On Corned Beef

My first taste of corned beef (that I am aware of, anyway) was my junior year of college. I had returned from my semester abroad in Korea and was assigned to room with someone who did not want a roommate, much less me. I attempted to make the best of things by simply avoiding the room as much as possible. That turned out to be easier than I would have thought because of other people living in the dorm, Ruth & JJ. I felt adopted and got back into the swing of things thanks to them. I don't know if they remember how totally out of it I was when I came back, but I distinctly recall that they kept me sane that semester.

Among other things, Ruth & JJ introduced me to bridge. And to late night runs to Jerry's Famous Deli. On my first trip, I waffled on what to try. The menu is epic in size and if you don't know what you want, well...it's the worst place an indecisive person could go because of the volume of options available. Anyway, I was just happy to have been invited and noshed on a variety of pickles. Ruth tried to educate me on the differences between them, but I just liked their pickley deliciousness. So crunchy and fresh, they were the kind of pickles that set expectations for the rest of the meal.

I ended up getting a half sandwich and soup. Matzoh ball soup, of course. For the sandwich, Ruth ugred me to try the corned beef. Since the rest of the recommendations had gone so well, I went with it. And it was wonderful. Salty, but not too salty, I'd never had such tender meat. And well, I don't think I had ever had anything that even remotely resembled actual meat before in a sandwich. I grew up in the household of pressed meats and sandwich slices that came perfectly circular in shape and never really fit the bread.

Amusingly, Ruth was vegetarian by this point. She was a senior and having done a DC semester and a semester in Zimbabwe, she was back at CMC and going vegetarian. So she was guiding me along my carnivorous path but not partaking. It was a puzzlement to me as I'd just spent a semester in a definitively carnivorous country full of relatives who would have disowned me if I had gone vegetarian.

Ruth also introduced me to real life New York deli's when I visited her over the summer and she took me on a walking tour of the deli scene. We had lunch at Carnegie Deli after having disclosed that Stage Deli was within walking distance. Apparently you can learn a lot from someone's preference between the two. Since I had never even heard of them prior to that trip, I was just fascinated to be in NY and eating, period. (Ruth is also responsible for my inability to resist a black & white cookie. She took me to pick up cookies to take somewhere and the bakery had just finished them. The cookies had been freshly baked and glazed and were ridiculously good. I can't resist one, now, because I always hope that it's freshly baked. It never is, but I still try it, hoping.)

When I moved back up to the Bay Area after graduation, it took me a while to realize that Saul's in Berkelely had good corned beef. How long? Four years. It just never really occurred to me that Saul's was a deli to begin with and that this large restaurant looking thing next door to my favorite patisserie was worth checking out. I think it might have been a dinner with Alex & Alysia that re-introduced me to Saul's.

For a while, after I moved up to Sacramento to go to law school, I would get a craving for corned beef and just pick up a pound or so, sliced, from Saul's and take it home to dole out over a few days. I'd pick up a nice loaf of rye at Acme, while I was in Berkeley and take it all home. There, I'd slice and toast a piece or two of rye, smear it with a lovely mustard and then put a few slices of corned beef on each and eat them open faced. They were perfect for satisfying the corned beef cravings.

In recent years, I have discovered that making corned beef is kind of easy and I should just make it. The whole prepackaged corned beef package sold in grocery stores, complete with spice packet, repelled me for a long time. It looks...well, radioactively pink. REALLY unnaturally pink. Meat should not be that pink. But Rich talked me into it last year and so I dutifully looked up recipes and read up on the general idea and made one.

Huh. Not bad. At that point, I recalled Jessica making corned beef and cabbage and some Irish soda bread in Beckett for St. Patrick's Day one year. Huh. I remembered!

And Rich loves a good corned beef hash, so he'd take leftovers and make it. Only...there weren't any leftovers the first time we made it. So we made it again, this time with two packages. There was just so much fat that in the end, there wasn't anywhere near as much meat as it looked like there was before it was cooked. So we figured by making two, we'd be set.

Sure enough, there was a lot of corned beef! And it was tasty. And there were leftovers. It turns out that corned beef hash, good corned beef hash, take some real effort. And, as with many things, I have some high standards. I still remember a delicious bite of an awesome corned beef hash that I had with David in Boston, where I was dumb and didn't order what he ordered, but he kindly shared a bite and it was just spectacular. (This was just one of many culinary highlights from that trip to Boston. David was an excellent host and I left Boston well fed. It was very exciting when David called me a couple of weeks later for the name of the store where I had told him to get decadent bath stuff to impress a girl. And now he's engaged to the recipient of the Lush stuff he bought!)

Now, I know that a good corned beef hash takes effort. It can't get too dry, don't want it too wet, either, and needs enough potato-y goodness to hold it all together once you place the quivering sunny side up eggs on top. So far, corned beef hash has not been my favorite use of really good semi-homemade corned beef.

A few weeks ago, in preparation for St. Patrick's Day, the Food Network broadcasted Alton Brown's episode on corned beef. I, of course, fell asleep almost immediately after starting up the episode. Rich, on the other hand, watched the whole thing. And is now determined to make some good corned beef hash. The base is still a store-corned beef brisket, but when I was cooking it, he made me add a ton of other stuff; celery, carrots, and potatoes and then come cabbage at the end. Apparently Alton's hash recipe involves taking all the veg and making hash out of it AND the meat. Rich's mission was reinforced by Julie's confirmation that she also uses all the veg when she makes hash.

The only problem is that he bought only one piece of corned beef. And...well...it's gone. Not completely - I packed a couple of lunches for us for tomorrow. But after our really early dinner and packing lunches, all the meat is gone. There's plenty of veg left, though, so Rich has decided that he will make the hash anyway, and use some canned corned beef to augment the meat side of the dish.

I will admit to some degree of skepticism when it comes to this plan. Not only does the idea of hash made with cooked cabbage sound...well, not good, but throwing canned corned beef on top is not likely to improve my view. He is impatient, however, and so Tuesday night, he is going to make corned beef hash for dinner. Yes, dinner. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Later this week, I will make another pot of corned beef when our friend Dan comes to visit. And maybe there will be enough actual meat left over for Rich to make some hash for breakfast without resorting to canned meat.

Maybe.

And maybe this year I'll corn my own beef and not have to look away while rinsing the pink prepacked corned beef. We'll see how long this corned beef kick lasts.