New England Boiled Dinner

The word boiled has always disturbed me. Few dishes benefit from boiling—green vegetables are the exception—and most dishes described as boiled are actually poached. But of course Poached New England Dinner sounds as though the meat was stolen in the middle of the night.

A traditional New England boiled dinner, which dates from colonial times, is different from other meat soups because corned rather than fresh beef is used. Beef, usually brisket, is corned by being soaked in