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From our Food Goddess, TaMara:
I have made corned beef and cabbage a total of one time before prepping for tonight’s recipe exchange. It was early in my marriage and I was having a ball trying out family favorites out on my own. I followed the recipe completely and what I got for my trouble was dry, stringy, tough meat. The veggies were ok if I remember correctly. I never tried it again.
But I love corned beef and cabbage and decided I needed to try to find a way to make it simple and foolproof. I’d been experimenting with my pressure cooker while reviewing a pressure cooker cookbook (which was horrible but that’s a whole other post) and had a realization – the pressure cooker was the perfect solution to my corned beef cooking fears.
But don’t worry. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, I included a slow cooker recipe, too.
Corned beef is really one of the perfect foods to do in a pressure cooker. You get a nice, tender beef and instead of mushy, colorless vegetables, you get perfectly cooked vegetables infused with that great corned beef broth flavor.The recipe below uses a bit of dill pickle juice in place of some of the water and a touch of spicy brown mustard. But I saw recipes that used chicken broth, sherry or beer in place of some of the water. I think you should experiment and use what sounds good to you. Me, I like dill pickle juice.
A lot of recipes call for 3-4 lbs of corned beef. When I shopping , 4 lbs was the smallest piece I could find, most were 5-6 lbs. You may have to cut a piece in half, but since both the pressure cooker and slow-cooker recipes are easy, you don’t need to save corned beef and cabbage for a special occasion. Just freeze the other half and save for another day.
And the best part, making Reuben’s with the leftovers. My mom makes the best ones, but I one up her by grilling mine Panini-style. Yum.
Are you a corned beef and cabbage household? Reuben fans? What about cooking disasters? Have any good stories about your failures in the kitchen?
On to the recipes:
JeffreyW tackles corned beef dinners here and here.
And he loves the leftovers – see his gallery of Corned Beef Sandwiches here.
(you know there’ll be pretty pictures at those links)
And my family weighs in on their favorite ways to fix corned beef. (click here)
Now the featured recipes:
Pressure Cooker Corned Beef Dinner:
3 to 4 lbs corned beef, trim the fat to about 1/4 inch
Water
Spices included with corned beef or the following: 1 tbsp black peppercorns, 1 tbsp mustard seeds, 1 tsp fennel seeds,
2 bay leaves
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbsp spicy brown mustard
Salt and pepper to taste
4 – 6 medium to large potatoes, cut into four to eight pieces, peeling optional
4-6 carrots, sliced in half and cut into 2” lengths
Cabbage, cut into 4 to 6 pieces
pressure cooker and cooking rackRemove the corned beef from the brine (discarding the brine), rinse thoroughly and place in the bottom of the pressure cooker, fatty side up. [You don’t really want to brown this beef, because it’s been brined.] Sprinkle spices over the top of the beef. Add enough liquid (water or water and a combination of ONE of the following: pickle juice, chicken broth, beer or wine) to come to the top of beef, about 3-4 cups usually. Cover and bring to pressure and let cook for 1 hour. I use the cold water method to depressurize.
The key to getting the perfect corned beef and vegetables with the pressure cooker is to cook them separately. Prep the vegetables during the last 15 or so minutes of beef cooking time. Once the beef is done, put it on a cutting board, cover loosely in foil and put a towel over the whole deal.
Remove all but enough liquid to come to the bottom of the cooking rack when placed in the pressure cooker. Place potatoes first on the tray, then carrots and then cabbage, cover and bring to pressure. Cook for about 12 minutes. The vegetables will be fork tender, not mushy and the beef will be fully rested. Slice, plate and serve.
For the slow-cooker:
Place rinsed beef in the bottom of the slow-cooker, sprinkle spices and add liquid to come to the top of the beef, and cover. Cook on low for 4 hours. At the 4 hour mark, add in order: potatoes, carrots and cabbage. Cook additional 4 hours. With the exception of adding the vegetables, try to resist the temptation to open the lid. You need it to stay covered to properly cook.
There you go, some easy ways to put together a nice corned beef dinner.
