Have a Corney St. Patrick's Day!

About author / Pamela Chester

Mom of two; graduate French Culinary Institute; kids cooking program instructor; Master's degree in food studies. Creates kid friendly foods and loves her slow cooker.

Having married into a predominately Irish American family, I have taken on the St. Patrick’s Day holiday as a new family tradition. While my old way of commemorating the day was to put on a green article of clothing and maybe have a shamrock shake (I still like to celebrate all the minor holidays with a milkshake in the appropriate color!), these days I like to plan a full-blown celebratory meal and invite a few of our closest friends and family.

So we now have an annual St. Patrick’s Day tradition of making corned beef and cabbage along with Irish soda bread and then heading out to the nearest pub for a pint of stout beer. In a prior article I described how this meal is more “Irish American” than “Irish”. Nonetheless it is the perfect thing to warm the soul in the cold mid March weather. The process of corning refers to curing the beef with either a salt rub or, more commonly, a brine. The term “corn” refers to the coarse salt pellets that were traditionally used in the corning process to preserve the meat in the days before refrigeration.

At this time of year, it’s easy to go to your local grocery store and find ready to cook corned beef submerged in a brine along with a spice packet. However, you can also make your own homemade brine with various pickling spices, garlic, salt, and pepper. The beef should be covered with the brine and marinated for a few days before rinsing or soaking (a matter of personal preference) and cooking it in liquid, such as beer, along with the traditional sliced cabbage.

The slow, regulated heat of the crockpot will tenderize the corned beef and make it melt-in-your mouth delicious. This is a classic example of a dish where the longer it’s cooked, the better. Do not remove the fat before cooking; it is essential to making rich and flavorful corned beef.

Once cooked, you can remove the beef, slice it across the grain and return it to its own cooking liquid. At this point, you can trim any remaining fat from the beef before slicing and skim any fat from the broth it if you would like to make the dish a bit lighter. I will reiterate my prior advice to exercise extreme caution transferring any bigger cuts of meat from the hot liquid to a cutting board to avoid any burns.

To make it easy for entertaining, the beef can be sliced and served right out of the slow cooker. I like to serve my variation of corned beef each year with rolls and an assortment of different mustards and horseradish sauce. If you prefer to have the corned beef as a platter rather than a sandwich, the perfect accompaniment is some boiled potatoes and carrots thrown into the broth. Don’t forget some spicy mustard to serve on the side.

Another lovely accompaniment is some homemade Irish soda bread. Traditionally, this is a savory bread that is subtly spiced with caraway seeds. However, if like me, you prefer your Irish soda bread on the sweeter side, then you can go the non-traditional route and eliminate the caraway seeds.

This is the absolute perfect meal to celebrate the day when everyone is a little bit Irish. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Serves/Makes: 8

***To Brine***

• 1 1/2 quart water
• 1 1/2 cup kosher salt
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup pickling spices
• 5 pounds beef brisket, trimmed (but don't trim off all the fat)
• 2 tablespoons saltpeter (optional, preserves the red color of the beef)
• 1 bottle stout beer

***To cook***

• 2 bottles stout beer
• Water
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
• 2 whole allspice
• 1 head cabbage, quartered
• 6 medium carrots, peeled and sliced into lengths
• 4 medium onions, peeled and sliced crosswise
• 3 pounds mini red potatoes