New England Boiled Dinner

One year of the blog. I've been writing this thing for fifty-two weeks — a year of recipes, of Thursdays in Vermont, of an old man standing in a kitchen talking about beans and carrots and the particular alchemy of heat and time and patience. Helen reminded me of the anniversary. She remembers everything. I remember to split the difference on the carrots. Between the two of us, we cover the important things.

I looked back at the first post — New England boiled dinner, March 2016, reluctance dripping from every sentence. "Who wants to read about an old man boiling potatoes?" Turns out: about a hundred people, give or take. That's the readership now. A hundred regular readers. Not viral. Not famous. Just a hundred people who come back every week to read what a retired English teacher in Vermont cooked for dinner. Helen says a hundred is a classroom. She's right. Three classrooms, actually, which is about what I taught in a day. The audience is different — older, lonelier, more likely to write in about their grandmother's recipe — but the work is the same. I'm still teaching. I'm just teaching with a Dutch oven instead of a chalkboard.

To mark the occasion, I made the boiled dinner again. Same recipe. Same kitchen. Same pot. Same table. The carrots, split the difference. It tasted the same, which is the point. Some things shouldn't change. The boiled dinner hasn't changed in a hundred years. The farmhouse hasn't changed in a hundred years. I've changed — I'm a year older, a year deeper into retirement, a year more comfortable with the man I'm becoming in the absence of the man I was. But the dinner is the same. The dinner is the constant. The dinner is the thing that holds while everything else shifts.

David called to say happy anniversary. He's been reading the blog, which I didn't know, because David doesn't mention things like that. He said, "The baked beans post was good." From David, that's a literary award. Sarah called and said she's been reading too and sharing the posts with her colleagues at the practice, which means a group of veterinarians in Portland, Maine, are reading about a man's boiled dinner and I don't know what to do with that information except keep writing.

A year. Fifty-two weeks. A hundred readers. One kitchen. One wife who signed me up. One dog who doesn't care. One farmhouse in Vermont where the food is plain and the sentences are short and the carrots are, as always, split the difference.

Helen asked if I'm going to keep writing. I said, "What else would I do?" She smiled. That was the right answer. It usually is.

So here it is again — the boiled dinner. The same one from March 2016, the same one from last Thursday. A hundred readers and one anniversary later, it felt right to put the recipe down properly this time, the way I actually make it, carrots split the difference and all. If you’ve been here from the beginning, you already know this one. If you’re new, well — this is where it started, and it’s as good a place as any to begin.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 3 hours | Total Time: 3 hours 20 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

3 to 4 pounds corned beef brisket, with spice packet
6 medium red potatoes, halved
4 large carrots, peeled and cut into 3-inch pieces
3 medium turnips, peeled and quartered
1 small head green cabbage, cut into 6 wedges
2 medium yellow onions, quartered
4 cloves garlic, smashed
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
Cold water, enough to cover
Coarse-grain mustard, for serving
Cider vinegar, for serving
Butter, for serving

Instructions

Start the beef. Place the corned beef brisket fat-side up in a large Dutch oven or stockpot. Add the spice packet, bay leaves, peppercorns, and garlic. Cover with cold water by about 2 inches. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to a low simmer. Skim any foam that rises to the surface.
Cook low and slow. Cover and simmer gently for 2 hours to 2 hours 30 minutes, until the beef is nearly fork-tender. Do not let it boil hard — a gentle simmer is the whole trick.
Add the root vegetables. Add the potatoes, carrots, turnips, and onions to the pot around the beef. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
Add the cabbage. Nestle the cabbage wedges into the broth on top of the other vegetables. Cover and simmer another 15 to 20 minutes, until all the vegetables are tender and the cabbage is soft but still holds its shape.
Rest and slice. Transfer the corned beef to a cutting board and let it rest for 10 minutes. Slice against the grain into 1/4-inch slices.
Serve. Arrange the sliced beef on a platter with the vegetables. Ladle a little of the cooking broth over everything. Serve with coarse-grain mustard, a splash of cider vinegar, and butter for the potatoes.

Nutrition (per serving)

New England Boiled Dinner — The Recipe That Started It All