"---DH is a stubborn Dutchman,--"

Marry an Irish guy next time. (Kidding! Actually, corned beef is not often enjoyed by the Irish).

Corned beef is not pickled. It is salt cured.

dcarch

...and a meat and potatoes guy will almost certainly like it. It is not really that strong or unusual a flavor and it has potatoes and, um, meat! OTOH, if he doesn't even put pepper on his steak, or thinks A1 sauce is disgusting rather than just unnecessary, then perhaps the backup is a good idea and you can have the beef.

Cooking hint: use beer instead of water. ;-)

Holly - if it turns out he likes it and asks you to make it again (a sure sign he's liked it) use the point or "deckle" next time. It's the thickest end of the brisket, loaded with fat, and much tastier. At the deli counter, it's referred to as "top round".

Thank you Fawn! I am hoping we will both like it and I will look for the point next time.

Sushi, I hate beer, will it make the broth or meat taste like beer?

Chas, he doesn't mind pepper and he likes both A-1 and Worcestershire sauce.

Lol dcarch! Are the Irish less stubborn than my Dutch German?

You only use some beer, not all beer to cook it in. Go to Allrecipes.com and check their recipes for corned bee. There is one for Corned beef for sandwiches which is particularly good. Remember you will be cooking this, at a strong simmer, for a long period of time. I hope you enjoy this widening of your taste buds

I love corned beef and cabbage, and it's so easy to make. Throw it in the pot with the juices and onion, carrot, and celery and green pepper. To any spices provided, I also add cloves, black pepper corns, bay leaf, rosemary, garlic and parsley in a tea infuser and throw that in. Boil it and then add cabbage wedges in the last 30 min. I usually boil the potatoes separately. I'll probably be making it later this week. Should satisfy any meat and potatoes guy...

I tried making it in the crockpot once, but it wasn't the same.

Both corned beef and pastrami are traditionally made using beef brisket, but beyond that, I don't think you'd ever mistake one for the other. The seasonings differ and result in very different tastes.

It's true that bad pastrami can taste like corned beef. The few times I experienced that, it was because because it didn't taste anything like pastrami.

Would you like to try this?

1. Cut off the thick fat layer and cut the fat in small chunks .

2. Fry the fat chunks and make corned beef fat cracklins.

3. Use the rendered corned beef fat to fry your potatoes.

4. Crumble the cracklins and sprinkle on the fried potatoes.

dcarch

I also like corned beef, but I like the leftovers made into corned beef hash better than I like the corned beef itself. I don't think it tastes like pickles at all, I do not like pickles very much.

Fawn likes the point, I like the flat cut better, it's not as fatty and slices nicely. As I've said, taste is subjective, not objective, so opinions vary.

I mostly do mine in the crockpot, because it's easy. I did it when I was still working, so dinner was ready when I got home. Since I like the leftovers better than the original meal, it works fine for me, I just cook it all day and it's ready for supper.

That said, I do agree with Ann T that roasting is a very tasty way to cook corned beef, which I like served with colcannon and roasted carrots and dark brown bread, I've also not learned to like Irish soda bread, in spite of my Irish roots.

For hash, I just chop up the leftover meat, and start some homefried potatoes and onions in a skillet. When the potatoes are nearly done, toss in the meat and add some home canned beef stock, cover and simmer until the potatoes are tender and the stock evaporates. Yum.

Annie

I simmer my corned beef in a mixture of half water and half ginger ale. Note: _simmer_, not boil. Usually takes about two hours for an average sized corned beef. After an hour or so, I add halved peeled potatoes, carrots and onions to the pot (I put in twice as much as I need for one meal so we can make hash out of the leftovers). About 15 minutes before serving time, I add one or two quarter cabbages. To serve, I make hollandaise sauce and add a good spoonful of seeded mustard. Yum!

I make sure I wash the corned beef under running water to remove surface brine. Place it in a pot and cover it with boiling water, then simmer until tender (not boiled) - about 30-minutes per pound. A slow-cooker works well, too.

