Hi all -

I made a corned beef in a crock pot for St. Patrick's day - it's hard to say for how long I did it because at first it was frozen. So I defrosted it in the microwave. Then I had it on for about 3 hours on High, then about 3 hours on low. It was a 3.5 lb. corned beef.

It came out tough as shoe leather! Does this mean that it was undercooked or overcooked? It was hot in the middle. What temperature should the inside be for when it's properly cooked? Next time I'm going to use a probe thermometer for it. Thanks!

i cook in the crock pot all the time and i like to cook EVERYTHING on slowwwww all day long. everything turns out nice and tender.

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Mabennett - Proud Mommy to a Yankee, a Tarheel, and a cheerleader

First, the newer slow cookers cook much faster than the old ones. Second, I never cook meat on high in the crockpot. Only desserts and side dishes. A few times that I have put it in for only 8 hours(I have a newer one, like 8 years old) the meat hasn't been as tender as I would like. I think the key is to cook it on slow for 10 hours.

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"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies."
-- Groucho Marx

could also have been not enough liquid in there maybe also.

Try this next time- 2-3 cans or 2 jars saurkraut half in the bottom of the crock, 1 lg sliced onion half on top of the kraut, 3-4 carrots broken in half, 3-4 small potaoes or a large on cut ito pcs- on top of that put your mea,t that is at room temp- smash down add two garlic cloves a bay leaf and then relayer everthing on top of the meat- follow with one can of beer- then qtr a small cabage and lay on top. cover tightly- slow/low cook 6-8 hours. (some folks add carraway seed- I am not a fan...) has never failed..good luck

Don't know if this has anything to do with your experience...but when you slice a brisket, you need to slice accross the grain. Before I knew knew this we had tough stringy brisket.

I have done corned beef twice, first time, it was tough. But the second I cooked on slow all day long it was very tender. I loved it. You can actually correct a tough peice of meat. Put it back in the slow cooker with some sort of moisture, a beer, chicken or beef stock even water, maybe add a little fat then cook all day till it is broken up. If all this fails,(I dont think it would) chop up the meat put it back in there and add BBQ sauce and get some buns!

P.S. - bad news! Corned beef has 800 calories in every 3 ounces!!!!!!! OMG who knew!! That really bummed me out!

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Used to be MrsMom42

cook it longer next time....I have done this before too. No need to add any fluid at all.

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"Before I was a Mom I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body." ~Anonymous

Sounds good.I always cooked with out anything in there.

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*Wife to Rick of 13 years*
~Mom to 2 boys Dakota(12) & Ryan(8)~
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