Big Joe shares Briody's Corned Beef and Cabbage recipe

We are happily in the season of the green, the celebration of St. Patrick’s Day. Here in New Jersey that celebration is taken very seriously but also with a lot of smiles, Irish smiles!

A deep tradition of this time of year is the preparing and consumption of corned beef. I love it. I like it with cabbage and hot mustard along with a cold beer and once served I’m pretty much in the mood for a few Irish smiles.

I got this simple recipe from my friend Joe Briody. Joe owned and operated a classic Irish saloon in Rumson, NJ called Briody’s. Joe’s father opened it up after coming from Jersey City. It was a great saloon. Briody’s provided “comfort” and haven for so many for 35 years.

St. Paddy’s Day at Briody’s was a place to dip yourself in green, stay for long hours, eats lots of delicious corned beef, enjoy the frivolity and laugh about it the next day.

St. Paddy’s Day was the closest you can come to Mardi Gras in New Jersey. Thanks, Joe for the great memories and for providing a lot of comfort for those who walked through your doors.

They closed their doors for good on March 17, 2008, a fitting day to say goodbye. It was a tough day.

I asked Joe to share the family’s world famous recipe for Briody’s corned beef. Joe wrote the following:

“On or about the year 1962, March of course, I a young man of about six or seven, watched my grandmother and father in a tiny kitchen of Briody’s of Jersey City as my grandmother, Ann, sweated over a large pot of corned beef. As my father added a pitcher of beer to the pot my eyes lit up, as I was amazed. Since we moved the restaurant to Rumson we had a larger scale restaurant and with that the pot and amount of corned beef increased as well. Just about every month of March we cooked and served about 4,000 lbs. of corned beef while in Rumson.”

I have such great memories of Briody’s and fittingly any place that served 4,000 pounds of corned beef is a place for me. Thanks Joe for the memories and the recipe. I hope you all enjoy it.

You’ll need:

Corned beef brisket (Briody always used Mosey’s and I would too when I could find it)
½ cup pickling spice per 10 lbs
12 oz. beer (any beer works, many prefer Harp) per 10 lbs.
1 bottle of Jameson Irish Whiskey
1 large head of cabbage

How to put it together:

Fill pot with water till it covers the beef. Add pickling spice and beer. Every hour while cooking add a dash of Jameson in the pot and “one for the cook.” Cook for approximately 3 hours.

Let beef cool off, and then trim the fat off. Save the juices for stock to cook cabbage in. While the beef is resting, cut cabbage into wedges. Simmer the wedges of cabbage in the stock for approximately 15 minutes or until soft and tender.

Remove and serve with nice thick slices of the wonderful corned beef and perhaps a frothy pint of Guinness.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 weekend host Big Joe Henry. Any opinions expressed are Big Joe’s own.

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