The month for corned beef is fast approaching. You see it in every store or meat market you frequent. This is one of my favorite types of meat. I love it plain, with mustard and/or horseradish, made into a Reuben or even hash for breakfast.
A friend once made her own and offered me some. The corned beef was terrific! Flavor was incredible and the meat fell apart. It was fabulous but I had this nagging in me about the salt peter she had used. Maybe it was that it was red due to the dye used to mark it as different from table salt or maybe it was that I didn’t have it readily available in my pantry and didn’t want to purchase if I wasn’t truly going to use it on a consistent basis. I mean, meat has been cured/preserved for more than a few millennia and salt peter wasn’t always the way. I should be able to find a way with what I have at my disposal.
I first needed to understand what I could about Salt peter a.k.a. Potassium Nitrate. It is a naturally occurring mineral that has many varied uses, one of which is curing meat. It naturally reacts with the hemoglobin and myoglobin in the meat generating a red color as well as acting as a preservative slowing down oxidation and adding to the cured flavor. Oh man this means that Nitrates and Nitrites are super important if I want to make my own corned beef or any of the other cured meats I want to explore, but I don’t need that red dye! Even if they say it’s just a minuscule amount.
The other consideration for me is that I’m working on finding more “natural” or DIY ways to make things in my home with what we have on hand or can produce. It’s a crazy thing to be able to accomplish something that others think can’t be done or shouldn’t be possible. I like those types of challenges, maybe it’s just my bullheaded Basque-o side showing.
As I researched corned beef recipes without saltpeter I realized that there are options but I needed to understand why certain ingredients were being used. Bring on the invaluable information…lost in the Rabbit Hole.
Here’s a quick rundown on what I found
Q: Are there ways to brine corned beef without salt peter?
A: Yes! Celery Juice, and raw sauerkraut brine, and/or whey strained off full-fat raw yogurt or both and of course a good quality salt (sea salt, kosher salt, pickling salt). Brining is curing with salt after all.
It was interesting to learn that I’m not getting away from nitrates and nitrites as the are needed to “cure” meat but instead finding natural ways that I can achieve the same goal while getting away from the red dyes used in the salt peter and being able to use what we grow or produce to make incredible food.
Celery has a very high concentration of natural nitrate, and treating celery juice with a bacterial culture produces nitrite.
Joe Schwarcz PhD | “Is celery juice a viable alternative to nitrites in cured meats?” https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/
20 Mar 2017 Health and Nutrition
Q: Are there ways to naturally color or help preserve the color of the meat?
A: Yes! Beet Juice, beetroot powder or purple sauerkraut brine. Many of the recipes I found included beet juice for color.
Why beet juice or beetroot powder? Rabbit Holing found that beets contain…wait for it…nitrates (already figured out how important this is) as well as a compound called betalain that affects the color of fermented meat. This process can naturally help to create the cured meat color which so many are accustomed.
One of our first lines of defense as to whether something is edible or not, is through our eyes. If it looks “off” we will question whether or not it is worthy to be consumed, often times without regard to the other senses. To me this is truly sad. If you take the time to know your food you will soon realize we have been scared into a “never trust anything past the use by date” society. This to me is poppycock. What did the discerning cook do before Use By Dates? They trusted and use their senses and embodied common sense.
With cured meat we often go with better safe than sorry and toss it. I get it, botulism is some scary stuff but I believe that if we make it ourselves, we have a better understanding of all aspects of our food including what is safe and what is not.
These were exciting realizations. Yes, the preserving power of the brine would be much less calibrated using these more “natural” options but it’s still a win. I can make our corned beef any time of year and if we eat it within a reasonable amount of time from brining it will be just fine. Bring on the Rubens and don’t plan for leftovers.
In my search for nitrate/nitrite free homemade corned beef recipes and there were plenty to choose from, all used a quality salt whether it was sea salt, mineral salt, kosher salt or pickling salt. (Brining requires salt) A few used the beets/beetroot powder or purple sauerkraut juice for coloring and only two I found used both celery juice and whey and/or sauerkraut brine.
The spices varied by recipe and I believe this has more to do with personal preference than anything else. All included mustard seeds, black peppercorns, whole cloves, and cinnamon stick. Some used whole all spice or juniper berries or sometimes both. Same with cardamom pods and coriander seeds. There were also recipes that used red pepper flakes, ginger and garlic. So many options mean a chance to really make it your own. Yummy
So where to start…pick a recipe or two that speak to you. Don’t go in for a recipe that has a long list of ingredients that you don’t have on hand. This is not cost effective. Do you even know yet what you really like and don’t like. Nope, and neither do I.
My strategy will be to see what I have on hand and then choose which recipe I will be able to try without too much extra outlay of money, if any. We have brisket in the freezer from our last beef harvest so that part is easy as well as many of the spices on the ingredients list. So it’s game on. As of right now I have plenty of time to brine a brisket and enjoy it on St. Patrick’s Day. Which means so do you. :)
My Time frame:
Now until March 7th get prepared. Find chosen recipe. Verify all ingredients are to hand and if not make a list and purchase.
Defrost meat (unless purchased fresh). Move meat to the refrigerator to thaw slowly. You want it to be finished thawing when you are ready to start your brining.
Between March 7th (10 day brining) and March 10th (7 day brining) Start brining the brisket
March 17th cook freshly brined Corned Beef
While Rabbit Holing I found some incredible web sites. Always a plus. I have add links to the recipes I found below. As you check out these amazing, corned beef recipes, take a few extra minutes to peruse the other amazing recipes and information that is available on these sites. You might be inspired to go even further and try things you never thought you would.
I hope you will be Wild at Heart and give homemade corned beef a try. I would love to hear about your results. Do you have questions, hints, or other information? Please share by leaving a comment in our chat section. We are a community and as such we are here to help each other grow. We don’t become better versions of ourselves by accident and having a community to count on give us strength.
Give your Wild Heart a chance to dance. Make incredible, healthy food and you are on your way to an even healthier more independent life.
Namaste from the Tribe
La vita e’ Bella,
M.o.M.
Corned Beef recipe links:
Nitrate-Free Corned Beef from: Peel With Zeal
Natural Homemade Corned Beef (Nitrate-free) from: Feasting at Home
Home-cured Corned Beef from: Lake Clear Lodge
Corned Beef Brisket Recipe (Brine Your Own) from: Wellness Mama
How to Brine Corned Beef from: The Roasted Root
Corned Beef Brisket from Scratch from: A Farm Girl in The Making
Homemade Corned Beef (Nitrate Free) from: Grow Forage Cook Ferment
Hey lady, this is super exciting! So happy to see you've started a substack! I love the "rabbit hole" concept...I feel like I live in one half the time :).
I brined my own corned beef for the first time last year and it was amazing! I'll never go back. I even corned a top sirloin roast & it was bomb.
I love how you are digging into this, extracting the fundamentals, exactly what is going on and then sharing it with all of us. I may never do this myself, but learning a bit about it makes me appreciate it more, and now I am also hungry for a Reuben 😁 and excited for St. Paddy’s Day.