Corned beef is made from brisket, a relatively inexpensive cut of beef. The meat goes through a long curing process using large grains of rock salt, or “corns” of salt, and a brine. It's then slowly cooked, turning a tough cut of beef into one that's super tender and flavorful.
While aboard the U.S. Kitty-Hawk aircraft carrier, I one ordered a Reuben Sandwich. It had a slap of corned beef inside. I could not eat it as a sandwich as the meat was so tough, you couldn't cut it with a steak knife. I had to literally hold the meat with both hands, bite, and tear it with my teeth. It was about as tough as jerky, but a quaater-inch thick.
the corning uses coarse salt, and pickling spices to favor the meat, not tenderize it. Proper cooking makes it tender. In any case, Corned beef is very tasty indeed. Not only is it great for Rubens, but is also great as the meat used in boiled dinner, or simply cut into slices and served with smashed spuds, and a tasty veggie, like sweet potatoes, or rutabaga, where the sweetness of the veggie balances out the salty corned beef.
Put some black pepper on the corned beef, and smoke it to make pastrami, which is smoked corned beef. You don't even need to spice it with pepper if you don't want to.
If you keep your fridge at about 4o degrees or so, you can easily make your own corned beef, wet brined. The meat, bi it brisket, or eye of round, just needs to sit in the brine for 2 weeks. You can even omit the pink salt if you want. I've made my own corned beef numerous times. I like to add black peppercorns to the pickling spice mix. I think it ads a nice flavor.
Oh, and I think sushi made with thin slices of corned beef, and wasabi dipping sauce would be great. For this, I would use a corned beef made from the beef round, sliced paper thin, then rolled with very thin sliced sweet onion, and finely minced red bell pepper, all rolled into the fice wheel. Just a novel idea for conred beef.
To bad I can't have corned beef, at least not the deli stuff. I'd have to make my own, and reduce the salt content. I might just have to do this one day this month.
Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North