Corned Beef is brisket that’s cured in a pickle-spiced salt brine, then cooked slowly to fall-apart, juicy perfection. While you can buy it, nothing compares to the taste and texture of homemade. It’s easy and worth it!
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Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day like you mean it.
And by this I mean: make your own corned beef brisket. Do it! It’s so good! This recipe has become my St. Patrick’s Day tradition and I think it will become yours too.
Corned beef has been around for centuries, when people needed a way to preserve meat for long periods of time without refrigeration. “Corning” or curing the beef preserved it. (The word “corned” refers to the large grains of rock salt that were originally used to make corned beef, which resembled kernels of corn.)
Making homemade corned beef at home is a lengthy process that takes time and planning (you’ll need to refrigerate the brisket in the corning liquid for at least 5 days prior to cooking), but this labor of culinary love is worth it.
Similar to a wet turkey brine, the time the brisket spends in the salty, spiced, sweet, and sour liquid makes all the difference in the world in its final flavor and texture.
5 Star Review
“This makes the best corned beef ever! I cook it in my Instant Pot, and it just melts in your mouth.”
— Sasha —
Making Your Own Corned Beef: The Basics
Corned beef tastes intensely savory, warmly spiced, and a little tangy and sweet. The curing process makes corned beef brisket truly unique; its taste and texture are unlike other cuts of beef you’ve tried before.
This traditional corned beef recipe is made with pickling spices (you can purchase this online, or see recipe notes below to make your own), pink curing salt, as well as brown sugar to give the brisket a note of sweetness.
The key to making corned beef from scratch is to plan ahead! You’ll need to allow 5 days for the following steps:
- Make the corning liquid (the salt brine). It will take a few hours to boil the brine and let it cool. Add the brisket, then refrigerate.
- Refrigerate the Brisket in the Salt Brine for 5 Days. This is the curing process; it turns brisket into corned beef!
- Cook the Corned Beef. Prepare the corned beef brisket, allowing 3 to 4 hours for cooking and cooling.
What’s the Best Method for Cooking Corned Beef?
The best method for cooking corned beef is up to you and what equipment you have at your disposal. You can boil, braise, or smoke the corned beef. Any way you cook it, it’s going to be delicious!
I haven’t tried making slow cooker or Instant Pot corned beef personally, but I think a pressure cooker or crock pot could be another option for cooking corned beef. (Readers have reported successfully using the Instant Pot!)
About the Pink Salt
Pink salt, also called curing salt, is what makes corned beef pink. It contains a compound called sodium nitrate, which both adds flavor and inhibits growth. Pink salt is NOT the same as pink Himalayan sea salt.
If you’d prefer to not use pink salt, you could try adding a couple of beets to the boiling liquid when you’re cooking the brisket so still has a pink hue. You could also experiment with adding 1 to 2 tablespoons of beetroot powder to the brining liquid instead of pink salt.
What to Serve with Corned Beef Brisket
Corned beef is probably best known for starring in Corned Beef and Cabbage. In addition to serving it as a main, you can turn it into a corned beef sandwich with sauerkraut and cheese, mix it into Corned Beef Hash, or add it to cream cheese to make a tasty dip.
Here are some more pairing ideas:
- Bread. You can’t beat corned beef with a side of Irish Soda Bread. Some Roasted Garlic Potato Rolls would also be tasty.
- Potatoes. Pair corned beef with Scalloped Potatoes, Crockpot Mashed Potatoes, or Hasselback Potatoes.
- Veggies. Roasted Carrots, Sauteed Cabbage, and Cabbage Steaks would all be tasty.
Corned Beef
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Ingredients
For Brining the Corned Beef:
- 12 cups water
- 1 ½ cups Morton’s Coarse Kosher Salt
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons pink curing salt
- 3 tablespoons pickling spice* divided
- 3- to 4- pound flat cut beef brisket
For Cooking the Corned Beef:
- 1 tablespoon pickling spice*
- 2 bay leaves
- 4 garlic cloves peeled
- 4 cups ice cubes (1.5 pounds ice)
Instructions
Brining the Brisket (5 Days in Advance):
- In an 8-quart or larger stockpot, combine 12 cups water, kosher salt, garlic, brown sugar, pink salt, and 3 tablespoons of pickling spice.
- Bring the liquid to a boil, stirring until the sugar and salt dissolve. Cover the pot with a lid to make the liquid boil faster, checking on it every 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool for 30 minutes.
- Line a large bucket, tub, pot, the insert of a crockpot, cooler, or other similar vessel large enough to hold the brisket and brine snugly with a brining bag. Add the ice.
- Pour the semi-cooled brining liquid on top (if it is still a little warm, the ice will melt and cool it down the rest of the way). Allow this mixture to sit and come to room temperature, about 1 hour.
- Place the brisket into the fully cooled liquid (your patience is worth it for food safety!) and submerge so it’s covered in liquid. If the brisket floats, weigh it down with a heavy pot, bag of ice, or similar (we top ours with a stack of dinner plates that is about the circumference of the bucket; if you are using your crockpot, you can flip the lid upside down and use that).
