Homemade Corned Beef (A recipe and directions)

Corned Beef

When we got our last steer butchered my husband asked, as usual, what I wanted done with it. Since he used to be a butcher I usually just tell him to decide. Then he gets the brisket ground into hamburger because he doesn't like the brisket. In the store that is usually the cheaper cut and is not tender like the rest of the cuts, which is why it usually goes into hamburger or corned beef. Ever buy corned beef? I love corned beef; him, not so much. Too bad this time. I told him I wanted the brisket saved. It came in two very large slabs, so I had to cut them into smaller, more manageable pieces. I finally had the time to make it this past weekend so I went to work and thawed them out, and wouldn’t you know it, when he got a look at the smaller slabs, he decided he wanted to make bacon out of a couple of them. He said if it was raining, he’d smoke it and if not he’d be planting corn or plowing fields. It isn’t raining and I do not mess with his smoker. At any rate, after he tasted my corned beef, even he had to admit it wasn’t bad. Below is my process and recipe for corned beef.

Cut brisket into small slabs if they are cut very large. Otherwise they won’t fit into any freezer bags for marinating and I don’t have a pan or a large enough oven for them full sized.

You Will Need:

Gallon Sized Zip-Type Freezer Bags

Morton Tender Quick (gives the meat its red color and salty taste- also used to make bacon and ham)

Cooking Oil or Light Olive Oil

Water

Vinegar (Cider is best but white works just fine too)

Pickling Spice

Whole Dried Cayenne Pepper or Crushed Red Pepper (hot)

Whole Pepper Corns

Whole Bay Leaves

Whole Mustard Seed

Onion Slices

Course Canning Salt or Non-Iodized Salt

Directions:

 Rub each slab of brisket with 1/3 cup of the Tender Quick on all sides and ends/edges. Place one slab of brisket (two if they are really small) into each gallon sized zip-type freezer bag. Place one whole dried cayenne pepper or 1 teaspoon of the crushed pepper, 1 whole bay leaf, 1 teaspoon each of whole pepper corns and whole mustard seed and 1 tablespoon of the pickling spice and several large slices of onion to each bag. Add ¼ cup oil, 1 cup vinegar and 2 cups water and getting as much air as possible out of the bag, zip it shut so that nothing can leak out. Refrigerate overnight.

The next day, drain the bags and remove the slabs of meat – do not rinse the slabs- and place them into a large roasting pan along with the onion slices. Pour in just enough water to barely cover the meat (it makes its own juice as it cooks). Add 1/8 cup canning salt or non-iodized salt, cover the pan and bake at 325° F. oven for about five hours. Remove from oven and drain well. Place the cooked meat (without the onions) into a smaller pan and cover with foil, sealing well, and cool in refrigerator several hours or overnight until well cooled. Any remaining broth will congeal. Place each cooled slab (getting as much of the congealed broth as possible off the meat) into vacuum seal bags and seal. If you don’t have a vacuum sealer, then use regular freezer bags but remove as much air as possible. Freeze until ready to use or keep some in the fridge for immediate eating.

                                                        Cooked and ready to cool down

                                                       Vacuum sealed for the freezer

Please be aware that corned beef is traditionally high is sodium. You can reduce it in the cooking time if you wish, but it won’t taste quite the same.

For corned beef like you find in a can, run some of the corned beef through a food processor and freeze or refrigerate until set in a well packed freezer bowl. Just dip the bowl in some hot water and it should slide right out of the container. If frozen, thaw in refrigerator before slicing. 

Deciding to Keep the Smaller Tractor

I did some serious thinking about that tractor that tried to turn over with me. It occurred to me that it is actually mine, as in no payments, and I have quite a few implements that will not fit on anything else that is bigger (bucket, plow, disc harrow, brush cutter –commonly known by the name brand Brush Hog, a lot like a tissue is called a Kleenex- and a sprayer). The sprayer is actually made for a 4-wheeler (which we do not have) but we attached it to a pallet and stick on the rear hay forks (another implement along with the bale spear for the front). We hook the sprayer to the battery and spray away the weeds and grass from the fence rows. Bigger tractors won’t clear the stumps or trees that are next to the fence in places. I suppose I’ll have to keep it and bale smaller bales. Hopefully we won’t have to deal with the knee deep mud again, but this is Wisconsin and mud is a part of the farm, especially in the rainy season.  

