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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Late Night Open Thread

Late Night Open Thread

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I know none of you actually gives a shit, but I figured I would babble anyway. I currently am in hour 2 of boiling a massive piece of corned beef with a shit load of garlic. I intend to cook it down for a couple more hours, then throw it in the crock pot tomorrow. I’ve got some nice carrots, new potatoes, turnips, and these beautiful cabbages that were so green and pretty that they screamed to me as I was walking down the produce aisle. I may add some green beans, too.

I know we go all foodie around here some times, and we talk a good story about exotic flavors and spices, but hot damned if corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes isn’t exquisite eats. I have a friend who is a food snob who says I eat like a poor Irishman, but as far as I am concerned, this is good eating. It needs no salt or pepper, it needs no seasoning, it just needs the fat from the corned beef and the flavors from the veg. I might bake a nice dark rye bread to go with it, but other than that, it needs nothing.

Except a big fucking spoon.

Reader Interactions

91Comments

  4. 4.

    Mike in NC

    My dad loved him some corned beef and cabbage, with Irish soda bread. He also, too, liked sardine sandwiches. Must have been a WW2 guy thing.

  5. 5.

    mattH

    Had a (chimichurriish)marinated flank steak with broccoli and spinach risotto for dinner. Other than a bit of sweat, it’s been the easiest dinner I’ve made in a while. Making pita bread pizzas tomorrow. Even easier.

  9. 9.

    maven

    Boil on John…..

    The Andrew lauded himself today as being very very bright.

    Actually ‘Horribly Precocious’.

    Sounds like a Mortal Sin to me…..

  11. 11.

    Canuckistani Tom

    Simple food is fine with me

    One of my favourites is pasta. 1 lb ground beef, 1 lb pasta, and an 800 mL can of tomato sauce. Takes a whopping 30 minutes to make.

  12. 12.

    Reverend Lowdown

    Just this week, I marinated a beef roast for two days and made sauerbraten. Then I pressure cooked that bad boy until it basically fell apart. I put it in a large pot with chicken broth, carrots, onion and a bunch of cabbage and made a soup. Incredible.

  13. 13.

    FedSec

    John, with regard to your photo, I was pleased to see that you appear to be as good a cook as the recipes/meals that you post would claim. I believe I would enjoy a meal cooked by you.

  14. 14.

    Martin

    Dark rye? Go with the Irish soda bread. It’s got more heft suitable for the corned beef. And lots of Guinness.

    For the cali curious, Democrats look very likely to take ⅔ control of the Senate this November. That’s critical because you need a ⅔ majority here to raise taxes. Dems will probably still be a few seats shy of ⅔ in the Assembly, but with a Dem governor, they have a lot more leverage to right the ship than they have in ages. I don’t know if a strong enough push here could get ⅔ in the assembly, but Santorum as nominee would help a lot. His shit really doesn’t fly here.

  15. 15.

    Ms.B

    Am so hungry for this now. So hungry.

    I was just about to object to the garlic, but the old Ireland is a wee bit old for the new Irish, and they’re garlic-friendly now–at least, some are. It’s a start!

    Try colcannon with garlic next. I’m going to for St. Patrick’s Day.

  16. 16.

    JenJen

    I’ll be right over! Damn, that sounds absolutely delicious.

    Boil it down and then throw it in the crockpot, though? I believe you, I’m just sayin’ is all.

  18. 18.

    Martin

    @Violet: That’s traditional – a bit of acid helps break up the connective tissue. Another way to do it is to slow roast in the oven. An inch or so of liquid in the bottom of a roasting pan in a 225 oven for about 8 hours.

    The former makes for a very fall apart, stringy corned beef. The latter makes a sliceable one like you’d get in a deli. If you roast, some mustard and brown sugar on top of the roast adds quite a bit.

  20. 20.

    Violet

    @John Cole:
    That’s a lot of cooking! Sounds like it would just sort of disintegrate into mush. Does the corned beef still have a discernible texture?

    I’ve never made corned beef. When I want some, I usually go get a corned beef sandwich and that takes care of the craving.

  23. 23.

    Anoniminous

    PPP has Santorum leading Romney in Washington state by 11, 38% to 27%. If Gingrich dropped Frothy would lead 49% to 28%.

    See this in every poll now, Gingrich is keeping Romney in the race. Without him Santorum romps to victory.

    Or should I say …

    VICTORY!

  24. 24.

    Cassidy

    Whoa. Everything just shifted to the left. WTF?

    Edit: and now it’s back on the right. Stop fuckin’ with me.

