Happy St. Patrick's Day
I tried cooking what I believed was a traditional Irish dish. I made corned beef and cabbage with roasted potatoes and carrots. It was my first time making this dish. I followed my recipe to the letter and the meat came out tender as could be. I first tasted the veggies that were in with the beef and liked the favor of them and thought to myself this might be a really good dish.
My hubby tried it first and told me it was better than he has eaten in a long time. (He has to be getting his corned beef fix elsewhere because I haven't cooked it for him.) So I figured, must be good if he is gobbling it down. Boy was I fooled. Come to find out, I really detest corned beef. I think it's too salty and greasy tasting. I ended up just eating cabbage which thankfully I had cooked separately.
As I was cooking this dish, I started getting curious as to why it's called corned beef. *corned refers to the curing process. Corn is Old English for small particles or grains...such as salt* I discovered through research that corned beef is not a traditional Irish dish but an American-Irish tradition. It became associated with St. Patrick's day because it was cheap in American and the immigrants would use it instead of pork. Go figure. Maybe next year I will try roast pork and cabbage and see if i enjoy that dish better.
Hubby should continue getting his corned beef fix elsewhere, since I have No Intentions of cooking that particular cut of meat again. Yucky!