Louisville Magazine

MAR 2013

Louisville Magazine is Louisville's city magazine, covering Louisville people, lifestyles, politics, sports, restaurants, entertainment and homes. Includes a monthly calendar of events.

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dine in WITH Mary Welp Children of the Corned This can���t-miss corned-beef recipe earns raves for its sweet and savory Dijon glaze. 10 2 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 3.13 T he story I am about to tell you is one of crazy mixedup origins, not unlike life itself. Tough I grew up with Irish grandparents who believed religiously in Irish traditions, it was not until I was well into adulthood that I learned of the association of corned beef and cabbage with St. Patrick���s Day. I was invited to a party where the guests were told in advance that ���traditional St. Paddy���s Day corned beef and cabbage��� would be served. I remembered how delicious my grandmother���s corned beef was but not that we���d had it on St. Patrick���s Day. When I asked my mother about it, she said, ���Hell no, kid. On St Paddy���s Day, everyone is too drunk to cook.��� She added, as was her way, that people should make corned beef and cabbage whenever they damn well feel like it and not try to turn it into a special-event dish. She further added, ���Ask your Jewish husband.��� Still, the myth persisted everywhere I turned. Finally, when I read a book about the history of salt (by Mark Kurlansky, and I swear, it is genuinely fascinating), I learned a few facts, namely that a version of corned beef has been around in northern European countries since the Middle Ages, and that, while not at all strictly Irish, it was Irish immigrants to the United States who began to buy volumes of it, as it was so much cheaper here than back home in Famine Land. In any case, for the most part, the Irish in Ireland do not eat corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick���s Day. Tis is no doubt why on packages of corned beef you will fnd instructions for a ���traditional boiled New England dinner.��� But so what? Te fact of the matter is that in the United States, a walloping number of people, drunk or not, in restaurants or at home, eat corned beef in celebration of the missionary famous for banishing snakes from Ireland. As if. What it means for the home cook is that grocery stores are beyond wellstocked with the meat at this time of year. Not only that, but because of greatly improved farming and curing processes, you can fnd much fresher-tasting cuts of it both locally produced and in chain supermarkets. Trader Joe���s has an especially delicious uncured corned beef that has all of the deliciousness of curing without the heinous chemicals. But here is where the story takes even another ethnic turn. One year our friend Alicia invited us to the home of her mother, Betty, for Easter dinner, which was that year at least a month after St. Patrick���s Day. Te aforementioned Jewish husband always gets a kick out of being invited somewhere for Easter. But he was expecting a ham. To our great delight, when we walked through the front door, the aroma that greeted us was of corned beef, not ham. But it smelled at least 50 times better than most corned beef. Betty���s son-in-law Rick said, ���Didn���t you know Boopie is famous for her corned beef?��� (Betty���s nickname is Boopie, as in Betty Boop.) Immediately I had to scoot all children, adults and dogs out of my way to fnd out what in the world Boopie was doing with her corned beef, and it turned out she was roasting it with a glaze at the end of the cooking time. Lordy! Tough at most meals I try to eat more vegetables than meat, this time was an exception. Boopie���s corned beef turned me into a carnivore of embarrassing proportions. It���s a good thing the dear woman had prepared more than one hunk of the stuf. Over the years I have fooled with the recipe, sometimes glazing and roasting not just the meat but all of the vegetables at the end. And recently I have taken to adding sauerkraut for an additional wallop of fermented cabbage-y goodness. But here is the basic recipe. Hoist a beer to Betty (even though, as I recall, she prefers wine).

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