New England Boiled Dinner Recipe
It’s more than just corned beef and cabbage. New England Boiled Dinner is a one-pot comfort food that can be served year-round.
By Yankee Magazine|Mar 08 2022|
New England Boil of corned beef, cabbage, carrots and potatoes
Photo Credit: ThinkstockYou don’t have to be Irish to enjoy this staple. An easy meal that doesn’t sacrifice heartiness, New England Boiled Dinner is a blend of flavorful vegetables and salty corned beef that will be sure to gather a crowd around your table.
For another boiled dinner recipe, see Easy Corned Beef and Cabbage Recipe.
SEE MORE:
75 Classic New England Foods
St. Patrick’s Day Recipes
What is Corned Beef?
Yield:
8 servings
Ingredients
4 pounds corned beef
15 peppercorns
8 whole garlic cloves
1 bay leaf
8 small beets
2 turnips, cut into pieces
16 small new potatoes, peeled
16 baby carrots
8 small white onions
1 head cabbage, cut into 8 wedge-shaped pieces
Instructions
Cover beef with water and simmer 10 minutes, covered, in a large kettle. Skim off and discard the residue that forms on top of water. Add peppercorns, cloves, and bay leaf. Cover and simmer 3 hours or until meat is tender.
Put beets in separate pan with a little water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until tender, about 30 minutes.
Add turnips, potatoes, carrots, and onions to kettle with meat. Simmer, covered, 15 minutes longer.
Add cabbage and cook, covered, 15 minutes more.
Remove meat, cut into serving pieces, and place on platter surrounded with well-drained vegetables. Serve with Irish Soda Bread.
This tasted just like my grandmother used to make. It was just delicious!!!
Wonderful old fashioned recipe. I do remember my grandmother & mother making this dish often. And they were German, not Irish. So I think this meal predates St. Patrick’s Day. And it’s one of my all time favorite. But I would say that the vegetables need to be cooked much longer then the stated 15 minutes. This is not a recipe that you want have with undercooked vegetables. These need to be well cooked but still whole. I cook mine at least 30 – 45 minutes. Enjoy!
The recipe calls for all vegetables except cabbage to cook for a total of 30 minutes. I do agree 45 minutes is probably the time needed to cook them, especially the carrots.
Great recipe! But definitely cook the vegetables for at least 30 minutes otherwise the cabbage is not done.
One change i always make is after the beef is cooked I spread it with mustard (your choice, I use brown), and prinkle with ground cloves and bake it 20-30 minutes. This can be done while the vegetables are cooking.
One change I always make is after the beef is cooked I spread it with mustard (your choice, I use brown), and sprinkle with ground cloves and bake for 20-30 minutes. This can be done while the vegetables are cooking.
This is also excellent if you substitute a ham shoulder for the corned beef.
A wonderfull meal for a cold day.
A family favorite! When I made this for my dad I changed the water after the first hour and also added a potato to the second batch of water that I discarded later. This drew a good deal of the salt out of the meat and the subsequent stock — important to those watching their sodium.
This is almost exactly the way my family has been making it for as long as I can remember, except for the beets. Years ago my Dad and I would even corn our own briskets! Great recipe.
As a Portuguese New Englander, I would make one important addition — that of Linguica, a Portuguese Sausage readily available back home in New Bedford, MA. This sausage is so flavorful, it eliminates the need for any additional seasonings. Also, as another reviewer mentioned, I too would change the water after the first hour, so as to eliminate some of the salt.
We always grew up with brown corn beef not red. Has to do with how it’s ‘corned’.
I liked this recipe because I didn’t have to brine the meat first. I got a butcher shop piece of meat, and the seasonings here were just enough, and much healthier.
I don’t have any idea how much water to use for this recipe. I was thinking, also, that surely I shouldn’t
cook my vegetables in the greasy fatty water used for the meat. I read some replies that said they changed the water at some point. I, two would cook my cabbage longer. carrots not as long as cabbage, potatoes the least, depending what kind of potatoes. Red potatoes seem to cook faster.
Thanks for the great recipes on this site.
Looking for New England boiled dinner using a smoked shoulder.
We used to have this with a picnic shoulder from time to time, same process and do change the water after the first simmer of an hour. No need for all that salt. I love it this way as it is more accessable than the point cut corned beef where I live. Most of the time we can only get the flat cut and this requires a much longer simmer time or oven bake time. Enjoy your meal.
