Skip to main content

The Road to Reuben: Corning the Beef

Witty and I goad each other into food expeditions. Our latest round of discussions led to Reuben sandwiches. That, of course, means making everything, the subject of this week's set of posts. We start with the corned beef that is used to make pastrami. I picked up a brisket from Super Saver and some salt. Witty's pig geneticist friend assured us that you don't need special pickling salt. A pure salt without additives (no iodine, no clumping agents) works well. The fact that I am alive to write this post tells you that he did not lead me astray.
I didn't have a large food grade container so I put the meat inside a plastic bag in my refrigerator drawer along with corned beef-appropriate spices.
I let the meat soak in salt water from Monday until Saturday. At that point, I rinsed the meat and put it in a pure water bath to be sure that it wasn't overly salty. I left it there overnight. Cooking the meat is the story for an upcoming post.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pressure Cooker Candied Ginger

I made candied ginger a few years ago. It's not something I would do every day but I had a lot of fun doing it. I recently acquired a pressure cooker and it inspired an interesting idea to me: why not make candied ginger in the pressure cooker? It should be very soft and flavorful. Here is the result. I peeled two large ginger roots, cut them into small cubes, and put them in the pressure cooker with heavily sugared water. The traditional method first boils the ginger in plain water to soften it and then again in sugar water to candy it. The resulting candy was very tender but still with the characteristic ginger texture. It was also sweet without being overpowering. The traditional method leaves a lot of sugar crystallized around the ginger. The pressure cooker gives a much more subtle result. The ginger stays moist even after it cools but you can dry it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. That inspired me to dip it in chocolate. While I was in the b...
2 comments
Read more

DCA: Cava Mezze Grill

Cava is a DC area chain with light Mediterranean food. Saibal encouraged me to try lunch at their airport location and I was very happy with the experience. I ordered falafel on SuperSalad with assorted other toppings. The falafel was tasty. The SuperSalad was light, flavorful, and very easy to eat. Overall, a healthy and enjoyable lunch, something you can't always say about airport eating.
Post a Comment
Read more

Eating Around Georgia Tech: Ecco

Our Texas Instruments colleague Cathy Wicks was gracious enough to host several of us at Ecco tonight. This is one of those restaurants that has been on my list for a long time. Even though it is within easy walking distance of Georgia Tech, I hadn't made it there until tonight. The menu is a combination of Italian, Spanish, and French that make use of some local Georgia ingredients. The combination of those three countries is sometimes a little forced, although the georgia ingredients (fruit, cheese) were all great and perfectly appropriate. We started out with a meat and cheese board. This actually reverses the French tradition, where cheese usually follows the main course. Everything was excellent. The Georgia cheese was a big hit, as was the French cow/goat cheese. I thought the sauscisson was very subtle and very good. The waitress said that the roast pork pasta was their signature dish, so I had to try it. It had traditional broad pasta (fresh, of course) ...
Post a Comment
Read more