What to Eat with Corned Beef – Cabbage, Potatoes, Sauces

How it works

What to eat with corned beef? The boiled dinner cooks its own sides, and the leftovers make hash and sandwiches. These 33 sides cover both, with sauces, pickles, something sweet and drinks.

Read the full guide

The boiled dinner and two breakfasts

Corned beef and cabbage is the Irish-American version of Ireland's bacon and cabbage. A New England boiled dinner adds root vegetables such as carrots, turnips and potatoes. Hashed with potatoes and served with eggs, corned beef is a common breakfast in the United States. In the Philippines it comes with garlic fried rice and a fried egg.

Plan the plate

The beef is salty, so keep the vegetables plain and put something sharp beside it: mustard, horseradish or a pickle. Add one starch for the broth, and save a few slices for the next day.

Slice the beef across the grain and spoon a little hot broth over the platter.
Taste the broth before you salt any side. The potatoes and cabbage take salt from it.

Questions and answers

What sides go with corned beef and cabbage?

Boiled potatoes with parsley butter or colcannon, boiled carrots and thick slices of Irish soda bread with butter.

What to eat corned beef with besides cabbage?

Boiled turnips, boiled parsnips, mushy peas or pease pudding. Champ and potato farls change the potato, and flour dumplings cook on top of the broth.

What sauce goes with corned beef?

Whole-grain mustard, horseradish cream, parsley sauce or onion sauce. A brown sugar and mustard glaze goes on the cooked beef before it browns in the oven.

What goes on a corned beef sandwich?

A grilled Reuben takes rye bread, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and Thousand Island or Russian dressing. Cold slices take piccalilli, tomato relish or dill pickles.

What dessert goes with corned beef and cabbage?

Something plain after a salty dinner: warm apple crumble with cream, or fruit tea loaf and oat cookies with a pot of tea.

All 33 sides

Cabbage, root vegetables and peas 7

Boiled cabbage wedges Add them to the pot near the end so they keep some bite.
Boiled carrots Leave them in big pieces and butter them at the table.
Boiled parsnips Sweet beside salty beef. Take them out before they go soft.
Boiled turnips Cut them into chunks and cook them with the carrots.
Creamed cabbage Shred it fine and fold it into a little white sauce.
Mushy peas Soft, thick and bright green, a spoonful beside each slice.
Pease pudding Thick and smooth, spread on the plate under the beef.

Potatoes, breads and dumplings 7

Boiled potatoes with parsley butter Cook them in the broth and roll them in the butter.
Champ Mashed potato with chopped scallions and plenty of butter.
Colcannon Mashed potato with cabbage folded in and a well of melted butter.
Flour dumplings Drop them onto the broth and cover the pot until they puff.
Irish soda bread Thick slices with cold butter, to mop up the broth.
Potato farls Fry the flat wedges in butter until brown on both sides.
Rye bread Sliced thin for sandwiches, with mustard on both sides.

Mustards, sauces and pickles 8

Brown sugar and mustard glaze Spread it on the cooked beef and brown it in a hot oven.
Dill pickles A spear on the plate or slices in the sandwich.
Horseradish cream Sharp and cold against warm beef.
Onion sauce Soft onions in white sauce, mild next to the salt of the meat.
Parsley sauce A white sauce with plenty of chopped parsley, poured over the slices.
Piccalilli Bright, sour and crunchy, good with cold slices.
Tomato relish Sweet and tangy in a cold sandwich.
Whole-grain mustard A spoonful on the side of every plate.

With the leftovers 5

Fried eggs One on top of a plate of hash, with the yolk still soft.
Garlic fried rice Fry day-old rice with plenty of garlic and serve the beef beside it.
Sauerkraut Drain it well so the sandwich stays crisp.
Swiss cheese Melt it over the beef for a grilled sandwich on rye.
Thousand Island dressing Spread it on the bread before the beef goes on.

Something sweet after 3

Apple crumble Warm, with cream poured over.
Fruit tea loaf Sliced and buttered, with the pot of tea.
Oat cookies A plate to pass round when the dishes are cleared.

Drinks 3

Celery soda Cold and a little bitter beside a hot sandwich on rye.
Ginger ale Over ice with the boiled dinner.
Hot black tea with milk A strong pot on the table, poured with dessert.