Puzzled as to beets in recipe? They don’t say what to do with beets after cooking separately – used as a garnish? or added to veggies – beets might discolor potatoes, etc. I do like the idea of beets as a different touch.
Mom would always add 1/2 cider vinegar to the water and no beets. I wouldn’t eat beets and still won’t to this day. She also did it with a Daisy Ham, omitted the vinegar and added about 1 teaspoon of sugar to the water.
This is the recipe I’ll be using for my corned beef. I love the beets in my corned beef since I use some of the leftovers to make homemade hash. I could make it more than once a year but then again, it’s something to look forward to on St. Patrick’s Day!
My Newburyport grandmother’s New England Boiled Dinner NEVER included that red NY style corned beef with all the spices! She used three different meats, but when it was corned beef, it was always the grey New England style corned beef. One huge difference in cooking though is you have to change the water after the first five minutes of boiling. That removes the salt left from the brine. Clean your pot and add fresh water. Return to a boil then simmer, I go at least five hours. Call me an old curmudgeon (I am 66), but it seems blasphemous to use a NY style corned beef in a New England Boiled Dinner! Please, just call it corned beef and cabbage. The only tweak to my pot has been adding Brussels Sprouts.
I am in FULL agreement that NY red corn beef IS NOT your New England Boiled Dinner….only the GREY….corned by the local butcher…..your cooking method is correct also but my mother, I am a 73yr fuddie, did it the day before with the over night in the water…..then warm it up…then remove it and do veggies…….the red NY style is too strong of a flavor for me.
I’m originally from New England and we had brown/grey corned beefs. My mother would tell the butcher that she wanted a “fancy brisket.” When we moved to Florida we were aghast at the red corned beefs. Our vegetables always included what we called turnips, but we soon learned they are called rutabagas in the south. We can still enjoy our New England boiled dinners!
So you can “tweak” with brussels sprouts, and still call it New England Boiled Dinner, but others cannot tweak, not changing the water, for example, and call it New England Boiled Dinner? There is no consensus, so everyone just call it what you wish….
My mom never made a New England Boiled Dinner with corned beef. She made it with a chuck roast (browned it first). To the best of my knowledge (I’m 73), she just used carrots. potatoes and onions. It was so yummy! I remember her having it for Sunday dinners. By the way, I’m originally from New England.
My grandmother always made this with a canned ham, When of those Danish or Polish hams that used to come in can with a band that opened the whole side of the oval-shaped can. Don’t see them anymore in our grocery stores – maybe I just haven looked. It was a regular Sunday meal.
PARSNIPS!!!!!!! Grandmother from PEI would not make it without parsnips.
My Mom used a smoked ham butt and potatoes, carrots, and onions.
The beets were used for the “corned beef hash” from the leftovers. Also made from the ham & veggies, the beets turn everything red as the veggies are all mashed together. Very good!
My mother-in-law always made it with ham instead of corned beef. And always with rutabagas added with the potatoes, carrots and cabbage. Beets were only used for the “red flannel” hash the next day with the leftover veggies. Yum!
My Mom would often use a smoked shoulder, same method of cooking. I never use beets, just a personal preference. My only tip is before cooking the vegetables remove the meat-cover it with foil. Leaves plenty of room for your veggies. Can’t wait for my yearly indulgence.
For the person who cannot find the imported Danish or Polish hams in the can…the customs folks cannot xray the cans. Krokus hams are available in the deli sections wrapped in a vacuumed bag. Safeway/Albertsons has them. Expect to pay $7.99 lb.
That would be KRAKAS ham; delicious!
My mother never used corned beef for a New England Boiled Dinner. She always used a chuck roast with potatoes, carrots and onions. It was so yummy!
This I believe was pot roast.
there seems to be some confusion whats what. Your ingredients in your boiled dinner is exactly right on. It must have those ingredients.A new england boiled dinner! Corned beef and cabbage only is an authentic irish dish. And nothing can be substituted or it is not that meal.
Funny, I was always told that corned beef and cabbage was corned beef and cabbage, originating and popular among the Irish, while New England boiled dinner was smoked shoulder with cabbage, onions, carrots and potatoes. I tend to prefer the taste and texture of smoked shoulder, as growing up it was what my mother chose to cook/boil. My my maternal grandmother also preferred smoked shoulder, as did my paternal grandfather. It was an easy meal to make when it was grandad’s turn to cook.
