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Cabbage with Corned Beef
Cut the cabbage, if large, into quarters, and soak it one hour in cold water. Add it to the boiling corned beef one and one-quarter hour before serving time, and let both boil very slowly. When tender, lift out the cabbage with a skimmer into a colander, to drain; remove the stump of the cabbage, and with a knife slightly chop the leaves. Add pepper, and salt also if the beef is not too salt. Press out all the water possible from the cabbage, and serve in a warm dish or around the corned beef, as may be desired.
A method rather than a full recipe: it assumes a corned beef already simmering on the back of the stove and tells you when to put the cabbage in. The one thing worth changing is the timing.
- The hinge: cut the cabbage time downAn hour and a quarter in the pot turns cabbage grey and sulphurous. Quartered wedges are tender in 15 to 20 minutes in the beef broth; a large half needs perhaps 25. Add it at the end, not before.
- The hour's soakThis was insurance against insects and grit in market cabbage. A quick rinse and a look between the outer leaves does the same job now, though a cold soak does crisp a limp head.
- "Boil very slowly"Meaning a bare simmer, barely trembling. A hard boil toughens the corned beef and shreds the cabbage; keep the liquid just below a roll.
- Salt and the cooking liquidCorned beef brine varies enormously between brands, so taste the broth before adding any salt at all. If it is aggressively salty, cook the cabbage in it anyway, then drain well and season on the plate.
- Draining and pressingPressing out the water is what keeps the dish from flooding the platter, and it matters. Let the wedges drain in the colander several minutes, then press gently with the back of a spoon rather than crushing them.
- Chopping"Slightly chop" means a few strokes through the drained leaves to break up the long ribs, not a fine shred. Removing the woody stump first is worth the trouble.
- YieldThe recipe gives none. A medium head of roughly 2 lb would serve about four to six alongside the beef.
Boiled corned beef with the cabbage cooked in its liquor is a long-standing economy of the English and Irish kitchen, and the pairing became familiar in American practice alongside the New England boiled dinner, where the same pot took on potatoes, turnips and carrots in turn. "Corned" refers to the coarse grains, or corns, of salt used to cure the beef, a preservation method that long predated refrigeration and outlived it as a taste. The Butterick book, published by a pattern and fashion house, treats the pairing as too familiar to need explanation and confines itself to the part cooks got wrong: the vegetable. The long boiling times common in such books reflect both tougher, older market cabbages and a general period preference for very soft vegetables.