New England Boiled Dinner

An Easy One-Pot Meal

New England Boiled Dinner is a simple, one-pot meal made with corned beef brisket, potatoes, cabbage, and other vegetables. Our recipe is a fairly standard version made on top of the stove. It takes a little over 3-1/2 hours from start to finish, but the hands-on time is minimal.

In addition to the potatoes and cabbage, our recipe calls for carrots, turnips, and pearl onions. And, to add extra flavor to the dish, we cook our veggies in the same water the corned beef simmered in and serve the finished dish with horseradish cream sauce and whole grain mustard.

A Quick History of New England Boiled Dinner

This classic, hearty dish has a long history documented in written cookbooks as far back as the early 1800s. Depending on the source of the recipe, there’s some variance in the ingredients, but the essentials (meat boiled along with root vegetables) have remained the same throughout the centuries.

Also known as corned beef and cabbage, New England boiled dinner has become a very popular dish to serve on St. Patrick’s Day in America. Worth noting is the fact that the true Irish version calls for bacon, not corned beef. The Americanized corned beef version came about when Irish immigrants discovered that beef was a more economical option than pork.

What Is Corned Beef?

Corned beef is most commonly made from the brisket, an inexpensive cut of beef taken from the breast section of the cow. The term “corned” originated in 17th century England where the large grains of salt used to cure the meat to preserve it were referred to as “corns.” Modern recipes for corned beef are made by brining the beef for a week or more in a seasoned solution made from salt, pickling spices, and sodium nitrite (pink curing salt). Just like an uncured brisket, corned beef needs to be cooked for a long time in some quantity of liquid in order to be tender.

Key Ingredients and Substitutions

As noted above, the vegetables in our New England boiled dinner recipe are fairly traditional, and each one adds an earthy, slightly sweet contrast to the hearty flavor of the corned beef.

• Corned beef: This recipe calls for a traditional, flat-cut, corned beef brisket weighing somewhere between 2 and 3 pounds. If you’d like to try your hand at corning beef at home, Kevin is Cooking has a detailed recipe that even includes Instant Pot instructions!
• Baby potatoes: We like to use baby red potatoes in this dish. When shopping, do your best to choose evenly sized potatoes that are on the small side and leave them whole for easy serving and an attractive presentation. If you can’t find baby red potatoes, the yellow variety is fine to use, as are regular-sized Yukon Golds cut into chunks.
• Baby carrots: Our choice of baby carrots is all about presentation. Like whole carrots, they cook up tender and sweet, but they also look really appealing on a serving platter.
• Turnips: Purple-top turnips are tender with an earthy, sweet-and-savory quality that we happen to love, but if you’re not fond of them, replace them with parsnips or omit them altogether.
• Pearl onions: We use fresh pearl onions in our boiled dinner because they hold their shape and texture better than frozen ones. They are a bit of a job to peel, but here’s an easy method: immerse the onions in boiling water for 3 to 4 minutes, then plunge them into ice water for 2 minutes. Drain well, cut off the root end of the onion with kitchen shears, then squeeze gently from the opposite end. The onion should pop out of the skin through the trimmed end.
• Green cabbage: Choose a head of cabbage that feels light for its size, pull off the outer leaves, trim the stem end, and cut into wedges, leaving the core intact. This keeps the wedges from falling apart.

How to Make New England Boiled Dinner

This is an overview of how this dish is made. You’ll find detailed measurements, ingredients, and instructions in the printable version of the recipe below.

1. Place the corned beef in a Dutch oven, cover it with water, and bring it to a rapid simmer. Cook for 10 minutes, discard that water, replace with fresh, and bring to a simmer once again (see notes).
2. Reduce the heat to medium-low, and add the peppercorns, cloves, and bay leaf. Cover and continue cooking until the corned beef is fork-tender, 2-1/2 to 3 hours. Note: You may need to reduce the heat to low if the liquid continues to bubble rapidly.
3. Transfer the corned beef to a cutting board and cover with a double thickness of foil to keep warm.
4. Add the potatoes to the liquid in the Dutch oven and increase the heat to medium-high. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes, then add the carrots, turnips, and pearl onions.
5. Simmer for an additional 10 minutes, add the cabbage wedges, and continue cooking for 10 to 12 minutes longer or until all the vegetables are tender when pierced with the tip of a sharp knife.
6. While the vegetables are cooking, prepare the horseradish cream sauce. Combine the sour cream and horseradish in a small bowl, season to taste with salt and pepper, then transfer to a serving bowl.
7. Once the vegetables are cooked and tender, leave them in the Dutch oven for a couple of minutes while you slice the corned beef across the grain into 1/4-inch thick slices.
8. Using a slotted spoon, quickly transfer the vegetables to a serving platter and reheat the corned beef by returning it to the pot for 2 minutes while you arrange the vegetables around the edges of the platter.
9. Using tongs, arrange the corned beef slices in the center of the platter and serve with the horseradish cream sauce and some coarse-grain mustard for dipping.

Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day!

Corned beef and cabbage is classic comfort food and a great choice for a home-cooked St. Patrick’s Day dinner, but if you’re looking for other options, we have a few more recipes you might want to consider.

Lamb is a popular ingredient in Irish cuisine and a classic Shepherd’s Pie is one of our favorite ways to use it. If you’re not familiar with the dish, it’s a delicious casserole of sautéed ground lamb (not beef – that’s cottage pie), carrots, and leeks topped with whipped potatoes and baked until golden brown.

If you’d like a more traditional meat-and-potatoes meal, try our pan-seared loin lamb chops served with a side dish of colcannon (buttery mashed potatoes blended with sautéed kale). If you’re craving something a bit unique, consider a roasted lamb loin glazed with Guinness stout and served with an easy-to-make red onion jam.