Many people are familiar with corned beef as the protein served with cabbage during St. Patricks Day celebrations. Slices of freshly cooked beef brisket are served with this classic dish. According to the University of Minnesota Extension, this brisket was traditionally preserved using “corns” of large salt, giving corned beef its name. Since refrigerators are available today, this salt preservation technique is no longer necessary. However, measures are taken to lengthen the shelf life of canned corned beef in order to make it last longer.
Production of canned corned beef can be traced back to the 1800s. Countries were experimenting at the time with different methods of feeding their soldiers (source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune). They found success with tinned beef. Because it was packed with protein, wouldn’t spoil for a long time, and could be consumed directly from the can, this ration was practical (source: Food Timeline). Because it is boiled before canning, canned corned beef was given the British moniker “bully beef” in the country. Because of these pioneers, boiling is still used in the manufacture of modern canned corned beef.
Even though some people may find it disgusting, canned corned beef is a common household staple. At your neighborhood supermarkets, you can find well-known brands like Libbys, Hereford, or Hormel. However, despite the fact that this food has a long history, many people may not be aware of how it is made. Continue reading to learn how corned beef in cans is actually made.
It has nothing to do with corn
Corned beefs name is a little bit confusing, as the product contains no corn. Rather, the “corned” in the name refers to the rock salt used to preserve the beef (via The Kitchen Project). The word “corn” comes from “kurnam,” the proto-Germanic word for a seed or piece of grain. According to Bon Appétit, English speakers used “corn” as a generic name for any type of grain long before they encountered maize in the New World. When indigenous people in the Americas showed Europeans their staple crop, the colonists initially dubbed it “Indian corn,” a name that stuck until the 19th century.
Large chunks of rock salt are roughly the size of a kernel of grain, so they came to be called salt corns. This use of the word is very old, with the first written instance of “corned” dating back to the 800s. Smithsonian Magazine notes that English importers started to use the word “corned beef” to describe Irish salted meat in the 1600s. That means corned beef had its name for almost two centuries before Americans started calling maize “corn.”
It was used as a kosher substitute for Spam
The United States military has a long history of using Spam as a ration. S. During World War II, the military provided 150 million pounds of canned ham to its soldiers (source: Smithsonian Magazine). Given that canned meat doesn’t need to be refrigerated and can be consumed raw, it is clearly advantageous for use in combat.
So how did Spam lead to the popularity of canned corned beef? According to The Jewish News, the Israeli Defense Forces wanted to feed tinned meat to their conscripts, but they had a problem: Spam wasnt kosher. After World War II, the IDF developed its own kosher canned corned beef called Loof (short for “meatloaf”). It continued to serve Loof to soldiers through the early 21st century because the product could last decades if stored correctly. One Israeli soldier said in 2011 that he ate a can of Loof made before he was born. It turns out, age hadnt affected the Loof at all, and in the words of the soldier, “It wasnt bad.”
Israel isnt the only military that relied on canned corned beef. The British fed it to their fighting men from the 19th century through WWII (via We Are Not Foodies).
The rectangular can was designed to save space
The familiar rectangular or trapezoidal corned beef can that U.S. consumers are familiar with was patented in Chicago by Arthur A. Libby in 1875 (via The Food Timeline). Jen Evansy at FoodHow writes that the distinctive shape allows corned beef cans to stack more efficiently than round cans. This made it ideal for the military, as it reduced shipping costs. Although corned beefs heyday as an army food is now decades in the past, manufacturers havent found a reason to mess with a formula that has worked for over 100 years.
Although a perfectly rectangular can would stack just as well as a trapezoidal can, a corned beef tin’s irregular shape serves a purpose other than saving space. The delicate minced meat can slide out of its package without breaking because the can is wider on the side you open it from. Despite the benefits of this can design, the trapezoidal tin has not been adopted by any other products. When you see that can on a shelf, you already know what will be inside of it.
It’s a breakfast staple in the Philippines
Although it originated in Europe, corned beef may be loved there more than anywhere else (via Vice). One of the most popular breakfast items there is canned corned beef, which plays a similar cultural role to bacon in the U S. Millions of Filipino home cooks prepare this traditional breakfast every day: fried corned beef, white rice, and eggs. The fact that their version is superior to the kind found in most of the world may contribute to the nation’s love of the product. Most canned corned beef outside of the Philippines is made from finely minced meat. Filipinos consume a New Zealand product called Palm, which is made of shredded beef and resembles pulled pork in texture.
Although corned beef isnt as popular in the U.S. as it is in the Philippines, its still a fairly common breakfast option stateside. The Nibble reports that in America, most canned corned beef is consumed in the form of corned beef hash, a midcentury diner favorite that combines minced salt beef with diced potatoes and other seasonings.
