Scratch Corned Beef

I scoured the internet for the ultimate home cured corned beef, after many disappointing pre-mixed corned beef polybag spice cocktails at the grocery store.  I had to believe there was something better tasting out there.  The following recipe is a copy of another online recipe that I selected as my test run solely based on the image of the finished product.  Red in color and very lean.  I was lucky to have blindly selected the recipe that most mirrored the flavor I was looking for.  The ultimate surprise was a flavorful slab of beef that also revealed some heat, as well as flavor.  To my ultimate surprise was the spice mix was classically East Indian and the end product was mouth watering oozing with flavor but did not taste like Indian buffet in a tent or chutney dipping sauce for meat.

Pickling Spices
1 Tbl. whole allspice Tbl. whole mustard seeds
1 Tbl. coriander seeds
1 Tbl. red pepper flakes
1 Tbl. whole black peppercorns
2 tea. whole cloves
9 whole cardamom pods
6 large bay leaves, crumbled
2 tea. ground ginger
2 sticks cinnamon

Brine:
1 gallon water
2 cups kosher salt
4 tea. pink curing salt* (NOT Himalayan pink salt)
3 Tbl. pickling spices
1/2 cup light brown sugar

*Pink curing salt or sodium nitrite goes by many names such as Prague Powder #1 or DQ Curing Salt #1. If you don't have it, you can still make corend beef, but it is necessary for that vibrant pink color we associate with corned beef.  Without it the corned beef will be a dull gray color.

Brisket:
1 5-pound beef brisket
1 Tbl. pickling spices

1 Toast and crush spices: You can either used store-bought pickling spices or you can make your own. To make your own, toast the allspice berries, mustard seeds, coriander seeds, red pepper flakes, peppercorns, cloves, and cardamom pods in a small frying pan on medium heat until fragrant. Note that it is pretty easy to burn spices; you want enough heat to release their flavors, not so much that they get burned.
Remove from heat and place in a small bowl. Use a mortar and pestle to crush the spices a little (or the back of a spoon or the side of a knife on a flat surface). Add to a small bowl and stir in the crumbled bay leaves and ground ginger.
2 Make curing brine with spices, salts, sugar, water: Add about 3 Tbsp of the spice mix (reserve the rest for cooking the corned beef after it has cured), plus the half stick of cinnamon, to a gallon of water in a large pot, along with the Kosher salt, pink salt (if using), and brown sugar. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat and let cool to room temperature. Then refrigerate until well chilled.
3 Cover brisket with brine, chill: Place the brisket in a large, flat container or pan, and cover with the brine. The brine should cover the meat. The meat may float in which case you may want to weigh it down with a plate.
Alternatively you can use a 2-gallon freezer bag (placed in a container so if it leaks it doesn't leak all over your refrigerator), place the brisket in the freezer bag and about 2 quarts of brine, squeezing out the air from the bag before sealing.
Place in the refrigerator and chill from 5-7 days. Every day flip the brisket over, so that all sides get brined equally.
4 Cook cured meat: At the end of the cure, remove the brisket from the brine and rinse off the brine with cold water. Place the brisket in a large pot that just fits around the brisket and cover with at least one inch of water. If you want your brisket less salty, add another inch of water to the pot.
Add a tablespoon of the pickling spices to the pot. Bring to a boil, reduce to a very low simmer (barely bubbling), and cook 3-4 hours, until the corned beef is fork tender. (At this point you can store in the fridge for up to a week.)
5 Cut across the grain: Remove the meat to a cutting board. (You can use the spiced cooking liquid to cook vegetables for boiled dinner or corned beef and cabbage.) Notice the visible lines on the meat; this is the "grain" of the meat, or the direction of the muscle fibers.
To make the meat easier to cut, cut it first in half, along the grain of the meat. Then make thin crosswise cuts, across the grain to cut the meat to serve. Enjoy!
Recipe Courtesy of Elsie Bauer