Well tomorrow is Saint Patrick’s Day so that means a lot of people will be cooking up the traditional corned beef and cabbage, which I really don’t get. Thanksgiving means turkey, St. Paddy’s day means corned beef, and Easter means a bunny gives you eggs. I don’t ask questions about traditions.
I do like to celebrate traditions though, so I’ll be making some corned beef and cabbage later today. I was wondering if there really had to be a “paleo twist” to the recipe though since most recipes I look for nowadays need that.
What is Corned Beef Brisket?
The term corned beef has absolutely nothing to do with corn, so we have the corn part of the paleo equation out of the way right away.
Corning beef means covering it in salt and brining it, in simple terms. The term comes out of curing the brisket with “corns” of salt. The salt was used to preserve the meat for a longer time, back before refrigeration was available. We still use this method to create different flavors and to tenderize meat.
Is Corned Beef Paleo?
This is one of those grey areas where I’ll say kind of yes.
Adding salt to your food is considered non-paleo. So, if you are going to bathe your brisket in salt for a few days, it is going to soak up that salt and make it non-paleo. So, you have to consider how strict you are with the diet to consider corned beef paleo friendly or not.
I personally consider brined meats OK to eat on the paleo diet. I’m not a dietitian, but I have made pork and turkey with brine mixtures before and have not noticed any side effects like I do when I eat gluten, dairy, or alcohol on the diet.
If you want to get a decent amount of the salt out of the corned beef, try soaking it in warm water to remove the salt from corned beef brisket.
Sources:
http://homecooking.about.com/od/beef/a/cornedbeef.htm
http://www.kitchenproject.com/history/CornedBeef.htm
http://www.salon.com/2010/03/17/st_patricks_day_corned_beef_and_cabbage_irish/ – post image
Leave a Reply