I continue to revise and update this email about corned beef.
This was written a many years ago, but still applies today.  These days, we have our St. Patricks’ Day meal at home.  I actually enjoy preparing it.  It is one of the few meals I know how to prepare.  In years past, we had parties!  I think they have become extinct.

St. Patrick’s Day is the perfect time to have one of my favorite dishes, corned beef and cabbage.  So, aside from buying and preparing this dish, I wondered about the origin and history of corned beef.  The term “corned” comes from the large rock-salt kernels, or “corns of salt” covering beef in a crock.  This process preserves the meat.  The term has been in the dictionary since 888 AD.

Leave it to the Irish to be the largest exporters of corned beef, at least until 1825.  It turns out that corned beef and cabbage is not very Irish.  But corned beef certainly is.  The area of Cork, Ireland was a big producer of corned beef in the 1600s, until 1825.  It was sent in cans and was their chief export, sent around the world.  According to historians, the British army survived on canned corned beef during the Napoleonic Wars. 

Corned beef and cabbage is essentially an American tradition on St. Patrick’s Day, started by Irish-Americans in the 1800s.  But traditional Irish feel that beef was reserved for royalty, since cows were prized more for their milk.  It was more common to celebrate a holiday meal with ham or bacon with their cabbage and potatoes.  When the Irish immigrants came over to America, they had to replace the hard to find bacon with beef.  They found that Jewish corned beef was similar in texture, so they began using it in their celebrations. 

Abraham Lincoln’s Inaugural dinner was corned beef and cabbage. It was served with mock turtle soup and blueberry pie.  Somehow, I doubt President Obama would replicate this dinner, despite his fondness for the Lincolns.  But cabbage soup recipes abound for weight loss.  And who can argue with the fiber?  Only the folks at Benefiber or Metamucil.

Corned beef, called salt beef in the U.K. are types of salt cured beef products.  The three main types are 1) wet cured in spiced brine (brisket or round steak), 2)  dry cured with granular salt (various cuts of beef), and 3) canned, minced salted meat, oily and crumbly (made from various cuts of beef). 

In the United States, corned beef is usually purchased ready to eat from delicatessens. It is the key ingredient in a Reuben sandwich.  And the best is served at the Carnegie Deli in Vegas and New York City.  Corned beef hash is commonly served with eggs for breakfast.  Smoked corned beef becomes pastrami with the addition of spice mix.  Most of us just buy the corned beef in a ready to cook preparation in the meat section or butcher counter. 

St. Patrick’s Day in the U.S. centers around corned beef and cabbage.  It is not an Irish national dish as we are led to believe.  The closest Irish dish is Bacon and Cabbage.  But we do thank the Irish immigrants for substituting corned beef for the pork products.  New Englanders commonly add the root vegetables, like potatoes, carrots, and turnips.



When cooking the corned beef, I prefer to cook the potatoes, carrots, and cabbage in a separate pot.  Otherwise, the oily liquid from the corned beef changes the flavor and texture of the other ingredients.  Then to top it off, skip the fancy mustard, and just go with old fashioned French’s yellow mustard.  Many people also prefer rye bread for sandwiches the next day.  The brisket must be cut cross grain or will be impossible to chew. 

Personally, this is a meal I enjoy on St. Patrick’s Day, or for any other day when the weather is cool.  It is high in salt, but oh so tasty.  And all the food groups are represented.  A taste trio worthy of anyone, Irish or not.  Remember the Seinfeld episode where George Costanza finds the cured, salted meats to be an aphrodisiac?   Give me Carnegie Deli or give me something healthy to eat instead!

Enjoy yourself!!!   Have a Guinness, and forget about the war.

 Update:  Pastrami is the quintessential Jewish deli meat found at New York institutions like Katz’s, which famously piles a whole pound of rosy, hand-sliced pastrami onto its sandwiches. But in the Bay Area, the options have been slim for high-quality pastrami outside of long-running Berkeley staple Saul’s Restaurant & Delicatessen and, more recently, Wise Sons. The scene started truly changing about two years ago, coinciding with the start of the pandemic.

