What Is Corned Beef Brisket?
Every St. Patrick's Day in the United States, corned beef and cabbage are everywhere. The streets of many large U.S. cities practically flow with green beer to wash the dish down. It's not surprising that you might wonder just what corned beef brisket is exactly, and why it's such a big deal for this holiday. Does this Spark an idea?
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The Facts
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The act of corning beef doesn't in any way involve the vegetable known as corn. Instead, it's a term for preserving with coarse salt that's carried over into modern times from Anglo-Saxon usage. Technically, corned beef is actually preserved through a process called brining, which involves salt, water, and a variety of spices that vary by region and recipe.
Brisket is a tough, inexpensive cut of beef that comes from just over the foreleg of a cow. While corned beef is not always made from brisket, it quite often makes good use of this particular cut.
History
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Corned beef was a peasant food that was particularly popular in County Cork, Ireland, between 1640 and 1825. When Irish immigrants came to the United States, like many other immigrants, they brought a taste of home with them in the form of traditional cookery. At the time, the beef used for corning wasn't brisket at all. Brisket didn't come into the picture until Irish immigrants met Jewish immigrants in the United States, who introduced them to this wonderfully economical cut of meat. Thus, a new world tradition was born.
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Cooking Technique
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Since brisket is a tough cut of meat, it requires long, slow cooking in liquid. In the culinary world, this term is referred to as braising. While peasant foods across nations vary, one thing they all have in common is that they take foods considered inedible by the upper classes and make them delicious. Braising a tough cut of meat like the brisket causes the collagen in the tough, muscular cut of meat to break down. When cooked properly in this manner, it's quite tender and flavorful.
Considerations
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Corned beef brisket can be cooked in an oven, on your stove top, or in a slow cooker. It doesn't require a lot of attention, but it does require a bit of time. If using your oven or stove, plan to cook it for approximately one hour per pound of meat. If using a slow cooker, plan on six hours on high, or 12 hours on low. If using a slow cooker for a family dinner, you may wish to start cooking it the night before.
Potential
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Much like risotto and polenta have brought Italian peasant foods to the forefront of modern cuisine, Irish cooking expert Davina Allen believes that a corned beef resurgence is in order in Ireland. Since economic times have much improved for the Irish people, corned beef fell out of favor in its mother country. Allen believes it remained popular among Irish immigrants in the United States because it was a taste of the home they remembered. Now, though, everything old is becoming new again---both at home and abroad.
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- Photo Credit Danperry.com: Flickr.com
