For St. Patrick's Day, the March issue of Martha Stewart Living has a recipe from Lucinda Scala Quinn, her executive food editor and the star of "Mad Hungry." It calls for a spice paste (the usual corned beef spices) to be rubbed into a whole brisket, which is covered and refrigerated overnight. The next day, it's baked with beer, orange juice and three beets. The beets dye the brisket the color of corned beef. It looks okay in the photos.

Oh, pink salt/nitrates, of course! I stay away from nitrates for my home cooking, that is why I adapted the natural brisket recipe I have posted. BTW – the article I read, long ago, detailed your preferred method, the color & deli flavor, which I am sure is what your customers will be expecting. Great talking, and I hope you are successful in meeting your Sat. deadline, would love to hear back on that :)

I have never used pink salts...I am going to check that out...

Nitrates, 'tender quick' is the Morton brand name..its what gives cured meats a pink color and the flavor your corned beef at a deli. And IMHO essential for curing meats.

RE: the vacuum curing - I have done it in 3 days min., with lots of flavor. I have even done a few thin flanks in 24 hours, but of course, I know you are wanting to use brisket...just an FYI. Would love to hear how it all comes out for you! BTW - I have never used pink salts...I am going to check that out...

Thanks Lapadia! I think vacuum curing is a great idea--it will speed it up..I wonder how much though. And I wonder If I can use the dry ingredients in my wet brine (which include pink salts) as my dry cure....we'll see.

Hi, check this recipe out, perhaps you could get that to work, however it is written for a 4-6 lb brisket:

http://www.food52.com/recipes/9541_home_corned_beef_brisket

Oh...I don't know about the physics of pressure cookers. Would the 'escape valve' need to be purposely block to maintain a partial vacuum. Does it work in 'reserve'? I don't know.

Thinking about this..again this would be a experiment.

Peirce the meat with little knife pricks. Warm up your brine in a pressure cooker. (No, not to pressure cook it). While still warm. put in the beef..and seal...plunge the device into salted ice water to quickly cool---creating a partial vacuum. Then chill as normal and turn it about every 6 hours or so.

I like the idea of a blade tenderizer! I can't 86 corned beef from the menu as our corned beef hash+ corned beef is one of our most popular brunch dishes.
I could brine starting at room temp-- would that speed the osmosis? And then put it in the fridge.
Thanks all for your clutch answers.

Tough call. Really tough call. Can you think of something else to do with the brisket?

But, and I honestly do not know here. Maybe using the same proportions and using a 'blade tenderizer'. To pierce the meat and quicken the process You can find those cheep for about 20 bucks..they quicken marinading time for tough meats and shorten cooking time as well.