Two words: prepare yourselves. Okay, so before we get around to the canned variety of corned beef, let's talk about the deli version of this Irish staple. As you might expect, deli corned beef is better quality (in terms of cuts of meat, anyway) than the canned stuff. It's just cured brisket. Simple enough.
However, when it comes to canned corned beef, things start to get a bit murky. While the product certainly does contain the lean end of the brisket, no one is apparently willing to say specifically what else is mixed in there. For instance, if you look up Hormel's canned corned beef on Innit, you'll see that the label simplifies the meat mix to merely "beef." And beef, as we know, can apply to just about every scrap of meat on a cow. Stomach lining, tendons, tongue, you name it — if it's edible, it's probably going to be used for something. Sorry, but it's true.
At the end of the day, yeah, corned beef isn't for everyone, but so are a lot of other things that many people enjoy eating, like Cheez Whiz and Twinkies. The best we can do is make changes to our diet based on what we do or don't want to put into our bodies. Well, that or just continuing to eat corned beef without doing too much research into the ingredients.
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