Skip to main content
Baking

To Boil Corned Beef

This recipe describes boiling corned beef in cold water until tender, then removing bones and pressing the meat on ice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
To Boil Corned Beef

To Boil Corned Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Cook

  1. Place the corned beef in a pot of cold water.

  2. Boil for 5 to 6 hours until tender.

  3. Remove the bones from the meat.

Press and chill

  1. Wrap the meat tightly in a towel.

  2. Place it on ice with a weight to press it.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Corned beef
Its connective tissue breaks down during the long boil, making the meat tender.
Cold water
Acts as the cooking liquid that carries heat gently into the meat during the boil.

The step that matters

Boil for 5 to 6 hours until tender. Connective tissue in the beef breaks down slowly over long, steady cooking. Stopping early leaves the meat tough and chewy, so the cook should keep going until it is fork-tender.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

More corned beef recipes

Hash 114Boiled 54and Cabbage 30Boiled Dinner 19Salad 10Brine 7 See all 120 →

You might also like

Delicate CakeDelicate Cake246 recipesBoiled FrostingBoiled Frosting69 recipesCitron CakeCitron Cake68 recipesScotch CakeScotch Cake63 recipes