packaging. In my case, it's clearly labelled.

Yes, Steve, I have. I'm not a fan of venison roasted, so I decided to try it corned. I defy anyone to tell me it's not beef, and I didn't add any fat, it was a nice, lean roast. It did take 5 days of curing, though.

I got the recipe from a book of wild game recipes called "Preparing Fish and Wild Game." Since we put bass, lake perch, catfish and bluegills in the pond, and my husband shot 3 deer last year, both with a gun and with a bow, I figured the 99 cents at Goodwill was well worth the price. It was.

CORNED VENISON

2- 3 pound brisket, flank or shoulder roast,

2 quarts distilled water (I just used tap water because I'm a rebel and don't care)

1/2 cup canning and pickling salt

1/2 cup Tenderquick

3 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons pickling spice

2 bay leaves

8 whole peppercorns

1 or 2 cloves of garlic, minced

Roll brisket or flank and tie it. (Mine came rolled and tied from the processor). Place in a large glass or pottery vessel or in a large plastic bag. (I put it in a bag and then into a bowl in case of leaks) Combine remaining ingredients in a non reactive pan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Pour cooled brine over meat and squeeze air from bag. Refrigerate for 4 or 5 days, turning occasionally. Drain and rinse meat with cold water.

To prepare meat, place in dutch oven and cover with water. Heat to boiling, drain and add fresh water to cover. Heat to boiling, cover pan and simmer until tender, 3 1/2 to 4 hours.

I did the one above in the oven at 325F for about 4 hours, and I didn't drain and add fresh water the last time but I should have. It's too salty without that boil/drain step.

Good luck, this works well with venison, with beef round roast, with moose loin, even with buffalo. My favorite is the venison, though, and it's easily available for me. I do raise beef, so that works well too, and a friend gave me some moose, but I don't have them readily available. I can buy bison/buffalo locally, but I don't bother because I have venison and beef.

Annie

dcarch, there is a law that addresses net weight vs. total weight in packaged foods -- canned vegetables for example -- but from a quick google search it appears that meat and poultry are specifically exempted from that rule. I can see some of the reasoning, because tissues could naturally hold varying amounts of fluid at time of processing and release varying amounts after packaging (above and beyond the brine that is added artificially).

So yeah, we are paying for salty water as part of the total meat price sometimes, and it is perfectly legal.

I finally tried AnnT's method for cooking corned beef after reading about it here several years ago, and really wonder what took me so long. It was, without a doubt, the best-tasting corned beef I have ever had. Rub liberally with garlic and cracked black pepper, wrapped in a double layer of foil, put in a covered baking dish and cooked at a low temp (I did 275 while I think AnnT recommended 250) for several hours. I will never cook corned beef any other way again. It really did become almost pastrami-like. We sliced it thin for reubens, just nibbled on it, and used it on rye toast, along with some sauteed fresh garden spinach under a poached egg for breakfast.

Thanks for posting, I somehow went brain-numb, forgetting all about St. Paddy's, and thanks to you I remembered to pick up some corned beef last minute! Missed the sales, though : (

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marymd7: Did you not use any other seasonings or liquid?

Nope. If you search the forum, you'll find a couple of discussion of AnnT's method with corned beef.

marymd7 and dandyrandylou, I think this is a post that has it: I'm a corned beef virgin