Corned beef is not a traditional Irish food
Although cattle have been raised in Ireland for dairy production for a long time, beef has not historically been a preferred meat in the area. Cows were revered in ancient pre-Christian Gaelic religion, and most Irish farmers preferred to keep their cows alive for milk production rather than slaughter them. The wealthiest members of ancient Irish society tended to consume expensive beef, while the majority of people in the nation preferred to eat pork as their preferred animal protein (via Food and Wine)
Before England conquered Ireland in the 1500s, the country didn’t produce beef on a large scale. Instead, the English conquerors began raising cattle to export back to England. In the 17th century, the English Parliament outlawed the export of fresh beef from Ireland. As a result, landowners began selling corned beef, which was exempt from the new law because it was a preserved good. Due to this, the Irish city of Cork dominated the world’s production of corned beef for almost two centuries. Despite the fact that Ireland produced the majority of the world’s corned beef, most Irish people stayed away from it due to its high cost. When they immigrated to the U.S., people of Irish heritage only began consuming corned beef in large quantities. S. in the wake of the Potato Famine. Ironically, buying it abroad was more affordable than doing so locally.
Guns were used as can openers
We have the French Revolution to thank for the invention of canned food. The revolutionary government sought a way to deliver food to its troops at home and abroad while avoiding spoilage (via Can Manufacturers Institute). Multi-hyphenate kitchen innovator Nicholas Appert figured out that food boiled for five hours in sealed containers would stay fresh indefinitely.
The British patenting an improvement to Appert’s technique in 1810, the same year he made his novel technology public, took almost no time at all to steal his idea. While the British used tin-coated iron canisters to prevent rust, Appert preferred glass jars. Compared to the glass jars, the metal cans were more lightweight and robust.
The only issue was that no one had created a tool to open the new cans. The first patent for a can opener in the U. S. dates back to 1858, more than 40 years after canned food gained popularity as a military ration. Before that, instructions on how to open cans came with a hammer and chisel. Occasionally, frightened service members would shoot their corned beef to open it The inconvenience of opening early cans was enough to turn off regular people, who stopped using canned food in their home cooking. Corned beef was once only used during times of war, but that changed when the first self-opening corned beef can appeared in 1866.
Colonialism spread corned beef throughout the world
Modern corned beef production was spurred by the English conquest of Ireland, and the British Empire spread the product across many of the regions it ruled (via Smithsonian Magazine). The English rulers of Ireland made so much money from selling salted beef that they were even permitted to sell it to Englands enemy, France. Both the French and the English supplied their colonial holdings with corned beef, exporting it to Africa and the Americas (via We Are Not Foodies).
As Time notes in an exploration of the history of Spam in Asia, former colonies have a fraught relationship with the canned meats that were introduced by conquering powers. Canned meat often showed up in tandem with violence, but it also served as vital sustenance during lean times. In an era when many people in the countries that invented canned meat view it with disdain, cooks in places like the Philippines embrace canned corned beef as an integral part of the national food identity (via Vice). In recent years, Western consumers have embraced the delicious canned meat recipes that Asian cooks innovated because of necessity.
South America holds a virtual monopoly on canned corned beef production
Recipe Reminiscing notes that Irish corned beef production diminished at the end of the 19th century. By the start of WWII, South America had replaced Ireland as the leading producer of corned beef. During the first half of the 20th century, Uruguay led the way, making 16 million tins of corned beef in 1943. Brazil now produces more canned corned beef than all other countries combined.
The drive to produce more cattle for corned beef is a leading contributor to Amazon deforestation in Brazil (via EarthSight). Cattle ranchers who raise meat for Brazilian firm JBS have been linked to the illegal destruction of large swathes of the Amazon rainforest. Not only that, but the Brazilian government alleges that JBS-affiliated rancher Jotinha staffs his ranches with workers who toil under slave-like conditions. Deforestation and labor violations arent the only recent Brazilian corned beef scandals. Dig Jamaica reports that Jamaica joined several other countries in temporarily banning all imports of Brazilian corned beef in 2017. The ban was triggered after an investigation found that some Brazilian meat producers had been selling spoiled products and paying off inspectors to avoid detection.
It’s hard to tell what part of the cow it’s made from
Deli-style sliced corned beef is typically made from beef brisket, but the cuts of meat used for the canned stuff are mysterious. A breakdown of the nutritional content of Hormel corned beef on Innit reveals that the product contains just six ingredients. The list is surprisingly short for a shelf-stable processed food, consisting mostly of stuff you would recognize from a home kitchen, with a couple of preservatives added. Despite this apparent simplicity, the “beef” component of the recipe could come from almost any part of the cow, including some cuts that people dont customarily eat as food in the U.S.
