Notes from Shapiro's Deli

If you are looking for Corned Beef in Indianapolis there is really no other place to look than Shapiro's Deli.  Many of our guests are world travelers, whether for pleasure or military service, and they are quick to tell us how much the appreciate our corned beef.  I have been told more than once that Shapiro's has the best "in the world".  There are a lot of young people, however, who don't really know what "corned" beef is all about. 

Corning is a way of curing; it has nothing to do with corn!  The name comes from Anglo-Saxon times before refrigeration.  In thoses days, the meat was dry-cured in coarse "corns" of salt.  Pellets of salt, some the size of kernels of corn, were rubbed into the beef to keep it from spoiling and to preserve it.  Today brining - the use of salt water - has replaced the dry salt cure, but the name "corned beef" is still used, rather than "brined" or "pickled" beef.