Corned beef

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**Beef**

Beef Cut:	Brisket
Steak Type:	Corned beef

Corned beef is a cut of beef (usually brisket, but sometimes round or silverside) cured or pickled in a seasoned brine.

The "corn" in "corned beef" refers to the "corn" or grains of coarse salts used to cure it. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the usage of "corn," meaning "small hard particle, a grain, as of sand or salt," to 888, and the term "corned beef" to 1621.^[1] The term "corned beef" can denote different styles of brine-cured beef, depending on the region. Traditional corned beef is highly seasoned and often considered delicatessen fare.^{[citation needed]}

1 Canada and the United States
- 1.1 Saint Patrick's Day
2 Germany
3 UK
4 References

[edit] Canada and the United States

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In the United States, corned beef is often purchased precooked, as in delicatessens. Perhaps the most famous^{[citation needed]} sandwich made with it is the traditional corned beef on rye, a very thick sandwich made with thinly sliced corned beef, "Jewish" rye bread made with caraway seeds, and mustard or horseradish. Also famous is the Reuben sandwich, consisting of corned beef, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and Thousand Island or Russian dressing on rye bread which is then grilled on a flat griddle or in a cast iron pan in oil.

Corned beef hash is commonly served as a breakfast food with eggs and hash browns.

Smoking corned beef, usually with the addition of extra spices such as black pepper, produces a cold cut known as pastrami.

[edit] Saint Patrick's Day

Cooked corned beef

The consumption of corned beef is associated with Saint Patrick's Day, when many Irish Americans eat a traditional meal of corned beef and cabbage. According to the History Channel, while cabbage has become a traditional food item for Irish-Americans, corned beef was originally a substitute for bacon in the late 1800s. ^[2] Irish immigrants living in New York City's Lower East Side sought an equivalent in taste and texture to their traditional Irish bacon, and learned about this cheaper alternative to bacon from their Jewish neighbors. A similar dish is the New England boiled dinner, consisting of corned beef, cabbage, and root vegetables such as carrots, turnips, and potatoes, which is popular in New England and parts of Atlantic Canada.

As St. Patrick's Day occurs annually during Lent, the corned beef tradition caused controversy among American Catholic dioceses in 2000 and 2006, when the holiday fell on a Friday. Lenten custom dictates that no meat be consumed on Fridays during Lent, but some bishops granted dispensations to their dioceses for eating corned beef on St. Patrick's Day.^[3] This rare occurrence will next happen on Friday in 2017.^[4]

[edit] Germany

A traditionally shaped tin of corned beef as sold in Germany and the UK.

Two canned versions of commercial corned beef are sold in Germany. The original is usually called American Corned Beef and consists of finely shredded corned beef with a high fat content and is similar to Spam. Another version is called Deutsches Corned Beef and is closer to the product described above. It is not as finely shredded, it contains chunks of corned beef and is usually embedded in aspic. Deutsches Corned Beef is also sold in slices at supermarket meat counters and butcher shops.^[5]

[edit] UK

The product known as 'corned beef' in the US is sold as 'salt beef' in the UK, and is commonly found served on bagels with mustard and gherkins. Confusingly, there is also a product called 'corned beef' sold in the UK. It is sold as tins (cans) of a distinctive shape containing finely ground meat. A typical ingredients list^[6] is: Beef, Salt, Sugar, Sodium Nitrite. A 100 gram portion contains 12.5 grams of fat and 2.3 grams of salt^[6].

During 1963 and 1964, tins of Argentinian corned beef were responsible for several outbreaks of Typhoid. The most severe of these hospitalised over 500 people in Aberdeen^[7].