Cedar Plank-Finished Corned Beef

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! My beef has been "corning" for the past four days and now it's show time! But first... A brief, yet corny history:

The corned beef you buy in the stores stays a lovely, rosy shade because it has some preservatives, which is fine- lots of delectable things from pepperoni to pasta have preservatives- but when you make it minus the sodium nitrate, it tends to stay more well-done colored. The advantage to grilling plank-finishing your corned beef is that smoky flavor and a nice, crispy crust to the meat, while the inside stays very moist.

Ingredients

1 Large Outdoor Gourmet Cedar Grilling Plank, soaked 2 or more hours.

4-5 lb. corned beef (you don't have to cure your own. Store-bought is just fine.)

2 Guinness... for cooking purposes. More for drinking purposes.

3 bay leaves

1 tablespoon coriander seeds

2 whole allspice

3 medium turnips

8 unpeeled medium white-skinned and red-skinned potatoes

6 medium carrots, peeled

4 medium onions, peeled, halved through root ends

2 medium parsnips, peeled, cut into 2-inch lengths

1 1-pound head of cabbage, quartered

Loaf of Irish Soda Bread, sourdough would work in a pinch.

Directions

First: Place corned beef in very large wide pot. Add Guinness and enough water to cover by 1 inch. Toss in the bay leaves, coriander seeds, and allspice. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until beef is tender, about 2 1/4 hours and remove from pot. Note: If you corned your own beef like I did, give it a quick rinse, then cook.

Then: Add turnips and all remaining vegetables to liquid in pot; bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium and boil gently until all vegetables are tender, about 25 minutes.

Next: While your veggies is simmering, heat grill to medium heat (350-400°) and place grilling plank on grill 1-2 minutes prior to brisket. Then place the beef on the grilling plank, close grill lid and allow to cook for 20 to 25 minute, checking periodically.

Finally: Remove from grill, slice thinly. Using slotted spoon, serve veggies with corned beef and Irish Soda Bread. Crack another Guinness and enjoy!

Just a shade over a year ago, I started blogging about everything grilling plank-related and one of my first experiments was the St. Patrick’s Day classic Corned Beef, except I finished mine on a plank. It was an early triumph that bears repeating.

A traditional Corned Beef is a cut of brisket that is brine-cured over a couple of days (or more) and the term “corned” refers to the course salt or rock salt kernels used to preserve the meat. Last year I used a pre-cured cut of meat because it was already the 17th and I didn’t have the time nor the salt. Well, I came at it this year a bit more prepared- I'm going to corn my own beef.

I called up my local ranch/butcher- the V-X Ranch and Wood's Meat Processing- and they pre-trimmed a beautiful 4.5 lb. brisket and had it ready to go a week before the big day.

Now, you know how Corned Beef can sometimes be that eye-catching red/pink color? That is from the sodium nitrate (NaNO3), a preservative found in tons of processed meats. Stuff like salami, pepperoni, bologna, hot dogs, and SPAM pretty much all contain sodium nitrate. There are two main reasons why sodium nitrate is added to meat- The biggie is color. This chemical preserves color and keeps your SPAM rosy pink rather than the color of over-cooked Hamburger Helper. Secondly, it prevents a modicum of foodbourne bacteria.

Fresh meats from your local butcher generally don’t contain any such chemicals- not that I’m against some NaNO3- I like my SPAM just as rainbowbrite as the next girl- but since I special-ordered this brisket, I decided to go preservative-free, even if it meant no brightly-colored beef. Ok, so no nitrates- then what to use?

Ingredients

4 1/2 lbs beef brisket

3 cups sea salt (the sea salt is better)

1/2 cup golden sugar

4 bay leaves

16 peppercorns

4 teaspoons pickling spices

4 garlic cloves, halved

Directions

First: Wash and pat dry your brisket dry, the rub with ¼ cup salt.

Next: In large saucepan, heat water about 16 cups of water, sugar, the rest of the salt and dissolve.

Then: Place beef in large brining vessel and pour salted water over and add bay leaves, peppercorns, pickling spice and garlic cloves.

Now: Refrigerate 72-96 hours.

First- Soak your Outdoor Gourmet Cedar Grilling Planks for two of more hours.