                                      Lots of uses for my little tractor - guess I'll keep it after all.

I decided to make my garden bigger this year to accommodate planting potatoes since I used part of it for asparagus last year and you don’t plow that up if you want to keep it growing. I needed that disc. After several trips lengthwise, I went the short way (that was fun dodging trees at the ends of the rows!) several more times just to break it up and then this weekend (a week later) I used the tiller on it. I have a Craftsman rear-tined tiller that has worked without fail for more than ten years. I love it. It will, however, work you half to death if your garden is very large, like mine is. Most people use the implements I have for deer forage plots- nothing like attracting the deer so all you have to do is sit and wait during hunting season. I don’t do that, by the way; they go after our corn and soybeans planted either for cash crops or to feed the cows so I don’t need forage plots. I could get a garden type tiller made to fit that tractor, but once the plants are up, the tractor won’t be able to go down the rows anyway.

I do have future plans for this equipment, and that includes the eventual purchasing of a tiller for it and a planter. This is way off of course, but when we lived in Florida we had what is called a truck crop farming operation. That is when you grow an acre or so of different vegetables and sell them either at farmers markets or vegetable auctions (we sold to an auction when we were in Florida). Some of our bell peppers and butternut squash and yellow squash went to grocery stores all over the country. We sold zipper peas (a variety of field peas) locally by the bushel basket. My only problem with this plan of course is that all of our land is currently allocated either to pasture or feed crops/cash crops for the animals. Hmmm, I’m going to have some figuring to do!

Safety Equipment on Tractors can Save Lives

Are you in the habit of ignoring the safety devices installed on your farm equipment. They are there for a reason, just as are the warning signs about not sticking your hands into moving parts. We have a small Case IH DX 40 tractor. I love this tractor in that it has a hydrostatic transmission so I don't have to change gears and mess with a clutch. Yeah, I'm THAT kind of tractor driver. It has a loader on it that makes it easy to use a bucket to clean snow in the winter (even without a cab- brrr) and scrape manure out of pens and load the spreader, it also has a bale spear attachment for the front and a set of hay forks for the back, it is small and light compared to other tractors and gets into small places. Handy it is; safe for heavy work- not so much. We use it to haul round bales out of the fields in the summer, which it does fairly well because it is counterbalanced with a bale on the back. What I have found is that when it comes time to actually feeding those bales, one tends to only have a bale on the front and it bounces with the weight. Why do I bring this up in an article about safety equipment? Here's why. This tractor has a roll bar that can be folded down for getting into low places, such as our heifer shed, which my husband does, only he has a habit of not putting it back up and he also won't wear the seat belt. "If it tips, I want to be able to get out the way." Well, chances are high that if it tips and you jump, you will be caught in the rollover and squashed; not thrown out of the way. That roll over bar was installed to keep the tractor from landing on the driver and the belt to keep them in place.

