Photo of Corned Beef and cabbage

[chef chicklet]

Dear Chowhound team,

Most of the time you all do a wonderful job posting beautiful and appetizing photos of food. But I must comment on the photograph you chose for the How to Make Corned Beef and Cabbage, we're all Irish for a Day, topic.

The corned beef doesn't look anything like the corned beef that comes out of my kitchen. That photo shows dry, gray looking meat, in my opinion it doesn't look like corn beef! Are you sure that was a brined/corn beef that was used for the shoot? Or is this a generic photo?

Thanks,
Sharon

[buckeye.mary]

I just learned that corned beef is red if you add salpeter (potassium nitrate) to the brine. It preserves the red color. Gray corned beef doesn't have preservatives in it. Interesting!

[mudaba]

Hi chef chicklet,

I made the CHOW corned beef last weekend, and found that it was a bit grayer than the corned beef we're used to buying in grocery stores. Grayer and tastier! When you don't use all of the scary chemical additions, your corned beef not only looks different (for the worse, arguably), but it tastes different (for the much, much better).

Meredith of CHOW

[chef chicklet]

ok I feel stupid. I didn't take the time to read the recipe or I would of answered my own question.

But still... for one day out of the year, when I'm celebrating St Patty's Day, if I would put that out, no one would touch it. You mention it was a "bit grayer", sorry my corned beef is not any shade of gray, it's pink. If I put that out, my kids would no way go near it, and I can bet you that if I served it at a party, not one guest would care that I withheld the nitrates.
I guess if one eats corned beef more often then once a year, this method could be a way to get around the chemicals, but for only one day, I'll deal with the pink meat.

I'm guessing that you wrote this topic as an alternative method for corned beef lovers and perhaps there are some people allergic and can't take the nitrates.

If that's the case, then it was just the title, when I saw the topic, I immediately wanted to check the recipe. I got no further than the photo and went off of it. Not to be mean but the photo was a turnoff.

As the producer of the chowhound video ads, your objective is to grasp peoples attention, well you did with the title topic, but when I looked at the photo I was in total disbelief. I was expecting a lplump pink lcorned beef with carrots, cabbage and potatoes, and to perhaps get a new twist on the recipe.

Ok so now I know to be more careful while looking at the visuals here on CH.
Sorry, I'm sure it was tasty. But hard to imagine when we first eat with our eyes!

[mudaba]

Oh--I was not commenting as the author of the recipe nor the corned beef story. I'm just someone on staff who made it and loved it. Our food team creates our recipes. But I'm betting they wanted to show people how easy and fun it is to brine and make your own corned beef. It's taking on a project you might have never done before--it feels great when you learn how simple it is. Also, I think part of our goal here is to show people what real, natural, non-fake-ified food looks like. It's not really that bad looking. I think it just challenges what you expect food to look like. Sort of like natural lemonade versus Kool-Aid lemonade. It's not a bright psychedelic color, as we've been taught to think corned beef should be. And did I mention the flavor??? You should try it, Sharon.

Meredith