Mom's Corned Beef And Cabbage

3.7 from 3 ratings

Growing up in New York, you co-opt quintessential dishes from the city's other immigrants. I'm Italian-American, but I have legacy recipes for chopped liver and corned beef and cabbage. My mother makes corned beef and cabbage the way she saw it made while growing up in Queens. It's easy and straightforward with, as she says, "just one secret." Garlic. She makes cuts all over the corned beef and inserts slivers of fresh garlic — it pumps up the flavor.

Servings

servings

Ingredients

4 tablespoon butter
canola or olive oil
2 pound corned beef
1 large onion, roughly chopped
8 cloves garlic, minced
5 peppercorns tied in a piece of cheesecloth
1 head cabbage, quartered and cored
1 pound baby carrots
12 small golden or red bliss potatoes
salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

Melt 4 tablespoons butter in a large pot over medium to low heat. Then add enough oil to just cover the bottom.
Use a paring knife to make slender holes throughout the non-fat side of the meat that are just wide enough to stuff slivers from 8 cloves of garlic into. Put corned beef into the pot fat side down and render over low heat, about 8 minutes. (You don't want it to color.)
Add 1 large chopped onion and lightly sauté (don't let them get any color). Add minced garlic. Add a sachet of 5 peppercorns.
Cover with water almost to the top of the pot. Bring to a boil then turn down to a simmer and cook for 2 hours.
After 2 hours, add the1 head of quartered and chopped cabbage and cook for 30 more minutes.
Add the bag of baby carrots and 12 potatoes and simmer for another half hour.
Remove sachet and season to taste. It's best eaten with a healthy dollop of mustard.