Skip to main content
Main

Corned Beef and Cabbage

A boiled corned beef served with cooked cabbage.

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

Why it works: Beef and cabbage work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 872 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Corned Beef and Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the corned beef

  1. Place the corned beef in a pot and cover with water.

  2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 5 hours or until tender.

Prepare and cook the cabbage

  1. Cut the cabbage into quarters and remove the thick stem.

  2. Soak in cold water until ready to cook.

  3. Two hours before serving, bring a pot of water to a boil.

  4. Add a little coarse sea salt and ½ teaspoon baking soda.

  5. Add the cabbage to the boiling water.

  6. Cook young summer cabbage for 30 minutes to 1 hour, and solid winter cabbage for 1 to 2 hours.

  7. When the cabbage is nearly done, drain it in a colander.

Serve

  1. Serve with the corned beef.

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.

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. Beef + cabbagetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together872 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Corned beef (brisket)
Slow simmering over several hours breaks down connective tissue, making the meat tender and moist.
Cabbage
Its sturdy leaves soften during boiling, becoming tender and mild in flavour.
Baking soda
Raises the water's pH, helping cabbage leaves soften and turn a brighter colour as they cook.

The step that matters

Cooking the cabbage to the right stage. Young summer cabbage cooks in 30 minutes to 1 hour, while solid winter cabbage needs 1 to 2 hours. Overcooking releases sulphur compounds, which give a strong smell and mushy texture, so check it as it nears done.

“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.

You might also like

Roast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipesBeef BrothBeef Broth67 recipes