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To Boil Corned Beef

A boiled corned beef with vegetables and condiments.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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To Boil Corned Beef

Why it works: Turnip and parsnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 590 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

To Boil Corned Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. If the beef is not pre-soaked, soak it in cold water overnight.

  2. Place the beef in a pot and cover with cold water.

  3. Bring to a boil over high heat in about 30 minutes, skimming off any scum.

  4. Reduce heat and simmer slowly until tender, about 2.5 hours for an 8-pound piece.

  5. If not serving hot, let it cool in the pot, then drain in a colander and cover with a cloth.

Cook the vegetables

  1. For vegetables, skim fat from the pot and transfer some liquid to another kettle.

  2. Add quartered cabbage, halved turnips, chopped carrots, and parsnips to the kettle.

  3. Add peeled potatoes to the meat pot half an hour before serving.

Serve

  1. Serve with horse-radish, pickles, and boiled beets drizzled with vinegar.

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

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Turnip + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together590 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Radish + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together35 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Cabbage + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Corned beef
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through long, slow simmering.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and mild sweetness as it softens in the cooking liquid.
Turnips
Absorb the savoury cooking liquid and add a mildly sweet, earthy flavour.
Potatoes
Starch thickens the surrounding liquid slightly and gives a soft, filling texture.
Beets
Add colour and sweetness, and the vinegar adds acidity that balances them.

The step that matters

Simmer slowly after the boil. A hard rolling boil toughens the meat's muscle fibres and can make it stringy. Gentle simmering lets collagen break down slowly, so the beef becomes tender without drying out.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, horse, radish, cabbage, turnip, carrot, parsnip):

  1. Beetrootfits better
  2. Broccolifits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, horse, radish, cabbage, turnip, carrot, parsnip. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

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