Happy St. Patrick’s Day! The USDA wants you to know how to stay safe and prepare corned beef so you and your family stay healthy. Don’t rely on luck! They offer these tips:
- If your uncooked corned beef is in a pouch with pickling juices and has no “sell-by” date, you can store it in the fridge for five to seven days, unopened. If the product does have a “use-by” date, store it unopened in the fridge until that date.
- Uncooked corned beef brisket can be frozen for one month if you drain and re-wrap it, using wrapping materials made for the freezer. It should be drained because all of the salt in the brine encourages rancidity and will change the texture.
- Since corned beef is made from less tender cuts of beef such as the rump, round, or brisket, it needs long, slow cooking in moist heat. The USDA has provided a fact sheet called Corned Beef and Food Safety you can refer to for more instructions.
- Make sure the corned beef reaches a minimum internal final temperature of 160 degrees F.
- While you can cook the corned beef ahead of time, after cooking, cut it into smaller pieces so it cools faster. Place the meat in shallow containers and immediately refrigerate so it cools quickly.
- Leftover corned beef should be cut into smaller pieces or sliced and refrigerated within two hours of cooking. Use the beef with 3 or 4 days, or freeze it up to 3 months.
You can always call the USDA hotline at 1-888-674-6854 if you have more questions. And have a great corned beef dinner!