The other day it snowed a great deal and with the spring thaw in progress it made it hard to find the soft spots in the cow yard. I wasn't able to drive to work (the roads were treacherous) so I stayed home. My husband asked it I would feed the cows but warned me 'it likes to tip a little, so be careful'. Holy mud pies! Was that an understatement. I dutifully changed out the bucket for the bale spear and commenced to pick up the hay bale he had it stuck into thinking that was the first bale he wanted fed. Then I noticed the rollover bar was down. I shook my head and put it back into place and then hooked the seat belt again. (I always use the seat belt). The first thing that happened was that as I backed out of the shed it tried to tip - a few times-  before I found some way to back out that it didn't. Thank goodness for the seat belt. It would have tossed me right off into the steering wheel. Then I got the gates open and went in to feed the cows. Since I couldn't see where the solid places were I fell right into the softest place by the gate and the front tire sank to the hub. The rest of the tractor tipped precariously. Why yes, my heart like to have pounded right out of my chest. I immediately put the bale down to put the tractor back on at least three wheels because at that point it was only on two, both on the same side and one of those was buried in mud. Again, the seat belt kept me from being thrown off and it wouldn't have been into the steering wheel; it would have been right where the tractor was going to roll. After several tries and more scary moments, I knew I was not going to get that tractor righted. I held onto the high side of the tractor and unhooked the seat belt and jumped off that side hoping it wouldn't roll and take me with it. I was sure if I went off the low side it would. I got a look at it once I was on the ground (mud) and that back tire was a good four feet off the ground. I had to tell the cows to stop eating my anchor, but I guess it kept them in the pen while I went to the house to call my nephew for help. He drove up in a vehicle and I told him I thought he'd bring a tractor and he said he probably should have once he got a look at the situation. He climbed on and did some maneuvering (apparently having done it before himself) and got it put back right, but it tipped several times with him too. I declined to deliver another bale. My husband said I got the heaviest bale in the barn.

Now, had that tractor rolled, that seat belt would have held me in place so as not to be in the path of the rollover and that roll bar would have kept it from smashing on top of me.

Farmers, in spite of old jokes to the contrary, are not dumb; they just do things like everyone else when they see a problem. Case in point: Several years ago a relative was trying to figure out why his forage chopper was not cutting properly. The only way to do this was to lift the cover and actually watch the blades spinning. "Oh, that's the problem!" he said and without thinking reached for it. He lost several fingers. Most farmers after such an incident will say "*&$#! That hurt!" Followed by, "Well, that was stupid." There are guards and covers with warnings for a reason. The graphics may look funny, but if one pays attention to the actual gruesomeness they portray, they would realize just how serious they are. Keep covers in good shape on things such as cutting bars and PTO shafts. An arm or leg caught in a PTO shaft can result in one severing an artery and bleeding to death; and not just mangling the limb. If your shirt gets caught in a shaft that is spinning; getting to a shut off switch is impossible and it will pull you into it.

The bottom line is seat belts, rollover bars, and guards save lives. Use them and maintain them.

My next assignment, find a bigger tractor and trade off my little one!

Want to Save Some Money? Have I got a Few Websites for You!

Many of us want to be able to live frugally and be self-sustaining rather than depending on the store for everything we use. I know to most people that is a foreign concept - I've heard horror stories of people going to a school to chat with students about where their food comes from and they will argue with the presenter that it comes from the store; not the farm. How ridiculous is that? One of my 'things' is being able to make as much as I can for myself, but I am not all-knowing, so I rely on websites of those who know what they are talking about for a little assistance. Here are a few that can help you out too.

Budget101.com
Actually, Liss Burnell, Budget 101's founder used to live in the same town I do and I got to know her. She helped me get my website moved to a different host company. She's way more tech-savvy than I am. She is also very good at budgeting and making things one would think they could only BUY at a store. I have been looking for a way to make laundry detergent, for instance, and low and behold she posted one on her website, and it uses an ingredient I already keep on hand- Fels Naptha. Another recipe I have used over the years is for that coffee creamer we like to get in the store. Now, I must admit it is less expensive to buy this, but if you run out and are not able to get to that store (I live a long way from the store) this recipe uses ingredients already on hand, at least at my house, and it works well in a pinch.

Liss has recipes for all sorts of products we usually buy from household cleaning products to quick mixes for dinner and everything in between. She has great homemade gift ideas too. You just have to check out her website to see what all you can find as they are too many to list here. http://www.budget101.com 

There is a Facebook page called Homemade Living Frugally. People can ask questions and Suzanne will do her best to get them an answer from other readers. She also has in lieu of a website (or as a website) a forum board, http://homemadeliving.freeforums.net/ where you can ask questions and find answers, or give the answers if you have them to others' questions. Great concept!