Interestingly there seemed to be a green cabbage shortage last week. I went to three different grocery stores and they were completely sold out. I didn’t want to use red cabbage because I don’t really like it. I decided to use Nappa cabbage and really liked it, much more than green cabbage, it’s sweeter and has a more delicate flavor and I think it will be my cabbage of choice from this point forward.
Mnemosyne
I was going to experiment and make the cover recipe from this cookbook this year, but now it turns out that we’re going to have dinner with my best friend and her family. Who went vegan in January. No beef for us.
Don K
Other than Reubens (yum!), my favorite use for leftover corned beef is corned beef hash. Slice and chop some corned beef, mix it with frozen or refrigerated hash browns, and fry, adding plenty of pepper. Add some chopped onion and green pepper late in the cooking. Top with poached, over easy, or sunnyside up eggs.
andy
Thinking of doing a pot au feu tomorrow, but with a beef shank, some pork neck, and a couple turkey drumsticks. I may just annihilate all that tough connective tissue in my pressure cooker, and though I’ve found it kind of makes for a murky stock, it sure does do a quick job getting all the good stuff out of the bones.
Mnemosyne
Also, I think I’ve already discussed my St. Patrick’s Day disaster, when I sliced my thumb open trying to dig the eye out of a potato and had to have G drive me to urgent care to get the bleeding stopped.
My co-workers had to frost their own Guinness cupcakes, but at least I managed not to bleed on them.
rikyrah
I LOVE corned beef and cabbage. add in the red potatoes and carrots…damn, it’s a good meal.
oh man!!!
Just Some Fuckhead
Had corned beef, cabbage and potatoes at our local deli for lunch today. Took me 6 hours to finish it.
Just Some Fuckhead
Only thing I’d add to your slow cooker recipe is half a can of beer.
Litlebritdifrnt
Corned beef and cabbage is about as Irish as fortune cookies are Chinese. It pisses me off to no end that this continues. If an Irish person were to make a meal it would probably more than Irish Stew
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_stew
There is no way in gods green earth that an Irish person could afford beef, let alone corned beef.
JPL
@Litlebritdifrnt: Well don’t forget the boiled potatoes. bah humbug..
Anne Laurie
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Corned beef is for Irish-Americans (and those who wish they were). My immigrant forebears picked up the taste for beef while working as servants in German-Jewish immigrant households at the turn of the last century. Speaking of ‘melting pots’…
And in the corner of Connemara my grandparents fled, it wasn’t mutton, it was salt pork for special occasions & herring for everyday. I despise herring, which is another reason to be grateful that I’m on this side of the Atlantic!
Litlebritdifrnt
Boiled potatoes are the staple of a British and Irish diet, as well as roasties, and mashed, and all sorts of other ways of cooking them. Taties are da bomb.
HinTN
Yes, corned beef was the rich man’s food in old Ireland. Nonetheless, I’m impersonating the well to do by trying, for the first time, the recipe right out of the Joy of Cooking that my mama gave when I struck out (kinda, sorta, tentatively) on my own in 1971. She said, “You gotta eat” and she was right! So, I’ve got the brisket from the Locally Grown rubbed down with salt and soaking in salt/sugar for 48 hours. Tomorrow I go over to the idealistic young man’s garden and dig some turnips and parsnips, which I’ll cook for him and his wife (and my better half) on Sunday on a slow simmer with some store bought veggies and the beef as we while away the afternoon playing dominoes. Also too, I ain’t been able to see that damn comet yet!
Mnemosyne
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Sure they could, once they immigrated to America, got a tenement apartment and said, “Hey, what’s that delicious-smelling meat the Goldsteins are cooking next door?”
Corned beef and cabbage is an Irish-American dish with Jewish roots that made immigrants nostalgic for the old country (even if that nostalgia was, “Thank God I got out of that hellhole.”) Food is our real melting pot.
ETA: And here’s a St. Patrick’s Day song for my immigrant ancestors — “Thousands Are Sailing”
quannlace
Alas, no pressure or slow-cooker. Otherwise I might give it a try.
