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Just a bit late from St.Pats day, but, its still delicious from !

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Vargr has made this multiple times now, and the pressure cooker turns the corned beef into the most juicy, tender, fall apart on your fork version of corned beef that wuffy has ever eaten. Then the glaze to go with it – spicy and a little mustard-y heat with a strong sweet note that is mellowed and rendered more savory by the mustard.

The pressure cooker method also allows you to tailer the cooking time for each portion of the ingredients, to get each one the way you like it most. Like your potatoes with a bit of resistance, or like 'em completely mushy - you can get them your way. Same for the cabbage and the corned beef itself.

But they all still taste like they cooked together, like a "New England Boil" (which, in essence, they did!). Vrghr can't think of a better way to prepare this, and it comes with the side benefit of being very speedy compared to other techniques!


This is, hands down, the absolute best version of Corned Beef that Vargr has ever eaten!

Note: If you want to make corned beef hash or similar dishes, you might want to skip making the glaze. The mustard and sugar aren't QUITE as compatible with those savory dishes. However, if you like making corned beef sandwiches, then by all means do the glaze part. You'll love the hints of sweetness and mustard added to whatever else you like to dress your sandwiches up with!

Corned Beef (Cabbage and veggies follow)
Ingredients:

1/4 – 1/3 C cider vinegar
3 Bay leaves
1 1/2 Tbs Minced Garlic
1 1/2 tsp Mustard Powder
1 tsp Ground black pepper
1 tsp Fennel seed
1/2 tsp Marjoram
2 carrots
1/2 medium onion
~2 C water

(For the glaze)
“Safeway brand” sweet and spicy southwestern style mustard
Brown sugar

4lb corned beef (point or flat, whichever is cheaper) w/ season packet

Directions:
Line a raised-side cookie sheet with tinfoil. The melted brown sugar from the glaze can be very hard to remove otherwise.

Cut the onion into 2-3 wedges.

Put a trivet in the bottom of your pressure cooker to keep the meat from resting on the metal. Or, alternately, use the carrots and onion wedges under the meat to hold it up during the initial heating.

For this recipe, the veggies are just for seasoning. If you wish to make “corned beef and cabbage”, the veggies get made once the corned beef comes out of the pot (see below).

Put all the spices, cider vinegar, veggies, and water into the pressure cooker.

Rinse off the corned beef (the beef is very salty) and discard the juices. If your corned beef has a seasoning packet, keep it and add its seasoning to the pressure cooker.
Add the corned beef as well as the seasonings in the pack (if your brand included them).

Attach the lid, and bring to cooking pressure over high heat. Reduce heat to “maintenance” temperature (just steaming lightly).
Start the timer when the cooker reaches operating pressure. For a 4 pound beef, it took just a little bit over 1 hour at cooking pressure (~1hr, 5 min)
Turn off the heat, and allow pressure to reduce naturally for about 15 minutes. Then you can either vent it (will steam the place up pretty good), or use “quick cool” method by running cold water over the sides in the sink.

Remove top and carefully transfer the meat to the prepared, foil-covered baking sheet. (Use care, the meat may be VERY fragile and tender)

Using the back of a soup spoon or your fingers, smear a very thin coat of the sweet and spicy mustard over the top and sides of the meat. Don't have to be totally even, but try to make sure it all has at least a little bit over the meat.

Sprinkle with brown sugar until the whole surface is lightly covered (can use the back of the spoon again to mash and spread out clumps, but don't be too particular because they'll melt and run in the next step). Also, using the back of the spoon as a “shelf”, sprinkle the sides of the meat too and press the sugar into the mustard with the back of the spoon.

Set a rack in the oven about 6 inches under your broiler. Slide the cookie sheet in and crank on the broiler to highest setting. (Its okay to start from a cold oven, you're working with the radiant heat here, not baking it.)

Broil the roast for roughly 7-9 minutes. Watch it closely after the first 4-5 though. You want the sugar to melt and begin to brown and caramelize, but not to char and blacken much (a bit of black won't hurt though – tastes pretty good, actually! )

Remove (CAREFUL its REALLY hot now!) and allow to rest for 5 minutes or so before carving. Cut across the grain for best results, but it'll be so tender that slicing it in any direction might be a bit of a challenge; it will try to fall apart instead of slice.

To Make Corned Beef w/Potatoes and Cabbage (or other veggies, as desired)

The broth from the the corned beef is absolutely loaded with flavor! And when you cook your veggies in that, inside a pressure cooker, all those flavors will be forced into the veggies you cook.

The potatoes and carrots will only need about 5 to 7 minutes to finish, and the cabbage barely needs to begin pressurizing before it is tender.

The veggies from this are some of the absolute best wuff has tasted. Vrghr can make a full meal out of nothing but these!

Here's the 3 "essential" veggies. In roughly equal proportion:

Red potatoes. (Whole, if small, or halved/quartered, if larger)
Yellow onions (Cut is 1/8ths wedges)
Carrots (Sliced into approx 1 inch hunks)

Start at about 2 pounds each, but you can ramp it up to what your cooker will hold.

You can also add:

Turnips (1/2 inch dice)
Pearl or "boiler" onions
Sweet Potatoes
Yellow Potatoes

If you wish to have this with cabbage, peal off any bruised outer leaves and slice your cabbage into Eighths wedges. Remove the stem. You don't have to remove the core -the pressure cooker will make it tender.

No need to add any salt, pepper, or other spices to the liquid. Just add the potatoes and carrots and bring the cooker back to pressure, and cook at working pressure (15psi) for ~ 7 minutes. The time really doesn't change with the amount of veggies. But it will take longer to come to pressure with more veggies.

If you're making cabbage, do a rapid or water release. Pile the sliced wedges on top of the other veggies, and replace the lid. Return to heat and let the pressure cooker come up to pressure. As soon as it begins to hiss, remove it from the heat and do a rapid or water release.

Serve the veggies alongside the corned beef with a little butter on top!

Enjoy! And Happy Eating!

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Allergy warning – please read all recipes carefully and be aware of any allergies or sensitivities that may effect your health and well-being