Homemade Corned Beef With Spices, Cabbage & Carrots And Sandwiches for Card Night

In early October, I made my own corned beef from a large brisket and posted about it in November.  When I made it, I cut it into two good sized pieces and put one in the freezer which is the subject of this post.

The reason I’m posting about corned beef again is because of the spices I cooked it with – you get no little spice packet when you make your own corned beef.  I looked at several recipes online and decided on a one for Corned Beef And Cabbage from “Bake It With Love” as it is what we were making and it had lots of ingredients.  I changed it a little for what I had on hand and my taste (less cinnamon).

Corned Beef Spices -

Ingredients:

 2 bay leaves

12 whole peppercorns

½ tablespoon mustard seeds

½ tablespoon coriander seeds

8 allspice berries (1/2 tsp. ground)

8 whole cloves

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon fennel seeds

½ teaspoon dill seed

½ teaspoon star anise seeds

½ teaspoon ground ginger

¼ tsp ground cinnamon 1 cinnamon stick (broken into at least two pieces)

1/3 tsp ground cardamom 2 cardamom pods

Instructions:

1. Combine all seasoning mix ingredients for immediate use.

My brisket weighed four pounds and most recipes call for 2-3 tbsp. of spices when cooking but since Bev generally complains about not enough flavor, I used them all.  My brisket was too big for our crockpot and I didn’t want to cut it so I used our large Dutch oven and cooked it on the cook top rather than in the oven.  I added two cups of beef broth and the spices to the pan and cooked them an hour prior to adding the meat.

I added the meat and two more cups of beef broth to coved it, brought it to a boil, then reduced the heat, covered the pot, and simmered it for three hours.

I then added carrots and a half head of cabbage (cut into wedges) and cooked until the carrots and meat were both tender - about 60 minutes.

This is my plate which I couldn't finish.

The Verdict:

It was delicious and the spice mix worked very well - I'll use it all again next time but maybe give it a quick spin in the spice grinder to unlock the flavors more.

And, of course, the required corned beef sandwiches followed the next night for our Friday card night - Cindy, Pat, Kathy, and Bev (Joe was absent).

Not exactly Reubens as we used cheddar cheese and remoulade sauce with the meat, and kraut on marbled rye bread but I believe it may have been the best I've had.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

12/08/22 meal date