Corned Beef & Cabbage

It is St. Patrick’s Day weekend and they are dying the Chicago river green.  There is nothing more Irish than Corned Beef and Cabbage.  My family loves corned beef but not cabbage so much.  Somewhere in the last couple of years, I have really come to like cabbage.  I love it in cole slaws.  I really the texture of cabbage when it is cooked.  It softens a fair bit but still has a little bite to it.  I used the liquid I made from my corned beef to flavor my cabbage.  

Cabbage is the perfect compliment to corned beef.  So were the mashed potatoes I made.  This meal was true COMFORT FOOD.  Even though the corned beef comes seasoned already, I wanted to amp it up.  I very loosely followed an Alton Brown recipe.  The key spices I picked up on were cinnamon, brown sugar and ginger.  The cinnamon really came through, especially in the cabbage.  I don’t know if you would really call it this but I made the above mentioned brine for the corned beef and let is soak overnight.  I brined the corned beef in the same baking pot that I was going to cook it in.  So when I was ready to start cooking, I took the pot out of the fridge, let it warm a little, then put it straight into the oven.  How SIMPLE is that.  

So is Corned Beef & Cabbage really Irish?  What I learned on the History.com website is that it is far from it.  This is so interesting.  What History.com said is that this dish evolved in America from Irish immigrants.  When Irish immigrants came to the United States, they lived with or near other immigrants including Jews and Italians.  Their theory is that the Irish immigrants adapted their recipe to included corned beef based on their experience at Jewish delis.  That is amazing.  One other side fact is that the first St. Patrick’s Day parade was held in Dublin not in New York City in 1762.

The corned beef spices and the corned beef in the brine.

The Corned Beef and Cabbage Plated.

The Recipe

Corned Beef and Cabbage

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The classic St. Patrick’s Day meal of Corned Beef and Cabbage.

Prep12 hours hrs

Cook4 hours hrs

Total16 hours hrs

Servings8

Scale

1x2x3x

Ingredients 

Corned Beef Ingredients

• ▢ 1 cup kosher salt
• ▢ 1/2 cup brown sugar
• ▢ 2 tablespoons salt
• ▢ 1 cinnamon stick
• ▢ 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• ▢ 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
• ▢ 1 tablespoon ground cloves
• ▢ 2 Teaspoon ground allspice
• ▢ 2 bay leaves, crumbled
• ▢ 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• ▢ 2 4 to 5 pound beef brisket, trimmed
• ▢ 1 small onion, quartered
• ▢ 2 large carrot, coarsely chopped
• ▢ 2 stalk celery, coarsely chopped

Cabbage Ingredients

• ▢ 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• ▢ 1 small onion, sliced
• ▢ Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• ▢ 1 large head cabbage, cored and thinly sliced or shredded
• ▢ 1 bottle beer
• ▢ 2 ladles full of the liquid from the corned beef brine after cooking.

Instructions 

Corned Beef

• Place the corned beef into the pot and add all the brine ingredients.
• Brine overnight.
• Warm oven to 325 degrees.
• Take the corned beef out of the fridge 20 minutes or so prior to cooking.
• Place the corned beef in the oven and cook for 3 & 1/2 to 4 hours.
• Remove from the pot and let rest for 5 – 10 minutes before cutting.

Cabbage

• In a large pot, add the oil and add the onion and the bay leaves and season with salt and pepper. Add the cabbage, stirring to mix.
• Add the beer and corned beef liquid, season and cover.
• Braise until the cabbage has wilted, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes.
• Serve and enjoy!