The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

Friday is St. Patrick’s Day. It is a time to visit Butte and see the wonderful parade if you can, to wear plenty of green and to cook up a batch of corn beef and cabbage for the family.

I have a very good corn beef and cabbage recipe. It even has a secret sauce for the corn beef and for dunk at the table as well.

For the secret sauce you simply need equal parts of yellow mustard and brown sugar. Mix together and it should taste more sweet than mustard. Last time I made this corn beef recipe I used cranberry mustard and that was very good with the brown sugar.

For the main dish you will need

1 -3 ½ to 4 pound corned beef brisket with the pickling packet included

One large onion, quartered

Plenty of salt and pepper

7 small Yukon Gold or new potatoes

A dozen carrots cut in half

1 large cabbage cut into eighths

A large kettle with plenty of water.

Fill the kettle with water, the corned beef brisket and the onion, lots of salt and pepper and the pickling spices.

Bring the pot to a boil but then turn down the heat so you have just a small simmer and simmer the corned beef for four hours.

Turn on your oven to 400 for the last thirty minutes of brisket simmering time.

Take the brisket out, put it on a baking sheet, coat it liberally with the secret sauce and put it in the oven for a half hour more, adding more sauce every ten minutes.

Meanwhile you have now turned the corned beef water to high so you have a good boil. Add the vegetables and cook until they are done. I have found that the potatoes and carrots take about a half hour of the good boil to get them the way I like them. The cabbage takes about twenty minutes.

Serve with the secret sauce as dunk for most everything on the table and Happy St. Patrick’s Day to everyone!