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Corned beef hash6/8/2023 Add the bell pepper and cook until it begins to brown slightly, approximately 5 to 6 minutes. Melt the butter in a 12-inch cast iron skillet set over medium heat. What I received was, in retrospect, a fine corned beef hash, made with beef that had been proudly cured in-house, but I couldn't get past the spicing of the meat, which was heavy on what I now know were juniper berries, or its shredded, rather than mushy, texture.5 cups leftover Corned Beef and Cabbage, well drained, recipe followsĢ to 2 1/2 pound Corned-Beef Brisket*, recipe followsġ tablespoon coarsely ground black pepperġ/2 pound diced carrots, approximately 4 smallġ/2 pound diced onions, approximately 2 smallġ pound potatoes, peeled and chopped, approximately 3 mediumġ/4 pound diced celery, approximately 2 stalksġ small head cabbage, chopped, approximately 2 poundsġ cinnamon stick, broken into several pieces "You're not going to like that," my father warned, and he was, of course, correct, since he had brainwashed me into liking-no, loving.ecstatically-Libby's weird and mushy facsimile. When I was a child, I did not know this, and my first introduction to a non-canned hash was a corned beef hash I ordered for breakfast at a Howard Johnson's somewhere in Massachusetts, when I and my father were touring colleges along the East Coast. Corned beef hash is just one entry in the long list of dishes that fall under the umbrella of "hash," which includes just about every preparation consisting of potatoes, onions, and some kind of meat tossed together in a hot frying pan. Of course, corned beef hash in a can is not the only form of corned beef hash, even if it is its apotheosis. Regardless of whether it was a pool of textured mush or pucks of textured mush, topped with an egg of any kind with a runny yolk, the stuff tasted like heaven, or at least it seemed to me to be the meaning made pink mush of the American expression, "This tastes like heaven!" However, my father used a bit of canned food cooking wizardry and would inch the mush out of the can, slice it into hockey pucks, and then brown the flat sides of each puck as if he were some proto-Grant Achatz. The most widely used technique, in homes and respectable diners alike, was and is to spread the mush out in a hot pan (doesn't even need to be greased the mush takes care of that) and let it sit until the pink goes brown in spots and the mush gets a little crispy. But it was also those odd cubes of potatoes, along with a range of spices and seasonings that translated in the mouth to "a heck of a lot of salt." With a little good cooking technique, the beef and potatoes and salt could be transformed from pink mush to a dun textured mush. Coca-Cola, sugary cereal, a Twix-all spoke to me of the United States in the soft tones you use with invalids and children, but a can of Libby's seemed to yell, "This! This is what you're missing!"Īnd what was it, after all? It was beef, for one thing, which we could not buy and consequently did not eat very often. As a kid growing up in India, there were few things that evoked the distant wonders of "American life" as magnificently as the cans of Libby's my father would smuggle into the country from his trips abroad. Specifically, I love Libby's corned beef hash, the melange of pink mush and unnaturally sturdy cubes of potatoes that you can buy in a can at most grocery stores and highway rest stops. ![]()
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