Steam rises as Peter Casey checks whether the potatoes and carrots that go into his corned beef and cabbage (below) are done.

Peter Casey’s corned beef and cabbage.

Fully cooked turnips, carrots, potatoes and cabbage wait to be plated with corned beef.

Peelings from carrots prepared by Casey for his corned beef and cabbage recipe.

Peter Casey holds a handful of carrots to be peeled for corned beef and cabbage at his home in Naples.

Peter Casey strains turnips out of a pot of boiling vegetables for corned beef and cabbage at his home in Naples. Casey said the tradition of making the dish came from his father’s side of the family, which came from Ireland in the early 1900s. However, Casey goes at it differently than most, cooking the meat and vegetables separately to prevent the meat from becoming too tough and the vegetables too soft.

Peter Casey says the trick to preparing cabbage correctly for his recipe is to leave the core attached when slicing the vegetable into quarters, so that the leaves do not separate during cooking.