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To Boil Corned Beef

A boiled corned beef dish with cabbage, turnips, carrots, parsnips, potatoes, and boiled beets served with vinegar.

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 using unsoaked corned beef, soak in cold water overnight.

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

  3. Bring to a boil over high heat.

  4. Remove scum.

  5. Reduce heat and simmer slowly for 2.5 hours until tender.

  6. Let it cool in the pot.

  7. Drain in a colander.

  8. Cover with a cloth to keep it fresh.

Cook the vegetables and serve

  1. Skim fat from the liquid 45 minutes before serving.

  2. Add cabbage quarters, halved turnips, chopped carrots, and parsnips to the pot.

  3. Pour in boiling water.

  4. Add peeled potatoes half an hour before serving.

  5. Serve with 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.
Potatoes
Absorb the seasoned cooking liquid and add starchy body to the plate.
Turnips
Contribute a mild, slightly sweet flavour and firm texture after simmering.
Beets
Add earthy sweetness and colour, balanced by the sharpness of the vinegar.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and colour to the pot of vegetables.

The step that matters

Simmer the beef slowly. A gentle simmer lets connective tissue in the brisket slowly break down into tender meat. A rolling boil toughens the muscle fibres and can leave the beef stringy.

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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