Quick and Easy Corned Beef Dinner

What’s cooking last night? We had Canned Chunky Corned Beef sautéed in garlic and onions for dinner.

Before telling you how good it was, allow me to clarify something about corned beef to avoid confusion. Corned beef comes in two forms: the brined or salted beef and the canned minced or chunky beef (which is also called bully beef). Brined beef are salt cured beef; these are common in countries such as Canada and the United States. This is the kind that you usually get from the deli shops. Canned Corned Beef, on the other hand, refers to minced or chunked beef with a little gelatin. This type of corned beef are pre-cooked and sealed in a tin can – the same one enjoyed in the Philippines.

As expected, the meal was satisfying. I bought a Filipino brand canned corned beef and it took me less than 10 minutes to do the cooking.

Do you ever bother to read the fine prints in the can? If you do, you might have noticed that most (if not all) of the Filipino brand corned beefs are imported from Brazil or Argentina. Yes, they have good quality cattle there; but, I wonder why these Filipino companies need to import corned beef instead of producing them locally? If they produce these locally, many Filipinos would benefit including farmers and small business owners. This will also help move the economy.

It might have something to do with “lesser costs translate to maximum profits” reasons or it might have something to do with the ability of the Philippines to produce quality meats that will fit or surpass the standards? What do you think?