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From our Food Goddess, TaMara:
I have made corned beef and cabbage a total of one time before prepping for tonight’s recipe exchange. It was early in my marriage and I was having a ball trying out family favorites out on my own. I followed the recipe completely and what I got for my trouble was dry, stringy, tough meat. The veggies were ok if I remember correctly. I never tried it again.
But I love corned beef and cabbage and decided I needed to try to find a way to make it simple and foolproof. I’d been experimenting with my pressure cooker while reviewing a pressure cooker cookbook (which was horrible but that’s a whole other post) and had a realization – the pressure cooker was the perfect solution to my corned beef cooking fears.
But don’t worry. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, I included a slow cooker recipe, too.
Corned beef is really one of the perfect foods to do in a pressure cooker. You get a nice, tender beef and instead of mushy, colorless vegetables, you get perfectly cooked vegetables infused with that great corned beef broth flavor.The recipe below uses a bit of dill pickle juice in place of some of the water and a touch of spicy brown mustard. But I saw recipes that used chicken broth, sherry or beer in place of some of the water. I think you should experiment and use what sounds good to you. Me, I like dill pickle juice.
A lot of recipes call for 3-4 lbs of corned beef. When I shopping , 4 lbs was the smallest piece I could find, most were 5-6 lbs. You may have to cut a piece in half, but since both the pressure cooker and slow-cooker recipes are easy, you don’t need to save corned beef and cabbage for a special occasion. Just freeze the other half and save for another day.
And the best part, making Reuben’s with the leftovers. My mom makes the best ones, but I one up her by grilling mine Panini-style. Yum.
Are you a corned beef and cabbage household? Reuben fans? What about cooking disasters? Have any good stories about your failures in the kitchen?
On to the recipes:
Friday Recipe Exchange: Corned Beef DinnerPost + Comments (39)