What is corned beef?
Every year as St. Patrick's Day rolls around, suddenly corned beef is the topic of the day. (I'll be honest with you, I am personally not a big fan of corned beef. Too salty, with a bit of a weird sour taste that seems "off" to me. But that just leaves more for the rest of you, right?)
First of all, corned beef has nothing to do with corn. Corned beef has been treated with a very coarse salt, with grains that were said to be the size of corn kernels. These "corns" of salt are what lends corned beef its name.