Corned Beef
Once again, my crock pot hits a home run! Oh-my-goodness, supper was so delicious when I served Reubens made with corned beef that I had cooked myself in my crockpot.
Now, don’t get too nervous, friends, I did not go the whole nine yards and do the actual “corning” of the beef myself. I just cooked the thing. By the way, corning is the old-old-fashioned word for salting. Corn used to mean kernels, or small pellets, which is how salt was back then. (Picture rock salt) So, corned beef is just beef cured with salt. Who knows what they do to it know, I’m not brave enough to research it.
You see, for the last several months I have been on a stricter-than-I-like grocery budget and buying deli counter corned beef just did not fit in my budget. (In case you are unaware, deli cut beef is running $8 or more per pound, corned or roasted.) Lately, I have been avoiding any meat that runs me over $3 per pound, and usually sticking to $2 when I can.
So, my daughter was craving Reuben sandwiches and I just told her flat out no, but then I remembered that I could buy a corned beef shrink wrapped at Sam’s club. I’d done this once before, cooked it with sauerkraut, and it was delicious, but it got so tender that it fell apart and we ate it as if it were pot roast instead of sliced on bread.
Well, I decided to experiment and I bought another one (after checking the price, which was $2.83 per pound), pondering how I could cook it and get it tender but sliceable. Early this morning, I put it in the crockpot and added enough water to almost cover it. Set it to low and let it cook for about 8 hours. At that time, I gently lifted it out (OH IT SMELLED SO GOOD!) and wrapped it in foil. I let it cool like that, all wrapped up. About an hour later, I unwrapped it and cut it ACROSS THE GRAIN OF THE MEAT with an electric knife, as thinly as possible.
Talk about melt-in-your-mouth tender. Mmm… Mmmm… Let me tell you, folks, this was so much better than the corned beef I used to buy in the deli. More tender, no white swirls of gristle and fat throughout.
To read my post about Reubens, click here.
Other things you can do with corned beef:
Add cabbage and potatoes for an easy dinner.
Add sauerkraut and serve with noodles or pierogies.
Chop and use in dips.
Shred and add white sauce and pour over toast.
August 18th, 2007