Corned Beef and Cabbage 2 Ways...
Happy St. Patrick's Day! In honor of this special day we thought it would be fun to try making corned beef and cabbage. After doing a little research I discovered there are two ways to make this dish and I set out to find out how to do them both...
About two weeks ago my husband Robert said that he would like me to learn how to make corned beef and cabbage. So I went into our local Hy-Vee grocery store and asked the butcher all kinds of questions. It was a very interesting experience. Every one was very helpful and I learned a lot about corned beef. The butcher I met just happened to be be an expert on making corned beef and admitted that it took him 54 years to learn how to make it just right. Wow, I really came to the right person! After telling me all he knew he then told me that the corned beef would be on sale the next week. What a deal. I was able to buy two briskets yesterday for the price of one last week. My first question to the butcher was what kind of meat do you use. I learned that corned beef is a brisket that is soaked in a brine and cooked with spices. You can buy the brisket already prepared for you to cook. There are two cuts that are used for corned beef. The flat cut in the picture above seems to be the most popular. When I went to the store to buy the brisket yesterday there were only two left.
The other cut is called a point cut. I asked the butcher which one was the best. I could tell that he didn't want to give me his opinion but said that most people like the flat cut because there is less fat. Quite frankly, I am of the opinion that when there is less fat, then there is most likely less flavor. But, I am willing to try them both. When I asked the butcher how to cook it he told me that most people like to boil the meat and then cook the cabbage with the brisket at the end. His opinion was that this is the wrong way and that the cabbage gets all oily. The funny thing is, that is exactly the way Robert wanted it. Of course I didn't mention this during my cooking lesson. The way that he recommended cooking it was to put the brisket in a roasting pan with a little water and cook it in the oven until it was tender but not falling apart.
I decided I was going to cook the point cut in the pot and the flat roast in the oven. So I rinsed off the brisket and covered it with water in a large cooking pot.
The brisket comes with a little packet of spices. I noticed that there were caraway seeds in there and I am not a big fan of caraway seeds. I decided not to use the spice packet.
It looked to me that the main spices in the packet were little bits of bay leaf and bleached peppercorns. So I grabbed what I have and used that instead. I just added it to the water in the pot and set it on the stove to simmer.
After I rinsed the flat cut I placed it in a roasting pan fat side up and added about a 1 1/2 cups of water. I added bay leaf and peppercorns to the water for this one too. I put it in the oven at 375 degrees and let it cook for about 2 1/2 hours. The point cut in the pot was a little larger so I cooked it for 3 hours.
While that was cooking away I grabbed my head of cabbage and peeled the first layer of leaves off.
The butcher recommended cutting the cabbage into wedges without separating it from the stem. I cut the whole thing into wedges and and then cut it in half.
I added the cabbage to the pot with the corned beef and cooked it for the last 20 minutes together. I can see the merit in not seperating the cabbage wedges from the stem. It makes it easier to extract from the pot when it is done cooking.
I melted half a stick of butter to cook the other half of the cabbage. This is my favorite method of cooking cabbage. I cook cabbage the same way that I cook Brussels sprouts. It only makes sense that it would taste good to brown cabbage too. After all, Brussels sprouts look like little cabbages!
After cutting off the stem from the other half of the cabbage wedges I sauteed them in the butter until they began to brown. I added a 1/4 cup of water, reduced the heat and covered the pan to steam the cabbage for a few minutes.
I love this cabbage...It is one of my favorite vegetables. Surprisingly it is one vegetable I don't have a problem getting the kids to eat. Of all the kids I would say that Katie likes it the most.
The boiled cabbage came out very nicely as well. It has that oily look that the butcher didn't like. Good thing I am not married to the butcher. Robert really liked it and that is who I was trying to please.
I really thought that the flat cut that was baked in the oven was going to be my favorite. It looked so nice browning in the roasting pan and smelled so good. I was surprised to find that I like the boiled corned beef better.
The point cut came out pretty good. I asked the kids which one was their favorite. No one could decide on which one. The level of excitement over this experiment was very high. It was fun seeing everyone so interested in what I was doing and wanting to taste both kinds of meat and cabbage. I can see the value in making food fun and interesting for kids to get them to try new things. Instead of just saying, "Here, eat this.."
So there you have it. Two ways to cook corned beef and cabbage. Maybe next year, if you don't try it today, you can try this easy meal with your family.
I have to share one more thing. After all of my research and help from my local butcher, I discovered something very interesting. Today while I was opening up the packaged meat I noticed that there were cooking instructions on the front. I read them and discovered the very same two ways to cook corned beef. I felt a little silly to tell you the truth. But I still think that it was more fun to talk about cooking with other people...
