Howard Test Kitchen: Corned Beef and Cabbage

It's almost St. Patrick's Day, and that means we'll be celebrating it in a big way. It also means we'll need a big meal to welcome it in style. So today we're cooking up a classic hearty favorite that's Irish inspired, yet actually has American roots. And all we do is place a raw corned beef in a large soup pot or, you know, we can use a Dutch oven and cover it with some water. Just make sure you add in that little package of pickling spice that comes with it 'cause it gives it a load of flavor. Ok, we're going to let that simmer for a couple of hours. Now meanwhile, we'll peel and cut up a few potatoes into good-size chunks, along with some carrots. And to save time, which we always want to do, we can add some packaged baby carrots. That way we don't have to peel 'em or cut 'em. And what's corned beef without cabbage? So we cut a head into wedges and add it along with our veggies right on top of our almost-tender meat. You see, adding our veggies now, ensures that everything cooks up tender at the same time. We'll cover it and let it simmer 'til our veggies are cooked through and they absorb all that meaty flavor from the meat as well as the broth. And let me tell you: this smells amazing. And when we slice the tender-as-can-be corned beef across the grain and serve it up along with all those steaming-hot-flavor-packed veggies, just watch all your leprechauns come running right to the table. Look, the recipe for "Classic Corned Beef and Cabbage" is online now just in time for St. Paddy's Day or really any day. It's like a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow - so good all you'll be hearing with every forkful ... as we say around here ... OOH IT'S SO GOOD!!