We're foregoing corned beef this year for Limerick Ham since ham was 99-cents/pound. Limerick Ham is studded liberally with cloves and braised in water with brown sugar and mace. The ham has a lovely clove flavor.

I'll also suggest serving a King Arthur Flour recipe for Irish Soda Bread Muffins.
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/irish-soda-bread-muffins-recipe

-Grainlady

Would you like to try this?

1. Cut off the thick fat layer and cut the fat in small chunks .

2. Fry the fat chunks and make corned beef fat cracklins.

3. Use the rendered corned beef fat to fry your potatoes.

4. Crumble the cracklins and sprinkle on the fried potatoes.

In a heartbeat! Great ideas. Now, I'm gonna have to go buy a flat and try this.

"---In a heartbeat! Great ideas.---"

Better than bacon.

dcarch

I agree with Snidely that there is a big difference between corned beef and pastrami. Same cut, different seasoning and the main difference is that pastrami is also smoked. One of the things I miss most about Toronto. All of the wonderful Jewish delis.

I've been using ann_t's slow roasting method for the past several years. Will never go back to the "boiled dinner".

ann-t: what do you serve with your slow roasted dinner as sides?

Oh my gosh you all have such wonderful ideas. Interestingly, I asked DH last night if he ever tried CB and he said he didn't think so but he seemed very open to trying it.

I work all day so have to either make this on the weekend or cook it in a crock pot. I am leaning towards the crockpot method as it is always nice to have dinner all but ready when I walk in the door.

I remember the old Jiggs and Maggie cartoon strip in our local paper and corned beef and cabbage was mentioned many times as being his favorite.

Dcarch, your corned beef crackling potatoes sounds luscious!

Holly- Kay, "Dcarch, your corned beef crackling potatoes sounds luscious!"

Thanks Holly.

Here is one I did last year.

dcarch

Do you have a smoker? I slow cook corned beef on my smoker with fruit wood, apple, peach, or any other fruit wood that I have on hand. I slice it very thin and serve it over potatoes and carrots boiled in beef stock with a side of fried cabbage. It is so good! The flat cut is the best.

I am making my own this year. Because corned beef is nearly $6 a pound on sale! I bought eye of round, which is $2.99 a pound and a better cut of meat. I am curing it myself, it is simple to do, just a salt brine and a few spices. I'm of Irish decent, Kelly, so I'm frugal! :)

As dcarch7 said, it's not really an Irish thing! But, according to legend it became a popular meat with the Irish immigrants when they came to the US because it was very cheap. It wasn't always brisket, it was whatever cut of beef that didn't sell. Since there was very little refrigeration they would brine the stuff that didn't sell to preserve it, which was usually the tough meats like brisket.

Dcarch, what a cool presentation! I love it.

I don't have a smoker but that sounds like a yummy way to prepare it. I paid $4.45 lb for mine but I figured I would never know what it tasted like if I didn't try it.

I'm glad that you are trying it! I love it!

I remember when they would put it on sale for St. Patrick's day for less than a dollar a pound, about 5 years ago. I would stock up and eat it at least once a month!

When beef prices started rising in the last few years, that tough old peace of meat outpaced the other beef cuts in price! I guess it has become a niche food?

Kind of like lobster and king mackerel used to be cheap, Poor people food? People found out that it is good and they raised the prices because of the demand?

Lizbeth, here is the blog post I did for last years St. Patrick's Day dinner. I slow roasted the corned beef, but I still wanted to have a traditional cabbage/potato side. Just didn't want boiled cabbage and potatoes. So I made Colcannon as an alternative.

I love Trader Joe's corned beef and always roast mine in a cook-in bag. Perfect every time.

My mom used to make corned beef as part of a New England boiled dinner - but with a very garlicky green sauce. Yum!

Here corned beef points are on sale at Aldi for $1.99. However, I like the flat so I paid the extra bucks and got corned beef at Meijer for $3.98, nearly twice the price. I have made my own corned beef, but right now I just don't have the time, the space or the energy, so in spite of a freezer full of grass fed home grown beef, I bought the corned beef. I'm almost ashamed of myself.

Elery has done corned beef in the smoker and it basically turns into pastrami, which is also very good.

No, corned beef was/is not an Irish thing. Beef was far too expensive for the "peasants", only the rich English ate that. Corned beef is strictly an American-Irish phenomenon, but it seems to be here to stay.

Dcarch, the rendered fat sounds good, but better than bacon? I dunno..... (grin)

Annie

Here's my take. If you have a pressure cooker you can save yourself a lot of time and still have a fork-tender corned beef:

Corned Beef with Cabbage and Potatoes

A pressure cooker makes
this traditional St. Paddy’s day meal much
easier. Ordinarily, a corned beef
brisket would take 3 or 4 hours to cook.
Here it’s about a third of that, and most of that time you’re not doing anything. –From a meal-planning standpoint, this is a
very convenient dish. A packaged corned
beef brisket stays good in the fridge for several weeks, and a cabbage has a long
storage life as well—so you can have those items available in your fridge for
cooking at the last minute. You can make it with just cabbage, or throw in
some root vegetables like potatoes and carrots.
Either way, it’s ridiculously easy and good. The leftovers (if there are any) make
excellent sandwiches or hash.

4 cups water or
other liquid (see Variations below)

2 large bay
leaves

3 to 5 lb
corned beef brisket

4 lbs potatoes,
scrubbed

1 small (2 ½
lb) green cabbage

Put the water
in a 6 qt or larger pressure cooker. Add
the bay leaves. Put corned beef in
pressure cooker, fatty side up, along with any juices from the package and the
contents of any spice pack that may have been packed with the beef. Don’t
worry if the brisket doesn’t fit on the bottom;
just let one side point upwards along the side of the cooker. (It’s
going to shrink a huge amount,
probably 50%.) Arrange the potatoes on top of the beef.

Lock the lid in
place. Over high heat, bring the
pressure cooker up to high pressure and adjust the burner to keep it just at
high pressure. Pressure cook it on high
for about 55-60 minutes for a 3 pound brisket, 65 minutes for a 4 pound
brisket, or 70-75 minutes for a 5 pound
brisket. Then allow the pressure to go
down naturally (that is, don’t vent the cooker or put it under cold water)—that
might take as long as 15 minutes. During
that time, trim the cabbage: remove the
outer layer or two of leaves, cut the cabbage in half (pole to pole, not
through the equator). Cut the dense core
out of the stem end of each half and discard.
Cut the halves in thirds lengthwise (along meridians, not across the
equator). Once the pressure is down,
open the cooker and remove the potatoes to a platter, covering with aluminum
foil to keep warm. Put the brisket on a
platter, fatty side up. If there is less
than 1 cup of liquid in the cooker, add sufficient water to make 1 cup. Put the
cabbage in the cooker, put the top on, and return the cooker to high—once on
high, cook for 3 minutes. You can bring
the pressure down quickly now, either by venting the pressure cooker or by
putting the cooker in the sink and running cold water over it. Open the cooker and scoop out the cabbage,
allowing it to drain, and place it on the platter.

Don’t try to
carve the corned beef until it has rested for a while—it’ll shred to bits. Remove a lot of the surface fat from the beef
by scraping it with a blunt instrument like a teaspoon. Carve by starting at one corner, carving the
corned beef across the grain—otherwise
it’ll be stringy.

Guinness stout
goes very well with this.

Variations: instead
of water, use stout or beer or any combination of those three liquids.

Like you, Annie, neither of us like the dinner. So after reading this thread, I went out and got a 3.75 lb flat corned beef. I'll roast it like Ann does and we'll use it for sandwiches and hash.

Ann, I know my piece of beef is smaller than yours, what is your guesstimate on how long I should roast it? Do you unwrap it and stick a thermometer into it? Or is it more like roasted pork for sandwiches--it cannot be over roasted?

