That delicious aroma....

[talker]

It was around midmorning on the 16th, that I detected an aroma that only shows up once in a great while.
Almost like those days way back in time, when I or wife made home made bread.
Ah, sure enough ,on the 17th, there it was, corned beef and cabbage.

[PrimeTimer]

Pinch me! I forgot to wear green!     Happy (belated) St. Patrick's Day, folks! 

[MooseMom]

What a disgusting way to prepare a cut of beef.  Ugh.

[Charlie B53]

Sorry you feel that way MM.  But that just leaves more for the rest of us!

Thanks!

[Michael Murphy]

Corned Beef is a American dish not usually found in Ireland.  During the 1800's the American Irish looking for something from home bought corned beef since it came from Ireland.  It the Corning process allowed it to be shipped to the US.  However in Ireland they ate ten beef freshly slaughtered.

[Charlie B53]

Refrigeration is a relatively recent development, prior to that all meats had to be eaten or preserved, usually salted, dried.  Anything else I can't readily think of.

I have to wonder the how and why's of the 'Corning process'.  All I know is it cooks up very well with cabbage and potatoes.   And as with a lot of dishes, I like to add a bit of BACON, for an added bit of flavor.

On another note, I have problems understanding why the Bible refers to pork as 'unclean'.  Dad used to raise a pig every year and I learned that if you give the pig enough room, build a pen large enough, it will pick one small area to use as it's bathroom and will not relieve itself anywhere else.  Totally separated from its mud bath, which is separate from bedding area, separate from feeding area.

Corporate raise pigs are kept cramped into very small pens, not really enough room for the animal to even turn around.  I often think that is to make the animal get fat, and keep from developing much muscle.  Almost like the belly fat for bacon is worth more than the hams, ribs, etc..  But what do I know, I am just a customer at the grocery store.

[Michael Murphy]

Cornining is done by soaking a meat in a salt brine over about a weeks time.  Kernels of any thing at one time were referred to as corn, salt crystals were referred as corn.

[cassandra]

Cornining is done by soaking a meat in a salt brine over about a weeks time.  Kernels of any thing at one time were referred to as corn, salt crystals were referred as corn.

Thanks for that Michael, I always wondered where the name came from (just never enough to look it up in a dictionary, or Google) but I love corned beef hash. Absolutely delicious with some mayo and tomato ketchup.

[Charlie B53]

Dad built his  own smoker.  Contantly had meats, usually fish, soaking in brine anywhere from a few hours to many days, depending on what it was and how large it was.  Small fish only a couple of hours.  Large salmon over night.  Hams, days.

I often made up the brine, usually sea salt, strong enough to float an egg.

Hams and very large meats he had a HUGE syringe and needle I would use to inject the brine inside.  Many times using what large veins or arteries existed.  Slide the needle in, pinch the vein as tight as I could and pump away.

The more salt absorbed into the flesh the most smoke would be absorbed and flavor it.

Some jerky he would actually make totally dry.  Salted and smoked dry it will NOT EVER mold.   I still have some hot peppered jerky in the cupboard that Dad made.  Not but a few pieces left, like wood, can't bite it, have to shave off a sliver with a very sharp knife. And we lost Him in 86.  Still the same today as it was when he made it right about 30 years ago.

Still miss you Dad.

[talker]

Well now, reading through these comments, vividly brought back some memories of my early life on the farm. Never realized back then, how I was being imprinted with those times in my life. Yes, the smoke house, where meats were smoked. Don't recall the wood used, but it added a special aroma to the air. There were the wafting odors of new mown hay. Clover, alfalfa, timothy, each with their own unique aroma. The bee hives, chicken coops, corn cribs, whey, silo's, orchards, and machine sheds, all with their own distinct aroma. Even the barn had a special aroma, not unpleasant, but a gentle sweetish to my nostrils scent. Don't recall what it was, but a white powder was always sprinkled in the gutters after the gutter cleaning process. Believe it was a lime type product. There was also the silage that was fed to the cows. Many were the nights we would sleep up in the hay mow. It was a pleasant aroma.
Wow, what a trip down memory lane.     

[cassandra]

It must be very special to be able to have memories like that though. I do have nice memories of my mum occasionally baking cakes, but most were from the smell and noise of the petro chemical industry around us. The days walking to school through a yellow haze with scarfs around our heads in a futile way to filter the air. The asthma attacks after days when the flames on the pipes had been extra huge. The joy we felt when the pipes were Finally raised though

[talker]

There is of course the opposite side of the coin here, regards 'delicious aroma's'. Unaware how Chicago, IL, would rank on a 'Delicious/Rotten smell scale, but sure it would have meaningful numbers. The long gone union Stock yards, chocolate factories, the old electric street cars and the later bus's, the Ells, the subways, the lake, the river, Bubbly creek, the city dumps, exhaust fumes and the list goes on and on.
Like one song goes 'Memories are made of this'.

[Charlie B53]

Growing up in Yakima Washington with the whole western sides of the Valley covered in  fruit orchards, the blooms would scent the air.  The Wenatchee Valley pretty much the same.   Absolutely wondeful.   The sight, miles of sweet smelling flowered trees.

Until the nighly frosts, and they start lighting the fires.   Back then the orchardists would burn ANYTHING that would burn long and hot to keep the tender buds from freezing and destroying the crop.   Waste oil in huge tubs, old tires. making smoke so think you couldn't see unless you stoop over or almost get on your hands and knees and crawl.  It was that thick, but it saved the trees.

Many many mornings as a kid you would wake up and ALMOST see it inside the house.  But we would bundle up against the cold and walk to school.  By the time you got there your nose would have a blackness coated inside and lines of soot start leaking out onto your upper lip.  Yuck!

Somewhere in the early 60's someone developed a 'smudge pot'  A large round washtub with a lid and a chimeny that would burn a buch cleaner.    The smoke wasn't but half as bad.   They have since passed laws and develope much cleaner heating, and alternate methods.   HUGE fans that would blow the colder air out of the lower ground so slightly warmer air, just not quite freezing would be drawn in.   Rain bird sprinkler set in very tall pipes up just past the tree tops, all over the orchard, squirting water that would freeze and cover the trees in ice.  Seems inside the ice the buds are protected from the freezing air and would not freeze.  Now that's a wonderful sight to see.  It's like the whole world is covered in crystal in the bright morning sun.

Remember, this is considered semi-arid desert.  Rarely a cloud in the sky, less than ten inch of precipatation a year, and most of that is snow.   I'm talking BRIGHT days.


I still miss my childhood, everything has changed so much that kids now do not have many of the simple pleasures we enjoyed that helped makes us who we are today.