Corned Beef 2021

Published in Pen to Pandemic: A Community Anthology from the Time of COVID-19 (ISBN 978-1-61468-654-5)

My grandma is a stubborn old Irishwoman, and you can tell her I said so. She’d wear it like a badge of honor.

We’re in her kitchen, in the Brunswick house where my ma grew up. I’m watching her score the corned beef. She’s already parboiled six flat cuts and is about to coat them with the brown sugar and mustard she’d mixed together yesterday. While the glazed brisket portions roast, she’ll boil enough cabbage and potatoes to feed the entire population of Rensselaer County. Every ten minutes she’ll open the oven and pour half a bottle of stout over the beef. Irish basting, she calls it. I know her routine by heart because I’ve watched her do it all my 35 years. Well, except last year of course.