This really sounds good!!

Ann T. and Arley: I usually always boil (well, not a full boil, but above a simmer) my corned beef for 3-4 hours (a flat cut) and slice it very, very thin when done. But, it's always on the dryish side. Wondering if either of your methods result in MOIST meat when done. Ann T.: your pic indicates a very moist-looking slab of meat ... is that how it turns out or was that basted a little with liquid before picture taking? Arley: should I get the same-looking slices of meat as Ann's pic shows as far as moist-looking?

Beachlily, Smaller will probably need around four hours at 250F. You can also test after three hours and determine if you need another hour or more. I don't bother testing with a thermometer. I just want it cooked until fork tender. So I'm not concerned with temperature.

Arlinek, This is exactly what it looked like when I sliced it. Very moist. No need to bast.

Thanks Ann! I will bake it tomorrow morning.

I should have added that for cold corned beef you should let it go cold in the cooking water so it stays moist.

I was raised by a Boston-Irish mom and potatoes, carrots and cabbage cooked in the corned beef liquid was required. She always pressure cooked it.

I picked up a 15# brisket from the restaurant supply across the road from Costco...it was half the price and a really nice hunk of beef. Two chunks are corning, and a third is in the freezer for pastrami when we dig out the smoker.

SIL has Crohn's and doesn't eat potatoes, so I think I will deviate from the norm and slow roast one of them, with colcannon for a side and an appropriate veg for him. Colcannon is on my list of things I've never cooked, so it's perfect. I have a recipe for soda bread muffins that I will try and convert to gluten free for The Kid. Then, on another day, DH and I can pig out on a good old-fashioned corned beef and cabbage dinner and hack the leftovers up for hash...mmmm. Why do we only do this once a year?

KatieC-

Here's my favorite colcannon recipe. Since it has Cheddar cheese added in, and also on top, the dish seems to get gobbled up more than traditional colcannon when feeding the unfamiliar masses. The milk and cheese in this non-traditional version can turn this into a meatless main dish for Lent or a vegetarian-friendly dish.

Colcannon, a combination of mashed potatoes and a member of the cabbage family (usually cabbage or kale) is a favorite food in Ireland and Scotland. It is traditionally eaten at Halloween with symbols of fortune buried in it (a golden ring predicting marriage within a year, a sixpence for forthcoming wealth, a thimble for spinsterhood, and a button for bachelorhood).

1 pound all-purpose potatoes, peeled
1 pound green cabbage, shredded (4-cups)
1 med. onion, chopped (about 1-cup)
1/4 c. milk
1 T. butter
3 oz. sharp Cheddar (or other hard cheese - I like Kerrygold Dubliner Irish Cheese)
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Salt, if desired, to taste

1.) Boil the potatoes in lightly salted water until they are tender, but not mushy. Drain, RESERVING THE COOKING LIQUID, and set aside to cool somewhat. (Note: I spoon the potatoes out of the pan so I can then use it, and the liquid, for the next step.)

2.) Using the potato water (you may have to add more boiling hot water), boil the cabbage and onion for about 5-minutes. Drain the vegetables and set aside.

3.) Mash the potatoes, adding the milk and butter. Add the reserved boiled cabbage and onion to the potato mixture.

4.) Mix 2/3 of the cheese with the potato mixture. Season with pepper and salt (Note: I find it's already plenty salty and only add pepper). Transfer the mixture to a greased casserole or shallow baking dish. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top.

5.) Before serving the colcannon, heat it through in a moderately hot oven (the temperature is not critical - it can be between 350° and 425°, depending on what else you are using the oven for). Let the cheese on top brown slightly.

Note: This dish can be prepared in advance up to the baking point, refrigerated, and heated at serving time.

Made my corned beef last night and it came out delish. I should've added more veggies to the pot though (carrots, celery, green pepper, onion) as I like to eat them up with the cabbage.

