I'm glad I'm not the only one this happens to.
This thread has reminded me that I must make some more corned beef. You're right, beef is a funny thing to cure, it doesn't behave at all like pork.
Even before we'd even heard of method 1 and method 2 and were using 'stronger' cures for longer beef could come out un-cured at the centre. You can see now why the experts like Maynard Davies used short curing times and long equalisation periods!
Phil