Next- Preheat grill to Medium Heat (350°).  Wrap the bacon around tenderloins, securing with toothpicks and top with pepper. Place soaked planks with steaks on grill and close grill lid. Allow to smoke and smolder for 9-10 minutes for medium-rare steaks.

Then- When steaks are almost done to your liking, top with cheese and drizzle with melted butter. Pull from grill and cover with foil to rest.

Finally- Once your steaks for have rested for 5-10 minutes, uncover, serve over a bed of greens and enjoy!

So, I just stirred from my Christmas-induced food coma. My family had our traditional Christmas celebration, which entails making and eating a bunch of food and playing Balderdash. It’s festive and delicious.

Dad, along with being beloved patron of the house (and the winner of yet another round of Balderdash), holds the honorary title of Grand Master Planker. This holiday season, he took planking to a place we have never taken it before-

The Narrative...

“This was no ordinary plank. This was one of those big, thick,cedar baking planks we made to play around with in the oven. I soaked three of them overnight, just in case we needed to switch them out, because this thing was going to take a while.“

The prime rib in question was a bone-in, Rib Eye 10 pounder. Just a beautiful cut of meat!

“I rubbed the roast with salt and pepper, then stuffed whole garlic cloves between the fat seam and the meat. If I would have had fresh rosemary, I would've used that too, but there wasn't any around.

Then I heated up the grill and put the baking plank on there for three, maybe four minutes on one side at 350°, then flipped it. This helps it not cup, even though cedar isn’t as bad about cupping as the hardwoods- it’s more dimensionally stable.

The roast went on the baking plank and this was the tricky part- the sear.  I got the grill up to 550°, then put the back two rows (on a propane grill) of flames down to the lowest flame possible- if I had it to do over again, I would have turned them off- while the front was still on medium-high. By the end of my 30 minute sear period, my baking plank was on fire. This actually seared the roast very nicely and helped the overall color, but if I wouldn’t have been on it with a squirt bottle, we would have had problems. When you are cooking something that throws a lot of grease combined with high temps, you better be patrolling it, ‘cause your gonna catch fire.

Anyway, I kept it at 220°-240° for the rest of the cooking time. I even had a little trouble keepin’ it that low. When you’re cooking low and slow, you only need to check it once every 30 minutes or so, but for that first half hour- Whoo! I can’t say it enough, you better be hanging out around the grill with H2O close at hand.

This prime rib took 4.5 hours, which comes out to be 27 minutes per pound for Medium Rare, even with the sear time. In round numbers, plan around 30 minutes per pound, or if you are a medium-well, well done-type of person, allow more time.

Pulled it at 125°, then it rested covered with foil for 15 minutes. Didn't want to dry it out. With prime rib, it’s ok to buy a big roast. When it comes to left overs, you can’t beat prime rib.“

While Dad manned the grill, family and guests alike were put to work chopping and prepping. I took charge of the mulled wine, which needed many, many tests to get just right.

Many hands make light work and all that...

I mulled it over several times with my Mulled Wine.

Horseradish- must when it comes to prime rib.

The Prime Rib was just that- Prime! Hope your holidays were as happy as ours.  Good cheer from our family to yours. Welcome to your weekend. -KB

St. Patrick's Day Grilling

So, to prove that just about anything can be planked, I made the St. Patrick’s Day classic Corned Beef finished on the grill. But before I started making variations on traditional meals all willy-nilly like, I decided to research the history of the dish.

A brief, yet corny history:

A Corned Beef is a cut of brisket that is brine-cured over a period of two or more weeks. The term “corned” refers to the course salt or rock salt kernels used to preserve the meat. It is said to be a spring celebratory meal because the meat would cure in salt crocks all winter and be ready to eat just in time for the equinox.

Beef was considered to be an indulgence in Ireland and was only available to the wealthy, as cows were kept for their milk or for breeding. Corned Beef was reserved for special occasions and export, so pork joint or ham was the meat of the common Irish man. The Irish immigrants substituted brisket in their traditional Bacon and Cabbage dish because it was more readily available in New York in the 1800’s, so Corned Beef and Cabbage is actually an American St. Patty’s Day tradition. Cork’s Canned Corned Beef was one of Ireland’s only exports in the 1700’s and supposedly exclusively sustained the British armies during the Napoleonic wars. In 1861, Corned Beef and Cabbage was served at Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural dinner.