Grain lady, Colcannon sounds so good. I love cabbage and potatoes. I am going to make my corned beef tomorrow. I just have to send DH to the grocery to buy potatoes and cabbage.

Thanks to everyone who gave me the encouragement to try this. Happy St Paddy's day to you all!

Made the CB&C today. I didn't like it at all. DH, ate it and said it was ok. He even said he would eat the left overs. I ate one tiny bite and could barely swallow it. I definitely won't make it again. The problem is maybe I just didn't do a good job cooking it but I don't like the flavor. At least I tried but I should have stayed a virgin.

We cooked ours last night, using Ann's slow-bake method, and it was outstanding! Since I can't eat cabbage these days, I fixed hutspot to go with it instead. I'm a believer in Ann's method!

Other than the cut of beef there is no similarity between corned beef and pastrami. Pastrami is smoked then steamed. Different spice rub as well

I am a low simmer fan for corned beef. Tuesday will be corned beef, colcannon, soda bread, roasted beets and British style pickled onions.

Clive has put together a collection of Irish tunes...should be fun..

The corned beef I baked was absolutely delicious! I couldn't believe how good the stuff tasted! Get to have another sandwich for dinner. It was so good that I went back to the store and bought another one to freeze for later in the year. YUMMMMM!!!!!

Had a gang in for St Paddy's and did three corned beef fIats, one on the stove top and two in the oven. Honestly, virtually no difference except the oven method is way easier in that there is no controlling of the simmer for hours. From now on I'll do it in the oven.

I would have presumed that the flavor would be better in the baked versions since they are not being "boiled/simmered" for hours, which is diluting the flavor. Is that not the case? I have mine in the oven right now - first time not either simmering or using my crock pot. Will report on the results.

Finished dinner a couple hours ago, and I MUST say, Ann T., it was outstanding! I used your directions to a "T" and also rubbed the contents of the seasoning packet over it, too (I didn't have coriander). I had a small one (2.5 #) and took it out after 4.76 hours. Now, I must add that I used a point cut, choice grade, which I never normally do - always have used the flat cut. So, don't know how much, if any, that played into the outstanding flavor and tenderness - it was incredibly marbled. My next one will be a flat cut and I will report again my findings here. Thank you Ann T. - clearly another winner of yours and so much easier than simmering for hours, having to constantly check the water level and intensity, etc. Just superb.

Arlinek, Sushipup, Beachlily, I"m glad that you liked the baked version. And you are right Arlinek, the flavour and texture is much better. Maybe because the flavour isn't being cooked out of the meat and into the cooking liquid. In my opinion there is no comparison when it comes to the baked vs the simmered or boiled.

~Ann

Elery put ours in the 6 quart Nesco, and then ran into some problems with the furnace at the "old" house. The FHA loan/sale apparently fell through after 9 months of being "pending", so we have to get it back on the market. Anyway, the corned beef overcooked for about 2 hours, so it's not ideal. I couldn't chew it anyway, I still have a mouth full of sutures, so it'll be chopped for hash, which I like best anyway.

Annie

We wound up having a good old-fashioned boiled dinner when the kids came, with a cauliflower mash for SIL. They took every last scrap of beef, cabbage and carrots, so tonight I slow-baked the second chunk of brisket as per Ann's recipe, though I did sprinkle it with some leftover corning spices.You're right, it's a whole different animal....firmer and a bit more salty. It sliced beautifully and will make great Reubens. Had it with GL's colcannon on the side. Both were very, very good. Thank you.

Grainlady, is that colcannon technically Rumbledethumps? It seems like cheese is the difference between the two. Colcannon's like Cincinnati Chili....there are a million recipes and they're all different, lol.

Annie....sutures. Owww.

ann_t, Wow! Just cooked a corn beef using your slow cooked method and it was fantastic. So much better than boiling. Thanks you so much. Am now getting your blog and am blown away by everything you make.

Oldhouse, I'm glad that you also enjoyed this method. And thanks for checking out my blog.

~Ann