Next week on March 17, 2023, millions of Americans will make their yearly pilgrimage to their local restaurant, food hall, or bar to enjoy a St. Patrick’s Day staple — corned beef and cabbage. Despite the abundance of all things Irish on St. Patrick’s Day in the United States, the funny thing about corned beef is that it really is not part of the Irish diet at all. In fact, corned beef as a St. Patrick’s Day staple in America represents the confluence of several foodways.

Corning meat, or the act of salting and curing meat, has existed in countless cultures for several years because it was the best way to preserve meat without refrigeration. The term “corn” refers to the appearance of the large, rounded salt kernel that looked like a kernel of corn. Thus, in Gaelic, “to kern” something meant that you would corn it. (I should also note that the word “kern” as a noun in Gaelic has other meanings, such as a light foot soldier in Ireland.)

Prior to the 17th century, beef was considered a luxury item because most cows were utilized for milk production, not meat production. It wasn’t until the mid-17th century that beef production started in Ireland, which coincided with the final phase of the English conquest of Ireland between 1649 and 1651 during Cromwell’s rule. With a stronger presence in Ireland, the English recognized the potential of cattle and beef production on the Emerald Isle and started to export cheap, Irish cattle to England. However, that upset the balance of economic power for the landed class in England who soon found their cattle devalued at market. As a result, in 1663 and 1667, respectively, Parliament passed the so-called Cattle Acts that limited the importation of Irish cattle. The result was that Ireland was flooded with an overabundance of cheap beef, and the only way to preserve it was to corn the product. Ireland, too, had a cheaper importation tax on salt, so they were able to make a high-quality corned beef product at a reduced cost that had a long shelf life and could be transported across the Atlantic or stored on warships without spoiling. From the late 17th century to the mid-18th century, corned beef was so profitable for Ireland that during the constant colonial wars of empire, especially on the high seas, Ireland sold corned beef to France without any retribution from England.

Despite becoming the largest manufacturer of corned beef in the trans-Atlantic, corned beef and spiced beef was too expensive for the Irish population, and they enjoyed salt pork and potatoes on St. Patrick’s Day. Corned beef production experienced a decline in Ireland by 1800, too, because Americans, some of whom emigrated from Ireland, started their own operations.

But it was the potato, of course, that ultimately influenced the direction of corned beef in the United States. The Irish Potato Famine, also known as the Great Famine or the Great Hunger, began in 1845 when a mold infested most of the potato crop in Ireland. From 1845 to 1851 or 1852, approximately 1 million people in Europe died from malnutrition. Those that could afford and survive the trip across the Atlantic immigrated to cities in the United States (mostly to New York and Boston). They subsequently earned more money in America than Ireland, and Irish immigrants could finally afford to buy corned beef on religious holidays such as St. Patrick’s Day. But they quickly learned that the corned beef available in the United States was not like the corned beef they knew back in the old country; Jewish butchers crafted corned beef utilizing kosher briskets. While tougher and less salty than the corned beef and spiced beef of Ireland, Irish immigrants learned how to make and cook corned beef from their Jewish neighbors. The convergence of Irish and Jewish foodways in early urban America directly contributed what we know as St. Patrick’s Day in the United States.

So, when you enjoy your corned beef sandwich, hash, or roast on St. Patrick’s Day this year, please take a moment to think about the origins of the corned beef on your plate.

The origins of corned beef

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