SC - Corned Beef Question

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Bonne of Traquair wrote:
> 
>> Drat!  in the final planning of my feast, I let myself fall prey to a
> "traditional" recipe for corned beef. Now I've got three weeks to
> substitute something else.

Have you corned the beef yourself? Or do you just have a worked out
recipe calling for corned beef? 
> 
> So, they packed it in lots of salt and kept it drained rather than
> slightly salted and a brine allowed to form.  Which would make the
> texture more like "smithfield" ham rather than corned beef, do you
> think? How would this be prepared and served?

It probably would be slightly more like Smithfield ham, rather dense,
but a lot of the graininess associated with corned beef brisket has to
do with the fact that it's brisket. Other cuts would have rather
different characteristics.
> 
> Bonne
> (but the corned beef is good)

Sure is! I think the main difference between medieval salt meat eating
practices and modern ones is that the medieval dishes seem to assume
that the saltiness is just something there to preserve the meat, and
that it should be as much removed as possible before eating the meat.
While this is also true of modern recipes, the extent is a bit
different. With three weeks to go before serving the meat, if you've
committed to corned beef in any irrevocable way, I suggest you go ahead
and use it.

The best way to remove the "corned beef flavor" (or at least tone it
down to make it resemble the period article a bit more), might be to try
bringing it to a boil, draining it, bringing it to a boil again in fresh
water, and boiling it a third time in fresh water, then reducing the
heat and simmering it until it's done, tender, whatever. Fairly typical
medieval practice would probably be to serve it as, or in, a pottage
(thicken your broth with bread, almonds, whatever your recipe says to
do), or pressed, cold and sliced with a mustard sauce with various other
spices in it. 

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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