Recipes for Corned Beef and Cabbage Make for a Tasty Irish Dish for St. Patrick’s Day

Well it’s not really an Irish recipe (that would call more for corned pork), but the traditional Corned Beef and Cabbage recipes for St. Patrick’s Day are an Irish-American delight for many. Just one day away is St. Patrick’s day, which will feature a traditional St. Patty’s Day parade in major cities like New York and Boston, millions of Americans wearing the “Green” and shamrocks everywhere.

Internet searches this week are way up for searches related to St. Patrick’s Day and topping the searches are people looking for good recipes to teach them how to make corned beef and cabbage. We will share one of those recipes with you here:

Why the corned beef and not corned pork? According to reports, the change is based on the meat which was more plentiful to early Irish immigrants to the U.S. versus their homeland of Ireland.

We found this Corned Beef and Cabbage recipe online at the Huffington Post this week and it makes about six servings and requires about three to four hours for cooking time.

Ingredients:
1 (3 pound) slab of corned beef, preferably home made
2 tablespoons coarsely ground black pepper
2 tablespoons pickling spices, preferably home made
4 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 1″ segments
2 pounds of potatoes, cleaned and cut into 2″ chunks
1 small head of cabbage, outer leaves removed, cut in quarters

Instructions:
1) Open the package the meat came in and dump out all the liquid. Rinse thoroughly. Trim off all the fat cap. If you have made your own corned beef, and you should, it is just plain better, remove it from the brine, and rinse it well.

2) Corned beef is essentially pickled in salt, and straight out of the pack it is way too salty. Before we can eat this cured meat, we need to cook it and desalinate it a bit. Place the beef in a large pot along with enough hot water to cover it by at least 1″ and put the lid on.

Turn the heat to medium and bring to a low simmer for 30 minutes. Do not let it boil. If you boil it, it will get tough and shrink. Beware that the meat is cold, so when it warms the water will slowly move from simmer to boil. Keep an eye on it and do not let it boil. After 30 minutes, dump out the water and cover the meat with fresh hot water. This time add the pickling spices.

Bring to a low simmer again, this time for 1 hour. Again dump the water and pickling spices and replace it with fresh hot water. Bring to a simmer and let it simmer for 1 hour. Add the carrots. After 30 minutes add the potatoes. After 10 minutes add the cabbage. After 15 minutes the cabbage will be done and so should everything else.

3) Remove the meat and place it on a carving board. There are often two horizontal muscles separated by a thick layer of fat. Separate them by sliding a knife through the fat. Carve and/or scrape off the fat layer. Carve the meat by cutting across the grain about the thickness of a pencil. Any thinner and it will fall apart, any thicker and it will be chewy.

5) Lift out the cabbage, potatoes and carrots and divide them into serving bowls. Place the meat in the bowl. Spoon some of the cooking liquid over them and serve. Happy Holiday!