Doubling Up

Just realized that I should really set some sort of baseline before I start tasting the professionally made corned beef hash dishes. So, I'm off to the store for some good old Hormel for breakfast, and then to the B&O for lunch. Stay tuned for the results and many action packed photos!

Just the Facts

While I'm hashing out the criteria for my first review (B&O, Friday), I thought it might be good to get up to speed on the history of corned beef hash, and corned beef in general. The miraculous little website The Food Timeline has already done some digging, so I'll let them do the heavy lifting:

According to The Encyclopedia of North American Eating and Drinking Traditions..., Kathlyn Gay [ABC-CLIO:Santa Barbara] 1996 (p. 70) "The word 'hash' (fried odds-and-ends dish) came into English in the mid-17th century from the old French word 'hacher', meaning to chop. Corned beef hash...probably has its origins in being a palatable combination of leftovers. In the 19th century, restaurants serving inexpensive meals--precursors to today's diners--became known as "hash houses." By the early 1900s, corned beef hash was a common menu item in these places. Link

This aligns nicely with the previously discussed food vernacular at my grandma's house, specifically with regard to the many fond memories I have of meals consisting of solely "palatable combination[s] of leftovers." Grandma would store her leftovers in Fire-King containers, the pre-cursor to Tupperware that she still uses to this day, and on leftover nights, she would neatly unstack the containers on the kitchen counter and we'd all have a go at whatever was still hanging around in the fridge. Mashed potatoes and beef brisket were common dishes, but never did we actually do any of our own "hashing."

Corned beef, as it were, refers to beef preserved or brined with salt. The usage of "corn" as a verb can be traced back to 888, according to the Oxford English Dictionary (via, Wikipedia) and "corned beef" dates back to 1621. Corned beef is generally made of one of the less tender cuts of meat, including brisket (shout out to Grandma!) and takes a lot of cooking time to make palatable.

So, there's your corned beef hash primer for the day. I'll continue to seek out the tastiest corned beef fun facts, and will be sure to relay them to you as time goes on.

Best,
A.W. Hilst

Suggestion Box

Thanks to the intrepid readers over at my home-town blog Capitol Hill Seattle I now have my first purveyor of hash, er, hashed out. Look out B&O, I'm headed your way! Do you have a favorite hashery in Seattle that you wouldn't mind divulging? Leave me a comment letting me know the name of the restaurant and I'll add it to my list.

Thanks!

A Bit(e) of History

Welcome to Hash Things Out, your new favorite over-specific regional corned beef hash information and review repository.

Let's just start this whole thing off by saying that as a child I was regularly fed Hormel Brand Canned Corned Beef (see photo), direct from my grandmother's pantry. I can't say I recall the first time I was served hash, but I definitely remember how this meal fit in quite well with the food vernacular at my grandma and grandpa's house. Alongside dishes like Miracle Whip and braunschweiger sandwiches and Karo Syrup on toast, canned corned-beef hash was par for the course. Nothing ever struck me as odd about these foods.

Recently, I have had an overwhelming urge to order corned beef hash while dining out for breakfast (likely some sort of quarter-to-mid-life attempt to hold on to my childhood), and each time I have submitted to that urge, I have found that people's (or, restaurants', really) perception of what makes up corned beef hash varies wildly. My own Hormel-splattered perceptions of corned beef hash seemed like a good jumping off point for an in-depth food study. Hence, Hash Things Out, a blog about corned beef hash.

Throughout the life of this study, I'd like to accomplish a few things:

1. Provide reviews of and insight into the Pacific Northwest's best corned beef hash
2. Classify and categorize the countless varieties of corned beef hash
3. Explore my own palette and why I've come to enjoy some of the food that I love

I hope someone somewhere finds this interesting, or at least entertaining. If you do, leave me a comment. I'll try to blog as much as I can, but for now, expect one photo-laden review per week and possibly some sporadic corned beef hash-related interstitials.

Happy Hashing,
A.W. Hilst