Chilkat Valley News - Serving Haines and Klukwan, Alaska since 1966

I don't know about you, but when March comes around I start craving corned beef in my bones. I can taste the salt-laden fat on my tongue as the sour vegetables pucker my lips. I think I crave this seasonal dish more than I crave turkey for Thanksgiving; probably because turkey is boring and forgettable.

Pre-corned beef and sauerkraut are found easily in the store. Put the two together with some potatoes and braise, and you have your basic St. Patrick's Day meal. But it sure is hard to get decent beef in Haines. Most of it reminds me of the aforementioned turkey: bland, tasting of corn, poorly marbled, unnaturally soft, light in color and when cooked it produces a miasma of dirty oil.

Recently my wife and I were gifted many pounds of moose and venison. These meats are local, full of flavor and definitely not mass-produced choice beef. Moose, from my experience, can be a little tough, even in some of the softer steak parts. I found that the roast is a perfect replacement for brisket, and after pressure cooking some in pineapple juice and chilis for tacos, I decided to try corning some.

Again, this is my recipe, and this is only a guideline, so feel free to adjust anything to your own tastes. The ratios for the weight of the meat, salt and sugar need to be followed though. Convert this recipe to metric grams for more consistency.

Corned Bullwinkle:

5 pounds moose roast

The Brine:

1 gallon water

2 cups kosher salt

½ cup sugar

1 ounce pink salt

3 garlic cloves

2 inch piece ginger

2 tables spoons Malawi spice (Or use pickling spice as a substitute)

Combine all the ingredients for the brine in a pot that can comfortably hold the moose roast. Bring the brine to a simmer, dissolving the salt and sugar. Cool down the liquid until chilled and place the roast in the liquid for five days. Remove the roast from the brine and rinse under cold water.

Place the roast in a pressure cooker and just barely cover with water and add 2 Tablespoons of additional spice. Pressure cook for 80 minutes. If you don't have a pressure cooker or an Instapot, simmer in water on the stove for three hours or until, tender. Save 1 quart of the braising liquid.

Sauerkraut:

3 heads cabbage, cored, sliced thin and weighed to the gram

2 percent salt

Caraway seed

Massage the salt and caraway into the cabbage until soft. Place in a fermentation container for 5 days at room temperature, weighing the cabbage down.

When the sauerkraut is done you can braise vegetables in it. Small red potatoes are nice, and I like to add parsnips for sweetness, rutabagas and turnips for pepper, and carrots for color. Add all these ingredients into a roasting pan with a bottle's worth of white cooking wine. Cover the pan with tin foil and braise at 350 degrees for two hours. Remove from the oven and add the cooked Corned Bullwinkle, fat side, up and the saved braising liquid. Cook uncovered heating the Corned Bullwinkle all the way through. Make sure all your vegetables are tender, and you are ready to eat.

Travis Kukull writes cooking columns for the CVN. He is the chef for this year's Gourmet Brewer's Dinner at Beer Fest. He also teaches cooking classes for the Community Education Program.