Corned beef and cabbage is not Irish food.
It is Boston food. Boston Irish food. (Don’t believe me? Ask an Irishman if he eats corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day.)
Corned beef and cabbage is actually the basis of a classic New England Boiled Dinner, and around here an entertaining diversity of people eat it on St. Patrick’s Day. I have Asian, Greek and Italian friends making boiled dinner this weekend. Why? Tradition. — And, because there’s an awful lot of it piled up at the market, cheap.
In the past I’ve made my own concoction of spices and brine for the corned beef and gotten really into the question of grey versus red cuts. This year, I am very pregnant, more than a little grumpy, and was easily sold on the samples Trader Joe’s offered of their pre-brined stuff.
I put two of the Trader Joe’s corned beefs (beeves?) into a large pot with one bottle of a nice Irish lager and enough hot water to cover. (Friends of Bill, use beef broth.) Then, because I could not help myself, I added two cloves minced garlic and about a tablespoon minced onion. I’m pretty sure that’s not Irish, quite positive it’s not traditional Boston, but we are meant to evolve.
It’s boiling nicely on the stove.
When it’s been going about three hours, I’ll add these:
Traditional boiled dinner involves vegetables cooked into a pasty oblivion. Like I said, we’re meant to evolve: I prefer my vegetables crisp. I’ll add the potatoes first, and the carrots at the very end and I will watch carefully to make sure they don’t overcook.
I made a dish of horseradish cream — heavy cream with some good dollops of horseradish, whipped. Perfect on the beef. And butter and cheddar to go with the Irish soda bread and apples for dessert.
But the best part comes tomorrow, when I make the hash.
Talk about evolving.
Does that say Irish butter??
This makes me really wish I didn’t miss the Irish parade today where I could have caught my cabbage, carrots, potatoes and onions.
That looks really yummy. I’ll have to try it!
Cb+C isn’t just a Boston Irish meal, it’s sort of an East Coast, North of the Mason Dixon line meal. My mother, a Brooklyn NY girl, was brought up on it. My ex-MIL was from Philadelphia and ate it too as a young girl. These are both women in their mid-80′s now. I was brought up on it in Los Angeles! Of course my father is from Brookline and my mother from Brooklyn (I’m of mixed heritage
) and they both ate it their whole lives.
I know it’s called a New England Boiled Dinner, but I think it’s more of a Jewish/Irish Boiled dinner. When I was growing up, I thought it was a Jewish meal because I didn’t know anyone who wasn’t Jewish that ate it. I had to move to Boston to learn that it has something to do with, ahem, being Irish. So sue me, I was dumb!
I grew up in New Hampshire and NE Boiled Dinner is one of my favs, however, you HAVE to have beets in the mix!! If not, how can you make Red Flannel Hash with the leftovers???
You know, I love beets, but I’ve never made boiled dinner with them. I’ve heard of red flannel hash.
I actually make more of a San Fransico hash — peppers, potatoes, garlic, onion. Very simple, very delicious. I made sure there was enough corned beef this time that the has will last a week. It’s soooo good.
How do you do the beets? Just raw fresh ones?
Margalit — I would say Brooklyn and Brookline is a mixed marriage! Arriving in LA, to boot! Your blog is great, I can’t believe I’ve never seen it before. I think boiled dinner probably belongs to a lot of ethnic groups. The only people I know who really don’t eat it are actual honest-to-God from-Ireland folks.
I’ve been a fan of your blog for a very long time… and it made me giggle to see a bottle of Feckin’ Irish Whiskey in the background.
I may have to try this recipe sometime. I’ve never tried anything like it before.
~Allison
LOL..( I really did) at the bottle of Feckin’ Irish Whiskey.
Looks yummy
Oh my gawd. Can I come to your house and be honorary Irish? This looks soooooo yummy!
I love Dubliner cheese. We eat it all the time!
oops, I mean new-england-ish.
I cannot wait to go to my mothers tuesday for dinner, I love this dinner, love it,love it. We eat the hash with beets sort of the corned beef ground up, fried quickly in a little butter add in a beet cooked and mashed in with the other leftover veggies.
I was at a friends today for real boiled dinner of ham and such, but I actually prefer the corned beef version.
Another perk of of being a Masshole, boiled dinner everywhere and leftover hash with eggs for the next week!
I grew up having corned beef and cabbage on St. Patty’s day too – and I’m from the midwest. The best part for me are the Reubens made from the leftovers. I’ve actually evolved into making a Guinness Beef Stew and Irish Soda Bread since boiled cabbage has never been my thing! Your corned beef dinner sounds better than my recipe though! May have to try it again.
My husband laughed out loud when I read him the start of your post. He is born and bred in Dublin and was appalled when he moved here and people tried to convince him that CB&C was Irish food. And today in the grocery store I encountered two African American women looking for the corned beef — so they could make their Irish dinner, they told me. I’m outside of Philly so I think CB&C is a northeast thing. My german mother always made it on St. Patty’s day too.
Like Allison, I make a Guinness Stew and Brown Bread (similar to soda bread but no raisins and whole wheat flour, wheat germ, bran etc.) Do you want the recipe?
Con, I love recipes! Fire away!
I don’t mean to suggest that Boiled Dinner is an exclusively Boston food. Just that it certainly is a traditional Boston one.
OMG that looks delicious!!! Thanks for the Friends of Bill version, too!
Irish Brown Bread: Put 1.5 C whole wheat flour in large bowl. Seive in 1/2 C reg flour, 1tsp salt, 1 (heaping) tsp baking soda. Stir in 2 TBS bran, 2 TBS wheat germ, 1 oz sugar. Cut in 4 TBS butter, rub in till well mixed. Pour in 15 oz buttermilk. Mix with broad knife till its a loose porridge-like dough. Do NOT overmix. Turn dough into greased rectangular bread pan or (if ya like free form, lump it into a bigger 9 X 9 pan. Sprinkle with extra bran for that nutty look. Bake 10 min at 425, then 45 min at 400. Remove from oven, cover with clean towel to cool. Remove from pan when cool. Enjoy sliced fresh with butter, or toasted the next day! Adapted from “In an Irish Country Kitchen, C. Connelly)
Umm, the beets….actually those are cooked separately, not boiled with the rest of the veggies. That is, of course, unless you want pink cabbage and potatoes. We actually make two type of hash with the leftovers….corned beef hash and red flannel hash. The red flannel hash is made with the potatoes, beets and carrots. Love it, love it, love it. I’ve been desperate enough that I have cooked the veggies just to make hash….but it isn’t quite the same if the potatoes and carrots haven’t been cooked with the cabbage and corned beef. Now….have you ever had corned hake??? Absolutely my all time favorite meal, hands down!!