The Luck of The Irish and A Recipe for Corned Beef & Cabbage in The Slow Cooker

In anticipation of St. Patrick’s Day, I started experimenting traditional Irish meals. I’ve always been curious about what exactly is corned beef and learned the term “corned” comes from putting meat in a large crock and covering it with large rock-salt kernels of salt that were referred to as “corns of salt” to preserve the meat. The Irish were the biggest exporters of Corned Beef until 1825.

According to Livestrong, a cooked standard serving of corned beef, weighing 3 oz., has 80 mg of cholesterol and a whopping 15 g of protein. If you want a healthier cut with lower levels of fat and sodium, ask for an extra-lean corned beef cut. When ordering from a butcher, the top layer of fat should be fully trimmed off the brisket. Be sure to cut away the visible fat both before and after cooking. Steam-cooking helps melt fat off the meat. Return beef slices to the steamer to help remove some interior fat. Boiling the sliced meat in fresh water can also help lower sodium content.

In addition to corned beef, I also wanted to do something different. I could make colcannon, or an apple-parsnip soup or even irish soda bread, but I was thinking something other than food this time. At my son’s school, the teachers are always making this awesome scented play dough. I didn’t have the recipe, and always forget to ask, so I looked on Pinterest… my first mistake.

I thought that making green play dough with my son would be perfect for St. Patrick’s Day. It would be an activity that we could do together, and it looked super easy to make. I measured out my ingredients, and had everything in place, all I had to do was follow a recipe and then have this awesome play dough. The first recipe I tried was for a kool-aid play dough. Cool. I went to the store, bought what I needed and got to it.

I made the play dough just like the recipe called for and I ended up with a sticky ball of goo… so I figured I’d try cooking it. Mistake number two. I tried again, with a new batch of ingredients, and ended up with the same results. End Result: Epic Fail.

Back to Pinterest. I found a recipe for Jello play dough. This recipe was a little bit different. So again, I measured out the ingredients and followed the recipe. Not a complete fail as in the kool-aid play dough experience, but a very, very sticky and kind of stringy ball of green dough. End Result: Fail.

Now with two failed attempts at play dough making, I figured I’d just stick with what I know and share a tried and true recipe for Corned Beef and Cabbage.

[yumprint-recipe id=’13’]May the luck of the Irish be with you on this St. Patrick’s Day!

-Lindsie Lizotte, Mom’s Bistro

The 10 most popular St. Patrick’s Day dishes

For St. Patrick’s Day, you want shepherd’s pie — and corned beef, shamrock shakes and cabbage rolls.

According to Yahoo, searches for Irish food recipes soar as St. Patrick’s Day approaches. The phrase “Irish food” alone received an 820% boost, while recipes for corned beef and cabbage jumped 685%.

Get in the spirit by hunting down popular and traditional meals. Here are the top 10 Irish-related food searches of the past week.

1. Shepherd’s Pie

This humble meal is a classic, full of hearty meat and potatoes, and baked into a thick bready crust.

2. Corned Beef

“Corned” refers to a process where the beef is cured in a brine solution. It’s more of an Irish-American dish (the traditional Irish dish is bacon), and is the stateside meat of choice.

3. Irish Soda Bread

The popular bread, made with baking soda (hence the moniker), is a simple treat and jumped 212% in Yahoo searches.

4. Corned Beef Brisket

This tender option is one of the top corned beef recipe searches of the week.

5. Green Eggs and Ham

Dr. Seuss’ fictional meal (from the book of the same name) has nothing to do with Ireland, but people still love it because it’s green, the color of choice for the holiday. It jumped 997% this month.

6. Cabbage Soup

Second only to the potato, the cabbage is a widely devoured vegetable in the Emerald Isle. Cook it in some boiling water and voilà: soup.

7. Cabbage Rolls

Another way to consume cabbage is to wrap its leaves around fillings, such as meat and vegetables.

8. Shamrock Shake

McDonald’s capitalized on the St. Patrick’s Day hoopla by creating the “Shamrock shake,” a minty green milkshake that rolled around every March. It’s a cult favorite that only makes an appearance in the fast food chain every once in a while, and received a 75% spike in online searches this week.

9. Corned Beef Hash

Yet another way to serve corned beef, the search term was plugged into Yahoo 194% more than usual.

10. Fried Cabbage

If you don’t like the leafy green veggie boiled or wrapped around fillings, just fry it up.

BONUS: Lucky Charms

The sugary sweet cereal with a toe-tapping leprechaun mascot is a perennial favorite, with Yahoo searches “spiking off the charts,” according to the site’s rep.

By Yohana Desta. This article originally appeared on Mashable.