According to My Fearless Kitchen, U. S. The law allows for the inclusion of the diaphragm, esophagus, blood vessels, nerves, sinew, and skin in products marketed as beef. It is acceptable to have “the portions of bone,” but not to “include significant portions of bone.” which normally accompany the muscle tissue. Due to the possibility of mad cow disease, no amount of brain is permitted in beef. These regulations give meatpackers a lot of leeway to choose the exact ingredients that make up the “beef” in corned beef, but they do exclude organ meats like tripe, liver, and lungs. Even though you might be wary of eating mystery meat like canned corned beef, if you’ve ever had a hot dog or a Slim Jim, you’ve probably already consumed animal parts that you would never prepare at home.
The nitrites in corned beef might be a carcinogen
Canning of corned beef uses a small amount of sodium nitrite as a preservative, similar to most cured meats (source: Innit). According to the BBC, sodium nitrite aids in destroying bacteria while the meat is being cured, enabling safe room-temperature storage. Additionally, the chemical alters the hue of the meat, keeping it pink even after being fully cooked. Although the nitrites in cured meats keep us from getting sick from food, they might be bad for our long-term health.
When nitrites react with amines, a type of chemical found in protein-rich foods, they form nitrosamines. Research links certain nitrosamines to an increased risk of cancer (via BBC). However, its not clear how much the nitrites in cured meats contribute to cancer risk. People who consume a moderate amount of preserved meat every day are only slightly more likely to develop cancer, and nitrites arent the only potential carcinogen lurking in red meat. Furthermore, most of the nitrites in a typical persons diet occur in vegetables rather than meats. These nitrites may actually improve cardiovascular fitness. The health effects of nitrites are complex, and more research is necessary to unpack their risks and potential benefits. That said, corned beef is still best enjoyed as an occasional treat, as it contains big doses of sodium and saturated fat in addition to the nitrites.
Corned beef is partially responsible for pumpkin pie
When the leaves begin to change, Libby’s canned pumpkin begins to dominate supermarket shelves, satisfying Americans’ yearly autumnal cravings for pumpkin desserts. Despite the fact that you can cook and puree your own pumpkin for pie, most people rely on the convenience and reliable flavor of the canned variety. Dickinson pumpkin, a unique variety of squash that can only be grown in the area surrounding Morton, Illinois, is used to make Libbys (via Medium). This extra-sweet pumpkin makes for the perfect pie filling.
However, the Libbys corporation began as a corned beef canning business run by Arthur and Charles Libby and their business partner Archibald McNeil (via Libbys International) before it entered the pumpkin business. The company, which was founded in 1868, invented the tapered can and refrigerated trucks, among other innovations that revolutionized the canned beef industry. In the early 1900s, the business began diversifying into other canned goods, selling sauerkraut, A1 Sauce, fruits, and vegetables. Dickinson Pumpkin Company was acquired by Libbys in 1930, and ever since, the company has gone by the name Libbys.
Deli corned beef and canned corned beef evolved independently
As we’ve already discussed, the British developed canned corned beef in the early 19th century as a way to preserve and export Ireland’s cattle. Jewish deli corned beef has a much longer history than the sliced, cured brisket you order piled high on rye with spicy mustard. Since the ancient Hebrews began pickling meat to consume on Tisha B’Av, a holiday commemorating the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, Jews have been known to cure meat in brine (source: Serious Eats). Priests at the time believed that the curing process made the meat less festive and more appropriate for the solemn holiday.
This tradition of cured red meat continued all the way through the 1800s, when Jewish Germans ran delicatessens inspired by the charcuterie shops of France. When German Jews began fleeing en masse to America to avoid persecution in their home country, they opened delis all over the U.S. that served corned beef brisket. These Jewish immigrants often settled in neighborhoods close to Irish migrants who had escaped the Potato Famine. The Irish, many of whom had been workers in the corned beef industry before they immigrated, began buying corned beef brisket from Kosher butchers, solidifying it as “Irish” food in the American imagination (via Smithsonian Magazine).
This Is How Canned Corned Beef Is Really Made
FAQ
Is canned corned beef real corned beef?
Corned beef is typically available in two forms in the United States and Canada: a cut of beef (typically brisket, but occasionally round or silverside) cured or pickled in a seasoned brine, or cooked and canned.
Is canned corned beef healthy?
In the past, any kind of meat could be subjected to the curing procedure that produces what is now known as corned beef. In the U. S. , corned beef is made from beef brisket. The brisket is a traditionally kosher cut of meat that is cured to make it more tender. You may have seen it at Jewish delis.