I know it’s traditionally brisket, but a 5# tri-tip on sale was the perfect size and the fat content looked right.

Yeah yeah, it’s not Irish for St. Patrick’s day, blah blah blah.

Don’t give a shit. I like corned beef, so why the fuck not.

Basically using the same rub as my dry cooked bacon (same ratio of salt/NaNO3, half as much brown sugar, add coriander seed, mustard seed, black peppercorns, bay leaves, a little allspice.

Let’s see what happens, I guess. Might be good, might suck.

Last few times I’ve done corned beef it’s ended up as pastrami.  Not this time.

I don’t plan on cooking it as long as a brisket.  My cooking plan (currently, this may change over the next couple of days) is to give it a quick rinse/pat and throw it in the pressure cooker.  Whether I finish it on the grill is still up in the air… inclined to say no because I’m trying to deviate from my pastrami tendencies.

The cure may be tricky - the key (for me) is to make sure the salt/NaNO3 ratio stays the same as something that I know works… I know this is a poor substitute for knowing the actual chemistry involved, but this was a thrown together attempt anyway.  The real truth is that, a few spices and flavorings aside, I use the same base cure recipe for everything (which started with bacon).

I am also curing it about 2/3 the time of a brisket.  I don’t know if I can over cure it, but I want full penetration of the cure… intuitively, I don’t think you can over cure, since it will reach an equilibrium point once it’s fully penetrated, right?

There is a chance that this will be a total failure.  I’m not afraid of that… hell, it’s part of the fun.

My main motivation for using the tri-tip is that it was the right size and had the right fat content.  It was also on sale.

I could go all the way crazy and sous vide it…

Not crazy at all! 7 to 9 hours at 130 turns into an awesome piece of meat.

2/3 of the reason I end up trying new things.

The other 1/3 of the reason are those TV cooking shows.


That actually sounds like a really good idea to me. I haven't got a sous vide heater, but I think I'm going to get one soon. I'm probably going to get one of those you can hang on the side of a stock pot, since I have limited storage space available in the kitchen.

ETA: sous vide until finished and throw it on the grill for a sear/finish, so it looks pretty and has a nice crust on it.

Ok- after action report:

Dry cured for 5 days, rinsed and into the sous vide overnight,

then thrown on a hot grill for an outside sear.

Served with something vaguely like colcannon



Potatoes were boiled, liquid in the sous vide bag was added to the boiling liquid, along with a spoonful of the brine.

Conclusion:

A good effort. The brine penetrated the fat more deeply, resulting in that part being too salty (in spite of a thorough rinse).  The meat had good penetration of the cure and was pretty good (not nearly as salty as the fat).  The potatoes and cabbage were the perfect accompaniment.

Afterthoughts-

It was a nontraditional cut, and a nontraditional preparation.  There were a lot of unknowns in the dish.  The result wasn’t quite what you’d expect from corned beef, but still good. I think I prefer a more traditional corned beef, though this could be tuned and improved.

A more traditional braise might have been better. A brisket might have produced more predictable results.

Regardless, it was good, and a lot of fun.

Pretty cool experiment.

Biggest thing is that, being a different cut and different prep, the texture wasn’t what I wanted.  Brisket has a unique composition in terms of connective tissue and fat content/distribution, which is what gives good corned beef its texture, and part of what makes it so good. Cooking a different cut exactly the same way would produce something different… cooking a different cut with a different preparation, different still.

Searing it on the grill, if for no other reason beside crisping up the fat a little, was a good idea.

I’m glad I did it, and it was worthwhile, but I’ll stick to a traditional prep in the future…


Which reminds me- I need to check if there’s a post St. Patrick’s Day sale on pre-cured corned beef… that’s pastrami time.