  27. 27.

    Violet

    @Martin:
    Wow, eight hours! A previous oven I had shut off automatically after two hours. Something like this wouldn’t have been possible unless you were watching it and setting timers to start the oven again.

  28. 28.

    scav

    It could be said that not having a lot to cook with can make you really really good at cooking the stuff you have. In fairness though, most of those exotic spices are just run-of-the-mill home-cooking out on a spree.

  30. 30.

    Comrade Mary

    these beautiful cabbages that were so green and pretty that they screamed to me as I was walking down the produce aisle.

    Sleep deprivation leading to auditory hallucinations? So sad. That Tunch has a lot to answer for.

  32. 32.

    Some Guy

    I have not eaten corned beef in years (diet change). I envy you. So delicious.

    Bake the bread. Do it. The universe will be offended if you don’t.

  34. 34.

    sjw

    My heritage, combining both sides of the family, is Irish, Polish, Lithuanian, English, and Dutch. Virtually everything I love to eat consists of stewed/boiled fauna, combined with flora that grows underground. You’re making me drool, John.

    Get some sleep, my friend. Then, on the morrow, eat hearty. G’night.

  35. 35.

    some guy

    the trick with the corned beef is to boil at a very low heat, add the potatoes and the carrots at the 3.5 hour mark, and the cabbage is added to the pot at hour 4 and the heat immediately turned off. let sit for another twenty minutes, and drain.

    works like a charm. make sure your soda bread is cooling by serving time.

  36. 36.

    Comrade Mary

    Actually, John, I do give a shit, because while I can cook all kinds of things, I’ve never cooked corned beef.

    Is this boiling phase right now the beef plus peppercorns plus other spices plus garlic making a piece of beef (what cut?) into corned beef? And the crockpot phase is the falling-apart-stew phase? Is the beef you’re making right now sandwich ready after 8 hours, in case you wanted to skip the stew?

  39. 39.

    scav

    @Comrade Mary: Corned beef is corned because of the preservation method of salting (they’re the corns, sort of a dry-salting procedure I guess).

    ETA: nope, looks like it is brined, but I swear I read that it was the salt bits that were called corns. Will go look further.

  41. 41.

    Comrade Mary

    But is John starting with a corned beef, and boiling the living heckitty out of it, or is he turning plain beef into corned beef, as Alton does here?

  42. 42.

    some guy

    outside of New England I have never found grey corned beef, only the red shiite. what is up with that?

  43. 43.

    Davis X. Machina

    @scav: Coarse salt, the consistency of corned gunpowder, gave the beef its name.

    I have the best part of an 11 lb. brisket in the brine right now, out in the mudroom. Seven more days in the pickle, then half gets rubbed and smoked (for pastrami), the other half is then corned beef.

    Easy as pie if you have room in the fridge or a cold spot. Need some Prague salt #1 if you want pink corned beef, for real New England style corned beef — gray, but that’s all I ever saw as a kid — it’s neither wanted nor needed.

  44. 44.

    Sophia

    Is this boiling phase right now the beef plus peppercorns plus other spices plus garlic making a piece of beef (what cut?) into corned beef?

    I would like to hear from anyone who has taken a raw cut of beef and turned it into corned beef. I’m really far from a master chef, not sure I’d even qualify as a foodie, but I did attempt to do this last summer and pretty much every recipe I came across had the beef already corned. I can personally testify that throwing brisket and peppercorns in a pot of boiling water does not do the trick. (Yes, I realize I’m ridiculous, but seriously… how do you make this?!)

    eta: links added while I was posting. Thank you people who answered my question before it was asked.

  45. 45.

    scav

    @Davis X. Machina: ok, whew, I’m reassured about the whole corn thing and now know about the saltpeter (it seems that is what helps with the color). I’m at a site that’s talking about 17th C. corning as putting layers of meat in the salt, saltpeter and other spices, so there may be different methods too. aaahh, the innerwebs, I can’t go to sleep now without chasing this a bit further. Nice to learn people are brining things at home — what cut of meat did you use?

  46. 46.

    Davis X. Machina

    @Sophia: I

    I would like to hear from anyone who has taken a raw cut of beef and turned it into corned beef.

    Alton Brown’s recipe works a treat. In the winter I use the same 5 gal bucket usually reserved for home-brewing, but a fridge and an extra-large zip-lock bag works fine.

    Brisket is fattier than some would like, but rounds work too. Be sure to increase the in-brine time by about a third for rounds, they’re thicker. Rounds slice up nicer as a cold-cut, though.

