Both this and the Boiled Beef and Dumplings recipe provide very good leftovers for your hash, or are excellent in sandwiches, or simply cold, thinly sliced, with Green Sauce or Horseradish Sauce.  You can salt the brisket yourself or 5 days in a brine or if you don’t want to make it yourself, you can buy corned brisket from the butcher.

Last Tuesday was St. Patrick’s Day so I wore green, spoke with an Irish brogue and made some corned beef for my friends.  Okay I lied a little:  I didn’t speak like an Irishman.  My wife would have knocked me silly after ten minutes.  I did however wear green and make corned beef.  Hopefully you and yours had a good holiday as well, and congratulations to Ireland for winning the Six Nations Rugby tournament.

As Mr. Henderson suggested, I brined my own four pound brisket for the allotted time, turning it over once to ensure that both sides were well soaked.  Having a brine bucket handy in the fridge is a great thing.  I’ve been dumping all sorts of random meat in there and just letting it sit for a few days.  Corned turkey is better than you might imagine!

In my roasting pan I made a bed of roughly chopped carrots, leeks, celery and onions.  The corned brisket was nestled on top of them along with a bouquet garni, a few whole heads of garlic and some peppercorns.

A bottle of red wine and enough chicken stock to make the brisket look like the tip of an iceberg was poured into the pan.  A layer of foil went on top and into a medium hot oven the whole thing went.

As the brisket roasted, we all sat around drinking Guinness, Bailey’s and Jameson Irish Whiskey while watching The Boondock Saints.  That’s about as Irish as we could get in the middle of Texas.  After a few hours the brisket was done and the kitchen smelled FANTASTIC.  I wish that I had let it cook a bit longer though, as the meat was a little tough.

Not helping the matter was that I made fairly thick brisket slices when I served it to my guests.  The flavor was there for sure.  As a matter of fact, I’d claim that this was the finest corned beef I’ve ever eaten.  Plated with a wedge of boiled cabbage and new potatoes, I’d like to think it made for a fairly decent dinner.  If I’d have had my wits about me I would have made soda bread as well.  Sigh.  We need more hours in the day!

One down, eighty four to go.