Brick and Mortar Dreams: Corned Beef

I have two dishes I’ve never made or eaten before that I would like to try this spring. The first is Corned Beef.

So, what is corned beef. Its beef, normally brisket. The term Corned refers to covering the beef with large rock salt kernels that were referred to as “corns of salt”. The practice of salting meat likely dates back to ancient times in cold areas when they found that meat didn’t spoil if it made contact with enough salt. While corned beef is an Irish tradition, corned beef and cabbage is an American tradition.* That explains why I never found a recipe for corned beef and cabbage while going through ethnic cookbooks from the library.

So, I stumbled upon a recipe for corned beef using a crock pot and basic ingredients. She made it sound really good, so I went with it. I made it Sunday morning before church.

I rinsed the corned beef well and placed it in a lined 6 qt crock pot. I could have used my smaller crockpot as I had a small corned beef.

For the sauce I mixed together molasses, Dijon mustard, whiskey (recipe calls for bourbon, but I didn’t have any) and the seasoning packet that comes with the corned beef. I set the crock pot for 10 hours and went about my day.

Just FYI. It stunk! I honestly didn’t think I was going to be able to eat it and retreated to the basement to work on projects to escape the smell. I checked the meet after about 9 hours and it was perfectly done, so I switched the crock pot to warm and prepared the other dishes.

I found these cute little potatoes at Aldi and boiled those.

I also made crescent rolls and my favorite mixed vegetables. If I had company for dinner, I was planning on making coleslaw. That way I’d still have had corned beef, cabbage and potatoes, just not all as one dish! No company, so no coleslaw.

Here’s my plate. Check out that purple potato! I thought the meat was good, but salty. Tender, but tasted like beef jerky. I’d eat it again, but I doubt I’d make it again. Roasts are too expensive and there are other roasts I’d prefer over corned beef.