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