Recipe: Corned Beef and Beans

Corned Beef and Beans
rec.food.cooking/Bruce M. Binder/1991

This is how I have been cooking my St. Patrick's Day corned beef for the past nine years.

Buy a corned beef brisket at your local supermarket. In a pot, pour 12 ounces of beer. Add a bay leaf or two, a dried red chile or two, a teaspoon or two of coriander seeds, a teaspoon or two of mustard seeds, a few dashes of cinnamon, a few dashes of allspice, and all the juice from the corned beef pack. Put the corned beef on a steamer rack in the pot and add water to bring the liquid level up to the bottom of the rack.

Cover the pot and put it on some heat and bring the liquid to a boil. Steam for several hours (it took me five hours for a 4 lb brisket) until the meat doesn't feel rubbery when you stick a fork in it. Add water or beer or both as needed to keep some liquid in the pot.

Remove the meat and slice. Remove the steamer rack. Leave all the other stuff in the pot and put in some potatoes and carrots and turnips or whatever. Add water to cover and boil until the stuff is cooked. Remove all the vegetables and potatoes. Put the steamer rack back in and put in some cabbage wedges. Steam them for about five to ten minutes, depending on how crisp or soggy you like cabbage.

Serve.

Now here is the part I was raving about. This is the first year I have tried this and is based on the brilliant recommendation of Al Knoll.

Get out some beans which you have thoughtfully left soaking overnight in water (I used white beans, red beans and black beans all mixed up). Drain them and put them in a pot. Cover them with the liquid that you have been using to cook the corned beef and cabbage and potatoes and vegetables. The liquid should be about an inch higher than the beans. Simmer for three or four hours or until the beans are as firm or as mushy as you like them. The beans will not be ready with the rest of the meal but, as the original poster noted, you can eat them reheated the next day when the flavors have had a chance to "marry".

Delicious.