pickling spices for corned beef 1023

Hi Ginny, Are you are using Penzey's blend of "Pickling Spices", or their Corned Beef Spices? There are two and they are different. Neither jar, by the way, instructs for how much to use to cook corned beef brisket.

seeds, coriander, Jamaican allspice, cracked cbuttia, dill seed, Turkish bay leaves, Zanzibar cloves, China #1 ginger, Tellicherry peppercorns, star anise, juniper, mace, cardamom, red pepper.

Jamaican allspice, cracked China cbuttia, cracked Turkish bay leaves, dill seed, Zanzibar cloves, cracked China ginger, Tellicherry peppercorns, star anise, Moroccan coriander, juniper berries, West Indies mace, cardamom and medium hot crushed red peppers.

If you have to buy a supermarket brand, I would add black peppercorns to whatever you buy, it will be mostly mustard seeds. Also, if you have some dill seed, toss them in, and a couple bay leaves, at least.

Now, I have a 3lb point cut corned beef I just bought, along with the attending cabbage, potatoes, turnips and carrots. My mom always made it a "New England Boiled Dinner" and ALWAYS included turnips and carrots. YUM!

What I plan to do is to rinse off the meat, and I cook mine in my crock pot. (I LOVE my crock pot!)

What I usually do is layer the cut up root veggies (not the cabbage, I despise overcooked cabbage!) in the bottom, along with an onion, cut in half, and the meat on top of the veggies. I add 5-6 garlic cloves which have been peeled and smashed but not cut up (the smashing releases the flavor, but keeping it whole makes it easier to fish them out later). The garlic goes right on top of the meat. I toss in a bay leaf or two, and then I use about a teaspoon of both corned beef spice and pickling spice (if I have pickling. if not, 2 teaspoons of the cb spice) and I also use a teaspoonful of whole black peppercorns. I put them in a bowl and break them up some with the side of a small cup. Just to flatten the whole spices a bit, it helps release their flavors.

Then I put in just enough water to not quite cover the meat. The meat will float, anyway, but you don't want it watered, just a moist environment.

I put the slow-cooker (crock pot) on low heat and let it go for 9-10 hours. When I get home from work, I put the cabbage wedges into a sauce pan and ladle some of the water the meat cooked in into the pot. Bring it to a boil and let it cook 10-15 minutes, until it's the desired degree of done, which for me is completely cooked through but not mush. This way, you get the flavors of the cooking water without overcooking it. If I were making this on the stove top, I still wouldn't put the cabbage in the pot until the last 15 minutes...same idea.

While the cabbage is cooking, let the meat rest. Fish out the veggies from the brine. I will usually butter the veggies, that's what my mom always did, including the cabbage. All on a platter for us to take what we want.

Sometimes I gather up some of the drained garlic cloves and softened peppercorns and other spices (Not the bay leaves of course) whirr them together with the stick the blender until they make a paste and add some dijon mustard for a flavorful condiment for the meat. it's really good! Horseradish would zip it up.

On a stove top, I still wouldn't overdo the water. Only for 2 hours, rather than 9-10.