Corned Beef - the what and how leading to Reubens and hash

When I was growing up in Miami, Florida we lived in a culturally diverse neighborhood. I went to school with kids from Cuban, Polish, Puerto Rican, Jewish, German, and Japanese families. One of the joys of the neighborhood was the wide variety of foods available in the shops and restaurants. My father was of Scotch-Irish background and my mother would often cook corned beef and cabbage, especially around St. Patrick's Day thinking this was a traditional Irish dish. We later learned that the Irish developed this dish after coming to the United States; because of the cost of meat in Ireland they had used pork. They appropriated the corned beef from their Jewish neighbors in New England. When eating out we could have pastrami sandwiches at the Kosher deli and Reuben sandwiches at the German deli. I knew they tasted similar but I knew the Reuben wasn't Kosher because of the Swiss cheese in it. Little did I know that the pastrami in the Reuben was smoked corned beef.


Many years later my sister's husband Jim would cook corned beef brisket and make Reuben sandwiches at home. Sandra developed a passion for them and every time we visited we knew Reubens would be served sometime during our stay.

After his passing several years ago Sandra decided she wanted to learn how to make Reuben sandwiches. This the story of her quest.

We learned that corned beef has no relationship to corn the vegetable at all. The term refers to the word "corn" used in early Anglo-Saxon times to refer to the size of something similar to a grain of corn. In this case the "corn" refers to the coarse salt used for curing the beef used to make "corned" beef. Alton Brown has a good recipe for preparing corned beef on the Food Network site http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/corned-beef-recipe/index.html

Sandra chose to start with a brisket that had already been brined and seasoned rather than "corning" our own. She put it in the slow cooker along with bay leaves, mustard seed, and the seasoning and liquid from the package. After about four hours we had a fully cooked corned beef brisket.

We couldn't wait for it to cool and sliced some to make Reuben sandwiches. Rye bread, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, thousand island dressing, and corned beef all grilling in a buttered pan.

Add some pickles and you've got a sandwich to die for.

If there is some left over corned beef you can make hash. We decided to make some first just in case there wasn't any left over. After cutting the meat into small chunks it was gently browned in a skillet then removed from the pan.

Then onions and cubed potatoes were added to the pan and cooked until done.

The corned beef was returned to the pan and the mixture cooked until it was slightly browned and crispy.

Add a fried egg and you've got a filling breakfast for a cold November morning.


We enjoyed the corned beef hash so much that Sandra is going to make it next Sunday morning to serve at our monthly Methodist Men's breakfast.