Burgers Continue... The Reuben Burger

I actually made this a while ago, but haven't gotten around to posting it... or anything else lately. so here it goes.

To me, nothing could be easier to decide to make after I thought of the idea.

Corned beef = Amazing
Reuben sandwiches = Amazing
Burgers = Heroic

Answer: Reuben burger.

I didn't feel like taking the time to corn my own beef, so I simply stopped by safeway and got a big slab of corned brisket. I took it home and washed all the seasonings off, chopped it into 1/2 inch cubes, mostly froze them, grinded them, and then formed 1/2 lb patties. This whole process, and the way I cooked it, was pretty much the same as the pub burger. There are a certain changes that had to be made though.

- Do not salt the meat before cooking, the meat is certainly salty enough
- I topped the burger with sourkraut and then a nice swiss cheese.
- I served it in between two slice of rye bread and added a delicious russian dressing - recipe here.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup mayo
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup ketchup (gross but necessary)
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp grated onion
1 tbsp horse radish
1/2 lemon, juice
1/4 tsp chili sauce
1/4 tsp paprika
salt and pepper to taste

Mix it up!

In the end, I would say that the burger was better than a good reuben, but not nearly as good as the best. Perhaps it's a way of standardizing. One thing is for certain though, it was tender, juicy, and absolutely loaded with flavor. Well... I suppose that's 3 things.

Mindblowing Horseradish Sauce and Moderately Altered Mustard

While Corned Beef is fantastic... everything needs a good sauce. This delicious looking blog provided me with two good recipes for things that seemed like they would go perfectly along side.

The first - a mustard with Guinness in it. (I would have liked to make my own mustard, but I waited too long)

The Second - A zesty yet toned down horseradish sauce.

The Mustard:

1/2 cup coarse grain deli or deli mustard
2 tbsp deli mustard
2 tbsp guinness stout
1 tbsp minced shallot
1 tsp brown sugar

The Horsey Sauce:

1 cup sour cream
6 tbsp zesty horseradish
1 tbsp chopped dill pickle
1 tbsp chopped chives

The instructions for both are the same...Mix it all up! Boom! Done!

The mustard is so so, but the Horseradish sauce if phenomenal. It's perfect on a sandwich, great right on the meat, and I will certainly be making it again. Sadly, the only picture I have is the picture I used with the corned beef.

A St. Patrick's Day Delight

There's a holiday that's pretty much dedicated to drinking beer and eating corned beef.

Yes, it's time to celebrate.

I started the planning early for this and decided to corn my own beef. As it turns out, corned beef isn't really "corned"... it's pickled! So I turned to trust Alton Brown for his take on how to do it myself.

His recipe, which is almost exactly what I did (spare one thing that couldn't be found) can be found here.

You can also watch the Serious Eats about it here and here.

My recipe is below:

2 quarts water
1 1/2 cup Morton's Tender Quick
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp black peppercorns
8 whole cloves
8 whole allspice berries
12 whole juniper berries
2 bay leaves, crushed
1/2 tsp ground ginger
2 lbs ice
1 big ol slap of meat (I used a 7 lb eye of round, brisket would fantastic as well)

Mix everything but the ice together in a big ol pot. Heat it on high until the salt and sugar dissolve. Then take it from the heat and add the ice. You want it at 45 degrees, so refrigerate if you need. I didn't.

Add it to a 2 gallon bag and then put the slab of meat in there with it. Put it in a drawer so that if the bag breaks it's contained.

It will take 10 days for the magic to happen. Turn it every day to make sure the meat is covered.

When it's time to go, take it out of the brine and rinse it completely. Trim any fat and stick it in a slow cooker with enough water to cover. Cook it on slow for... a really long time. I was afraid mine wasn't going to be done by the time people came over and I kicked it up to high and really dried it out. In the end, it was still quite tasty though.

Interesting thing about the picture: the grey spot in the middle of some of the slices is where the nitrates from the tender quick didn't get to... not bad spots.

I also made two sauces to go with it that I'll write about later.