Ingredients

　　

Bland

Step 1

Once it’s cooked, you’ll just have to add a sauce with a little zip, or serve it with a good mustard (we’re partial to stone-ground or perhaps a sweet and spicy). Next time, add any of the following four seasonings, alone or in concert, to the cooking water for corned beef or, indeed, for boiled beef: dill seed, a 1-inch stick of cinnamon, whole celery seed, or four or five whole allspice berries.

　　

Tough

Step 2

You haven’t cooked it long enough. Just keep going. It takes a long, long while to get some corned beef tender, but it eventually does happen (unless you can detect the word “Firestone” stamped into the side of the beef).

　　How to Repair Food, Third Edition