Is Corned Beef Paleo?
Corned beef and cabbage will grace the tables of thousands of families in the next three days in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day. But as we learned with kielbasa, bacon, and other processed proteins, cured meats aren’t necessarily Paleo. Let’s take a look at this holiday favorite.
What is Corned Beef?
Corned beef is a traditional Irish method of curing beef to preserve it for later use. You might recognize it by its distinctive pink color, which comes from the addition of saltpeter, also known as potassium nitrite. We’ve lightly discussed the addition of nitrites to foods before, namely the nitrite (celery salt) often added to bacon and sausage for curing purposes, so we won’t get into that again. Corned beef is basically a beef brisket that’s been “corned” or “cured” in a salt brine with a few spices and seasonings.
Is Corned Beef Paleo?
Regardless of your stance in the nitrite/nitrate debate, corned beef, when made at home, can be Paleo by anyone’s standards. Be aware of the high salt content, but feel to indulge in your traditional St. Patrick’s Day meal without negative side effects from the corned beef. If you want to reduce the salt, toss white potatoes into the broth when cooking the meat to help absorb the salt and then throw them out!
Also, you may have seen canned corned beef on sale at your grocery store, which is decidedly not Paleo, so please do yourself a favor and stay away!
Related Articles:
- Corned Beef and Cabbage with Parsnip Turnip Puree (againstallgrain.com)
- How to Make Corned Beef Brisket Nitrate-Free At Home (junbelen.com)
Image Source: Food Network
If I may offer an Irish perspective here, “corned beef” is not a traditional Irish dish, it’s a dish that poorer English people would have eaten….you should re-run this article on St. George’s day on the 23rd of April.
In Ireland, we would, from time to time, eat bacon and cabbage served with potatoes and for the day that’s in it, On the 17th of March, some may wash to it down with a creamy pint of Guinness or Murphy’s stout/porter.
Love the cultural insight! I think in the states it’s become an American-Irish tradition, not necessarily truly Irish at all. We have a tendency to do that to holidays and traditions.
Reblogged this on sassyandpaleoish.
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Corned beef is a beef that can be taken in journey and that can be used for a long time and it has done by using salt. So, corned beef is a salt cured beef. I also used it and it is really helpful to preserve beef, but before some days ago I have learned about beef aging process here http://cornstorecork.com/2014/01/learn-all-about-our-beef-ageing-process/ and I think it is really helpful as it taught us about In-house beef drying aging process.
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