First, prolific restaurateurs Mark and Terri Stark opened Grossman’s Noshery & Bar, bringing a New York-inspired Jewish deli with local ingredients and global influences to Santa Rosa. Then came Mark ‘n Mike’s, a deli pop-up within San Francisco’s high-end restaurant One Market. Around the same time, Oakland pop-up Pyro’s Pastrami debuted to instant acclaim. Owners Cash Caris and Anahita Cann are now getting ready to open a restaurant, Delirama, in Berkeley with pastrami on pizza and sandwiches.

The momentum has only picked up: San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood got a restaurant entirely devoted to pastrami last summer with Hot Johnnie’s, which puts a West Coast spin on it. North Beach’s Little Red Window dropped its empanada menu for a Jewish deli format last month. And now, Napa is getting ready to welcome Loveski Deli from Christopher and Martina Kostow of the three Michelin-starred Restaurant at Meadowood.

Other chefs see more obvious reasons for pastrami’s recent rise. Caris called it simply “the best deli meat,” while Matt Weinberger, general manager at Grossman’s, said it fits into larger pandemic-fueled trends toward comfort food. Pastrami also falls in line with California’s love of food preservation, said Loveski’s Christopher Kostow, and reflects how chefs are generally looking to the past for inspiration.

“It’s Jewish barbecue at the end of the day,” said Kostow, who is buying pastrami from a secret source for Loveski. “It’s delicious. It’s smoked. It’s spiced. It’s fatty. It’s the best of all possible worlds.”

Making pastrami is a labor-intensive, time-consuming process, and no chef in the Bay Area makes it the same way. Chefs trim the brisket, drop it in a salty brine, rub it with spices, smoke it, steam it until tender and then slice it to order. But there’s variation at every step that makes each restaurant’s pastrami special.

Caris describes his pastrami as traditional in the sense that he doesn’t inject the meat with brine to speed up the process — a shortcut common in industrial versions. But he takes liberties, namely keeping more fat on the grass-fed brisket than usual.

“We want it to be kind of like a prosciutto. The fat in our pastrami is super buttery,” he said, noting that he’s heard from some upscale restaurants that want to carry Pyro’s product. “It’s something you can throw on a charcuterie board.”

Pyro’s also takes an exceptionally long time to make pastrami — on average about 30 days, depending on the size of the brisket. Caris spends time every week agitating the brisket to examine the osmosis in action for an average brine time of 26 days. That’s because each brisket comes from a different animal with different densities, he said. There is such a thing as too long in the brine, though, resulting in pastrami that tastes aggressively cured and salty.

Corned beef and cabbage is one of the few dishes I know how to make!

(Thanks to the SF Chron for this pastrami insight)St. Patrick’s Day has always been special in our family.  Why?  It was my Dad’s birthday!

St. Patrick’s Day by the numbers

• There are 450 churches in the United States named after St. Patrick. Perhaps the most famous is in New York City.
• It takes 40 pounds of dye to turn the Chicago River green for St. Patrick’s Day.
• According to the U.S. Census, 650,000 babies are named Patrick in a year.
• A little more than 20 percent of the residents of Massachusetts say they are Irish; 20.6 of those in New Hampshire claim Irish ancestry.
• According to Wallet Hub, the value of a leprechaun’s pot of gold is $1.22 million. That’s 1,000 gold coins weighing 1 ounce each.
• A crystal bowl of shamrocks is given by the president of Ireland to the president of the United States each St. Patrick’s Day.
• There are 16 places in the United States named Dublin.
• 34.7 million U.S. residents claim to be of Irish descent.
• 83 percent of those surveyed say they intend to wear green on St. Patrick’s day.  Yes. I will!

Enough said.  I need to buy the fixings for our corned beef dinner:  lean corned beef, red potatoes, cabbage, carrots, and some rice, of course.  Don’t forget the yellow mustard or horseradish!
And of course, my Dad was born on St. Patricks Day, 1920.  I guess we are part Irish, perhaps from the southern part of Ireland.

