The Hawthornes had a rehearsal Saint Patrick's Day meal
back in February,
so I could give it a trial run for you.
I'm posting ahead of time
in case you need recipes for St. Paddy's Day.
Today, I'm making corned beef brisket and colcannon,
which is a traditional Irish dish of potatoes and cabbage.
And yes.
Those are real shamrocks on top and they're edible.
Slight citrus taste.
What is brisket?
It's the chest muscle of the cow,
so it gets a good workout.
The cow's exercise makes the brisket tough, but very flavorful.
There are two different cuts of brisket.
The butcher receives the whole brisket
and cuts it into the point cut and the flat cut.
What I happened to have in the freezer was the point cut.
The point cut is smaller and thicker than the flat cut.
It also has more fat and connective tissue than the flat cut.
There's a lot of flavor here, but less meat.
This was on sale when I bought it
and that's why I bought it.
For your Saint Patrick's Day dinner,
I recommend the flat cut.
It should be marked as such on the package.
The flat cut is long and thin
and has a layer of fat on top, but not running inside.
And you want a 4-pound flat cut brisket.
This will shrink.
A lot.
To prepare the corned beef,
you first need to trim off the fat.
With a sharp knife,
tease the fat away from the meat.
Holding the fat away with one hand,
scrape it from the meat with the other.
It's not necessary to get every bit of the fat off.
Now I DO
NOT want you to do this step:
I cut the brisket in half, since there are two of us here.
I'm doing my brisket my way
and Mr. Hawthorne is doing his brisket the wrong way.
You leave it whole.
I also cut the point in half for instructional purposes.
Take a look.
You wouldn't have known about that thick layer of fat
right below the surface.
This is why you want the flat cut.
Less fat.
More meat.
Mr. Hawthorne took his half and boiled it for three hours.
I prefer my method - braising,
which I'll explain more about later.
Making a V-cut, I'm slicing out that big vein of fat.
Remember:
buy the flat cut.
Buy the flat cut.
If you notice, at bottom right there's
a separate little piece of meat.
Also, the meat at that end is very thin.
Here's a better picture of it.
Fold the thin layer back over the meat.
And place that little extra piece of meat
on top of the thin part to even it all out.
You want your meat to be the same thickness,
so it all cooks at the same time.
Tie it up to keep the pieces in place.
Ready for a spicy rub and then braising.
First, a lesson in cooking meats
and the braising vs boiling issue.
A well-exercised muscle, like the brisket,
is tougher than "lazier" meats, like the tenderloin.
The thicker muscle fibers and more connective tissues
of the tougher cuts of meat need to be cooked differently
from a tender cut.
Meats are made up of muscle fibers, fat,
connective tissues, and water.
When you cook meat, the muscle fibers shrink
as the fat melts out and as the water evaporates.
That means you're losing both flavor and moisture.
But the heat helps to dissolve the tough connective tissues.
When you cook a brisket,
you need to find a balance -
you need to cook the brisket long enough to break down
muscle fibers and connective tissues,
but not so long that the meat dries out.
The best method of doing this is braising.
Braising is a technique in which meats are simmered
in a pan with liquid.
The pan is covered and the resultant steam bath
gently cooks the meat.
Boiling the meat happens at 212 degrees.
Braising occurs around 185 degrees,
so you can braise meat longer since it doesn't cook as quickly
and this gives it more time to tenderize.
Originally, corned beef was boiled
to leach out the saltiness,
but the salt and flavor ended up in the water.
In braising, some of the saltiness is released into the water,
but the muscle fibers are relaxed enough to reabsorb
the braising liquid, along with the flavor.
I braise my brisket for 3 hours.
After each hour, I pour out the water and refresh it.
This way, you get rid of a lot of the saltiness,
but retain the flavor.
Remember to use the FLAT CUT brisket.
To prepare the brisket,
first rinse beef under cold water to wash off curing salts.
Pat dry with paper towels.
Heat oven to 350 degrees.
First, I'm making a deliciously spicy rub.
Rub a 4-pound flat cut brisket with:
4 TB brown sugar, packed
2 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
My pretty little spices.
Mix thoroughly and ...
... sprinkle over brisket.
