RobbsSlowCookerBook: Corned Beef/Spiced Beef & Cabbage

By Caitríona Devery

Next up in the slow cooker recipe trials is this simple spiced beef dinner, a fine meat-and-veg meal that is perfect for the slow cooker. Spiced beef is a variation on corned beef, starting with the traditional “corning” cure but adding another stage: a spice rub. The corned beef is coated in a rich, fragrant mix of spices and left in a cool place for anything up to two months (though usually less than that).

Both corned and spiced beef are used in very similar ways, with the obvious difference that spiced beef brings another layer of flavour. Cork’s English market is famous as the home of spiced beef and it is particularly popular at Christmas. Tom Durcan’s craft butchers in the market won first prize in the Irish Craft Butchers’ national spiced beef competition last year.

It makes sense that preserved beef is a Cork speciality. Cork was a key port for the British empire and the starting point for Atlantic crossings in colonial times. Food preservation was key as sailing across the ocean took weeks.

During these times, corned or cured beef, also called salt beef, boomed as a commodity for export.  As Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire and Pádraic Óg Gallagher say in their article about corned beef, “Irish corned beef provisioned the British navy fleets for over two centuries. It was also shipped to the English and French colonies.”

I had never tried spiced beef, so when I read Robb’s recipe I thought it was about time I gave it a go. As mentioned, it is traditionally served at Christmas, and butchers in Cork do a roaring spiced beef trade coming up to the 25th. It’s often served as a cold cut, but you can also have it as a hot dinner, which is what I did. It was a comforting meal for a cold February day.

Mac Con Iomaire and Gallagher say that brisket or tail end (silverside or topside) are the usual cuts for corned beef. Michael at my local butcher, the Village Butcher in Ranelagh, in Dublin says for spiced beef he often goes with eye of the round or silverside. He explained that they buy in beef already corned, as it’s a bit of a headache to do that themselves.

Michael didn’t give me details of the spice mix they use, but told me they rub the joints with the spice mix, leave for one week and then pack them up. Butchers tend to be a bit secretive about the spices they use, but recipes I have seen often use cloves, allspice, juniper and nutmeg.

When I took the spiced beef out of the packaging, it was coated with the dusty spice rub. The smell reminded me of chutney, mincemeat and other wintery foods. Robb’s recipe is very simple with very little preparation required. I dusted off the spice excess and placed the meat in the slow cooker with onion, bay leaves, peppercorns and yellow mustard seeds, and left it on low while I went about my day. After a couple of hours, comforting smells were wafting around the house.

About seven hours in, I quartered some cabbage, chopped up some potatoes, parsnips and carrots and added them to the pot. While this imparted lovely aromatic notes, it also left the vegetables looking quite brown and a bit unappealing so if I did it again, I’d cook the vegetables separately. This wouldn’t matter with non-spiced corned beef.

I extracted the beef from the cooking liquid and sliced a little piece off to sample. The first thing I noticed as a spiced beef novice was the bright pink colour of the meat, which is due to the curing process. It was soft and tender, salty, spicy and had a sharper, tangier edge to it than fresh beef.

The spiced beef really popped on the plate visually. I served it with the unfortunately dull looking vegetables and some wholegrain mustard. Next time I’d love to try corned beef which I think would be delicious with the clean, comforting flavour of parsley sauce.

As a side note, most of us in Ireland will also be familiar with corned beef sandwiches. My first exposure to corned beef was in my aunt’s shop, where she sliced up ham or corned beef on a scary looking meat slicer. I was often sent to the shop to get slices of corned beef for sandwiches, which we would have on white O’Shea’s bread with brown sauce. This much more industrial corned beef came in a big rectangular tin.

So that’s spiced beef cooked long and slow in the crockpot. The extended cooking time in the spice-infused liquid makes for a delicious, pink-hued, tender joint that goes well with traditional side of potatoes and veg. And if you’re lucky, you’ll have some lovely spiced beef left over for sandwiches later.

Bio: Caitríona Devery is a writer from Offaly but based in Dublin, with interests in food, art, heritage and the environment. She is a member of the Irish Food Writers’ Guild and has written for the UK-based Feast Journal, Dublin’s Rabble magazine as well as District magazine and its offshoot Char.  

 

Recipe from Braised, Simmered & Stewed: Heritage Dishes from the Slow Cooker: Corned Beef / Spiced beef with or without Cabbage

Corned beef and cabbage may be the “Irish food” Americans eat on St. Patrick’s Day, but in Ireland, “salt beef” as it’s known, is not very common. When they do eat it, the Irish and the Brits typically simmer “corned beef “ for a few hours with onions and bay leaves (it doesn’t come with spice packets.)

“We carved up the salted beef joint like a Sunday roast and ate it with potatoes and parsley sauce,” an Irish friend remembered.

The sliced cold leftover corned beef makes magnificent sandwiches with mustard on rye bread.

2.2 lbs, (1 kilo) corned beef brisket flat

2 onions, quartered

2 bay leaves

10 peppercorns

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

Combine the ingredients in a 4 quart slow cooker with a quart or liter or water and cook on LOW for 8 hours or until the meat is fork tender (180*F). Turn the slow cooker off and allow the meat to cool in the cooking liquid. When cooled, remove it from the slow cooker and carve slices against the grain. (If you cook it too long, or you get an oddly-shaped piece, the meat with fall apart when you try to carve it. Don’t worry, it still tastes great.) Serve with boiled potatoes, a green salad and Parsley Sauce if desired.

With Cabbage: If it’s St. Patrick’s Day, or you prefer your corned beef with boiled vegetables, you can add peeled potatoes, and your choice of carrots, parsnips, turnips, and cabbage wedges to the slow cooker an hour before the end of the cooking time.

Or, after the meat is already done, transfer liquid from the slow cooker to a large saucepan or soup pot and bring to a boil on the hob (burner). Add vegetables and cook to desired tenderness.

Serve with mustard and cold beer.