- Let the brisket brine for at least 5 days (or up to 7 days), ensuring that it stays below 40 degrees but above 32 degrees so that it does not freeze. You can place it in a refrigerator, in your garage, or outside if it's cold enough (just make sure it's not below freezing).
Cooking the Corned Beef (the day of):
- When ready to cook, remove the brisket from the brine. Discard the brine. Rinse the brisket all over, then pat very dry. Trim off any excess fat with a paring knife, being careful not to cut away any of the meat itself.
- Place the brined brisket in a large stockpot (6 quarts or larger). Add water until it is at least 1 inch above the brisket. Add garlic cloves, bay leaf, and 1 tablespoon pickling spice.
- Bring the liquid to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat, keeping the liquid at a low simmer. Cover the pot and let simmer for about 3 hours, until the brisket is fork tender and registers 180 degrees F to 190 degrees F on an instant read thermometer.
- Turn the heat off and allow the meat to cool for 10 minutes. Use tongs to remove the corned beef to a cutting board. Remove 2 cups of the liquid from the pot. Strain the liquid into a bowl and set aside. Discard the remaining liquid from the stockpot. Rinse the pot.
- Allow the corned beef to sit at room temperature for 20 minutes.
- When you're ready to slice the corned beef, cut against the grain into 1/4" inch strips.
Video
Notes
- *Depending upon your brand of pickling spice, it can be a little heavy on the allspice. If you prefer, you can pick out a few of the allspice berries, or enjoy it as is.
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*TO MAKE YOUR OWN PICKLING SPICE, stir together the following: 1/2 tablespoon each yellow mustard seed, multi-colored peppercorns, coriander seeds, allspice berries, red pepper flakes, and whole cloves; 2 whole cardamom pods; 1/2 cinnamon stick, crushed; 2 dried bay leaves, broken into pieces; and 1 teaspoon ground ginger.
Nutrition
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This was the best corned beef I’ve ever made! Not dried out at all, and so flavorful & tender! However I only brine my beef for 2 days but the results are still awesome. Thank you, Erin
Great to hear, thank you Penelope!
This makes the best corned beef ever! I cook it in my Instant Pot, and it just melts in your mouth. Since it can still be difficult to find the cut of meat you want these days, I have made it with several different cuts, and it never disappoints. Sometimes I brine two at a time and freeze the second one so all I have to do is cook it. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
So glad you enjoyed it, Sasha! Thank you!
I love the corned beef I buy at the grocery store and cook for Saint Patrick’s day. I must say that waiting for 5 days for the beef to brine is worth it. The beef was so tender and moist. It was a winner with my family. Thank you so much for sharing this awesome recipe.
Thanks Judith!
Back to make this recipe again this year. It’s so good!
Yay! Glad you enjoy it Molly!
Hi! I’ve cooked a store-bought brisket on St. Patrick’s Day for years and it’s always been good, but I feel like corning our own beef would taste so much more fresh and delicious! Thanks for this recipe! I have one question, however. Twice in this article you say to strain two cups of the cooking liquid to save for some other purpose, but I can’t find where it says what to do with the liquid afterward. Can you please shed some light on that? Thank you!
Hi Bill! Great question, you’ll use it at the end to pour over your brisket when serving, if desired. Enjoy!
Every year or two we go in on a steer with some friends. They own a small winery, and the steer grows up eating grass in their pasture and must from their wine making. In the past, we’ve always smoked the brisket, but this year I decided to make corned beef with it. I came across your recipe and followed it exactly except I cooked it in my crockpot. We had it tonight for St. Paddy’s Day dinner along with some Irish Soda Bread Muffins. It came out great. Thanks for posting it. I’m looking forward to corned beef hash with the leftovers.
Makes me so happy to hear, thank you Victoria!
We love this recipe. However, early on in the instructions it mentions brown sugar and vinegar. But it never includes vinegar again in any of the ingredient prep or cooking instructions. We put in the brown sugar but do we put vinegar in this recipe?? Thanks!
Hi Jim! So glad you loved the brisket! That was a typo and there is actually no vinegar in the recipe. We’ve updated that in the post. Thank you for letting us know!
Very disappointed in your directions! You say there are three ways to cook a corned beef brisket, but then fail to give the directions for cooking it normally.
Please remember that not everyone has a big enough kitchen to store crackpots, etc.
Hi Marion, we actually say in the blog post that there are three methods to cooking corned beef but for this recipe it is specifically for boiling: “The best method for cooking corned beef is up to you and what equipment you have at your disposal. You can boil, braise, or smoke the corned beef. Any way you cook it, it’s going to be delicious!
I haven’t tried making slow cooker or Instant Pot corned beef personally, but I think a pressure cooker or crock pot could be another option for cooking corned beef. (Readers have reported successfully using the Instant Pot!)” Hope this helps!