Quick-Brined Corned Beef Sandwiches

Author Notes

I’m Irish-American and grew up in a town with a large demographic of Irish descendants. We had an Irish festival in our town that my parents would bring me to every year as a kid. We’d watch step-dancing competitions, buy Celtic trinkets from vendors, and eat corned beef sandwiches on rye (my favorite part).

For St. Patrick’s Day, my mother would boil a large pot of peeled potatoes, quartered heads of green cabbage, and enough corned beef to make a boiled dinner, sandwiches, and hash the next few days for breakfast for our family. I always loved this time because my father was in charge of making the hash, and I’d sit in the kitchen and talk with him while he cooked. He taught me to always leave it in the pan far longer than you would think to make sure you get the best browned crunchy edges.

I lived most of my life thinking corned beef was as Irish a dish as they come, but I learned later on while living in NYC that corned beef is actually a dish that early Irish settlers learned from living in the same neighborhoods as Jewish immigrants. Having grown up eating far too many corned beef sandwiches on rye, and living in NYC over a decade eating corned beef on rye from Jewish delis, you would think I would have come to the conclusion sooner...

So here we are, St. Patrick’s Day is coming up and I want to pay homage to my childhood by making my own corned beef and rye sandwiches, like my mom would make.

Homemade corned beef is certainly not easier to prepare than the option you can buy at the store, but it's most certainly more delicious. Making it at home is not as daunting as it sounds, and I’ve got a few tips to speed up the lengthy brining process which makes corned beef the pink, flavorful, juicy meaty dish we’ve become accustomed to.

If you want to make a traditional corned beef dinner, use 2 pounds halved peeled Yukon gold potatoes, 1 large head of green cabbage, cleaned and quartered with the core removed, and 18 ounces carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch chunks. After you return the brisket to the pot when removing the seasonings, simmer over very low heat for about 45 minutes, until the vegetables are tender and the potatoes can be pierced with a fork.

*Traditionally the brisket needs to be brined for 10 days to get maximum flavor and tenderization. In my version, I dock or perforate the meat to allow the salt, sugar, and seasonings to penetrate faster and speed up the brining process.

**TCM or pink curing salt should NOT to be confused with pink cooking salt. TCM or pink curing salt contains sodium nitrate and is very dangerous if mishandled and is toxic. You can withhold this from the recipe, but the meat will turn a brown/gray cooked color and won’t stay pink. —Sean Patrick Gallagher