This is a 3.6 pound piece of meat that is currently cooking in a crockpot. It's been cooking on high in there since 3:20pm, so the estimated cooking time has been around 5 hours by now. I've read online that you can tell when corned beef is ready to be cut and eaten by it being fork tender, not really by the color... the outer areas are fork tender but the middle is basically rubber when you stick the fork in, so it doesn't go in easily. I was wondering how to tell when the MIDDLE is finished...? What is the texture supposed to be like? Is it supposed to be as easy to go into as the edges? Need some quick help! Thanks!