From Explored Plant (Sara Horton), some pretty good hacks and hints for your pre-flight enlightenment.

Take a photo of your parking location-Back when I drove to the airport often, I always parked in the same spot, always.  I could find my car in my sleep.  But I tend to have problems finding my rental car, often forgetting either the color, make or location!!!

Contacts vs glasses-Long flights are difficult for contact lens wearers, particularly if you are able to sleep.  Though I no longer wear glasses or contacts, I carry some artificial tears just in case.

A refillable water bottle-This is one hint I rarely follow.  Why? I tend to lose nice bottles.  And they usually weigh more than a disposable plastic bottle.  To each his own, I say.  But it will save money!

Always know-Certain carry-on items and gifts may not be allowed on your carryon or backpack.  Save time and money by doing a little research before you get to the airport.  Beef jerky has been problematic for me in the past, along with fried fruit.

Some favorite, comfortable clothes-My so-called “uniform” is a nice pair of stretch, denim jeans, long sleeve shirt, and jacket (usually the one I will wear during my trip).  My shoes are always sneakers, and I wear support hose on longer flights to avoid deep vein thrombosis (DVT).

Snacks-I always bring my own.  Usually, my favorites are trail mix (raisins and nuts), rice crackers, cookies, and once in a while, a half sandwich.  My goal is not so much to save money, but to eat something semi-healthy, and convenient.  I also take a few items from the airline lounge when available, things like fresh fruit, yogurt, crackers, cookies, or chips.

Flexibility-Whether a red-eye, or bargain flight, unless you are in a hurry, choose the cheapest flight.  Avoiding busy airports for transfers, like Chicago, LA, Denver, Dallas and Atlanta are also important.  Flying from my current home airport, Fresno, usually requires a transfer, preferably in San Francisco.  My red-eye days are over!

Yes, your seat is important-I like an aisle seat, whether in coach or business.  I also prefer the front of the plane, even though statistically, the left, rear seats in the plane are the safest.  I also like the coach seats with extra legroom and will pay extra for them.

Reusable bags-I prefer suing Ziplock bags, since I can keep or toss whenever I please.  And in business class, the amenity kit is usually a decent mesh or cloth bag, filled with sundries, socks, and earplugs.

Photo of your luggage-I never really thought about this, but it sounds like a great idea.  If you have basic luggage, I strongly recommend a bright splash of color, some yarn or duct tape works well.

Germs-Always carry hand sanitizer or anti-bacterial wipes, even post Covid.  The plane and airport are full of germs.

Colder in the plane-Always, I repeat, always carry a jacket, sweater, or large scarf, as planes and airports can be quite cold.

Know your layover and destination airports

Accessible pockets on your bags

Wear your heavy jacket

Science says go left!

Carry a portable battery charger

Be aware-Do not get carried away with your music or cell phone.  Bring your own podcast or music if you don’t like the airline’s choices.  I watch whatever they have since it puts me to sleep!!

Yes, I covet lounge access, usually free when I am in Biz class. And I also have Priority Pass with my Chase credit card.  But if I must, I will pay for 3 to 4 hours of a relaxing lounge, with free food, beverages, newspapers, TV, and a very comfortable chair.

I use the same luggage for my trips, a carry on for shorter and domestic flights, a slightly larger one for overseas.  It could be time for an upgrade, but how much longer will I be a frequent traveler?

Be organized!  I try to use a mental checklist, even though I have written checklists.  The most important items:  cell phone, charger, backup battery, medications, passport, comfortable shoes, gifts for friends and strangers, coffee, laundry soap, a Grisham novel, sunglasses, cap, sunscreen, and umbrella.

Try to establish a routine.  While I hate hotel gyms, I do more than my share of walking and climbing stairs.  And I generally eat only two main meals per day!  But I carry or buy interesting snacks.

Whatever you do, just continue to go!!!