    Prague powder #1, or pink salt #1, or Instacure #1 are all interchangeable, and make for a pink corned beef. They’re a blend of a very small amount of nitrate/nitrite and regular salt, to a proportion that makes for easy measure and use by home cooks.

  47. 47.

    lamh35

    Greetings from NOLA. I spend most of the day near downtown NOLA watching the Zulu parade pass bye.

    It’s been a while since I’ve actually been to a parade. But I hung out with my cousins and their kids and my godkids and some others. It was a great time. I have a good numbeer of videos and pictures of the parade on my Iphone. As soon as I get home I’m gonna upload it on my photobucket account and attempt to edit the video.

    I mostly just took pictures and video, but I did catch a number of “throws” including at least 2 coconuts the most covetted “throws” from Zulu and any parade.

    Here are a few videos. They are good quality, but I turned my Iphone straight up and down at some point so that mean they are showing sideways. If I can figure out how to edit them so they are right side up.

    Anyone have any good programs I can use to fix videos?

    http://s14.photobucket.com/albums/a330/nellybell28/Zulu%20Parade%20Mardi%20Gras%202012/?action=view&current=26c1ebfd.mp4

    http://s14.photobucket.com/albums/a330/nellybell28/Zulu%20Parade%20Mardi%20Gras%202012/?action=view&current=01ed3c2a.mp4

    http://s14.photobucket.com/albums/a330/nellybell28/Zulu%20Parade%20Mardi%20Gras%202012/?action=view&current=ed705aa9.mp4

  50. 50.

    jharp

    @Davis X. Machina:

    Cool. Thanks for the link.

    I’m doing the research on cold smoking fish. I have long thought Great Lakes whitefish to be a real delicacy.

    I am going to cold smoke some salmon.

  51. 51.

    lamh35

    Whelp my dawgs are barking (and I dont’ mean actual animals). I’ve been on my feet and walking longer than I have walked in a LONG time.

    So I’m off to bed, but I just had to post this video. President Obama made such a splash cause he sang Al Green…

    You can’t say no to BB King:

    @SweetHomeChicago

    Beins as I’ve been out all day, I’m guessing ya’ll already saw this though.

    Good Night.

  56. 56.

    some guy

    for real New England style corned beef—gray, but that’s all I ever saw as a kid—it’s neither wanted nor needed.

    HERETIC! Burn Him!

  58. 58.

    Martin

    @Violet: 2 hours? What a useless oven. Yeah, if you have a big hunk of aged meat you want to cook properly – a standing rib roast, that kind of thing – pick your end temperature add 50 degrees, and shove it in there while you make breakfast. 200-225 is just about perfect for an all day roast. And your house will smell like Delmonico’s all damn day long.

    Lots of meats do best cooked that way. Ribs on the grill – 4 hours at 250 with the smoker going. 2 hours is a joke.

  60. 60.

    Davis X. Machina

    @some guy: Years ago, I brought a proper, gray corned beef — from Purity Supreme, of blessed memory — back with me to North Carolina so a bunch of us New Englanders could have a proper boiled dinner. Had it all carefully wrapped up, in a zip-lock, foil, double sealed. And in my hand baggage, to boot, like any precious object not to be entrusted to the ramp rats.

    Never should have put it there — because the alarm clock and radio were in there too. The security people — this is early 80’s — saw this mysterious radio-opaque oblong with a bunch of wires and a clock.

    They pulled that bag apart completely. The corned beef made it, but my personal effects were a tad briny, shall we say.

  61. 61.

    Montana

    Yep, that is a great meal. Now, move around the world for other experiences in fantastic meals. I know you will.

  62. 62.

    BGinCHI

    Late to the thread, but after all the Tunch shenanigans, that Cole has a big piece of meat in the crockpot seems like too big of a coincidence.

    He better post a pic of that cat with tomorrow’s newspaper or I’m calling the law.

  65. 65.

    moderateindy

    Cole, If you want a good dish for leftover Corned Beef make Reuben egg rolls.
    Take egg roll wrappers from the store, add the corned beef, Swiss cheese, and sauerkraut. Wrap and fry like any other egg roll, and use Thousand Island dressing as a dipping sauce. Quite tasty.

    Works pretty good for leftover pulled pork, using cole slaw instead of kraut.

  70. 70.

    Steeplejack

    I’m back in NoVa, safe and snug in the man-cave. Made pretty good time: left Atlanta a little before 1:30 p.m., got here about 11:40 p.m. Caught rush hour in Charlotte, stopped for gas and a sit-down meal at McDonald’s in Lexington, NC, and ran into a construction mess in Richmond (three interstate lanes down to one) but still managed to cover 625 miles in somewhere around 10-10½ hours. And I am now even more in love with satellite radio. Sirius really helped ease the hours.

