I used to cook the meat the way my Irish Mother learned it from her mother and so on. Boil the crap out of the meat, skim some fat and add the potatoes and cabbage. It is always good with a creamy horseradish and lots of leftovers for sandwiches and corned beef hash. However, I have found that I much prefer my corned beef done in the following manner. It also has the stamp of approval by my husband.
This recipe is rather free form as is most of my cooking.
Oven Roasted Corned Beef with Mustard Brown Sugar Glaze
- 5 pound piece of corned beef.
- One head of cabbage, cored and cut into quarters and then the quarters cut into halves
- 8 to 12 small to medium sized red new potatoes
- 4 to 5 carrots, peeled and cut into 2 inch sections
- One onion cut into eights
- Dijon mustard
- Brown sugar
- Fresh bread crumbs
FIRST: Bring to a boil and then simmer on low heat the corned beef for a couple of hours until it is fork tender but not falling apart. Be sure to pour the corned beef juices and spices into the water to get all those good flavors.
Remove the corned beef and put into a foil lined shallow roasting pan or oven proof casserole, fat side up. Cover with foil and refrigerate until you are ready to proceed. You can even do this part early in the day or the day before.
Let the broth cool and skim off any foam and excess fat. Don't take ALL the fat out. The cabbage is best when it has a light coating of the fat. Yummy flavor.
SECOND: Make a paste of mustard, brown sugar. If you don't have Dijon use a nice stone ground brown mustard. Please... please! do NOT use that ballpark yellow mustard crap. Save that for your hot dogs. Notice the vague instructions? I don't know.....Depending on how large your piece of meat is about half and half of each to equal about 1/3 to 1/2 cup. You want it to be pretty thick so start with the brown sugar and add the mustard gradually until you get a thick paste. Too thin and it will just run off of the meat. Set this aside.
NEXT: Preheat the oven to a low temp. About 275 to 300. Roast the meat covered for about an hour or hour and half. Again. Vague and imprecise.
THEN: Raise the temperature to about 375, uncover and spread the mustard/brown sugar paste on the top surface of the meat. Sprinkle on the bread crumbs and cook uncovered for about 20 minutes or less. Check the meat to make sure it isn't drying out. You can always take it out of the oven and cover until the crisping process.
MEANWHILE: Put the whole potatoes in the broth along with the onion and bring to a boil. When the potatoes are about half way done about 10 minutes or so (firm but not hard as rocks when a fork is stuck into them) toss in the carrots and let them cook for about 10 minutes. Then at the last toss in the cabbage and cover the pot if you can. Shove those puppies down into the broth and cook for only 5 minutes. Shut off the heat and leave covered while you are crisping the corned beef.
CRISP THE MEAT: If it isn't already looking a bit brown and crispy on the crumbs, turn the heat up to 450 or better for about 5 to 8 minutes. Take out of the oven and let set for a bit while you are scooping the vegetables out of the broth.
Be careful though...Don't crisp for too long...you don't want dried out corned beef. That is why we par boiled and cooked it, covered at a very low temperature. On the other hand....what the heck, we're going to slather it in a creamy horseradish sauce and drown the potatoes in butter.
How I serve this: Cut the meat into slices and layer like shingles down the middle of a platter. Lift the potatoes and other veggies from the broth and arrange on each side of the meat slices. Horseradish in little cups for each person. Lots of butter for the carrots, potatoes and cabbage.
Good dessert for this is the Lazy Day Oatmeal Cake.