Nrmally not a fan of corned beer and cabbage. Too much like the dreaded New England Boiled Dinner.
HinTN
@quannlace: That’s the alternative name that the ladies Rombauer Becker ascribed to it. Still good, bad name and all. ;^)
beergoggles
I love corned beef. The cabbage I can do without unless it’s pickled or turned into kimchi.
The only thing that has always bothered me about the regular boiled corned beef is the lack of a crust on the meat. So now after boiling it for an hour or two, I dry it off, give it a nice dry rub and stick it in the convection oven for a couple hours. After that it tastes like smoked brisket on the outside and corned beef on the inside.
JWL
@Litlebritdifrnt: Most certainly, if you were an Irish peasant, you rarely ate that well. But some Irish-Americans, such as myself, are descended from Eire nobility. My father claimed royal blood as his lineage (while reassuring us that my mother sprang from a sturdy peasant stock that would also serve us well), and for generations our clan have feasted as we damn well pleased.
Yutsano
I may get the courage to attemptthis someday when I think I can afford to sacrifice a hunk of cow. It does seem just odd enough to work.
Roger Moore
@quannlace:
You can always cook it in a pot on the stove. It works just as well as a slow cooker; you just need to mind it a little bit more.
muddy
Red flannel hash.
Yutsano
@Roger Moore: Or throw it in a low oven (300 or so). Works just about the same and less risk of burning if your stove doesn’t do heat control well.
geg6
I hate corn beef and cabbage. And yes, my Grandma Schnell (maiden name Foley) is rolling in her grave as I type.
The only way I’ll even touch corned beef is in very, very, very thin slices on a rueben. As long as it’s smothered in cheese, thousand island and lots and lots of yummy sauerkraut. Cooked cabbage sucks, but sauerkraut is the bomb.
NotMax
A favorite hash recipe for after St. Paddy’s Day.
2 c. cold boiled potatoes
1½ c. chopped corned beef
approx. 3/8 c. cream
3 tbl. butter
1 small onion, minced
6 eggs
salt, pepper, paprika to taste
Mix together the potatoes, corned beef and onion.
Add ¼ cup cream plus 1 tbl. butter (melted).
Season to taste and mix well.
Put the mixture into a well-buttered pan or baking dish.
Using bottom of a cup (I use the bottom of my Pyrex measuring cup – one less item to wash up), make 6 indents on top of the mix and dot each indentation with butter (using about 1 tbl. for this).
Bake at 450 for about 15 min.
Remove from oven and break an egg into each indentation.
Salt and pepper the eggs as desired, dollop 1 tsp. cream onto each egg, and dot each egg with remaining butter.
Bake at 350 until eggs are set (for firm yolks, bake a little bit longer)
NotMax
@NotMax
Ack.
That, of course, should read:
2 c. cold boiled potatoes, diced
Mike in NC
@efgoldman: My mom (from Dorchester) had a version of the classic New England Boiled Dinner that involved something called a Daisey Ham. It was pretty awful. Glad we only had it once a year.
ruemara
I can’t do the corned beef (FUCKING SALT) so I’m slow cooking a very low sodium seasoned brisket right now and tomorrow I will make mini rolls stuffed with a mix of sauteed cabbage, brisket sheds and cheddar sauce. And maybe some peanut butter cookies with a banana whipped cream filling. Depends, I have a wetlands docu to film.
22over7
I’m not crazy about corned beef, but my Jewish spouse would go on a three-state rampage if I don’t make it. So Texas, Colorado, and Arizona, you’re welcome.
I’m roasting mine this year. I spent about an hour yesterday googling recipes and it occurred to me that most of the people who complained about their beef being tough or stringy were cooking it too fast. It’s a brisket, for the love of mary! Low and slow is my motto. I’m putting it into my cast iron dutch oven, pouring a bottle of beer and the seasoning packet over it, covering it, and letting it go at it’s own sweet pace (probably three hours at 250). For the last hour I’ll put in the little red potatoes and some cabbage. I bought rye bread, which I also hate. Lucky for me we have some amazing mustard, which will appease me enough to eat it.
