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Corned Beef and Cabbage: Do you do it, and how?

Excerpted from a post I wrote for Blogging Baby.

Here in America, 'tis the season for Corned Beef and Cabbage, a dish traditionally served on or around Saint Patrick's Day. The holiday is not so much a celebration of the saint, as it is an excuse to hold parades, dye rivers green, and get wicked drunk off of giant plastic cups full of cheap beer (Or maybe that's just me...).

Corned beef and cabbage (or any boiled dinner such as the Italian bollito misto) is on my Top Five comfort foods list. It's simple, tasty, and practically cooks itself.  There are as many recipes for corned beef as there are people who make them. Some use prepared brisket, others brine it themselves. Some do-it-up in a slow cooker, others make it into a casserole.

I like to use a prepared brisket and embellish it with fresh spices, garlic, and orange peel (see my recipe here). Then, I add lots of different root veggies—carrots, turnips, and parsnips—along with the cabbage. I serve it with freshly grated horseradish, coarse/rock sea salt, and grainy mustard on the side.

Do you make corned beef and cabbage this time of year? If you do, how?  And do you do anything interesting with the left-overs? Please share!

Filed Under: Budget Cuisine, Ingredients, How To, Methods
Tags: america, beef, boiled dinner, bollito misto, corned beef and cabbage, CornedBeefAndCabbage, dinner, irish food, st. patricks day, vegetables

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

Jesse

5-17-2008 @3:18AM Jesse said... Corned Beef is a dish that I love, but never cook for myself. My grandma does one thats so tender that it melts im your mouth. Being the great grandma that she is she makes alot and sends most of the leftover my way....a nice reuben is the perfect midnight snack!
Great...now Iam craving a reuben:)
Reply

rainey

3-13-2006 @11:07AM rainey said... We have it in March and we enjoy it so much we have it several more times a year as well.

I get a brined brisket and I slow roast it in the oven in a tightly sealed foil packet. When it's done I pour off the liquid, reseal the packet and put it aside to rest. I put the liquids in my pressure cooker with peeled new potatoes and large chunks of cleaned carrot. I half cook them and then add sections of cabbage for a final cook.

We serve the veggies with a sprinkle of seasoned rice vinegar and the corned beef with a mixture of grainy mustard and horseradish sauce.
Reply

Miriam

3-13-2006 @12:10PM Miriam said... I made it for the first time last year, and while I liked it, I kinda found something metallic or chemical-tasting in the prepared one I had bought. As I write, I have five pounds of beef that have been curing since last week, and have another to go. I used this recipe from the Food Network, because it was one of the few I saw without nitrates. As a result, the beef is certainly more grey that we're accustomed to seeing corned beef. I'll post later with a photo, and report back on how it tasted!
Reply

Emily

3-13-2006 @1:13PM Emily said... The best day-after-St.-Patrick's-Day meal is reuben sandwiches, made with the leftover corned beef. I use marbled rye, thick slices of corned beef, swiss cheese, and thousand island dressing (I hear this dressing is controversial though - what else do people use on their reubens?). Serve with a pickle on the side!
Reply

Sherri

3-13-2006 @4:46PM Sherri said... Cooking Light has a good recipe that I use every year. Simmer the brisket a few hours and remove from cooking liquid. Add potatoes,turnips,carrots and onion. Remove and then add the cabbage. Meanwhile slice corn beef and drizzle with maple syrup and bake about 10 minutes.
Reply

Mahala

3-13-2006 @8:36PM Mahala said... My boyfriend grew up in Ireland, and never had corned beef and cabbage until moving to the US. One traditional meal we do make on or around St. Patrick's Day is a full Irish breakfast, with Irish back bacon, Irish sausages, soda bread, black and white puddings, baked beans, and grilled tomato. The sausages make for lovely leftover sausage sandwiches for lunch the next day.

Also, a nice addition to corned beef and cabbage might be "champ", mashed potatoes with an entire bunch of chopped scallions folded in.
Reply

Adam

3-13-2006 @9:12PM Adam said... We did corned beef and cabbage in my house all the time until TheWife was pregnant with our second son. Now she can't even be in the same room as cabbage with out gagging. I, however, still love it.
Reply

Tim

3-14-2006 @1:01AM Tim said... Not traditional but I like to glaze the Corned Beef with brown sugar and dijon mustard. We tried it for fun 6 years ago and my friends have demanded it ever since.
Reply

random

3-16-2006 @1:54PM random said... I've never had corned beef unless you count the thinly sliced luncheon meat version, which I put in my reubens.

I've always done either a good Irish stew (Dublin Coddle this year) or a roast and colcannon for St. Patty's day.

I make colcannon or champ, and boxty (what you make from the leftovers of the first two) once a month or so. Just because it's easy, cheap, and filling and I always have potatoes and green onions on hand. Cabbage less so.
Reply

Staci

3-16-2006 @6:18PM Staci said... Corned Beef done right is one of those "almost as good as sex" types of foods. My recipe of choice is to get the packaged briskets, rub a mixture of the spices that come with it and additional garlic, pepper and Brown Sugar, then pour about 2 bottles of Killian's Red Beer in the roasting pan, slow roast at about 250 for 5-6 hours, put cabbage, red potatoes and carrots in at the last hour or so, then serve with spicy dijon mustard. YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

As far as leftovers, I have two teenagers and a pair of 3 year old twins. Leftover corned beef and fixin's have a self life of less then 24 hours in my house, and most of the time everyone just wants to pick from the pan. This year I may swipe some and make homemade corned beef and potatoe hash...but we'll see.
Reply

Carey

3-17-2006 @8:19PM Carey said... Just made it for the first time, using your recipe, and loved every bite.
Reply

Alex

11-15-2006 @5:43AM Alex said... We did corned beef and cabbage in my house all the time.
Reply

14 Comments / 1 Pages

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