Outdoor Gourmet’s St. Patrick’s Day Feast

3 lb. Corned Beef Spice Packet (cloves, coriander, fennel, black pepper)

1 Outdoor Gourmet Maple Grilling Plank, soaked for 2 to 3 hours

* First, trim fat from meat. Brisket it traditionally a fatty piece of meat and up to a 1/3 of the weight can be trimmed down.

* Then place mean in large pot or Dutch oven and cover in water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer, add spices and continue to simmer for 2 hours.

* While your brisket is simmering, heat grill to medium heat (350-400) and place Maple plank on grill 5 minutes prior to brisket. Then place the beef on the Maple plank, close grill lid and allow to cook for 20 to 25 minute. Remove from grill, slice thinly and serve with Colcannon. I used a pre-cured cut of meat because it was already the 17th and I didn’t have a couple weeks or several pounds of rock salt.

Colcannon Recipe: (I added kale to this recipe)

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Colcannon

For directions on how to make your own corned beef from fresh brisket go to:

http://www.thespicehouse.com/recipes/traditional-corned-beef-recipe

Maple planking this corned beef created smoky flavor and added a nice, crispy crust to the meat, while the inside stayed very moist. It was the best Corned Beef I have ever had.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

So, it's Easter Sunday and I woke up to a dusting of that white stuff on the newly-green lawn, but such is life in the Northwest. The sun has managed to come out and melt away the snow to provide optimal grilling weather, but the weather wouldn't have deterred me anyway. Like the Postal Service, neither rain, nor sleet, nor gloom of night prevents the OG from doing what the OG does. Unlike the Postal Service, we get our grill on seven days a week.

As is the case with any holiday, I take the opportunity to make it all about food. And this Easter the menu is…

Crimini Mushroom Soup

Spring Spinach Salad with Strawberries

Alder Planked Prime Rib with Lemon Zest Asparagus

Lemon Tart with Meringue

( Lemon Tart compliments of my pastrily-endowed sister Amy)

First things first: With these large cuts of meat, the golden rule is LOW and SLOW, so I needed my plank to absorb as much moisture as possible for this extended grilling time. I soaked a couple 1 inch thick Outdoor Gourmet Alder Grilling plank for about six hours to insure they were good and saturated.

My cut of beef had a lovely layer of fat running over the top of the ribs and some good marbling throughout, so I sliced right along the fat to create a cavity for the fresh rosemary, thyme and garlic cloves. I used a whole bulb of garlic and liberal amounts of herbs, then rubbed the roast with coarse kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper.

I preheated my grill to medium heat (350-400º) and stuck my plank on the grill for 5 minutes to heat it thoroughly before the beef makes it to the plank. Once I had the prime rib on the plank, I cranked the grill up to high heat (500º-ish) and let it go for 20 minutes. I did this for two reasons: to get a nice char on the bottom of the plank (char equals smoke, which equals alder flavor) and to allow the meat to form a crust that holds in moisture.

Ok, twenty minutes is up and I just headed out to the deck take the heat back down to 350º and try out a new gadget: an Oregon Scientific Wireless Meat Thermometer. I placed the thermometer needle in my prime rib and closed the grill lid and wandered back to my computer to continue blogging. The cool thing is I have a remote that I program to my specific needs. I programmed in: Beef, Medium Rare (or 145º) and it monitors the internal temperature of my entrée.

This is so rad because I don’t have to open the lid of my grill each time I want to check on my food, therefore releasing all that good heat and smoke. You gotta get one of these.

So, here I sit, with my Oregon Scientific remote that tells me I have 8 degrees to go until Medium Rare perfection, so I have just enough time to slice some strawberries for the salad before I grab my prime rib off the grill, cover with foil, and allow it to rest for 5 to 10 minutes. Letting beef rest allows the meat to cook for another couple moments while locking in the moisture.

Below is a link about the Oregon Pacific Wireless Meat Thermometer! Check it out.

www.oregonscientificstore.com

Happy Easter! Welcome to your weekend. -KB