If I'm not making any sense, blame it on the whiskey.
It really is a strange thing. Neither my heritage nor Jes's hails from Ireland, but we both love corned beef and cabbage and have continued the tradition handed down from our mothers to have it on St. Patrick's Day, like so many other non-Irish folk.
Frankly, I don't mind having it other days of the year, and until recently I never knew that Jes's and my favorite sandwich happens to be based on the same flavor combinations. Rye bread, shaved brisket, shredded kraut, and possibly mustard; somehow, Switzerland's cheese and Russia's dressing got thrown in the mix. But if it works, you'll get no complaints from us.
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| The Best Reuben |
I'd been eating these for years and never saw the connection, probably because I rarely eat bread with a meal unless it is a sandwich. Now, whether you choose rye bread or soda bread to butter this Thursday, chances are you're not going to pile it high with meat and cabbage; the leftovers are a different story, of course. And maybe that's how the first Reuben happened.
No Corn?
How many of you thought corned beef had something to do with corn? Raise your hands; it's OK to admit it. (It's not like I can see your hands, anyway.) I, for one, did. Until, at least, I learned where ground pepper comes from. No, not the ground. Wow, these quips just won't stop!
Peppercorns are dried berries which we commonly grind up as a spice to pre-season a piece of meat or to add to a plate, or use whole when infusing their flavor into a liquid. This is only half of the story, however. When I thought of corned beef in this context, the image of a clove-dressed ham came to mind, but even that isn't right. There's another definition for "corn" that clears up all of this confusion. In Old English, "to corn" was to preserve in a salt brine. Nowadays, it can also refer to a drier marinade, but corned beef—as I can see it packaged before cooking—is soaking in a juicy brine.
This meaning for "corn" is actually the original, and the reason we call maize by this new name is because it is synonymous in Latin with "grain." Most countries outside North America refer to any cereal grain (literally, grass seed) as corn. Actually, that's probably why "corn" is present in "peppercorn." But, the grain in this case isn't a seed: it's a grain of salt.
Pickled Brisket
Doesn't sound too appetizing, does it? Maybe if we were Irish, or at the very least Northern European, pickled meat would sound more like a delicacy. But, just because it's cured—more likely, being cured—doesn't mean we'll be eating it straight out of the package. Several hours of heat should make this look even more delectable.
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| March 17, 2014 - Corned Beef and Cabbage |
Our brand of choice for at least two years is JP O'Reilly's. I'm not here to compare brands or find the absolute best; I think it's pretty hard to mess up a good thing, and cured meat is one of those things.
Our method of cooking is in the crockpot. Apparently, some people bake their corned beef, which I'm only curious to try because of that wonderful layer of fat that I spy. But that trial might have to wait for a less Irish day, because as you'll see, the liquid from simmering this hunk gets put to further use.
Because of the limiting size of our slowcooker, we had to cut the brisket in half, and that's only more difficult than it sounds because Jes doesn't like to touch raw meat. I can't say that I do either, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.
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| March 17, 2014 - Corned Beef and Cabbage |
The package "suggests" using the brine to cook with, which is a beautiful idea. It also asks for water to cover, but fearing an overflow, I didn't feel like covering both halves. The brine from this particular brand includes water and 4 different varieties of sodium, none of which are MSG (not that this affects me, personally), as well as "flavorings." It also includes a meat tenderizer known as papain. This is an enzyme sourced from the papaya plant, and there may be some health concerns over its dosage and general ingestion, but when used in foods these possible side effects are likely mitigated; it is the medicinal use of papain which requires greater care. But for food allergen information, papain may affect people with kiwi allergies.
Back to ingredients, there's also that little packet of seasoning you saw. The package also made the suggestion of adding it, "if desired." I couldn't find out what exactly is in it—probably those mysterious "flavorings"—but peppercorn is the obvious potent notable.
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| March 17, 2014 - Corned Beef and Cabbage |
What you see here is the difference submersion makes. The package calls for boiling and then simmering for 50 minutes per pound of meat. We exceeded that mostly because St. Patrick's Day fell on a workday, and that's the best excuse to use a slowcooker. This brisket soaked for around 7 hours, twice as long as it needed. Keeping the meat covered in liquid will not only keep it from drying out (as the one on the left did), but it will also help it hold onto that beautiful color!
Irish Roots
Corned beef and cabbage is, more traditionally, a type of New England boiled dinner, where the meat is not often the star. Root vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, turnips and onions, in addition to cabbage, are boiled alongside the roast, which may be beef or pork.
Some people will defend their Irish roots by saying that corned beef and cabbage is an Irish-American variant of Ireland's traditional bacon and cabbage meal. Being 100% American myself, I can't stand up for them on that front, but I will go on believing that it's more Irish than some people would like to admit.
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| March 17, 2014 - Corned Beef and Cabbage |
Back to the wonderful topic at hand, while the meat is resting (and covered in foil to keep its heat), we drain the drippings into a stove-ready pot and throw in some red potatoes, carrots (baby, that year), and after 30 minutes of covered, high-heat simmering, probably half a head of green cabbage.
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| March 17, 2014 - Corned Beef and Cabbage |
Jes and I love cabbage. Raw, it has some spice to it that can aid an Asian-inspired salad or even be used to turn one into a wrap; a light sauté in stir fry can also exemplify this characteristic. Pickled, it doesn't break down as much as other vegetables, so it keeps its crisp crunch whether you're eating it on the side or adding it to a hotdog. But for a leafy vegetable, moist heat is really how it stands out. Its thick ribs are my favorite part, softening to just the right texture over the next 30 minutes of cook-time.
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| March 17, 2014 - Corned Beef and Cabbage |
If you prefer your potatoes and carrots to have more bite to them, you can probably add the cabbage in earlier and lessen the time. But I think this is just the sort of meal where their fall-apart texture is desired—if anything, to keep the corned beef from feeling left out.
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