Cookbook:Corned Beef

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To cook corned beef in the Irish tradition you need

          a six-pound round/brisket of corned beef
          3 carrots, sliced diagonally
          3 medium onions
          mixed herbs
          one teaspoon ground allspice
          one teaspoon ground cloves
          Guinness

Put the brisket on a bed of the chopped vegetables using a large saucepan, just covering them with water that is room temp and simmer lightly for 4 hours, then add a half pint of Guinness and go one more hour simmering all. Serve it cold on Christmas since there are no worries slaving in the kitchen this day, the brisket should be removed and pressed between 2 dishes with a weight on top, reserve juice for hot topping gravy; other days you serve hot. Theodora Fitsgibbon's A Taste of Ireland, 1968

Historically the Irish Corned Beef has been world renowned for being served as the primary preserved meat on the Royal navy ships of the 16th and 17th century, with no equal, even though unaffordable by the Irish peasants themselves. Realistically, it wasn't until the Irish in America could become successful that they could once again afford to eat their natural cuisine and their wonderful invention could be savored in the average household giving the dish special meaning. Read A History Of Salt by Mark Kurlansky 2002 Walter Pub.