FavorFlavs #34

We all have them: favorite flavors, ingredients and kitchen tools. FavorFlavs we always reach for (again). These are ours.

Corned Beef

There’s nothing wrong with canned food. Such as canned Spanish asparagos cojonudos (sturdy asparagus), Portuguese sardines and French cassoulet.

Corned beef is also good canned food. And, even more importantly, it is the main ingredient in the Reuben sandwich. Because you don’t make a Reuben with pastrami. That’s a Rachel.

Fantastic on an American grilled sandwich made with rye bread, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and Thousand Islands dressing.

Corned beef is cured beef, while pastrami is smoked ‘corned beef’ (in proper English). By the way, ‘corned’ doesn’t refer to the corn (‘corn’) the cows were supposedly fed, but to the coarse grains (‘corns’) of salt used in the curing process.

That corned beef, then, is fantastic on an American grilled sandwich made with rye bread, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and Thousand Islands dressing: the Reuben. But also on white bread with lots of mustard.

Available from butchers and supermarkets. But you can also easily make corned beef yourself in the Instant Pot.