Make-Ahead Crockpot Corned Beef & Cabbage

Make-ahead Crockpot Corned Beef & Cabbage is prepared a day in advance to ensure tender, juicy corned beef rather than the shoe-leather-tough meat that results far too often from 8-hour crockpot methods. 

Make-ahead Crockpot corned beef & cabbage: not Irish, but it’s all good

(Updated post) Saint Patrick’s Day is here, and my family always celebrates with crockpot corned beef and cabbage, the Irish-American classic. Yes, corned beef and cabbage is technically Irish-American, not Irish per se: in Ireland, the locals didn’t have access to beef—apparently that more expensive meat got shipped off to England back in the day. So if you want a more authentically Irish dish, you’d be better off making lamb.

In much the same way, St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in the United States—with their green beer, green rivers, green everything—are nothing like the celebrations in Ireland. But, like many families in the U.S.—with or without roots to the old country—corned beef and cabbage is the dish that Phil and I have been eating since childhood to celebrate the holiday. So that’s the tradition we keep.

Another familiar moniker for crockpot corned beef and cabbage is New England Boiled Dinner, which is a bit more illuminating as far as the roots of the dish. Whatever you prefer to call it, crockpot corned beef and cabbage is just about the easiest slow-cooker-and-go recipe around.

I use the brisket-in-a-vacuum-sealed bag strategy, seasoning packet and all. These briskets are pre-brined to stay hydrated and tender during the long cooking process, but they do contain nitrates: someday, my mission will be to brine my own brisket. Saltpeter and other scary-sounding stuff is involved. For now, it’s vacuum packs for me. If you have your own recipe for brining a brisket, well—you’re my hero.

Preparing make-ahead corned beef & cabbage

I find that Guinness makes a darned fine braising liquid for this make-ahead crockpot corned beef and cabbage—especially for a good Irish-inspired meal. Don’t worry: it won’t taste like alcohol. The meat will put out quite a bit of juice on its own and the alcohol will almost completely cook off. (If you’re concerned, use beef broth instead.) For veggies, I use a bag of baby carrots, some red potatoes, and an onion.

If you’ve ever made slow-cooker corned beef & cabbage, you know that the meat can come out tough. It’s not your fault! Beef brisket is a one of those strange, formerly cheap cuts of meat that—even if you low-and-slow it for 8 hours—is still likely to come out tough. Why? Brisket is a cut that is chock-full of collagen, a protein found in large amounts in connective tissue, particularly in muscle.

In order for meat to be tender, the collagen has to melt. And in order for the collagen to melt, the meat has to be heated to a certain temperature over a certain period of time. Melted collagen turns into luscious gelatin, which not only makes the corned beef incredibly succulent, but also enhances its flavor.

I have made a version of this crockpot corned beef & cabbage recipe for many, many years. For a number of those years, my corned beef came out at approximately the consistency of shoe leather. This is when I made the realization that 8 hours of low and slow isn’t enough. In fact, if I returned my shoe leather to the pot and cooked another 4 or so hours, the result was almost always fantastic. So at least the SECOND meal of crockpot corned beef & cabbage was awesome—not to mention the to-die-for Reuben Sandwiches later on.

As a result of this revelation, I have begun making a make-ahead crockpot corned beef & cabbage the day before. I put the corned beef in the slow-cooker around 8 in the morning and let it go until 8 at night (removing the potatoes and carrots at 5 or 6), followed by a simple reheat on the stovetop the next day. (You may know from elsewhere on this site that I’m a big fan of making sauces and stews the day before anyway because the flavors have a chance to deepen and meld.)

Make-ahead Crockpot corned beef & cabbage: about the veggies

Another result of crockpot corned beef & cabbage badness is undercooked AND mushy vegetables. Yes. You can have both if you add all of the vegetables at the beginning of an 8-hour slow-cook. Honestly, the safest strategy for the carrots, onions, and potatoes would be to par-cook them (for example, steaming for 6-8 minutes until you can pierce them with a paring knife, but they’re still somewhat firm). Then add them to the slow-cooker with the cabbage for the final hour on high.

But I totally get it if you don’t have the time or energy to futz with the vegetables that much. You can totally add the potatoes, carrots, and onion—but don’t you dare add the cabbage!—at the beginning. The onion will dissolve away into nothing, but that’s not a big issue to me, since its main function is to flavor the meat and broth. The potatoes and carrots will likely be done after 8 hours (so in my 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. scenario, I would check the veggies at 6 p.m. and take them out if they’re done).

For the cabbage, I use a half of a large head (save the rest for stir-fry!) and cut it into wedges lengthwise, with the core still attached. This keeps the leaves together. So in the run-up to the final hour of cooking, I remove the potatoes and carrots, put the meat in the bottom of the slow-cooker so it’s submerged in the juice, arrange the cabbage around it, and turn the slow-cooker to high. Cooked this way, the cabbage retains some of its texture rather than turning into nasty, greenish mush.

Make-ahead Crockpot corned beef & cabbage: the key to juicy, tender meat

After this final hour, I let the make-ahead crockpot corned beef & cabbage cool down slightly before putting them in the refrigerator.

Remember that collagen I mentioned before? By now, it should all be melted. Putting the meat in the refrigerator gives the resulting gelatin a chance to redistribute and set up throughout the meat—a huge flavor boost, not to mention that the meat will be tender and succulent as a result.

The next day, I simply add all of the crockpot corned beef & cabbage ingredients to a Dutch oven and reheat over medium-low. When the corned beef is warmed through, I let the meat rest about 10 minutes before slicing into it.

Serving the Make-ahead Crockpot Corned Beef & Cabbage

About slicing. It’s important to slice it against the grain. If you slice with the grain, you’re practically guaranteed stringy, tough shoe leather. As you probably know, “the grain” refers to the orientation of the muscle fibers. “With the grain” means that you’re cutting the meat along the length of the muscle fibers so that they stay intact and give you that nasty, tough, stringy texture. “Across the grain,” on the other hand, means that you’re cutting those muscle fibers up, which results in tender meat.

I also like to slice the meat fairly thin. I arrange the meat on a platter with the drained veggies and serve with Dijon mustard. I obviously like a ton of vegetables and just a few slices of corned beef (see photo). My motives are two-fold: first, it’s healthy, and second, I have more leftovers for Reuben Sandwiches. SCORE.

For the most part, make-ahead crockpot corned beef & cabbage method is more of a braise, since the meat sits up on top of the veggies and only has the lower 1/3-1/2 in the broth. While it’s cooking, the meat is continually basted by the juices that condense on the lid of the slow-cooker and drip back down on the meat. To me, the result is more flavorful and tender.

Sure, make-ahead crockpot corned beef is a bit more work than your standard recipe for slow-cooker corned beef with cabbage, potatoes, onions and carrots. But it’s totally worth it—and since it’s spread across two days, it’s very do-able. You can always choose to follow the standard 8 hours of low-and-slow: your results will still be delicious. Just remember that if the meat comes out tough, it needs more cook time. Suffer through a few thin slices of the meat, but put the rest back in the pot and cook it a couple more hours.

 Linkies

I’m linking my make-ahead crockpot corned beef & cabbage recipe up with:

• #CookBlogShare , a great food blogger recipe-share at Easy Peasy Foodie.
• #CookOnceEatTwice, for recipes that are just as good left-over as they are when you made them, hosted by Searching for Spice.
• #RecipeOfTheWeek hosted by A Mummy Too.
• #BrillBlogPosts, a link party with a variety of lifestyle reads hosted by Honest Mum.