  71. 71.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    @Martin:

    Dark rye? Go with the Irish soda bread. It’s got more heft suitable for the corned beef. And lots of Guinness.

    My mom makes Soda Bread that is The Bomb, it is awesome, the best. She never had eaten Corned Beef until she emigrated to the US, which isn’t surprising, since the stuff isn’t Irish.

  72. 72.

    Anne Laurie

    @moderateindy:

    My college roommate was also a Canuck and also enjoyed that horrible concoction. He made it with elbow macaroni and called it beefaroni.

    The version I grew up with involved elbow macaroni, ground beef, and canned tomatoes (not sauce). My midwestern college dorm circa 1973 labeled it ‘Johnny Marzetti’ on the menu (no idea where that came from), but when my mom served it, we (meaning my dad & us kids) called “Fatal Highway Accident”. Not that we didn’t love the stuff, but her protests were an extra savory.

  77. 77.

    Marcellus Shale, Public Dick

    i think i am in the rare group of corned beef lovers who simply cannot stand boiled cabbage, krauted or un, just can’t stand it.

    may as well be a plate of boiled beets.

  80. 80.

    Schlemizel

    If you lived in China or India corned beef would be exotic! There are plenty of foods we consider ‘everyday’ normal that can be fabulous. The excitement of exotic is that it is something I have never tasted before but there are plenty of the mundane things that are great to eat. Sounds like you are on the way to one of them – cheers!

  82. 82.

    BruceFromOhio

    I have a friend who is a food snob who says I eat like a poor Irishman, but as far as I am concerned, this is good eating.

    My foodie friend calls them “food douches.” No matter what you eat, they can do it better, they’ve got this *amazing* recipe you simply have to try. No matter where you eat, they’ve had better, there’s this *amazing* place down on Madison you simply have to try.

    They are easy to spot, sometimes difficult to avoid.

    Every St Patricks Day my wife cooks up the corned beef, pretty much how you’ve got it here. It’s in memory of her Dad, who was a WW2 kid. A spot of fresh horseradish and a pint of ale, and heaven unfolds before us.

  83. 83.

    Barry

    John: “..but hot damned if corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes isn’t exquisite eats. I have a friend who is a food snob who says I eat like a poor Irishman, but as far as I am concerned, this is good eating.”

    I think that the original Irish dish was very heavy on the cabbage and potatoes, but rather light on the meat. Like none.

  84. 84.

    That Other Mike

    I think that the original Irish dish was very heavy on the cabbage and potatoes, but rather light on the meat. Like none.

    Corned beef certainly wasn’t in it – it’s not Irish at all. Mutton, maybe, but definitely not beef.

  85. 85.

    Poopyman

    I have a friend who is a food snob who says I eat like a poor Irishman, …

    Some of my most memorable meals were from our trip to Ireland nearly 20 years ago. No, really. Fairly plain food, but wicked fresh veggies and fresh caught wild fish (salmon!). And washed down with the local beverage, of course.

    I really need to go back….

  86. 86.

    BruceFromOhio

    @That Other Mike: A bit good of history here and additional background here.

    Some .. feel that corned beef and cabbage is about as Irish as spaghetti and meatballs. Since cows were used for milk rather than meat in poor times in Ireland, beef was a delicacy that was fed to kings. It was more common to celebrate a holiday meal with what they call a ham (Gammon) or bacon joint. ( a cured but unsmoked piece of pork) with their cabbage and potatoes. When many Irish Immigrants came over in the mid 1800’s they couldn’t find a bacon joint like they had in Ireland, so they found that Jewish corned beef was very similar in texture, and they used that for their holiday celebrations.

  87. 87.

    Rawk Chawk

    Love your blog when YOU post, Cole, but damn, you eat too fucking much!

    Perhaps this has something to do with the weight situation you bemoan from time to time.

    Maybe it would be wise to focus some of that foodie energy on another area of interest or hobby. Call me crazy, but you could post a lot more here, and spend more time composing your posts; while simultaneously removing a few of the lesser-quality front pagers from the roster.

    I’d be happy to suggest names.

  89. 89.

    imonlylurking

    This post is too funny-my roommate and I have made corned beef and cabbage twice in the past five days.

    I’ll have to try the boil-then-crockpot method.

    We had it with parsnips (cut in rounds) and Bok Choi-it was absolutely stunningly fantastic.

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