SC - Corned Beef Question

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Maryann Olson wrote:
> 
> 'Twill soon be Saint Patrick's Day, and I'll be eating corned beef and
> cabbage in his honor.
> 
> Was "corning" a period practice?  Did it vary from area to area?  What meats
> were corned?

Some authorities claim the process called corning is a reference to
salting with the addition of "corns" of gunpowder, a commonly available
source of saltpeter for military provisioners. While there is plenty of
period evidence suggesting meats were salted, most of it seems to be dry
salted and drained (effectively buried in solid salt), rather than
salt-rubbed to make a brine from the meat's own juices, as is used in
both modern corned beef and salt pork. What I do know is that the term
_seems_ not to occur, at least in my experience, in any recipe sources
in English until the eighteenth century or so. I was just looking at "A
Newe Proper Boke of Cookery" c. 1545 C.E., and it makes a couple of
references to "powdered beef"; earlier English sources refer to salt beef.

I'd say the most commonly corned meats nowadays are beef (often the
brisket or the tongue) or pork ribs. Other cuts of pork subjected to a
similar brine pickle might include back or belly bacon, picnic
shoulders, jowls, and a plethora of other parts, but these are more
likely to be seen as "salt pork" in the USA, especially bacon or
fatback, or "petit salé" in France. In England ham and bacon are often
brine pickled and then semi-dried and sold as gammons of bacon and/or ham.

See Jane Grigson's book on charcuterie for Everything You Never Wanted
to Know...it, of course, has vanished from my shelves because it knows I
want to quote its exact title and ISBN... 

>  Also, ham was preserved by smoking, I think.  Was that a
> period practice?  Were other meats smoked?

In a word, yes. There are instructions for doing this type of thing in
Cato's "On Farming", Columella's book on agriculture, a little in
Apicius, and in Le Menagier de Paris.

I hope this helps,

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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