Vintage Corned Beef Experiment Part 1

This afternoon I remembered that I had a corned beef in the meat drawer of the fridge. I bought it before St. Patrick's Day, because the prices on corned beef right around that time of year are pretty unbeatable, and the "use or freeze by" date was seemingly far off in the future.

So far off, in fact, that I kind of forgot all about having it sitting in there, waiting for me.

Tonight I got home and thought about corned beef for some reason. I remembered that chunk in the fridge and wondered if it was too late to cook.  The date on the package said "FREEZE / USE BY MAY 17 2012:"

I opened up the package and took a sniff. Smelled like corned beef; no off odors. The brine wasn't thick or sticky the way it gets when meat spoils in it.  So I put in a pot with some water, celery, chopped shallots, and pickling spice and put it on to simmer.

The kitchen smells pretty good right now.  I'll give it a few hours on a simmer, then cool it, wrap it tightly in foil, and refrigerate it overnight. Tomorrow I'll let you know how it turned out.