Corn free, cancer free, and a space-safe food? Some of these
things just aren’t true about your favorite corned beef!
Despite its name, corned beef has nothing to do with corn. Instead,
the term was used by the British in the 17th century to refer to
the salt crystals — which were the size of corn kernels — used to cure the meat.
While corned beef was originally cured by rubbing salt into the meat,
today the process involves a salt brine. That's good news since the process lets
manufacturers add more than just salt to the recipe. Different brines use mustard seeds,
coriander seeds, and peppercorns — which all add to the flavor of the final product.
While the British coined the term "corned beef" in the 17th century,
the Irish were using salt crystals to preserve meat way back in the Middle Ages. The dish is
first mentioned in the 12th-century Gaelic poem "The Vision of Mac Conglinne" as a
luxury item given to the king. There's also a 14th-century English recipe for hache,
which is likely the predecessor of today's hash.
The rectangular corned beef can we know today was patented in Chicago by Arthur A. Libby in
1875. However, canned corned beef didn't become popular in America until World War
II when it was distributed to households as a food supplement. Today, canned corned beef cans
are found on supermarket shelves across the U.S. Notably, Libby's is still one of the favorites.
Served with cabbage across the U.S. on St. Patrick's Day, it's not hard
to see why corned beef is thought of as a traditional Irish food. However,
traditional St. Patrick's Day feasts in Ireland actually consist of bacon
and cabbage since historically, beef was way out of the price range of the common folk.
"Where's the beef?"
Even today, the only restaurants in Ireland that serve corned beef and
cabbage on St. Patrick's Day are the ones that cater to tourists.
So how did Ireland become associated with corned beef? Traditionally, cows in Ireland were used
for dairy production and fieldwork and only slaughtered when they got too old to work.
This changed in the 17th century after the enactment of the British
Cattle Acts which prohibited the import of live cattle into Britain.
With farmers forced to slaughter cows and preserve beef with salt before exporting it,
Ireland became the center for corned beef production. The fact that the
salt tax in Ireland was around one-tenth of England's only helped to spur the industry.
Canned corned beef is very different from the corned beef you may find at
your local deli. Canned corned beef is cured in brine and contains many preservatives and
additives to preserve its shelf-life. Deli corned beef, on the other hand,
is a cured or pickled brisket that's later cut into pieces.
Deli corned beef originated among America's Jewish community who ate it as a kosher
substitute for spam, which contained pork. When Irish immigrants started coming to
America during the Great Irish Potato Famine in the mid-1800s, they found the beef to be
more affordable than in their home country. Soon, they started buying corned beef from
Jewish butchers as a substitute for the bacon and ham they were accustomed to eating in Ireland.
There's little doubt that corned beef is a hit in the U.S. and Europe. However,
over the years, the canned food has also earned fans in the Philippines and Jamaica.
The widespread popularity of canned corned beef can be attributed to Britain and France,
which distributed the food to their colonies in the Americas, Africa, and Asia.
The presence of the American military in the Philippines led the Southeast Asian country
to incorporate canned foods such as corned beef and Spam into local dishes. For example,
one of the country's most popular breakfast recipes is cornsilog,
a concoction of corned beef, fried egg, and garlic rice.
Food and culture writer Bettina Makalintal,
who moved from the Philippines to the U.S. when she was a child, wrote in "Vice" that:
"Corned beef is something I can't disassociate from the simple pleasures of my childhood
breakfasts. For me, it's only ever paired with the smell of sizzling garlic, the steam
that billows out of the rice cooker, and the crackle of eggs frying in a pan deep with oil."
The idea that the U.S. is a major manufacturer of canned corned beef is
a misconception. While historically Ireland was the leading producer of corned beef,
South America took the honors sometime around the outbreak of World War II. Fray Bentos
in Uruguay became the major producer of the food in the first half of the 20th century,
exporting 16 million cans of corned beef in 1943 alone.
Today, Brazil produces 80% of the world's canned corned beef supply,
mainly due to its vast swaths of land for cattle grazing. Unfortunately, cattle production is
also currently the top contributor for deforestation in the country. In 2017,
the world's largest beef producer, JBC, was fined $8 million for the illegal destruction of
the Amazon rainforest. Also in 2017, the Jamaican government banned imports of Brazilian corned beef
after an investigation found that several meat producers were selling spoiled meat.
