Corned Beef and Cabbage
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Last year for St. Patrick's Day, my friend Suzanne had me over for dinner with her family and served the tastiest corned beef and cabbage dish. Usually we prepare corned beef and cabbage boiled, but Suzanne had baked her corned beef in the oven, slathered with sweet hot honey mustard, and sautéed her cabbage with onions on the stove top until they were nice and caramelized. I begged her to show me how she did it and recently we spent the day cooking together, making corned beef and cabbage both ways - oven baked and boiled. We did a taste test with the whole family that evening and the baked version won, hands down. Here I present to you both the baked and the boiled recipe versions.
Corned Beef and Cabbage Recipe
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Corned beef is cured in a salt mixture, so it can be very salty, depending on the source. If the salt in your corned beef is an issue for you (some people like foods less salty than others) you might try bringing the corned beef to a boil in plain water first, discarding the water, and bringing it to a boil in plain water again, and again discarding the water, before proceeding with either of the cooking approaches outlined here.
Ingredients
Corned Beef (baked)
- 3 lbs corned beef (in package)
- 10 whole cloves
- 1/4 cup hot sweet honey mustard
- 2 Tbsp brown sugar
Corned Beef (boiled)
- 3 lbs corned beef (in package, including spice packet)
Cabbage (sautéed)
- Olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
- 1 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 large head of cabbage, sliced into 3/8-inch to 1/2-inch wide slices
- Salt
Cabbage (boiled)
- 1 large head of cabbage, sliced into 3/8-inch to 1/2-inch wide slices
- Additional vegetables such as a couple carrots (cut to 1 inch pieces) or several new potatoes (quartered)
Method
Corned Beef (Baked)
1 Preheat oven to 350°F. Drain the corned beef from the package and discard the spice packet. Lay corned beef, fat side up, on a large piece of heavy duty, wide, aluminum foil (you may have to get creative with the way you wrap the beef if your foil isn't wide enough). Insert the cloves into the top of the slab of corned beef, evenly spaced. Spread the top with the hot sweet honey mustard. Sprinkle brown sugar over the top.
2 Wrap the corned beef with foil in a way that allows for a little space on top between the corned beef and the foil, and creates a container to catch the juices. Place foil-wrapped corned beef in a shallow roasting pan and bake for 2 hours.
3 Open the foil wrapping, spread a little more honey mustard over the top of the corned beef, and broil it for 2-3 minutes, until the top is bubbly and lightly browned. Let rest for 5 to 10 minutes, then place on cutting board and cut at a diagonal, across the grain of the meat, into 1/2-inch thick slices.
Serve immediately.
Serves 5.
Corned Beef (Boiled)
1 Place corned beef in a large (6 to 8 quart) pot. Cover the beef with an inch water. Add the contents of the spice packet to the water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for 2-3 hours, until the corned beef is fork tender. Remove from pot to a cutting board. (Reserve cooking liquid for boiling cabbage, if you plan to boil and not sauté the cabbage.) Cut slices against the grain, into 1/2-inch thick slices. Serve.
Cabbage (Sautéed)
1 Heat 2 Tbsp olive oil (enough to well coat the pan) on medium high to high heat in a large, wide pot (8-quart if available) or large, high-sided sauté pan. Add chopped onions, cook for a couple of minutes, then add garlic.
2 Add a third of the sliced cabbage to the pan. Sprinkle with a little salt and stir to coat with oil and mix with onions. Spread out the cabbage evenly over the bottom of the pan and do not stir until it starts to brown. If the heat is high enough, this should happen quickly. The trick is to have the burner hot enough to easily brown the cabbage, but not so hot that it easily burns. When the bottom of the cabbage is nicely browned, use a metal spatula to lift it up and flip it, scraping the browned bits as you go.
3 Once the cabbage in the pan has browned on a couple of flips, add another third of the cabbage to the pan. Mix well, then spread out the cabbage and repeat. You may need to add a bit more olive oil to the pan to help with the browning, and to keep the cabbage from sticking too much to the pan. Once this batch has cooked down a bit and browned, add the remaining third of the cabbage and repeat.
Serve with the corned beef. Serve with boiled new potatoes. Can be made ahead and reheated.
Serves 5.
Cabbage (Boiled)
1 Once you have removed the corned beef from the pot, add the cabbage and any other vegetables (carrots, new potatoes) to the pot. Taste the liquid. If it is too salty, add more water to the pot. Raise the heat until the liquid is simmering well. Simmer until the cabbage and any other vegetables are cooked through, 15-30 minutes.
Place vegetables in a serving bowl, add a little of the cooking liquid to the bowl.
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sells some hot sweet honey mustard. Around here in Sacramento, both Raleys and Safeway carry at least one brand of it. ~Elise
MMMMM. I make a pasta with caramelized cabbage and onions. I saute the cabbage and onions with pepper and salt until tender. Then I add some chopped crisp bacon and a little sour cream (or creme fresh or greek yogurt). I toss it with a rotini pasta and squeeze a little lemon juice in for a hit of acid. I bet adding some of the shredded corned beef would just top it off great..