Small Plates - March 17, 2010

CORNED BEEF - I used to impatiently wait for St. Patrick's Day every year. As a lover of corned beef, it was pretty much the only time I was able to get the stuff (being that I had no idea about cooking it myself). It was usually hit or miss as to whether the corned beef from a restaurant was dry and rubbery or mouth wateringly delicious. And even if I did try to make it myself, most grocery stores only carried those pre-seasoned packages of corned beef during the month of March. So I was usually left with my craving for corned beef to only be fulfilled one day a year.

I knew that I had a good one in Mr. L when, on one of our first dates, he made me corned beef and cabbage on St. Pattys Day. Yum. He cooked everything in a crock pot and the meat was very tender, not stringy or two chewy or dry. I also knew he was a keeper when we started eating corned beef year round, not just on the day one drinks green beer.

THOSE PACKAGES - I find a lot of folks don't like corned beef because it's too dry (as opposed to those that don't like corned beef because they think it includes corn..for those not in the know, "corning" a beef is a form of "curing"). Most of the corned beefs I've eaten that were too dry were either because the person used a pre-seasoned plastic package of the stuff or because they boiled the thing to death. May I suggest, if you really want to try a good corned beef, find a butcher where you can buy a fresh cut of meat and try cooking it in a crock pot.

POINT OR FLAT - We can find fresh corned beef at several of our local grocery stores (Cosentinos and Lunardis). In fact, Lunardi's sells fresh corned beef not only around St. Patrick's Day and Easter but around the Christmas holidays too. Lundari's offers two different cuts of the beef... A flat corned beef cut (which is the most common and easiest to find) and a 'point' corned beef cut. The flat cut is said to be leaner and used more for sandwich cutting. The point cut is cheaper because, and get this...because it's fattier. And you wouldn't want that why?  But for crock potting a corned beef we go for the point cut all the time. I don't think we've ever had a point cut corned beef that was dry. And it's easy to put the whole pot in the fridge after cooking and get rid of excess fat if you require. Point cut = Fattier. Seriously. Try the point cut. But then I'm the person who actually likes the fatty part of a piece of bacon so I may not be the best judge (but go for the point!). 

CORNED BEEF AND CABBAGE - In case you can't guess, today is National Corned Beef and Cabbage Day. And for those that don't like cabbage, I see no reason that you can't trade the cabbage for potatoes. And if you don't like potatoes either, well that's your problem and I'm going to be of no help!

Comments

[Chris]

Point or flat? I get both! I buy my briskets as a "packer cut" and then trim some of the fat cap off. But then again, I'm smoking mine. You corned beef folks (ha ha) are making me crave smoking a corned beef into pastrami!

[Mrs. L]

Chris - I honestly didn't realize until a few years ago that pastrami was made from corned beef. I'm not a huge pastrami fan so I never connected the two. Of course maybe if I had decent pastrami (loved the stuff we got from Katz's).....