Slow Cooker Corned Beef

 

My father passed away 3 years ago last month. He managed 94 great years of life before he checked out. I miss him every day. He never missed a St. Patrick's Day dinner at our house as I always served up his favorite, slow cooker corned beef. (Guaranteed: You will never find a simpler or tastier corned beef recipe.)

He had caused me many, many years of turmoil, telling me since birth that our last name should be pronounced "Grogan". He was of the belief that our last name was Gaelic and the "u" should be pronounced as an "o". The struggles I had every new school year when I got my new teachers and they insisted on pronouncing it phonetically instead of the correct Gaelic "O". As in "Oh, the horror".

Along came the set of connected pipes known as the Interwebs and then Ancestry.com. So I began researching my heritage. I found a boatload of Gruggens in England that I was able to trace back to the early 1500's. It appears their name was O'Gruggen in Ireland and apparently they dropped the "O" when they migrated to England in the 1400's. And I found 3 Gruggen brothers who left England in the early 1900's. One went to Australia. Another to Canada. And the third made his way to the United States. So today, there 4 pockets of Gruggens left in the world. England, of course, and then the final destinations of the 3 brothers....Sydney, Toronto and Minneapolis. Yes, the third brother was my grandfather, George.

Still somewhat confused about my specific heritage, I decided to have a DNA test done through Ancestry.com. I mailed the DNA sample and it came back that I was 57% Irish, 38% English and 5% Norwegian. So that makes me mostly Irish, but still confused as hell as to how my name should be pronounced. I suppose given that I've been using "Grogan" for 69 years....I might as well stick with it until  I check out. And if you want to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, give my dad's favorite meal a try. Using my father's Gaelic pronunciation rules, though, it should be spelled "Sluw Cuuker Curned Beef". Oh, the horror.

INGREDIENTS

1 corned beef brisket, 3-4 pounds
2 medium onions, cut into quarters (no peeling required)
5 ribs celery, cut into chunks
1 tablespoon prepared stone ground mustard 
2 cups chicken stock
12-ounces of beer (lager or pilsner)

DIRECTIONS

1. Place onions and celery on the bottom of your slow cooker. Add stock, beer and mustard.
2. Set brisket on top of onions and celery, fat-side up. Sprinkle meat with seasoning packet (which comes packed in your brisket). Put lid on slow cooker and cook on low for 10 hours.
3. Remove brisket. Slice and serve.

Pairing: You already knew this. Served at 42.8 degrees Fahrenheit.