I’m Corny For Corned Beef

I can’t explain what keeps me awake at night.  More often than not, I’m worrying about something whether it be about the kids, family, budget, an ongoing project.  Whatever the case may be, I feel the need to worry.  And when I try to redirect my mind to think about something pleasant, nine times out of ten, that thought would be geared toward food.

Natch.

Hence, Exhibit A: S’mores Reinvented.  That sleepless night cost me some calories.  But well worth every last morsel.

Exhibit B:  The night I lost sleep over some left over ham.  What gives with that?!  So I decided to make Stuffed Baby Bell Peppers.  Delish.

And as of just last week, I bring you Exhibit C: There I was at 2:00 in the morning, lying there thinking about corned beef.  I was worrying about sharing a traditional St. Patrick’s Day recipe with ya’ll that I hadn’t already shared.  I needed to come up with an idea, test it out and make sure it was good enough to publish.  I thought about it for so long, that I was over-thinking the corned beef.  Until….

Until I thought of a Corned Beef Hot Dog.

How hard could that be?  Buy some brisket; pickle it up essentially; grind it and then stuff the meat into casings.

Oh that’s right.  The casings.  Remember back to Memorial Day of last year when I tried to make sausage?  Didn’t work out so well.  Refresh your memory here.  But, the more I thought of these Corned Beef Hotdogs, the more I felt I was on to something.  I had no desire to boil corned beef and then add a hunk of cabbage.  I couldn’t bare the smell.  And, for that matter, neither could our house.  It’s not uncommon for the smell of last week’s dinner to carry on into next week around here.  That option was completely out.  But the Corned Beef Hotdog – yeah, I was on to something.

I scoured my cookbooks and referenced several recipes online.  I tinkered around with a few ingredients and came up with my own brine.  I soaked the brisket in the brine for 8 days, and now it was time to grind the meat and stuff into casings.

Enter Exhibit D: stuffing the casings.  Based on my past experience with the sausage attachment on my mixer, my track record was poor. And too, I still hadn’t regained my patience level from my last sausage / casing / meat grind fail.  So I brought in my friends Lauren and Lucas to help me.  Lucas has been making his own sausages for years so this kind of thing was like second nature to him.

He guided me through every step of the way.

“This is how it should look.”  (pass through grinder twice)

“This is how it should feel.”  (just like an uncooked Bratwurst)

“This is how you push the air out of the casing.” (gently push the air toward the grinder and out of the casing)

“This is how you twist to divide the sections.”  (pull the casing off about a 1/2 inch and twist 3 times.  Continue stuffing)

And with that, we had some Corned Beef Hotdogs.

After the brisket was in the brine, the meat looked grey.  Really unappealing.  But, sure enough, after the meat cooked, it was corned beef pink.

These Corned Beef Hotdogs are worth the sleepless night.  Worth the pondering and surely a perfect sidetrack from avoiding the slow-cooked cabbage-y smell.  This may seem like a lot of effort, but really, the process is relatively easy.  And, might I say cheaper.  Making your own hot dogs and sausages is really cents on the dollar when compared to store-bought.  And, tastes better too.  Grill ’em up and you’re good to go.  And add some prepared sauerkraut on the side.

One bite of this Corned Beef Hot Dog and you’ll hear the bagpipes in the background.

Click here for the recipe, the how-to, and the products I highly recommend.