Need a little help on my corned beef.

[Bruno]

Picked up a corned beef round at Costco.
SNRF Wagyu, the directions say to boil to 145, this seemed a little low to me, I actually have never checked temp on my corned beef, it was just done when it seemed done.
Any thoughts on this, is the lower temp due to the difference between a round and a brisket version?
Thanks for any help, going to boil one on Friday, I have one stashed in the freezer for pastrami.

 

[Rich G]

@Bruno, I've seen that 145F number for corned beef in a lot of places, so I would guess that's just the "safe" temp that would ensure that you can eat it and not kill yourself or your family (even though we all know that those numbers can be taken with a grain of salt or two.) I would still cook until it reaches the tenderness that you are looking for, and then temp it just for a sanity check (and I'll bet you $1 that you will be over 145F.) You can expect a very different texture from your round than you would get from brisket, just because the grain on that muscle is just quite a bit tighter, with smaller fibers than a brisket. The round I turned into pastrami a couple weekends ago turned out great, but you can tell just looking at a slice that it's not brisket.

Let us know how it turns out, and your thoughts vis-a-vis corned brisket you have done previously.

R

 

[Bruno]

@Bruno, I've seen that 145F number for corned beef in a lot of places, so I would guess that's just the "safe" temp that would ensure that you can eat it and not kill yourself or your family (even though we all know that those numbers can be taken with a grain of salt or two.) I would still cook until it reaches the tenderness that you are looking for, and then temp it just for a sanity check (and I'll bet you $1 that you will be over 145F.) You can expect a very different texture from your round than you would get from brisket, just because the grain on that muscle is just quite a bit tighter, with smaller fibers than a brisket. The round I turned into pastrami a couple weekends ago turned out great, but you can tell just looking at a slice that it's not brisket.

Let us know how it turns out, and your thoughts vis-a-vis corned brisket you have done previously.

R

Thanks Rich! I got a little excited about the Wagyu part and didn’t give round much thought. Looking forward to it though.