There are a number of blogs out there too if you want to cook really great food or for farming (small and large) that I like to visit. 
http://sweetteaandcornbread.blogspot.com,
http://jimmycrackedcorn.wordpress.com,
 http://adventuresinthegoodland.blogspot.com

Of course, you can use a search engine for frugal living sites on your own and find a plethora of ideas. That is how I usually find them.Some ideas I get from actually talking to people who have done it so don't be afraid to go up to that farmer and ask them how they get that particular plant to grow so well or where they came up with the idea for something. I recently subscribed to Farm Show Magazine. It has ideas on how to make things (or remake things) useful for farmers that either are not available in the stores or may be too expensive to buy. Some people just look at and say, "Why didn't I think of that?" I do.

You can also find a number of books and e-books on the subjects you seek. They can be found at retailers such as Amazon.com ( I have a handy page you can use too!).

*No one in this article has asked me to recommend their websites or blogs. I was not paid for any recommendations either. For Amazon.com, if you use my link I make a small amount of money, but it does not cost you anymore and they do not tell me who bought anything (or what they bought) or who may have used my link.
                                    

Oh My Goodness- That Snow is Deep

When my husband left for work this morning he told me to have a good day with the dog because there was no way my car was going to make it down the driveway. He has a four-wheel drive GMC Sierra and it sits fairly high. Within ten minutes I couldn't even see his tracks where he walked to the machine shed where we park and after daylight I looked out the kitchen window and said, "What driveway?" Even the dog got buried trying to get through it. I thought I was going to have to dig her out.

At chore time I finally ventured out and shoveled off the porch and then used that big snow shovel to go around the house as if it was a ski pole and found I was right in spite of the hubby stating the heater vent pipes (intake and exhaust) did not need shoveled out because he did just two weeks ago. That should have been my first clue it needed it. It had about a foot of snow over it. The exhaust pipe sending out warm air had actually made a small path, as it were, for the fumes to get out, but the intake pipe had snow caked inside. It shoveled it out all the way to the ground and a fair bit around it and then took the ends off and cleared all the snow out. This is something everyone should check every time it snows. Carbon monoxide will build up inside your home if that exhaust pipe is plugged and the heater will malfunction if the intake is blocked. Other than the fact that the CO can kill you if you don't get it cleared, it can be very expensive to get your furnace repaired from that blocked intake pipe. I couldn't even get around to the side where the dryer vents and I asked my husband when he got home if he would plow a trail so I can. I don't need that blocked up or frozen shut either. It can start a fire from lint that blows out that pipe if it gets plugged and too hot. Check that often also. It can ruin your dryer.

Now to the part where he got home. Sometimes a wife just knows her husband will try, in spite of the obvious obstruction to the driveway, to drive through it. I saw him coming and just told the dog to stand back out of the way with me (we have a long driveway but she would have charged out there to greet him). I waved my arms and shook my head 'no' and then all I could do was hang my head and laugh. He tried to come up the driveway and barely got the length of the truck before it refused to move another inch. He tried to, which means it is stuck really bad. He finally gave up and tried to walk the rest of the way. Now, he is fairly tall, six-one or so, and he about couldn't make it. It went up to his backside. He struggled mightily and laughed a lot, because I was laughing at him and was sort of contagious at that point.The dog in all her Labradorean exuberance tried to get to him and fell so far down I couldn't even see her tail. I don't know how she managed to get out of that drift but she did right about the time he got to her to dig her out with his hands.

Below are some pictures!

                                    That sure is a lot of snow on the barn roof. I hope it holds up.

     There is an LP tank under there somewhere. We're running out of room to put all this snow!

                                    I don't think my farm truck is moving out of the shed until spring.

                                       Yup, he just had to try to get through all that snow.Oops!

THINK SPRING - PLEASE!!!!

Seed Catalogs

With all the freezing cold outside (and trust me; it is freezing cold outside) the thing that helps save my sanity is the flood of seed catalogs I get every winter. (Odd considering I usually hate junk mail.)