While it's safe to eat corned beef straight out of the tin, it may not
be the most satisfying experience. Since the beef is preserved in brine with salt crystals,
corned beef tends to be very salty if left uncooked. Simmering corned beef
in water can leach out a lot of the salt, highlighting the pleasantly meaty taste.
There are plenty of canned corned beef recipes out there bound to tickle your fancy. Aside from
classics like corned beef hash, other popular concoctions include corned beef and eggs,
corned beef with Enoki mushrooms, and canned corned beef with zucchini, olives, and peppers.
The seasoning usually added to these recipes help mask any remaining saltiness in the corned beef.
You can serve corned beef with sauerkraut or pickles since anything tart also masks salt.
Canned corned beef can be a decent source of vitamins and minerals.Three ounces of
corned beef is packed with 15 grams of protein, 1.6 micrograms of vitamin B-12,
1.86 milligrams of iron, and 27.9 micrograms of the antioxidant selenium.
However, canned corned beef also contains several unhealthy ingredients.
"Oh my God"
The brine salt used to tenderize the meat leaves the beef full of sodium. A three-ounce
portion is loaded with 827 milligrams of sodium and 83 milligrams of cholesterol.
Most canned corned beef also contains the preservative sodium nitrate,
which has been linked to cancer and health risks during pregnancy.
In 2015, the cancer research agency at the World Health Organization classified
processed meats like canned corned beef a Group 1 carcinogen that is likely to
cause cancer in humans. To make matters worse, the agency also classified red
meat as a Group 2 carcinogen, which is probably carcinogenic to humans.
Canned corned beef and Spam have a lot in common. They are both pre-cooked and processed,
served in rectangular cans, and safe to eat straight out of the tin. They also
both look like a gelatinous pink meaty mass. But, there's one thing that sets
the two foods apart — corned beef is made with beef while Spam is made with pork.
"There's no mystery behind SPAM! It's always been made with six simple ingredients!"
Launched in 1937, Spam is made with pork, salt, water, potato starch, sugar,
and sodium nitrite. Spam tends to have a smoother texture than corned beef and is
commonly used on sandwiches, while corned beef often features in stir-fries and casseroles.
Canned corned beef usually comes in rectangular cans that are opened with an attached key. To
open the can, you insert the tin's metal tab into the small slot in the accompanying key.
The key is then rolled around the can, pulling the tab and separating the tin into two parts.
Since cans of corned beef are opened on the side, rather than the top, a missing
or broken key could pose a problem. Luckily, a can opener can open a tin of corned beef.
First, use a large can opener with a comfortable handle for a steady grip. Next, if the top of the
can is smaller than the bottom, open it at the bottom end. This makes it easier to move around
the can's corners. After opening it, use the can opener to make a couple of holes on the other end
of the can. This helps the meat slide out of the can easier. Don't have a can opener handy? You
can always use a pair of pliers to grip the tab and slowly peel the strip off the can.
Canned corned beef may look pink, but it would actually be gray without one crucial ingredient —
sodium nitrate. While this food additive preserves the meat and helps to inhibit bacteria to keep us
safe from food poisoning, the chemical has been linked to numerous health problems.
As we mentioned earlier, regular consumption of cured meats like corned beef, ham, and bacon has
been connected to an increased risk of cancer, even by the Cancer Treatment Centers of America.
You can buy corned beef that hasn't been cured with sodium nitrate. Sometimes referred to as
New England corned beef, this meat isn't treated with preservatives and receives
a natural saltwater brining process which leaves it with a gray color.
Canned corned beef was once at the center of an out-of-this-world scandal. On March 23, 1965,
astronaut John Young smuggled a corned beef sandwich onto the Gemini III in the pocket of
his spacesuit. Young offered the sandwich to the mission commander, Virgil "Gus" Grissom,
around two hours into the five-hour exploratory mission. Seemingly aware of the potential dangers,
Grissom promptly stowed the contraband gift in his own space suit pocket.
While taking the corned beef sandwich into space was supposed to be a joke,
many were concerned that any free-floating food particles — including crumbs of corned
beef — could have had dire consequences on the spacecraft. After all, there's a good
reason why NASA was supplying its astronauts with gelatin-coated food cubes at the time.
Since a part of the Gemini III mission was testing space food,
Young's joke didn't go down very well with the U.S. government.
Young recalls the experience in his memoirs, "Forever Young," saying,
"A couple of congressmen became upset, thinking that,
by smuggling in the sandwich and eating part of it, Gus and I had ignored the actual space
food that we were up there to evaluate, costing the country millions of dollars."