Jewish Invention Myths: Corned Beef and Cabbage

Getting back to the swim of things let’s begin with another jewish invention myth which is the idea that jews invented the quintessentially British delicatessen item of corned beef as well as the American family favourite dish of corned beef and cabbage.

Shannon Sarna writing for ‘My Jewish Learning’ claims that:

‘Corned beef and cabbage is as quintessentially Irish as… the Jewish deli?

No, but really. Corned beef and cabbage may be considered the most iconic dish to enjoy on St. Patrick’s Day for its Irish roots. But actually, the dish really came from the Jews. More specifically, the Jewish New York deli.

Jewish, Italian, and Irish immigrants lived side by side in many of the poorer New York neighborhoods in the early 20th century, especially on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, as well as certain areas of Brooklyn and the Bronx. Just like Jewish newcomers, who adapted many of their beloved foods from the old country, the other immigrant groups were doing the same thing — hello, New York pizza! Back in Ireland, there was a traditional dish of bacon and cabbage, and while “corning beef” did exist, most people stuck with pork, not beef, due to its low cost. But when Irish immigrants saw the salty, cured corned beef their Jewish neighbors were enjoying, it reminded them of their own comfort food. As Westchester Magazine explains:

When the Irish immigrated to the U.S. they often faced discrimination and lived in slums alongside groups like the Jews and Italians. It was at Jewish delis and lunch carts that the Irish experienced corned beef and noticed its similarity to Irish bacon. Cooking the corned beef with cabbage was another choice based on cost efficiency. Even better, the entire meal could be cooked in one pot making the dish cheap, easy to make, and let’s not forget — tasty.

So corned beef and cabbage was basically one of the first “one-pot wonders” that Americans came to love. And let’s be honest, corned beef and cabbage just has a better ring to it than “bacon and cabbage.” As a result of shared immigrant experiences, a new, American Jewish-Irish dish was born. Meanwhile, back in Ireland, the most traditional dish to eat on St. Patrick’s Day remains lamb or bacon; according to Smithsonian Magazine, the popularity of corned beef and cabbage never traveled back across the Atlantic to the homeland.’ (1)

Like many food-related jewish inventions myths – such as the false claims that jews invented pastrami, (2) pizza (3) and the cheesecake – (4) the origin of these claims is less arguable history and more just piss poor research.

When we read Sarna’s claim we can see that it is predicated on the idea that jews ‘invented corned beef’ and were the ‘only’ – or at least ‘most of the’ - source of it in the United States for the Irish immigrants who then paired it with cabbage as a replacement to the bacon in their dish: bacon and cabbage.

This I am afraid is complete and unadulterated nonsense as corned beef originates from the seventeenth century English (and subsequently British) navy which cured beef from Britain and Ireland to serve as a foodstuff for its crew onboard ship especially on long voyages and was known as ‘salted beef’. (5)

It was subsequently used as a primary method to feed colonists and slaves in the French West Indies (6) and was widely traded throughout the British Empire and became known in three different varieties – differentiated by quality – ‘small beef’, ‘cargo beef’ and ‘best mess beef’. (7)

Indeed, the Irish were actually producing corned beef from the 1600s onwards but it was mainly an export commodity being sold by the Anglo-Irish landlords to the Royal Navy, while the bulk of the Irish population ate a variant of corned beef called ‘small pork’ which was basically ‘corned pork’ that the Irish came to euphemistically call ‘bacon’ in their traditional dish ‘bacon and cabbage’. (8)

Unsurprisingly corned beef came to be seen as a dish for poor people and slaves in the Americas, but it was widely consumed from the 1700s onwards. (9)

So put another way Sarna is lying through her teeth in that the jews invent corned beef: the British and Irish did, while the dish of corned beef and cabbage was simply an Irish adaption to substitute a well-known (to them) British-Irish invention (corned beef) that was widespread in Britain and Ireland for their traditional ‘corned pork’ – which was difficult to get in the Americas – in the dish bacon and cabbage.

Thus we can see that jews most certainly did not invent either corned beef or the dish corned beef and cabbage!

References

(1) https://www.myjewishlearning.com/the-nosher/the-secret-jewish-history-of-corned-beef-and-cabbage/

(2) See my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/jewish-invention-myths-pastrami

(3) See my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/jewish-invention-myths-the-pizza

(4) See my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/jewish-invention-myths-the-cheesecake

(5) Alexander Cook, 2004, ‘Sailing on The Ship: Re-enactment and the Quest for Popular History’, History Workshop Journal, Vol. 57, No. 1, p. 247

(6) Bertie Mandelblatt, 2007, ‘A Transatlantic Commodity: Irish Salt Beef in the French Atlantic World’, History Workshop Journal, Vol. 63, No. 1, pp. 18–19

(7) Ibid., pp. 18-47

(8) Cf. Mairtin Mac Con Iomaire, Padraic Og Gallagher, 2011, ‘Irish Corned Beef: A Culinary History’, Journal of Culinary Science and Technology, Vol 9, No. 1, pp. 27–43

(9) Mandelblatt, Op. cit., pp. 21-47