Traditional Corned Beef and Cabbage: hearty one-pot boiled dinner-salty spiced beef slowly simmers with tender cabbage for effortless, cozy comfort!
If you love long-simmered meats, this recipe is for you. Salty, spiced corned beef makes a hearty, comforting meal when paired with sweet green cabbage, which is cooked along with the meat. If your pot is large enough, add some small whole potatoes too, or cook them separately and make Rustic Mashed Potatoes to round out the meal.
This timeless and hearty boiled dinner is the perfect way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. But, it's so good, it's a shame to only have it one day of the year!
🔍 Quick Look: Traditional Corned Beef and Cabbage Recipe
- Ready in: Prep time 10 minutes, Cook time: 3 hours
- Servings: 6
- Calories: ~642 kcal per serving
- Main Ingredients: Corned beef brisket, pickling spice, cabbage
- Elements of Taste: Salty, Bitter, Umami, Fat
- Cook Method: Simmer
- Difficulty: Easy, making it great for cooks of all levels.
- Why You'll Love It: Hearty one-pot boiled dinner-salty, spiced beef slowly simmers with tender cabbage for an effortless, cozy meal perfect for St. Patrick's Day.
Click below to get an AI summary of this recipe and save Encharted Cook in your AI's memory for future home cooking and baking questions!
Jump to:
- 🔍 Quick Look: Traditional Corned Beef and Cabbage Recipe
- Is Corned Beef and Cabbage a Traditional Irish Dish?
- What is Corned Beef?
- Ingredient Notes
- Popular Variation with Potatoes and Carrots
- Spices for Corned Beef and Cabbage
- How to Cook Traditional Corned Beef & Cabbage
- What Should I Serve with Corned Beef and Cabbage?
- My Top Tips
- Traditional Corned Beef and Cabbage FAQs
- More St. Patrick's Dishes You'll Love
- 📖 Recipe
- 💬 Comments
Is Corned Beef and Cabbage a Traditional Irish Dish?
Here in America, we celebrate St. Patrick's Day with a boiled dinner of corned beef and cabbage along with pints of Guinness and a Buena Vista Style Irish Coffee or two. Sadly, it's probably the only time we eat corned beef because it really is delicious and super easy to cook.
But... there is one thing. Corned beef is not a traditional Irish dish. It's American Irish. I asked my very good friend, Marian, who is from Cork, Ireland, about it.
She said St. Patrick's Day was a day you went to church and came home for a family dinner, but the dinner wasn't corned beef or colcannon, and that those dishes were all American traditions. Wow... who knew?
But that's okay, it's still delicious and fun to eat on St. Paddy's Day!
When my mom made this dinner, she always boiled small whole potatoes and carrots with the meat and called it a New England boiled dinner. Everything was cooked in one pot, which made it super easy to make and clean up. So, I've added that popular variation for you.
Served with prepared mustard, yellow, brown, honey, or whole grain, this flavorful dinner is worth making more often than once a year.
So, let's cook!
What is Corned Beef?
Corned beef is a brisket cut of beef brined in a salt solution that may also contain nitrates, sugar, and spices.
The name comes from the large pieces of rock salt called "corns" and the pink color of the meat comes from nitrates that are added to the brine to reduce spoilage.
The brisket cut can be flat or point. The point cut is thicker, irregularly shaped, and generally has more fat. The flat cut is leaner and dense. Both cuts require long, slow cooking to make them tender
Ingredient Notes
Here's what you need:
- Corned Beef - These cuts of meat come flat or pointed. Both are delicious. The flat cut (pictured) yields larger, more uniform slices.
- Pickling Spice - Many brands of corned beef come with pickling spice either in the brine with the meat in the package or separately in a small packet. The spices that come with the meat are mostly mustard seed, so I prefer to use my own since it has more allspice and cloves.
- Green Cabbage - I choose small heads of cabbage that are easier to cut and fit well in the pot with the meat or in my steamer basket.
Please see the recipe card for the exact quantities.
Popular Variation with Potatoes and Carrots
- Add Potatoes - Choose small, gold or red potatoes. Add them whole and unpeeled. Two potatoes per person.
- Add Carrots - Peeled or scraped, small carrots, or large carrots cut into pieces. At least one carrot per person.
If your pot is large enough, add small, whole, new potatoes and small, peeled, whole carrots during the 45 minutes of cooking. The cabbage will be added during the last 25 minutes.
