The March Charcutepalooza challenge was up on the Internet (challenge #3). Brining, okay, I’m familiar with brining. I would do chickens, very large chickens, brined for the appropriate time, rinsed and left to dry in the refrigerator for a nice pellicle and then smoked to perfection. No worries, got lots of chicken in the freezer.
But then I came across some grass-fed brisket at C and F Meats, Co., Inc., in College Grove, TN. I purchased a nice, center cut, well marbled five pound beef brisket following the brining instructions in the Charcuterie book to the LETTER.
The first thing I made was the standard cabbage, potatoes and carrots with the corned beef adding a little local honey and some stone-ground mustard, salt and pepper to taste. Nothing special or creative in this traditional dish, I just craved it and wanted to see if it was different with the home brining. It was.
Once the beef was cooked, I had to hide it in the fridge from Mr. Pink Guitar. The dude would have just stood there at the refrigerator with the door open gnawing bites off the remaining hunk of meat until it disappeared. He was told it was off-limits pending special recipes…
I made a soup with the cooking juices and the remaining vegetables, adding chicken stock, coconut milk, rice noodles, celery, more carrots and cilantro. It disappeared in short order
We tried grilled sandwiches with rye bread, Swiss cheese and sauerkraut and delighted in all of the sweet and salty flavors and the wonderfully spicy notes brought about from the bay leaves, allspice, peppercorns and mustard seeds.
I was ready to execute MY special recipe. I’d spent time taste testing the meat and thinking about how to give it a fresh, spring twist. I had a plan and was ready to go.
But the night before I was to make my special tasty treat, it was gone, the meat, gone. Used on pizza. Gone. Mr. Pink Guitar likes to make pizza. I asked him about it and he said “you can just make another brisket”. Uuh, it was 1 day before the deadline to post the results. Ya think Mr. Pink Guitar considers it easier to ask for forgiveness than permission?
I have asked Mr. Pink Guitar if he would like to share his corned beef pizza recipe with you. He says he will, so I suppose we patiently wait in anticipation of his recipe and pictures. To his credit, he is very busy with a “real” full-time job and another full-time job on the farm in addition to playing music on Broadway in Nashville every other Sunday at Layla’s Bluegrass Inn.
So, if you learn how to brine or corn beef brisket, you will never have a problem wondering what to do with it. It will not last long, you may have to hide it. Even from people that don’t explore the far reaches of the refrigerator, you know the ones I’m talking about – those that think the fridge cleans itself out, those who don’t “go there” with leftovers? So, I suppose I’ll be corning more beef! MY recipe will be posted later. The Chicken? Yeah, eclipsed by the beef. That post will come later too.
Innocent parties regarding the meatwagon (those that don’t sneak corned beef): Burley, Sophie, Lucy, Jack, Jane… Kids walking the Greats~!
Pink Guitar Farm 