Countdown to St. Patrick's Day: What the heck is corned beef?

It's not Spam, despite the very Spam-ish looking can of it to the right here. However, with St. Patrick's Day just around the corner, I wanted to shed some light on this very mysterious meat.

And if you really want to know why I got on this tangent, I opened up MSN today and they had a picture of some corned beef and now I've been thinking about food for the past three hours.

Yep, I'm fat.

Corned beef is basically beef (duh) cured or pickled in brine. My own personal opinion is that it's beef with character. Although largely considered to be a traditional Irish dish, the truth of the matter is that most Irish people do not eat corned beef (because that type of meat is somewhat scarce in Ireland) but Irish-Americans started eating the dish in the late 1800s when they first came to this country and were looking for a cheaper alternative for Irish bacon. 

And since Corned beef has a similar texture and taste to it, they went for it. And the rest is Irish-American history - and the reason Charlie Weiss is fat.

Now many people will eat this dish on St. Patrick's Day for tradition regardless of their nationality, but the dish is hardly a once a year occurrence. Corned beef is also a staple of the Reuben Sandwich and corned beef hash. Corned beef hash is basically corned beef mixed with potatoes and it's pretty delicious. If it's on the breakfast menu at a restaurant, I usually get it. How do you think I got this red hair?

One issue with St. Patrick's Day though is that it occurs during the Lent season, and it falls on a Friday some years. If you're Catholic like I am, you probably don't go to church, but you know that Catholics don't eat meat on Fridays during Lent. 

So you can't have the corned beef. Boo.

Luckily some Bishops are waiving the sacred tradition (apparently they can do that, I wonder where I get my "waiving sacred tradition" card at) for St. Patrick's Day - which means that the next time St. Patrick's Day rolls around on a Friday during Lent (2016) I'll be bellying up to the table for this dish. 

Let's hope I don't look like Charlie Weiss by that time.