Delicious sliced corned beef

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Getting the amount of salt correct is 1 of the trickier details in cookery. That's especially so when you start with something that's already salty, like corned beefiness, because taking it out is a lot more complicated than putting information technology in. Whether your concern is simply getting it to gustation right or cutting down on the sodium you take in, reducing the saltiness of your corned beef takes a few steps.

Low Sodium Corned Beef Isn't Easy

If you're trying to picket your sodium levels, then corned beef really isn't something you lot should be eating on a regular basis. The whole point of the product is that it'south preserved with common salt, which is what gives it its old-school flavour. A 4-ounce portion of Grobbel's corned beef contains 950 milligrams of sodium, and the aforementioned portion of Trader Joe'south corned beef has 980 milligrams, which accounts for about 40% of your 24-hour interval's recommended intake.

4 ounces isn't an especially large portion, and so if you keep going dorsum to the platter to choice at the leftovers for hours after, yous can hands eat your whole day's allowance of salt in this 1 repast. That'due south especially truthful if you melt your cabbage or other vegetables in the salty water from the beef.

Reduced-sodium corned beef products are available, but they're often only sold sliced in packages or as canned corned beefiness. Some manufacturers do make a lower-sodium corned beef – Grobbel'south product line includes a reduced-sodium version with merely 490 milligrams, for example – but they may or may not be available where you alive. Your best bet, whether your concern is wellness-related or culinary, is to acquire how to reduce the saltiness of the 1 you're actually cooking.

Soaking and Blanching the Corned Beef

One very traditional way of making your corned beef less salty is to soak it in cold water before you cook it. Former recipes sometimes telephone call for an overnight soak or fifty-fifty more than one soaking, but the beef was saltier in those days. Now, a few hours – nearly 30 minutes per pound – usually does the trick.

Blanching your corned beef is a variation of the same technique. Instead of a long soak in cold water, you'll rinse your slice of beef and put it in a large pot of cold water. Bring the water to a simmer, let it go for 30 minutes, and then drain the pot. That washes away much of the salt too as the proteins that would otherwise gather and brand that nasty-looking gray cream on your cooking water. Refill the pot with cold water, and cook the beef equally directed in your recipe.

Slow-Cooking the Corned Beef

Depending on how heavily salted your corned beef was to start, you can often skip those steps. Merely take the beef from its package, rinse it and bring it to a simmer in plenty of fresh water. Corned beef brisket – brisket is the most common cutting – is one of the toughest pieces of beef there is, so you lot'll commonly need to allow it cook for at to the lowest degree 2 1/3 to 3 hours. Large pieces may take longer.

Information technology's done when you tin stick a fork into the beef and easily twist off a mouthful. Remove information technology from the pot, and permit it rest on a tray or cutting lath for at least 10 to 15 minutes before you carve information technology. The longer it sits, the easier information technology is to slice the beef without it falling apart.

Tricking Your Sense of taste Buds

If you notice your corned beef is notwithstanding saltier than you lot'd like after it'south cooked, there are means to flim-flam your taste buds into non noticing the salt. Well-nigh of those involve the use of spiciness or tart acidity in 1 manner or another. Mustard is i of the classic condiments for corned beef, precisely because information technology combines those two things. Yous can also ready out pickles or sometime-fashioned relishes such equally green tomato chowchow. Sauerkraut works well, too.

Another option is to simmer the sliced beef in a sauce, which will extract more of the salinity from the beef as well as add some contrasting flavors.

Finally, consider serving the corned beef cold. Warm foods taste saltier than common cold ones, so thin-sliced corned beef served with the same palate-fooling condiments – as a sandwich with mustard and sauerkraut or as an titbit with tart pickles – won't sense of taste nearly as salty.

References

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Author Bio

Fred Decker is a trained chef, former restaurateur and prolific freelance writer, with a special interest in all things related to food and nutrition. His work has appeared online on major sites including Livestrong.com, WorkingMother.com and the websites of the Houston Chronicle and San Francisco Relate; and offline in Canada's Foodservice & Hospitality magazine and his local daily newspaper. He was educated at Memorial University of Newfoundland and the Northern Alberta Constitute of Applied science.

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