~~Corned Beef~~

After our drummer Dave pointed out to me that Corned Beef is a fantastic cockney rhyming slang for Keith I have been barraging a fellow colleague with it much to, my pleasure and his misery.

This recent revelation has meant that, as always, I have had to investigate further into the subject matter. So using the good old Google I found mounds of information in a surprising short space of time, it seems its not only me that has a bizarre fascination with the humble tinned 'meat'. Here's what I found out....

What is it?
Corned beef, also called corned beef brisket, is a popular meat item which hearkens back to the days before refrigeration. Faced with the challenge of preserving fresh meat for the winter season, butchers would routinely pack beef or pork products in salt to prevent the formation of bacteria and mold. Meats like beef brisket could also be pickled in a spicy, salty brine. At one time, the word corn referred to a number of kernels or seeds, including the coarse salt granules packed around the brisket. Thus the meat was called 'corned' beef in reference to the corns of salt.

Why the peculiar shape??
There is a few offers on this, some more fun than the others. Here's a few suggestions provided by other 'Corned Beef' enthusiasts...

They are made in their traditional tapered rectangular shape because it is easier to extract the contents in one piece, thus allowing the block of corned beef to be sliced. That's also why the cans also employ a key that enables the user separate one end of the body of the can: there's no seam to prevent the contents slipping out. Originally, the cans were made by folding up folding tinplate sheet that produced the correct taper and soldering the seam. More recently this has been replaced with cans that are formed from welded cylinders, then reformed and expanded mechanically - John Nutting, Editor, The Can maker magazine, Crawley.

Because they are better for slicing for sarnies and cubing for corned beef hash. - Frances Lyle, Bristol.

They were originally made in the tapered shape so that they would fit more compactly in British soldier`s knapsacks in either the Boer War or the 1st World War. My father always swore that British Army cooks in the 2nd World War were issued with a special recipe booklet called 1001 ways to cook bully beef. - Roger Hawkins, Stavanger, Norway.

To stop them from rolling about in your shopping trolley. - Gavin Bolton, South Africa.

Most soldiers know that the corned beef tins are made that shape so that when the key is used to remove a section from the tin the large end will fit over the small end and form its own container for keeping the uneaten part of the corned beef fresh. If you don't believe me then try it. - Alan Myland, Peterborough, England

Suggested safety issues with corned beef:
I have recently acquired 4 stitches from opening a corned beef can. It is a little known military secret that "bully beef" cans were a major cause of death and injuries in World War I. The Germans would use trench mortars and fire them into the British lines. In opening them thousands of young soldiers were cut, bleeding to death or dying of blood poisoning. The corned beef can remains on of the most dangerous and cheaply produced anti personnel weapons still in use today. Hence my 4 stitches. - Stewart McRorie, Beaune, Brugundy France.

From wiki ... 'During 1963 and 1964, tins of Argentinian corned beef were responsible for several outbreaks of Typhoid. The most severe of these hospitalised over 500 people in Aberdeen'. May explain a few things. - Al, Christchurch, NZ

Forget about the shape of the tin - it's irrelevant. Anyone who has been to a corned beef canning factory (as I have) where a cow walks in at one door and a tin of corned beef comes out the other door will never eat 'corned beef' again. - Charles A, Cape Town, South Africa.

So there we have it. I never realised how much thought people devoted to the good old tin of Corned Beef. Incidentally I have never ever been subjected to eating the stuff, I might give it a try one day. Im off to investigate further tinned meats...

For more info visit www.cornedbeef.com.

R x

...ML...