I agree the New England Boiled Dinner is smoke shoulder, not corned beef
Also, You can use the ham Bone to make really great Pea soup
My mom included beets, and the resulting broth — we called it “pot liquor “ — was reddish. I loved the next day hash, but my mom served the beets on the side and didn’t include them in the hash.
Grey corned beef is a must in this house. I get it from a market that corns their own so it is not necessary to change the water. I add ale to the water; it makes a great stock for soup. I cook extra “new” potatoes, carrots, parsnips, rutabaga, cabbage, kale, and onions. I now cook the beef the day before in a water/ale mixture. I refrigerate the broth overnight (In March, my back porch is usually the extra fridge!) and skim the fat. I then bring the broth to a boil and cook the vegetables separately due to their different cooking times…I cook lots…enough for a second meal, hash, and soup using the wonderful broth. I chop the cabbage, kale, and onions together and cook it in a separate pot with some of the broth. That way it’s not overcooked and mushy. It’s easy to rewarm everything in the broth or in individual servings on a covered plate in the microwave. We serve it with lots of butter, whole grain mustard, and horseradish sauce. Slainté!!!
New England/Irish corned beef is grey because it’s cured with salt, so the water needs to be changed. New York/Jewish corned beef is cured because it’s cured with nitrates. Completely different taste. I’m horrified when I order corned beef in a New England restaurant and it’s red. Ugh! It’s getting hard to find good NE gray corned beef these days.
Please share how long you cook The corned beef before changing the water. I know some people feel this is necessary and others believe if you change the water you lose the flavor. Would like to know what you do to keep the flavor after changing the water. Grey is my favorite also!!
Pearl makes a gray corned beef.. It is the best Big y will have it and I saw it at B J’S ,,, It costs more but it is worth it.
Well, I’m Jewish and was raised in Boston. Most of the corned beef of any ethnicity I see in supermarkets is red. Not sure I appreciate your remarks.
My Mom would use Daisy Ham for N.E boiled dinner. It was a rolled ham that came in an orange package. Does anyone remember it? I have’t seen it in the stores for a very long time and wonder if they even make it anymore.
Wow! I had forgotten the name “Daisy Ham” & live in another area of the US and have never seen it sold locally.
My father liked to slice it and fry it in a cast iron skillet.
Modern day, I think it might be the same as what is now referred to as “Canadian Bacon”.
Yes, boiled dinner for me was smoked shoulder or the Daisy roll, made by Colonial. Delicious, but I haven’t seen one in years! The leftover ham was used for lea soup.
In Nova Scotia we use corn beef,usually made by meat manager.Beef roast not sold at its prime was corned,delicious
I was raised with grey corned and it remains my favorite….no contest.
I add a can of 10W40 and a big old handful of broken glass. What may I call it?
Don’t expect me for dinner
Call it “too much time and no hobbies”.
I, too, remember my mother using a Daisy ham and I continued doing the same but I agree with Betsy, you can’t find them in the markets any more. Right now my dinner is cooking in a crock-pot with the usual corn beef, onion, carrots, potatoes and cabbage. Oh, and Irish Soda bread is on the menu as well!
My great-aunt Betty always made Daisy ham. That was her dish.
I see that you cook 8 beets. But what do you do with them?
Eat them!
Use it to make Red Flannel Hash the next day…
My mother, in Buckfield, Maine, used corned beef, but my aunt used ham. She had the best kitchen garden I ever saw. Her vegetables were perfect. For my mom it was a way to fix dinner in one pot, but it was a gourmet affair at my aunt’s. We ate on the lawn and enjoyed the wonderful weather in late August. What I would give to time travel for one day.
Mom used ham too but what kind of ham was it. It was sort of a round ham. I would love to buy one. We didn’t use beets.
My butcher ( Bisson’s in Topsham ME)makes Daisy ham. I always roast it. But boiling it like corned beef sounds good
Probably a smoked shoulder I think sometimes called a picnic ham. As far as I know New England. Boiled dinner was ham. Corned beef and cabbage was called corned beef and cabbage and had all the spices and people all over the country ate that but only in New England did they have boiled dinner with ham. Don’t know anyone that used beets.