The good old fashioned seed catalogs 1) Remind me what growing things look like, as opposed to all the white frozen stuff around me. 2) Causes me to think about experimenting with varieties of vegetables I haven't tried before. 3) Offer help with problems I have growing things.

Case in point: a good many of my neighbors seem to be able to grow strawberries and blueberries. I have spent a shameful amount of money trying to do likewise to no avail. I have yet to harvest a single berry; just a lot of dead plants. (hangs head in shame)

We received a nice big seed catalog from the Jung Seed Company (No, I am not affiliated with them in any way!) and my husband got to it first. He suddenly says, "Hey, I think I found your problem." (This could cover so many things!) I raised an eyebrow. "What?" He smiled. "Your dead blueberries," he elaborated, and handed me the catalog. 

Now, aside from the numerous seeds and plants offered in seed catalogs, they also offer tidbits about why one might be having a particular problem and of course the products they sell to remedy the situation. We had our farm soil tested last year and they all had pretty much the same result: our soil is neutral, as in, not acidic at all, especially around where I plant our food. Blueberries need acidic soil to grow. Well, I'll be. I have some work to do this spring and I will be getting the suggested products either from the catalog or locally if I can find it. Quite frankly, plants seldom survive the journey from any company to our farm anyway (like sweet potatoes-ahhh!), but the seeds and other products do well and if not available locally, I will go to the catalogs.

                                                   

                                    

            Image courtesy of Grant Cochrane/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net 

             Stock Photo - image ID: 10090261

What I have started is my own gardening book of sorts and you can too. Peruse the catalogs for the types of produce, flowers, bushes, trees, etcetera, you prefer and see if they have growing tips and troubleshooting tidbits. Cut them out of the catalog and put them in a binder by category. That way you can find them easily when you run into something with your plants. This is fairly inexpensive –you still will need a binder and something on which to collect the articles. Print off articles you may find online or cut out agricultural articles in magazines and trade newspapers (I have done this for animal health) and add them to your binder. You can also obtain leaflets from your state's university extension service. It is way less expensive than buying an entire book, or books, just for one or two problems and you have what you need at your fingertips. 

Now, if someone could just help me with those strawberries! 

Just Like Zikan's

There is no getting around it; when you live out in the country, as I do, when you go shopping, you get enough to last a while. There is a store in a spot in the road town nearby however, and though it's not a big box store that can get the super low prices, you can still completely survive using it.

The other night my husband was looking for a can of olives. I have a habit of buying extra items when I go grocery shopping, especially baking ingredients since he also has a huge sweet tooth. This led to his using the at-a-glance method when he looks for anything in the cabinets because he can just declare it not there and I'll find it, which I did. I reached in behind all the baking supplies and pulled out the can. "Just like Zikan's!" I said. He laughed.

What is Zikan's? Think of the general store in all the old westerns you ever saw. It is jokingly (and lovingly) referred to as the Catawba Mall. They sell everything you could possibly need. In one side is clothing, chore boots, baby clothes and items, cloth, sewing notions, cleaning supplies, groceries, even a small old fashioned meat counter. The other side and the basement has everything else: fan belts, small appliances such as radios, coffee makers, waffle irons and the like, dishes, glassware, cutlery, utinsels, pots and pans, paint, plumbing and electrical supplies, sporting goods, bicycles, stove pipe, mops, brooms, buckets, nuts, bolts, nails, tools, garden supplies, fans, small farm supplies like fence wire and insulators, chicken feeders and waterers, even hunting and fishing licenses and gear. There is not much this place doesn't carry and has for more years than I've been here. Considering how much they have, the building is not that large, so they stock things in front of and on top of other items. All you have to do is ask and they can reach, unseeing, into a pile and pull it out. Very few times I've gone in there and they were out of something or didn't carry it at all. Thus the joke, "See, just like Zikan's!"

I'll tell you what; you can shop the Wall-Marts of the world all you want, but if you really want that hard to find, unique item, you need a store like Zikan's.