It is the day after St. Pat’s Day, but my wife was working yesterday, so we are having our corned beef today.

I almost didn’t use the “Save Money” tag, but I still believe it is cheaper to make this dinner at home than to go out to a restaurant. Corned beef has traditionally been a loss leader around St. Pat’s, but this year it was plenty expensive at close to $40, likely due to inflation, the Trump tariff taxes, and now the war with Iran.

Are the tariffs still a thing? I’m not sure, but prices haven’t gone down. During his first term, the US-based Whirlpool Corporation convinced Trump to impose tariffs on foreign washers and dryers, forcing them to raise prices in the US. However, Whirlpool also raised its prices (I think by $200). Guess what, those prices never went down. But I digress.

A corned beef dinner is one of the easiest dinners to make if you have a slow cooker or a pressure cooker. I often make my yearly corned beef dinner in a pressure cooker, but this year I thought I would go the slow cooker route. Why? More people have slow cookers than Instant Pots, so I felt a recipe using a slow cooker would be more useful.

I’m a big fan of slow cookers. You can buy expensive ones, and they are great. However, you can also get inexpensive ones that will do the job. In my post on 55 ways for seniors to save money on food, I mentioned that you can buy a 2-quart slow cooker for under $20. However, the slow cooker that I’m using for today’s corned beef dinner is a 6-quart one. I bought it for less than $25 a few years ago. It’s basic, but it works.

Slow cookers are famous for dump-and-go recipes, and the variety of dishes that you can make in them is amazing. There is nothing like coming home and having dinner waiting for you. If you don’t have a slow cooker, consider getting one. The higher-priced ones will include features such as timers, high-end construction, and a more precise temperature regulation. However, the cheap ones work well enough. If you have cash burning in your pocket, go with a premium brand; if not, go with a simple unit.

The recipe for corned beef in a slow cooker is simple, so I won’t list out the ingredients separately. Instead, I’ll mention them in the photos.

Add some potatoes. Red potatoes cut into chunks are traditional. However, I had these baby potatoes on hand. Wash and remove obvious blemishes, but there is no need to peel them.

Peel and cut up an onion into big chunks. Toss it into the pot.

Toss in some carrots. I’m using a bag of baby carrots, but you can also use peeled regular carrots cut into “baby sized” pieces.

I’m adding a very light dusting of some seasoned salt. You can use salt/pepper or omit any seasoning, as the corned beef is already salty. I also added a spoonful of garlic and a cut-up celery rib. All of these are totally optional. I just had them on hand.

Here is our corned beef, it is pretty large at over 4 pounds. I was going to make only half (and vacuum-seal the other half), but my daughter will be here over the weekend, and she loves the hash I make from the leftovers.

Put the corned beef in fat side up. Sprinkle the included pickling spices over the corned beef.

The jury is out on whether you should rinse the corned beef or not. I choose to rinse it. Fill the slow cooker to the top edge of the corned beef with liquid. Some use broth, some use water plus beer, I’m just using water today. The pot was so full that I could only get the water halfway up the corned beef. That will have to do.

How do I make the leftover hash? I put chunks of corned beef and the remaining potatoes and carrots in a food processor and pulse for a few seconds. I’ll fry the resulting hash and serve it with some sunny-side-up eggs and hot toast made from my homemade bread. Delicious!

Ready to go! Oh, why the cookie sheet? The pot is so full that I added the sheet as a precaution in case of a boil-over. Yes, the sheet is well-used. It has baked thousands of things over the years. If you see someone with a perfectly clean cookie sheet, they just bought it, or they are a cooking influencer with a budget bigger than mine. This cookie sheet will continue to serve us for many more years. Those aren’t char marks, they are love marks!

There is also a debate on whether to cook on high or low. Since I couldn’t add water to cover the entire corned beef’s side, I’m using high. The important part is to cook it for a long time so it is tender. Generally, that is going to be 8 (or more) hours. Usually, you add the cabbage during the last 1-2 hours of cooking.

The slow cooker was simply too full, so I had to resort to plan B with the cabbage. I quartered the cabbage and removed the core. I placed it in a microwave-safe baking dish. It was a bit crowded, but our microwave isn’t huge, so I couldn’t use a larger pan. I added a couple of tablespoons of water and a little salt and covered the dish with cling wrap. You could also use a covered dish if you had one. I microwaved the cabbage for around 9 minutes. This is a personal preference; you can go a minute or two less for crisper cabbage or a minute or two longer for softer cabbage.

Dinner was delicious. My homemade soda bread turned out well, and the corned beef was super tender. I liked using baby potatoes and may continue to use them on future St. Pat’s Days. For condiments, we had mustard and “horsey” sauce, which is mayo with a bit of horseradish. Add a little butter to the vegetables, and we were all very satisfied. And there is a ton of food left over for me to make corned beef hash.

Using a slow cooker made the process extremely simple. It was a simple dump-and-go dinner. Yet it felt very special and appeared labor-intensive. It was not.

Happy day after St. Patrick’s Day all!

Mike