Beef – How to keep corned beef pink

This year, I slow cooked corned beef for about 8 hours in my crock pot. The slow cooker was set to high for the first 4 hours and set to low for the last 4. The meat didn't "fall apart" when I took it out, rather it kept its form and allowed me to slice it (against the grain).

I should mention that I had the corned beef submerged in a water/beer mixture during the entire cooking process. I used 1 bottle of beer (optional) and filled the rest of the slow cooker with water until the beef was submerged.

Take everything I say with a grain of salt (pun intended) as I am writing from Texas where we do nobler things with brisket. A true corned-beef-expert would be of Irish or Jewish descent, and from New York.

The meat should have relatively tough individual fibers that separate easily because of the long, wet cooking. It is pretty difficult to overcook brisket as it is so tough. Like Chuck Norris but tastier. Three hours would definitely not be enough time.

It can be fatty and that will be pretty much up to how much of the fat was trimmed off when it was butchered. An untrimmed brisket has a solid layer of fat that can be as much as a half inch thick. Obviously trimmed briskets cost more. The fat can be nice for smoking but the corned beef I have seen is not as fatty.

Fatty and mushy are not the same thing, of course. If the meat is actually mushy then I suspect that it was packed with a meat tenderizer as well as the corning salt and seasonings. If this is the case then there isn't much you could have done differently. Just don't buy that brand next time. Better yet, next time, corn it yourself.