Sous Vide Homemade Corned Beef

This recipe is worth the 60-hour wait once the corned beef is finished brining. The meat holds together but melts in your mouth, and delicate hints of each of the spices used can be detected as you savor each bite. Whether enjoying this with traditional accoutrements or thinly sliced and piled high on a sandwich with melted Swiss cheese, you are in for one delectable corned beef treat!

Author

Nicole Poirier

Chef Nicole is our Content Development Chef at Anova Culinary, devoted to help making your sous vide recipe dreams come true and writing informative blog posts to aid you along the way. She attended culinary school at Ecole Ritz-Escoffier at the Ritz Hotel in Paris, France and worked as a restaurant chef in Rhode Island before becoming an award-winning international yacht chef. Chef Nicole has worked alongside Anova Culinary since our Kickstarter in 2014 and officially joined the team in November, 2016. She has a specialty private event and catering business and and enjoys teaching cooking to clients throughout the Bay Area.

Prep Time: 120:25

Recipe Time: 60:00

Temperature : 140F / 60C

Ingredients

• 3 quarts/12 cups/2.84 liters cold water, divided into 1 quart/~1 l & 2 quarts/~2 l
• 1 cup kosher or 1/2 cup sea, Himalayan, or table salt
• 1/2 c coconut sugar/brown sugar/granulated cane sugar/monk fruit sweetener/xylitol
• 2 Tablespoons Prague powder/saltpeter (you may have to order this online)
• 2 whole cinnamon sticks
• 1 Tablespoon green cardamom pods
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 1/2 teaspoons whole cloves
• 1 1/2 teaspoons allspice berries
• 1 1/2 teaspoons black peppercorns
• 2 whole bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1 7-8lb brisket, trimmed

Directions

1. In a small saucepan, combine 2 cups water with the salts, sugar, and spices over medium to medium-high heat. Simmer and stir to dissolve the salt and sugar. This will also allow the flavors from all of the spices to steep like tea and be more readily available to be soaked up by the meat.
2. After the salts and sugar are dissolved, remove from the heat and cool. This can be expedited by adding ice or refrigerating.
3. Once the mixture is cooled, stir into the remaining 2 1/2 quarts of water in a container large enough to hold the entire brisket and taste. You want it to taste both slightly sweet and pretty salty. However, if the level of saltiness is too extreme for you, this is your opportunity to dilute with more water. The meat is going to soak up all if the salt and flavor and you do not want it to be to salty to enjoy!
4. Now add the brisket, making sure that it is covered entirely with the mixture. Cover your container (or close your bag) and place in the refrigerator for at least 5 days, as many as 10. The longer you brine, the more salt and seasoning the meat will retain.
5. After the chosen number of days has passed, remove your corned beef from the brine and pat dry.
6. Set your Anova Precision Cooker to 140ºF/60ºC, preferably in a well-insulated container as this is going to be a long cook.
7. Place your brined brisket into a zip-locking, vacuum seal, or silicone pouch and use the immersion method to release as much air as possible before sealing where applicable.
8. Transfer the sealed bag into the preheated water bath and, stabilizing either with clips or lid placement, submerge for 60 hours. You could cook for a minimum of 48 hours, but we found that 60 hours gives you the best return on time investment, with gorgeously succulent and tender meat.

Finishing Steps

1. Remove the cooked corned beef from the bath and bag. Rinse to remove any extra salt and pat dry.
2. For a little color, you are welcome to sear the corned beef, but it is also perfectly tasty to slice and eat as it is.
3. Pair with your favorite accoutrements and enjoy!