Hello and welcome back to The Stone Soup Cook! And happy St. Patrick’s Day! So glad you’re here!
This week, I’ll be continuing my dive into foods from the Bible, but today I’m stretching things a little: I will be celebrating a saint, St. Patrick, but corned beef is a more modern creation.
St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. He was active as a missionary in the fifth century. He was born in England, kidnapped at age 16 and taken to Ireland, where he was sold into slavery. After six years, he escaped back to his native England, but returned to Ireland after becoming a cleric and he is credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland.
The apocryphal story of St. Patrick ridding Ireland of snakes is a popular legend, but widely disputed. Scholars state that while it is true that Ireland has no snakes, it likely never did due its geographical location.
Eating corned beef on St. Patrick’s Day is of Irish-American origin, having been embraced by Irish immigrants as a less expensive and more available option than more traditional Irish bacon or salt pork.
And now for my “do as I say, not as a I do” admonishment. This year, as with most years, I bought my corned beef, and I was really looking forward to it, as I quite like the flavor of corned beef, as well as things made with the leftovers. I got a lovely point cut roast and did a slow cook on it. I placed the roast fat-cap side up atop a bed of onions, carrots and sprigs of thyme. I poured a quart of water in, sprinkled the spice packet over top of the roast and set the slow cooker for eight hours. At about hour six, I took a little taste of the brine. It was bland and lifeless. Oh boy. I went to my post from last year and found my warning about just such a culinary disappointment. Last year, I used onions, carrots and thyme, but instead of plain water, I used beef broth, white wine and a bay leaf to flavor the brine. As a hail Mary pass, I dissolved a couple of beef bouillon cubes in some of the brine. This improved things, but wasn’t enough to save the dish.
So..please folks: do as I say and not as a I do.
Tune in tomorrow when I’ll be continuing my series on Biblical foods, this week focusing on olives and olive oil.
Until then,
Peace, love and good food,
Keri
