Time For Corned Beef

With Saint Patrick's Day falling on a "school night" Tuesday, today's our day to do the lengthy simmering required for corned beef and cabbage, in this house fleshed out to what's classically called a New England boiled dinner that includes the addition of things like potatoes, onions, and carrots. I've always primarily followed the recipe for it in another classic, my old copy of The Joy of Cooking. For fun this morning, I compared that to the one in my favorite read, the 1896 edition of the Fannie Farmer Cook Book. Coming from the Boston Cooking School, I thought Fannie would be uniquely qualified to describe a true "boiled dinner," and it's interesting that the recipes between the two books are essentially the same, except Joy of Cooking also adds parsnips to the veggies that go into the pot. Ever entertaining, Fannie's commentary regarding corned beef opens with: "Corned beef has but little nutritive value. It is used to give variety to our diet in summer, when fresh meats prove too stimulating. It is eaten by the workingman to give bulk to his food." So fun to watch how historical foods morph into holiday traditions.