Corned Beef Loaf

To make this corned beef loaf you should first use the basic brine-cure recipe (https://www.scotchkitchen.com/recipe/basic-brine-cure), allowing six days in advance to prepare the meat.

In a small pan dry fry the pickling spice, chilli flakes, cinnamon stick and ginger until aromatic but not browned or they’ll be bitter.

When cool bash the spices in a mortar and pestle until just broken up. You don’t want them ground.

Tip the toasted spices and the bay leaf into a large pan, add the salt-cured beef and cover with water. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer gently for about three hours until really tender when prodded with a fork. You will need to be able to pull the meat apart with two forks when it’s properly cooked. Remove the pan from the heat but leave the meat to cool slightly in the liquid until it’s cool enough to handle. Discard most of the cooking liquid but reserve about 300ml in case it’s needed to moisten the meat.

Shred the meat including any fat, with two forks. Transfer to a mixing bowl and add the toasted fennel or celery seeds and chopped parsley and mix well. Taste the meat to check for seasoning, you shouldn’t need salt but might like a couple of grindings of pepper, white or black, and four or 5 tablespoons of the cooking liquid to moisten

Quickly mix everything together with the melted beef dripping and transfer to the lined loaf tin. Press down well with the back of the spoon, cover with clingfilm. Weigh down with something heavy, (a brick wrapped in tin foil?!!) and chill, preferably overnight for the flavours to mellow and the packed meat to become firm enough to slice.