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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.
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