corned beef it's savory it's pink it's a big food staple of Cleveland and there's absolutely no corn in it you can shave it fine or carve it like a roast but what is it and why is it considered the traditional food of st. Patrick's Day simply put corned beef is cured meat the meat which is normally a cut of brisket it's cured for days and big pieces of course salt which in Old English were called corns in this case it's a salt infused with sodium nitrate an agent that's used in many preserved meats like salami and bacon and what gives corned beef it's red color I went to Simon's restaurant to see how they cooked up their beef slime this has been family runs since about 1964 and people swear by their high-piled sandwiches starting at 2:30 in the morning they begin boiling the beef in vats that can hold up to 300 pounds apiece they boil for 3 hours to make sure they're cooked all the way through the beef reduces a lot a hundred pounds of the raw beef turns into 40 pounds when it's cooked and once they have 600 to 800 pounds made it'll get them through one normal day but on st. Patrick's Day it's a whole different story on the 17th of March bogi between 1 & 2 tons of the stuff but why why st. Patrick's Day for a while I'd heard know-it-all say you know it's not really an Irish food it is and it isn't you see from the 17th to mid 19th century Ireland's coastal towns produced a lot of salt beef it was a food that was easily exported to Britain and to other countries and a popular protein to provide to soldiers but the people of Ireland didn't eat much of it it's because their farms and their produce were owned by a few very wealthy land barons and most of the population were simply too poor to even afford beef even from their own neighborhood but in the 18th century North America saw an enormous influx of the Irish arrived and the corned beef that was so pricy in their home country was cheap and plentiful in their new home finally they could easily buy the very thing they produced and it became a staple on the American Irish dinner table so when you eat this serve it on some Jewish rye bread with some Swiss cheese some German mustard some russian dressing even though it's not Russian it was invented in New Hampshire and a Polish pickle and you have America itself on a plate happy st. Patrick's Day [Music]