Sous vide corned beef is a tender, mouth-watering game changer.
Jump To:
What is Corned Beef?
Corned beef is beef that has been cured or pickled in a seasoned brine. Typically, brisket is the cut of choice for corned beef, but other cuts like the round are also used. The brining process involves curing the beef in a solution of water, salt, and various spices, which can include peppercorns, bay leaves, allspice, and mustard seeds, among others. This not only flavors the meat but also tenderizes it over time.
The origins of corned beef are a bit of a blend. In Ireland, corned beef was historically made as a way to preserve meat. However, it wasn’t until Irish immigrants came to America and collaborated with Jewish butchers in urban areas that corned beef as we know it today became a staple, especially when it’s served with cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day.
Recommended St. Patrick's Day Recipe: Guinness Beef Stew
Why Sous Vide Corned Beef
Sous vide allows for precise temperature control, let the corned beef cooked at a precise and consistent temperature, ensuring that the meat is cooked evenly throughout. This method eliminates the risk of overcooked edges or an undercooked center, which can be a challenge with traditional cooking methods.
Moreover, corned beef is made from brisket, a cut of beef known for its tough connective tissues. Sous vide cooking at a low temperature for an extended period allows these tough fibers to break down slowly, resulting in exceptionally tender corned beef. If you’re a fan of this Instant Pot corned beef and cabbage, you’re going to LOVE this version.
Cooking corned beef sous vide might test your patience just a tad—it’s not exactly quick. But here’s the kicker: it’s practically effortless and the wait is more than worth it.
Sous Vide Corned Beef Time and Temperature
For sous vide corned beef, the cooking time and temperature are crucial for achieving the desired texture and flavor. In our cooking experiments, we discovered that a 24-hour cook time results in a firm texture that’s easy to slice, but if you extend the cooking to 48 hours, you’ll reach the ultimate level of tenderness and moisture. Moreover, the extended cooking time ensures the fat cap renders perfectly.
So, our recipe cooks the brisket for 48 hours at 140°F.
How to Sous Vide Corned Beef?
Equipment Required
Traditionally, if you wanted to cook sous vide, you’d need a bunch of gear: an immersion circulator to keep the water moving and at the right temperature, a big container with a lid to hold the water and your food, a vacuum sealer to suck all the air out of the bags, and the bags themselves to put your food in.
But now, things have gotten way easier with Typhur all-in-one Sous Vide Station. It features everything you need into one neat package. No more gathering a bunch of different tools. This device has got it all – it heats and circulates the water, vacuums and seals the bags, and it’s all built into one unit. It means you can jump straight into cooking without the fuss of setting up different pieces of equipment.
Ingredients
Beef Brisket: When you’re out shopping for beef brisket, you’ll notice there are different types to choose from. My favorite is the whole brisket because you get the best of both worlds: the point and the flat cut. The point is the chunky end that’s rich with fat running through it, giving it lots of flavors. The flat cut is thinner and leaner, and it’s what you usually see in those pre-packaged briskets. If possible, ask your butcher for a whole brisket that includes both parts.
Pickling Liquid: Make a salty curing brine with pickling spices like mustard seed, star anise, bay leaves, and peppercorns.
Instructions
Make the Brine: Combine water with plenty of salt, sugar, and a curing salt (such as pink curing salt) to create your base brine. Add the pickling spices — mustard seed, star anise, bay leaves, and peppercorns — to the mix. You can also include other aromatics like garlic for extra flavor.
Marinate the Brisket: Submerge a beef brisket in this brine, making sure it’s completely covered. Let the brisket marinate in the refrigerator for at least 5 days. This long soak allows the flavors and the curing agents to penetrate deep into the meat, transforming its texture and taste.
Cook the Brisket: After marinating, remove the brisket from the brine. Then, vacuum seal the brisket in a food-grade plastic bag. Set your Typhur sous vide machine to the desired temperature—140°F (60°C). Place the sealed bag in the water bath, making sure it’s fully submerged and not touching the sides of the container. Cook for 48 hours for the ultimate tenderness.
Cut and Serve: Cut brisket ACROSS the grain! Just remember to slice the corned beef against the grain. This means cutting perpendicular to the muscle fibers, which makes the meat more tender and easier to chew.
Why Is Corned Beef Pink?
The magic ingredient behind corned beef’s pink color is sodium nitrite, a type of curing salt often referred to as “Pink Curing Salt” or Prague powder. This isn’t your average table salt; sodium nitrite plays a couple of crucial roles in the making of corned beef (and many other cured meats, for that matter).
First up, preservation. Sodium nitrite helps prevent the growth of bacteria, making the meat safe to eat for a longer period. Back in the days before refrigeration, this was especially important for storing meat.
But here’s the real kicker: sodium nitrite also reacts with the meat’s proteins during the cooking process, resulting in that signature pink color. Without it, corned beef would look more like a regular roast or boiled beef—more grayish than pink. This reaction not only adds an appetizing color but also contributes to corned beef’s unique flavor profile.
Home made Corned Beef
Video
Equipment
- Vacuum Sealer
- Vacuum Bag
- Mixing Bowl
- Whisk
- Tray
- Deep Container
Ingredients
For pickling liquid
- 4.5 L Water
- 1 cup Kosher Salt
- 1/2 cup Brown Sugar
- 1 tsp Pink Curing Salt optional
- 1 tbsp Coriander Seeds
- 1 tsp Chili Flakes
- 1 tbsp Whole Black Peppercorns
- 1 tsp Cloves
- 6 Bay Leaves crumbled
- 3 Star Anise
- 1 tsp Mustard Seed
For the brisket
- 6 pounds Beef Brisket （choice）
Instructions
- Add enough water to the tank to fully submerge the ingredients and reach the minimum quantity of water. Secure the sous vide cooker to the tank.
- Prepare a deep container. Add water to the container. Add all of the ingredients in the pickling liquid list. Stir evenly with a whisk to ensure that the salt and sugar are all dissolved in the water.4.5 L Water, 1 cup Kosher Salt, 1/2 cup Brown Sugar, 1 tsp Pink Curing Salt, 1 tbsp Coriander Seeds, 1 tsp Chili Flakes, 1 tbsp Whole Black Peppercorns, 1 tsp Cloves, 6 Bay Leaves, 3 Star Anise, 1 tsp Mustard Seed
- Marinate the cut beef brisket in the marinating solution. Seal the container and place it in the refrigerator for at least 5 days. Ensure that the brisket is completely submerged in the marinating solution.6 pounds Beef Brisket （choice）
- While the water bath is heating to the target cooking temperature, please move on to preparing the beef.Temperature: 140.0 °F Time: 48 hours
- Take out the marinated beef brisket, dry it with kitchen paper, and put the beef brisket into a vacuum bag.
- Using the vacuum sealer, make sure that the meat is completely sealed and that any air has been removed from the bag.
- When the target temperature is reached, carefully lower the sealed beef into the water bath, making sure that it is completely submerged in the water.
- Cook the food until ready.
- Once the beef has finished cooking, carefully remove it from the water bath. Remove the beef from the bag.
- Slice and Serve!
Notes
Nutrition PER SERVING
(Nutrition information is calculated automatically by Spoonacular API and should be considered an estimate.)