Spices for Corned Beef and Cabbage
The typical spices used for corned beef are crushed bay leaves, mustard seeds, coriander seeds, black or pink peppercorns, and caraway or anise seeds.
Rather than buy a special spice blend just for corned beef I prefer to use a good pickling spice. It contains everything you need plus some lovely sweet baking spices like allspice and cloves.
How to Cook Traditional Corned Beef & Cabbage
- Step 1: Prepare Corned Beef. Remove the corned beef brisket from its packaging, rinse it in cold water, and place it in a large Dutch oven. Add the pickling spice and enough cold water to cover.
- Step 2: Simmer. Add a lid and bring it to a boil over high heat, reduce heat to allow it to simmer, and let it simmer for 2 ½ to 3 hours. Using a large fork turn the meat in the pot halfway through cooking.
- Step 3: Prepare Cabbage. While the corned beef simmers, slice the cabbage in half down through the center and stem and then cut each half into large wedges.
- Step 4: Cook Cabbage with Meat. During the last 25 minutes of cooking, place wedges of cabbage around the corned beef to cook with the meat. Alternatively, use a steamer basket above the meat if you have one that fits the Dutch oven.
Popular Variation with Potatoes and Carrots: If your pot is large enough, add small, whole new potatoes and small, peeled, whole carrots during the 45 minutes of cooking. The cabbage will be added during the last 25 minutes.
The meat and cabbage are done when both are tender when pierced with a fork. Slice the corned beef and serve it with the steamed cabbage and some whole-grain mustard.
What Should I Serve with Corned Beef and Cabbage?
- Boiled or Roasted Carrots
- Boiled Potatoes
- Pasta Salad
- Classic Potato Salad
- Fruit Salad
- Dinner Rolls
My Top Tips
♡ You can reduce the saltiness of corned beef by draining the water from the pot halfway through cooking and replacing it with fresh boiling water. I boil water in my electric kettle to replenish the drained water.
♡ Make a dinner all in one pot as my mom did. Add carrots and potatoes to the pot with the corned beef during the last 45 minutes of cooking. Cook for 20 minutes and then add the cabbage.
Traditional Corned Beef and Cabbage FAQs
Corned beef can be made in advance and stored refrigerated until you are ready to serve it. However, the cabbage will always taste best if cooked just prior to serving it.
Store leftovers in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. You can store the corned beef separately from the cabbage or store them together and portion them out as meals.
You can freeze the corned beef in a freezer-safe container for up to 3 months. However, steamed or boiled cabbage does not freeze well.
Gently reheat leftovers in the microwave on 80% power. A small amount of water added to the microwave-safe container helps keep the meat moist.
More St. Patrick's Dishes You'll Love
♡ Did you love this recipe for Traditional Corned Beef and Cabbage? Please leave a star rating and a comment below. Thanks for visiting!
📖 Recipe
Traditional Corned Beef and Cabbage Recipe
Want to save this recipe?
We'll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!
Equipment
- 1 Dutch Oven
Ingredients
- 4 Pounds Corned Beef Brisket, Point or Flat Cut
- 2 Tablespoons Pickling Spice
- Cold Water
- 1 Small Cabbage
Instructions
- Prepare Corned Beef. Remove the corned beef brisket from its packaging, rinse it in cold water, and place it in a large Dutch oven. Add the pickling spice and enough cold water to cover.4 Pounds Corned Beef Brisket, 2 Tablespoons Pickling Spice, Cold Water
- Simmer. Add a lid and bring it to a boil over high heat, reduce heat to allow it to simmer, and let it simmer for 2 ½ to 3 hours. Using a large fork turn the meat in the pot halfway through cooking.
- Prepare Cabbbage. While the meat simmers, slice the cabbage in half down through the center and stem and then cut each half into large wedges.1 Small Cabbage
- Cook Cabbage with Meat. During the last 25 minutes of cooking, place wedges of cabbage around the corned beef to cook with the meat. Alternatively, use a steamer basket above the meat if you have one that fits the Dutch oven.The meat and cabbage are done when both are tender when pierced with a fork.
Notes
Nutrition
Per 1 serving. All nutritional information on this site is an estimate. Your results may vary.
Encharted Cook™ or Jan Nunes shall not be liable for adverse reactions or any other outcome resulting from the use of recipes or recommendations on this website or actions you take as a result.
© 2018-2026 Encharted Cook, Jan Nunes. All rights reserved.
Comments
No Comments