James E. Powell
My doctor ordered me to lower my cholesterol or find another doctor. For me, corned beef generally and the New England boiled dinner specifically are like a notch below sex with someone I love. I haven’t had anything like that for over a year. I have dreams about this food.
Yutsano
@ruemara:
You should tell RedKitteh. She works for folks who deal with stuff like that.
Mnemosyne
@quannlace:
@efgoldman:
I’m guessing the New England Boiled Dinner leaves out the vital bottle of dark beer when you boil it.
If anyone is in the Los Angeles area craving corned beef but doesn’t want to cook it themselves, Finn McCool’s in Santa Monica has a really tasty plate, complete with soda bread.
Now I’m wondering if Whitey Bulger used to eat there when he was on the lam. Probably — the Irish community is pretty tight-knit in Santa Monica.
steppy
A couple of years ago, we put the brisket in a slow oven, wrapped in foil, for a coupla-two-three hours. It came out tender, with concentrated, and not boiled out, beefy and pickled flavors. It was the shit. Add some grilled cabbage (drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper) and roasted potatoes, and you have a meal fit for a king.
RedKitten
@ruemara:
Rilly? Let me know if you need some people to talk to. John can reach me, as can Yutsy.
Mike in NC
@efgoldman: Grew up in Roxbury and we moved to Hyde Park in the mid-60s. Parents moved to NH when both retired but I think dad would have really preferred going to Florida where his younger brother lived. At any rate, I don’t miss shoveling snow.
Joseph Nobles
Make your own rye bread for the Reubens:
http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2010/01/new-york-deli-rye-bread/
Thymezone
It’s Napa.
hoi polloi
@22over7:
That’s what I was looking for, having no pressure or slow cookers lying about.
Still not sure I’m going to do it though since I don’t really like cb&c. Only some of the family does.
I was looking at recipes for Boxty yesterday. Never heard of it but what’s ever wrong with potato pancakes? Does anyone have a recipe?
tybee
throw a bag of zatarain’s crab boil into the slow cooker with the corned beef.
Joy
I made my corned beef in a pressure cooker for the first time last year and it was absolutely wonderful! I never was a big fan of corned beef before but I even made another one a few days later for reubens. I have been on a roasting kick lately so I am roasting my cabbage (cut into slices) and the carrots. I also made colcannon (a family favorite) http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/colcannon/. Loved it! I still do some veggies in broth for my mother in law but I love putting my own twist on the holiday.
RAM
I never had corned beef in my life until I went away to college and lived on a dorm floor with a bunch of Jewish guys from Chicago, all of whom were budding dentists. Anyway, they’d bring back corned beef sandwiches after they’d been home over the weekend and sell them to earn a little cash. They were delicious.
So after we were married, my wife, who is not Jewish but whose family regularly had corned beef and cabbage, began making it every St. Patrick’s day in the brand new pressure cooker we got as a wedding present. Much to my mother’s alarm. She was sure the thing was going to blow up at any moment, and she refused to come in our house when it was doing it’s pressure cooking thing.
Time passed and my mom contracted ALS, which was killing her an inch at a time. My sisters and I all took turns providing suppers for Mom, and when it got around St. Patrick’s day, my wife made a really nice corned beef in the pressure cooker, with the plan being we’d just take the whole pan off the stove and over to Mom’s for supper and serve it there. So the corned beef was done, and my wife cooled the cooker down and added the potatoes, carrots, and cabbage and put it back on the heat and when the allotted time passed, we took it out and put it in the back of our J2000 Pontiac wagon and headed to Mom’s. Unfortunately, when we hit the railroad crossing just down the street, the little pressure doodad flew off the cooker, and the inside of the J2000 instantly filled with cabbage-flavored steam, fogging all the windows. It smelled delicious, but we had to stop and open the windows to un-steam the interior. Even so, we made it to Mom’s just fine and enjoyed supper. But ever after, there was a slight whiff of cooked cabbage in the car, which I renamed the Borschtmobile.