St. Patrick’s Day: Corned Beef

It’s St. Patrick’s Day which for many people means a dinner of corned beef and cabbage. There’s no corn in corned beef, so how did the one of the most popular dishes this holiday get its name?

FOX News Radio’s Lilian Woo explains:

Corned beef actually refers to the treatment of the meat and the use of corns of salt, meaning small hard pellets or kernels of it which are used in the brining liquid along with herbs and spices …

(Leite) “Things like coriander seed and mustard seed, and hot red pepper flakes for some people allspice berries and ground mace.”

David Leite of Leite’s Culinaria says the meat is often submerged for days then rinsed off and simmered for hours and you can’t have the corned beef without the cabbage this holiday.

Leite likes to cut wedges, sear in bacon fat…

(Leite) “You have that great bacony flavor and that nice burnt edge on the side.”

Add broth from the beef to steam and you have the centerpiece of your St. Patrick’s Day table.

Lilian Woo, FOX News Radio.

CLICK HERE for the FOX & Food Podcast. ?FOX News Radio’s Lilian Woo talks St. Patrick’s Day classics with David Leite in the latest edition.