I've done a couple of posts about canned meats (November 8, 2013 and December 23, 2017), but it's time for another one. Today's type will be two kinds of canned corned beef, both of which originated in Brazil. The companies involved were GraceKennedy Limited and Goya. And these were both bought at the superlative Wegman's supermarket once again.
The most obvious question about corned beef is, "Why this name? The ingredients include cooked beef and salt, but there's no corn to be found." There are two possible linguistic explanations. First, the type of salt traditionally used to cure the beef was larger grained rock salt. The Old English word for "particles" or "grains" was "corns," so there we go. Secondly, the original secondary preservative of corned beef was saltpeter, aka potassium nitrate. So the "particles" or "grains" may have referred to the pieces of potassium nitrate used. Whichever is true, it is clearly a bit confusing, kind of like the whole "Grape Nuts" situation.* Moving on, minced and canned corned beef was nicknamed "bully beef" by the English, to approximated the French word for boiled ("boulli"). And in Israel corned beef is sometimes known as "loof," which is an abbreviation of "meatloaf." Finally, traditional corned beef has a pink color, from the sodium nitrate (or formerly, the potassium nitrate) used to help preserve it. If beef is cured using only salt, and not with nitrates, it's a gray color. This is nicknamed "New England corned beef," because I assume it was common in this region. (Maybe they lacked nitrates?)
Adding salt to preserve meat is obviously ancient, as it was one of the very few means to ensure that meat would keep safely. However, the type of dish we're talking about, with the salt and nitrates, didn't become an industry until much later, until the 1600's or so. Ireland in particular became a leader in manufacturing and distributing corned beef, mainly in the cities of Dublin, Belfast, and Cork. They used local cattle, and got their (evidently specialized) salt from Spain, Portugal, and southwest France. Much of this corned beef was consumed by French and English colonists in the New World, and their slaves. It was also a common food for the military, especially the navy, since it preserved so well. Since it was largely eaten by common or poor folks, its reputation suffered. It also contributed to some serious problems in Ireland. The huge corned beef packing industry there meant that most of the best farmland in Ireland was then used for cow pastures. Consequently the poor farmers were pushed out to areas with lower quality soils, where about the only thing that would grow was potatoes. Meaning when the potato crop was devastated by blight and mold during the Potato Famine from 1845-49, many more people died from starvation and disease. (During this time, the corned beef was mainly an export, too expensive for most of the Irish.) The eventual abolition of slavery in the 1800's hurt the corned beef industry. But, it still lingers on. South America is an especially big producer of it since. Brazil, for example, provides 80% of the world's supply of canned corned beef. Currently corned beef in the U.S. is known as a traditional Irish dish. Which is ironic, since as was just mentioned, it wasn't very popular, or feasible, for the actual Irish in Ireland to eat. It's more accurate to say it's a common part of Irish American cuisine. Also, corned beef's reputation has improved over the centuries, since it's not mainly the food for the poor, slaves, and common soldiers. Jewish Americans have particularly embraced it, too. Modern popular ways to eat it include the Reuben sandwich (grilled corned beef, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and Russian dressing on rye bread) and as a hash with eggs as a breakfast food. The lunch meat pastrami is simply corned beef which has been smoked.
As for the companies that made the corned beef I tried, GraceKennedy dates back to 1922. A man named Dr. John J. Grace was working for a subsidiary of W. R. Grace & Co. in Kingston, Jamaica. When the company decided to divest, John Grace, in collaboration with Fred Kennedy, founded GraceKennedy Limited. Initially a wharf operating and small trading company, the firm flourished over the years. Now it's giant, and is involved in banking, remittances, financial services, insurance, hardware, food, and food processing. It has over 60 subsidiaries, and operates across the Caribbean, North and Central America, and the U.K. Other food products handled include canned fruits and vegetables, canned fish, frozen meat, jams and jellies, milk and fruit juices, oils and margarine, snacks, rice and pasta, sauces and condiments, soups, and seasonings. Or, essentially, all kinds of food. The ackees I posted about on January 16, 2014 were a GraceKennedy product as well. Goya is another huge company. I've already covered more of their history in my post on Brazilian cookies (see my May 25, 2016 post), but basically, they were started in 1936 by Prudencio Unanue Ortiz. The Unanue family still owns and operates the billion dollar firm. The headquarters of Goya are in my home state, New Jersey.
1) Goya corned beef: Product of Brazil, came in a 12 ounce (340 gram) can. Ingredients were cooked beef, salt, sugar, and sodium nitrate. Beef was a pinkish color, with some whitish streaks here and there. Decent odor. Texture was very soft, and definitely spreadable. I had some plain, some with Taco Bell hot sauce, and some with ketchup. The basic taste was slightly salty, but solid. It was improved with the Taco Bell sauce, and especially with the ketchup.
2) GraceKennedy corned beef: Also from Brazil, and came in the same size, and shaped can. Ingredients, color, texture, and odor were all identical to the Goya kind. I ate it in the same ways as the other one. And once again, plain was okay, with Taco Bell sauce was better, and with ketchup was the best. The condiments cut the saltiness effectively. Other tasters liked this one better than the Goya, and I did too, but I thought the difference was minute. (In fact, in a blind taste test I might have been fooled.)
Overall this was a very pleasant surprise. In my life I've tried corned beef before, and didn't like it. I thought it was way too salty, and not very good. So, either my tastes have changed a bit, or else I had inferior corned beef, or it was prepared in a way I didn't like. Therefore, I definitely plan on having this again, and especially will try (re-try?) a Reuben sandwich, and corned beef hash and eggs. I should also mention that canned corned beef is an excellent Apocalypse food, since it keeps very long (my cans were good for another 4 years!), and the cans had their own old fashioned metal key and tab opening system (which I wasn't able to really work, and used a can opener instead, but if I had no opener it presumably would have worked eventually).
* At the risk of possibly repeating myself, in college I was curious enough about the name of Grape Nuts cereal to call the Questions/Comments phone number listed on the box. I was informed that the "grape" part is because dextrose (which is in the cereal) was originally called "grape sugar." And while there are no nuts in the cereal, creator C.W. Post thought it nevertheless had a nutty flavor. The woman I talked to wanted my name and address, too. I readily complied, thinking I would get a free sample box, or a logo-ed T-shirt or something. Ultimately I received nothing. Perhaps my information was given to the FBI, and put in their files on weirdos who call cereal company hotlines.
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