Rub it into the meat.
All over.
Massage it and really work the spices into the meat.
The spice and the heat is a nice contrast
to the saltiness of the meat.
Next, add in enough cold water
to come halfway up the side of the brisket.
Do NOT pour water over top of brisket
and wash off the rub.
Cover the brisket with foil
and place into a 350 degree oven.
Braise for one hour.
After one hour,
remove from oven and pour out liquid.
Let the baking dish cool a bit before
you add in fresh water halfway up the brisket.
Don't want to have that cold liquid/hot crock pot
and/or hot liquid/cold crock pot implosion
that Sandra Lee is always giving dire warnings about.
Braise for a second hour.
After the second hour,
pour out water, and refresh again.
Cook for one more hour.
There's my corned beef in the back.
Mr. Hawthorne's corned beef is front left and ready.
That's my glaze on the front right.
I'm going for the glaze.
Here's Mr. Hawthorne's boiled brisket.
Here's my braised brisket.
But it's not ready yet.
Remember, I'm going for the glaze.
For the glaze, combine:
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
4 TB soy sauce
2 TB Dijon mustard
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp ground ginger
Mix thoroughly.
Brush or pour over brisket
and return to a 450 degree oven, uncovered, for 15 minutes.
Let rest for 10 minutes.
Here's the boiled brisket.
Notice the texture.
It's rather stringy.
And there's a lot of fat.
Salty.
Pickin' off Mr. Hawthorne's boiled brisket.
Here's my rubbed, and braised, and glazed brisket.
Remove from pan and let rest for at least 10 minutes.
Slice and check out the texture.
Nice and tight and smooth.
Stay tuned for the colcannon.
Legend has it that the customary X-slash
cut into the top before baking serves to ward off evil spirits.
Irish Raisin Soda Bread
4 cups flour
3 TB sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
6 TB cold unsalted butter, diced
1 cup raisins
1 TB caraway seeds
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
Mix first five ingredients in a bowl.
Cut in the butter with a pastry blender
until you have coarse to pea-sized crumbs.
Stir in raisins and caraways seeds.
Set aside 1 TB beaten egg for a wash.
In a small bowl, combine remaining eggs and buttermilk.
Stir into flour mixture and mix until flour
is just moistened.
It will be a sticky dough.
Turn onto a lightly floured board and knead a bit.
If the dough's too sticky, lightly dust it with flour.
Form into a ball.
Place in a buttered 9-inch round baking pan.
Cut a 4-inch long, 1/4-inch deep cross in the center.
Brush the top with the reserved tablespoon of egg.
Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour 15-20 minutes.
Cool about 15 minutes in pan,
then remove to wire rack to cool completely.
Whisk together dry ingredients:
flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, baking soda.
First, one must properly measure dry ingredients.
Do not use the glass Pyrex measuring cups for dry ingredients.
They're used for liquid measurements.
When measuring flour, scoop and sweep.
Scoop and sweep.
Ever noticed the opening to a baking powder can
and wonder why isn't it open all the way around
and what's that metal lip for?
It has a built in scoop and sweep.
Add in cold unsalted diced butter.
Toss to coat.
Work in the butter with a pastry blender.
You don't want a homogeneous mixture.
You want different sized crumbs from coarse meal to pea.
Next, mix in the raisins and caraway seeds.
In a small bowl, mix remaining eggs and buttermilk.
Add the liquid mixture to the flour mixture.
Mix it in.
Keep working the dough ...
... until you can pull it into a shaggy ball.
It's a sticky dough,
so you may need to lightly dust it with flour.
Keep kneading until you can ...
... form it into a ball.
Place in buttered 9-inch round cake pan
and cut a cross in the top.
Brush with the reserved egg
and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour 15-20 minutes.
I tented it with foil after about 50 minutes.
Cool about 15 minutes in the pan,
then cool completely on a wire rack.
By the way, that's Moreover Corned Beef Hash in the background.
Ta daa!
Toast a slice,
smear some butter on it,
and drizzle on some sourwood honey.
Treat yourself to some Irish Raisin Soda Bread.
The sweet raisins are a nice contrast with the caraway seeds.
Erin go bragh!
