Make The Luck of the Irish has Nothing to do with this Dish!
Delicious, fresh and well chosen ingredients are what makes this dish. Afterall, there really isn't much to do in cooking corned beef and cabbage. Boiling water, adding meat and vegetables and waiting for a few hours.....but the end result is a world class "comfort" dish. Set up your dinner table picnic style with a checkered table cloth and all the food placed in bowls down the middle of the table surrounded by friends and family. Now that's the way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day! Since this dish is relatively easy to prepare, the "how too's" and the "what not's" are pretty important. I added some helpful tips that will help you create the best corned beef and cabbage dish you can.
Corned Beef and Cabbage
Serves 6 to 8
Total time: 3 to 4 hours
Ingredients
4 lb corned brisket of beef
3 large carrots, cut into large chunks
6 to 8 small onions
1 teaspoon dry English mustard
large sprig fresh thyme and some parsley stalks, tied together
1 cabbage
salt and freshly ground pepper
Choosing the Right Piece of Beef
When buying corned beef, be sure to get "ready-to-cook" not precooked meat. The meat should be nice and firm and not bright pink. If it's too bright pink they've used too many nitrates. Brisket is the most common cut of corned beef you'll find at the grocery store (get the leaner flat-cut brisket if you can find it). Some Irish butchers also sell "silverside," a lean cut from the round (it's the cut recommended by the butcher at Prime Cuts, a renowned Irish shop in the Bronx) and surprising enough, many stores sell the round (as in eye of the) cut of corned beef.
Cooked to Perfection
To keep your carrots, onions, and cabbage from turning to mush, be sure to use large pieces. Use carrots that are two inches in diameter and cut them into chunks three or four inches long. Cut large onions into quarters or use whole small onions, and quarter a whole cabbage and add it after the meat and other veggies have stewed for a while. If you'd like, you can also add white turnips, rutabaga, or celeriac. To stop the meat from getting tough, keep it covered with water at all times (add more hot water if it cooks down), and once the liquid comes to a boil, reduce the heat, cover the pot, and let it simmer. Don't have it at a mad rolling boil all the time. Once it comes to the boil, it can just simmer along gently then. That will keep it nice and tender and won't toughen the meat.
When's It Done?
Before it's cooked, using a carving fork, you will be able to lift the piece of meat up and it will stay whole, but when it's cooked, using the carving fork again, it will fall apart when lifted from the pot.
You Say Potato
Serve the corned beef and cabbage with potatoes boiled in their skins or champ (mashed potatoes with scallions, milk, and butter). Yukon Gold potatoes, which are about as close as you'll get to Irish potatoes in the U.S. are delicious! Served with lots of good Irish butter on them or the juices of the corned beef. I cook the potatoes separate in their own pot.
The corned beef not only lends flavor to the cabbage and carrots, it also absorbs their flavors creating a tasty mingling of flavors. Cooking the potatoes separately keeps them from turning to "mush" as mentioned early before the corned beef and other vegetables are done.
Directions
Put the brisket into a saucepan with the carrots, onions, mustard and the herbs. Cover with cold water, and bring gently to a boil. Simmer, covered, for 2 hours. Discard the outer leaves of the cabbage, cut in quarters and add to the pot. Cook for a further 1 to 2 hours or until the meat and vegetables are soft and tender.
Serve the corned beef in slices, surrounded by the vegetables and cooking liquid. Serve with lots of potatoes and your favorite mustard(s) I love the tanginess of a great Dijon!
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