corned beef
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What is corned beef?
Corned beef is a food made from beef brisket that is cured or preserved in salt. The term "corn" refers to the coarse grains of rock salt used in the curing process.
In North America, the beef brisket is brined in salt and spices for about two or three weeks. After the brining, the excess salt is washed off, and the meat is simmered. The result is a tender, pink-red meat with a salty and umami flavour.
Corned beef is often associated with Irish cuisine, especially on St. Patrick's Day, but its popularity largely stems from Irish immigrants in the United States. They found beef to be affordable and adopted corned beef from their Jewish neighbors, who prepared it similarly to Irish bacon with cabbage and potatoes.
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How is corned beef made?
Corned beef is made from beef brisket that is cured in salt. The brisket, a cut from the lower chest of a cow, is brined in salt and spices for two to three weeks. This long process is necessary because brisket is a tough cut of beef. After brining, the excess salt is washed away, and the meat is simmered for about three hours or prepared in a pressure cooker. Properly cooked corned beef is tender, pink-red, and retains some saltiness with an umami taste.
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Why is it called "corned" beef?
Corned beef is made from beef brisket cured in salt. The term "corned" comes from the word "corn," which refers to a coarse grain of rock salt, similar to a kernel. To "corn" something means to preserve or season it with salt in grains. Corned beef is brisket, usually from the lower chest of a cow, that has been brined in salt and spices. The brining process, which can last two to three weeks, helps to tenderize this tough cut of beef.
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How is corned beef usually prepared and eaten?
Corned beef is made from beef brisket that is cured or brined in salt and spices. The brining process can last several weeks because brisket is a tough cut of beef. After brining, the excess salt is rinsed off, and the meat is simmered for about three hours or prepared in a pressure cooker.
Corned beef is often associated with Irish cuisine, especially on St. Patrick’s Day, when it is served with cabbage and potatoes or colcannon, a mixed cabbage and potato dish. In America, Irish immigrants adopted corned beef from their Jewish neighbors, who ate it with cabbage and potatoes. Corned beef is commonly used to make sandwiches.
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What are some popular dishes that use corned beef?
Corned beef is made from beef brisket cured or pickled in salt.
Popular dishes that use corned beef:
* Corned beef and cabbage This dish is strongly associated with Irish cuisine and is widely eaten on St. Patrick’s Day.
* Reuben sandwich The Reuben is a grilled sandwich made with corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, and Russian or Thousand Island dressing, typically on rye or pumpernickel bread. Several variants of the Reuben exist across the globe, including kosher and vegan versions.
* Colcannon A mixed cabbage-potato dish served alongside corned beef.2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How has corned beef been important in different countries or cultures?
Corned beef, made from beef brisket cured in salt, has distinct cultural associations. While strongly linked to Irish cuisine and St. Patrick’s Day, its popularity is largely due to Irish immigrants in the United States. Historically, beef was scarce and expensive in Ireland, where pork was favored. In America, Irish immigrants found beef abundant and inexpensive and adopted corned beef from their Jewish neighbors, who prepared it similarly to Irish bacon with cabbage and potatoes.
Today, beef production has increased in Ireland, influenced by demand from Irish Americans. In England and Scotland, beef has long been a dietary staple; much of the corned beef consumed in the U.K. is imported from Argentina and Uruguay. Historically, Ireland produced corned beef for export to Britain due to lower salt taxes.
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corned beef, food made of beef brisket cured in salt.
Related to the word kernel, a corn is a coarse grain of rock salt. In North America, corned beef is brisket, taken from the lower chest of a cow or steer, that has been brined in salt and spices. (In general British usage, fresh corned beef is called “salt beef,” while the canned version retains the “corned” designation.) Because brisket is a tough cut of beef, the brining process usually lasts for two or three weeks. Corned beef is similar to pastrami, of Turkish origin, save that pastrami can come from several cuts of meat other than brisket, is fattier than corned beef, and is often smoked.
Conversely, corned beef is made from lean brisket. At the end of the brining process, any excess salt is washed away, and the meat is then simmered for about three hours or prepared in a pressure cooker. If properly cooked, the corned beef will be tender, have a pink-red colour, and retain some of its saltiness while having the slightly sour earthy taste of umami.
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Corned beef is strongly associated with Irish cuisine and is widely eaten on St. Patrick’s Day, served alongside cabbage and potatoes or the mixed cabbage-potato dish called colcannon. However, the history is somewhat circuitous, for although corned beef was well known in Ireland and the rest of the British Isles in antiquity, the dish as it is known today is largely owing to diasporic Irish, particularly in the United States, who adopted it in their new homelands. Beef has historically been relatively scarce in Ireland and, as a measure of wealth in ancient Irish society, it was not widely eaten because it was prohibitively expensive; a St. Patrick’s Day meal in good times was instead likely to involve Irish bacon, a kind of ham, in a culinary culture that favoured pork over other meats. In America, however, Irish immigrants found that beef was abundant and inexpensive, and they discovered as well that their Jewish neighbours in New York and other immigrant centres ate corned beef—its texture similar to that of Irish bacon—along with the eastern European staples of cabbage and potatoes. The connection between Irish consumers and kosher butchers and the ready availability of beef both helped install corned beef as an Irish American tradition.
Commercial beef production has grown in Ireland in modern times, and beef is eaten more regularly now in Ireland than in times past, at least in part because of market demand by Irish Americans visiting their ancestral homeland. By contrast, beef has long been a staple of the diet in England and Scotland. Much beef consumed there in the early 21st century, including much of the prepared corned beef delivered to the U.K. market, was imported from Argentina and Uruguay. Historically, however, when Ireland was an economic colony of Britain, corned beef was produced on that island for export to the British market, an industry made all the more profitable because the tax on salt in Ireland was substantially lower than the tax in Britain.