Apologies and more apologies for posting this recipe for Baked Corn Beef two days after St. Patty’s Day. But since the dish received the coveted Hiram Seal of Approval, I’m posting it now instead of waiting until next year.
Corn beef with cabbage is not my favorite meal, at least not the boiled version. (It’s a texture thing.) But this baked version, found at the Simply Recipes website, was very, very good. Good enough that when corn beef was on sale last week, I picked up a couple packages and froze them for future use.
Baked Corn Beef
3 pounds corn beef
10 whole cloves
1/4 cup sweet, hot honey mustard
2 tablespoons brown sugar
Preheat oven to 350°F. Take the corned beef from the package and discard the spice packet. To reduce the salt content, place meat in a pot fat side up. Cover with water, bring to a boil on top of the stove. Discard the water, add fresh water and bring to a boil again. Again discard the water.
Lay the corned beef, fat side up, on a large piece of heavy duty, wide, aluminum foil. Poke the cloves into the top of the slab of corned beef, evenly spaced. Spread the top with the hot sweet honey mustard. Sprinkle with brown sugar.
Wrap the corned beef with foil so there’s space between the top of the corned beef and the foil. This creates a way for the foil to catch the juices. Place foil-wrapped corned beef in a shallow roasting pan and bake for 2 hours.
Fold back the foil from the top, spread a little more honey mustard over the corned beef, and broil it for 2-3 minutes, until the top is bubbly and lightly browned.
Let rest for 5 to 10 minutes on a cutting board. Pull out cloves and discard. Cut the meat at a diagonal across the grain into 1/2-inch thick slices. Serve with sauteed cabbage.
The recipe for sauteed cabbage, as well as traditional boiled corn beef and cabbage can be found at Simply Recipes Corn Beef and Cabbage. Luck o’ the Irish to ya!
