Corned Beef Recipes Abound, Here's One for Cabbage--Grilled Cabbage

Editor's Note: Scott Thomas is the founder of GrillinFools.com, a website offering step-by-step, picture-by-picture, foolproof instructions on the best ways to grill meats, seafood, fruits and vegetables. Scott is also recognized nationally as a featured blogger for both Char-Broil and Sears. From time to time, he'll weigh in here as well.

Every year around this time people inundate me with questions about how to grill corned beef. And every year I tell them not to even bother.

The weather is usually getting warm by the middle of March and people want to get out and enjoy St. Paddy’s Day and their grill at the same time. But there is one inherent problem with making corned beef on the grill: corned beef is a brisket cut and brisket is a tough piece of meat, the same one used for pot roast. It needs to be cooked low and slow to make it tender and still keep it juicy. The only way to do that on the grill is to smoke it for many, many hours. Once corned beef has been smoked for that long it becomes pastrami…and nothing says Erin go Bragh like a big plate of pastrami and cabbage.

All kidding aside, while grilling corned beef is not a great idea, grilling cabbage is. Stick to grandma's, tried-and-true corned beef recipe but cook that cabbage on the grill!

Grilled Cabbage with two cheeses

Ingredients:

1 head of cabbage

4 cloves garlic, minced

¼ stick of butter

8 oz grated mozzarella

½ cup pecorino romano, grated

Coarse salt and black pepper

1. Begin by making a ring out of tin foil and place the head of cabbage upside down on the ring

2. Core the head with a shallow cut to create a wide basin at the top of the cabbage

3. Add the salt and pepper and then spread the garlic around the basin

4. Cube the butter and place it in the basin as well

5. Add the mozzarella and pecorino romano on top

6. Prepare the grill for two-zone or indirect grilling with coals on one side and nothing on the other

7. The target temperature of the grill is 250 degrees

8. Place the cabbage on the foil ring on the side of the grill with no heat and a couple chunks of hickory (or a fruit wood) on the coals and close the lid

9. When the cabbage begins to brown (about 45-60 minutes) wrap completely in foil

10. After another 90 minutes remove from the grill, peel off the foil, cut into wedges, and serve

Some visual cues:

Slice around the core at about a 30 degree angle to remove the core:

The finished product: