Corned Beef and Cabbage

(Image from the web)

Today is St. Patrick's Day, and here in the United States it is traditional to serve corned beef and cabbage.  I always wondered about that.  As far as I know corned beef is not a typical dish of Ireland.  And what the heck does the word "corned" in corned beef mean?

It did not take much time on the internet to find the answer.   When poor Irish immigrants arrived in the United States, beef brisket was the cheapest cut of meat that they could find, and cabbage was the cheapest vegetable.  In New York City the Irish learned from Eastern European immigrants the process of preserving meat in brine.  "Corned" refers to the chunks of rock salt used to make the brine.

So will I be having corned beef and cabbage today?  Probably not, since my cousin Gail, her husband Wes, and I are going out for lunch at a Caribbean restaurant!