My mother always used a smoked piece of ham and never added spices. After eating a New England boiled dinner at a friends house that had corn beef, I asked my mother about the difference. She said Great Grammy always used ham and your Dad’s mother used ham, and both of them were born bread New Englanders, so who am I to ask why or change things. I make it at least once a month, I love the flavor of everything cooked with the ham. In February I make it around Valentine, that’s the only time I add beets, for the extra love flavor.
My mother always used a picnic ham. We never had corned beef, maybe it was too expensive. My mother never added beets either.
I love corn beef or lamb the Irish way and is a Irish dish!
“New England” boiled Dinner…My family had it once a week and it was ALWAYS ham (smoked shoulder) w/pots/carrots and cabbage, the left over ham was 4 ham salad, ground up ham and = parts of Cains mayo and Mustard and the best was Sunday morn breakfast ham fried w/bacon, eggs and home fries…corn beef was 4 St. Pattys day ONLY….
I’m in Connecticut, and my mother made New England boiled dinner with a Daisy Ham. I haven’t seen one in years. I bet a kielbasa or smoked sausage would work great as a substitute.
My Grandmother always made her boiled dinners with a Daisy Ham, too. Cannot recall if my Mother made this or not. I have not seen a Daisy Ham in many years!! As I recall I loved the boiled dinner!
The beets are used to make Red Flannel Hash the next day!
It is delicious!!!
I grew up with this recipe (minus the beets). I still cook my corned beef and cabbage the exact same way! Its the best!
We had boiled dinners with ham when I was growing up, my family was from New England. Now I do corned beef. My Jewish friend told me to add pickling spice to the water and put the finished corned beef (after you take off the extra fat) under the broiler to bring out the flavor. I scoop out some of the broth to add to the water to cook the cabbage in a separate pot. After seeing this recipe, I am going to skim first, and then add the pickling spices (in the spice section of your grocery). I serve this with homemade bread.
My mother always used Daisy Ham — you can still find them in the supermarkets. I did, too, until I stopped using meats preserved with sodium nitrite. When I make corned beef, I use the gray kind that doesn’t have the sodium nitrite. That’s why it’s gray instead of artificial red.
My mother never made New England Boiled Dinner with ham. She always used a chuck roast. It was so yummy!
I did not know aout the color of the meat TU.
I see several comments about using a Daisy ham in the place of a corned beef.
Have used , have seen used a smoked pork shoulder.
My Mom also used a “Daisy Ham” also.
We love Daisy ham simmered with fresh green beans and potatoes. Daisy ham is hard to find now though.
My aunt made that wonderful dish for the family. She also included little bundles of green beans. Always loved the red flannel hash the next day.
I never knew about red flannel hash. Recipe please.
Chop or grind all the leftovers from boiled dinner and add a couple of beets. Sautee it in butter.
Way too salty!
I’m a native New Englander *and* Jewish.
Corned beef in corned beef and cabbage.
Boiled beef in New England boiled dinner.
what Corn Beef and Cabbage is, is in the name. New England Boiled Dinner is made with a Boston Butt (particular cut of Pork Shoulder) which was what Daisy Ham was. When I was at Ft. Knox we had “NE” Boiled Dinner once in the chow hall. The SGT asked me how I liked it being from Dorchester. I told him “this is corn beef and cabbage, and red at that, which is wrong. You need pork butt” cost my 100 pushups, but as I stated afterwards, I was still right
I agree. My dad was from MA and I use a pork butt as did my grandmother and no beets.
… I agree with you, Pam. I was born in New Jersey and grew up in Connecticut and dad always made our boiled dinner with pork (not salted) and times when he couldn’t get that, used pork hocks. ( never any beets involved) Once you put in the corned beef, it becomes Corned Beef and Cabbage, or…Jiggs Dinner. I now live in eastern Canada and the traditional dinner for St. Patrick’s Day is corned beef and cabbage ..
Oh my goodness. So many different recipes. My mother was from Maine and our corned beef was always brown and not as salty as the red. I remember she used to chat with the butcher to make sure it was “corned” her way. So delicious. June W.
For us it was always a Daisy Ham, cabbage, potatoes, and carrots. Actually, I just made a boiled dinner with Daisy Ham two days ago. Delicious.
I miss Daisy ham. Mom made it all the time when I was a kid. I live in Florida so many of the old fave foods are not available here ????