It's almost St. Patrick's Day, and for many that means boiling up a nice authentic Irish dinner of corned beef and cabbage. The original Irish recipe actually used a type of lean bacon, made with a cut of pork similar to Canadian bacon. Corned beef came into the picture as a lower-cost substitution, to replace the more expensive and harder to find cut.
Ingredients
- corned beef brisket with spice packet: 1 piece (4 pound)
- quarts water: 3 piece
- onion, quartered: 1 piece
- carrots: 3 piece (cut into large chunks)
- stalks celery: 3 piece (cut into 2-inch pieces)
- salt: 1 tsp
- red potatoes: 2 pound (halved)
- head cabbage, cut into eighths: 1 piece
Metric Conversion
Stages of cooking
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Combine corned beef and spice packet contents, water, onion, carrots, celery, and salt together in a large pot or Dutch oven; bring to a simmer, skimming off any foam that rises to the surface.
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Cover the pot, reduce heat to low, and simmer until meat is almost fork-tender, about 3 hours. Add potatoes and simmer, uncovered, until potatoes are almost tender, about 30 minutes more.
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Place cabbage pieces on top of and around meat, cover the pot, and simmer until cabbage is tender, 20 to 30 minutes more.
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Remove meat to a cutting board and let rest 10 to 15 minutes. Cut across the grain and serve in a bowl; ladle vegetables and broth over the top. Wendy Evelyn Purcell DeRose