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1 big chunk of corned beef (several pounds)
Rinse the meat and put it in a pot or bowl with cold water to cover.
Let sit approximately one hour, then dump the water and soak again the same way for another hour. This is to get the excess salt out. Boiling and then re-boiling can make the meat very tough. This way doesn't.
Dump the water and cover the meat again with cold water leaving room for the vegetables to be added. Add seasonings. Bring to a boil and then cover and reduce the heat to a slower boil.
When a fork goes into the meat fairly easily, add the rutabaga and carrots, and then the potatoes.
When the vegetables are half cooked, add the cabbage on top. Cook for another 15 to 20 minutes.
Slice meat and reheat it as needed, or remove from the refrigerator, slice the meat, and reheat everything together.
Serve with horseradish and/or horseradish sauce and/or mustard.
Also good with sour pickles, if you can have all that salt.
Alternative: Cook the meat with a potato to pick up the salt, at least some of it. Then discard that potato, add the vegetables and keep on going.
Poster's Notes:
This can be done in a crockpot, but I always did it the night before, then refrigerated it, pot, liquid and all, removed all the fat I could see and reheated it to the boiling point when I got home, then served it or kept it warm, as needed. I always made enough to get at least two meals out of it, then served the remaining meat cold for lunch. Now that my time is my own and there are rarely more than the two of us, I still cook this, and still get three meals out of it with no complaints. I just use a smaller piece of meat, a smaller pot, etc.
Note that the vegetables are optional. If you leave them all out, you just have corned beef to serve hot or cold. If you leave out the carrots and rutabaga, it's corned beef and cabbage. If you don't over cook the vegetables, the results look beautiful on a platter.
Posted by Carolyn C. Gilboa
Nutritional Info Per Serving: N/A
1 to 2 potatoes per person
1 rutabaga, diced large
Carrots, sliced or whole baby carrots, 1 per person or 1 whole bag
1 cabbage, cut lengthwise into 6 to 8 portions
Pickling spice, if there is none on the meat
Caraway seed
For the potatoes, smaller potatoes may be left whole; larger ones would be halved or quartered. (These absorb salt, so the more cut surface, the more salt.