Curious fact: corned beef and cabbage, as a "traditional Irish dish" for St. Patrick's Day was invented in the US. No idea how they celebrate in Ireland. Just a guess, but I think corned beef's history may lie in the British Navy. At least the Hornblower books all reference a pickled beef that sounds a LOT like what is today called corned beef.
Still, regardless of why, we do corned beef and cabbage regularly, and what we knick-name "Irish potatoes" - small boiled potatoes with their skins and some parsley.
We like a very strong-flavored corned beef but it's hard to tell what you are going to get: if it isn't as strong as you like, add pickling spice mix and extra garlic.
In a slow-cooker/crock pot or Dutch oven,
corned beef cut into large chunks
one quartered cabbage
several garlic cloves, peeled
enough water to cover
Bring to a boil
Heat on low at least 3-4 hours until meat is easily pulled apart with a fork.
Prepare potatoes or other side dishes and serve. Retain liquid to cook more cabbage to accompany leftover meat.
Selecting cuts of corned beef brisket: we didn't use to have much of a choice besides looking at individual peices but these days there are often three types available: flat, tip, and something more expensive we never bother with.
ReplyDeleteTip can be nice if you are into very lean meat but it will need more cooking to get really tender and you are more likely to need to add extra garlic and pickling spices to get the flavor, as it doesn't sink into the lean meat as well.
We usually get the leaner of the available cuts of flat, avoiding particularly the most marbled meats because, while they fall apart nicely and are both flavorful and tender, strands of fat often cling to each strand of meat, sometimes the meat bits are quite small, and we end up eating the meat with our fingers to free the meat a tiny bit at a time. More blocky chunks of fat are easily trimmed away.