The Blarney's Arisin'

What a great year! St. Patrick's Day is the Spring Equinox this year. The Dr. is smoking corned beef. I bought 4 corned beef briskets, all square cut. Three of these are going to be smoked and one is going to the Lovely Linda for boiled corned beef and cabbage. Monday, St. Patrick's Day, is when the corned beef reign's supreme. One brisket goes to those fine hard working men of Collins Printed Circuits' facilities maintenance. The next goes for sampling by the folks at Collins Printed Circuits (basically, I'm taking it into work). The third stays at home for St. Pat's dinner.

So, for the three briskets for smoking, it was time to get the salt out of the corned beef. Corned beef is made to be preserved by salt. This is wonderful for boiled corned beef and cabbage because the cabbage absorbes the salt from the corned beef when the two are boiled together. I love boiled corned beef and cabbage, especially made by Lovely Linda. However, smoking intensivizes salt flavor, so we soak corned beef to leach out the salt. I soaked the three briskets in cold water for four hours, changing out the water every hour.

Then, it was time to marinate. I chose my favorite this time, Guiness. The corned beef briskets come with a spice packet, so I put those in the marinade. The briskets are large, so two Guiness per briskets was just right. Everything is ready for a long smoke tomorrow.