Once more unto the breach: Corned beef!

Some months back I reprised a topic where I may be said to have a certain degree of expertise, having indulged in and written about it now and then for the past three decades.

It’s a topic that draws much interest across the board, as well as inputs harping on individual biases — all a matter of custom as well as taste.

What set me off on this space last August was the discovery of a new brand of corned beef in the local market. It was CDO’s Highlands Gold featuring Angus beef, following up on the much cheaper Highlands regular can.

I said then that I found it beefy and of quality taste, except that it had so little fat that it tended to fry very crispy-dry when not sautéed in extra oil, so that sometimes I’d even mix it with the regular can which had more fat, something I often approve of.

Sautéed or fried with garlic and pepper, simply

Highlands Gold also offers corned lamb, at the same price of P150 for a 320-gram can, at about the same range as the now popular, oh-so-juicy Palm (from New Zealand), or at about P25 more than the top-listed Purefoods for roughly the same quantity.

I wrote then: “For its part, Palm’s appeal is that other than its savory meaty flavor, it offers at least four editions for variety-is-the-spice-of-life attraction: one with onions, the barbecued flavor and the chili flavor apart from the regular.

“I’m glad that there are now four quality corned beef brands to choose from. Purefoods’ domination may be under challenge, albeit there’s every reason for it to stand its ground.

The higher-priced Palm, Highlands and Delimondo are knocking at the gate, and they can’t be said to be barbaric stuff…”

Here I trail off so I don’t have to mention other, cheaper brands, which have become a dime-a-dozen, or even those that are as high-priced but rely on old stature that has since gone under.            

Thanks to the occasional efficacy of Facebook, where I usually post my columns, that one last August made it all the way to a lady friend’s News Feed in New York, from where it was caromed to a friend of hers in Sydney, Australia — another lady who happens to be very much involved in global competition anent corned beef.

I received an e-mail that began: “I read with great interest your article on Corned Beef which Lita Puyat kindly forwarded to me. It was such a disappointment to note that there was no mention of Ox & Palm Corned Beef which is the BEST corned beef being sold in the Philippines!”

Milette Orosa introduced herself as the exclusive export agent for Ox & Palm, and came up with the following possible explanation: “One of the reasons for the omission is probably because you have not come across Ox & Palm. It is being mostly sold in the Duty Free Areas in Clark and Subic: Puregold Duty Free Stores and Royal Duty Free Shop Inc (the duty-free arm of Rustan’s).”

Beefy, juicy, heavenly delight

But she added that “… here’s some good news for discriminating corned beef lovers — I have recently assigned Henry Lim (of Ideal Macaroni) to market the product in the traditional outlets: supermarkets, hypermarkets, convenience stores, etc. He is just waiting to get his CPR from our FDA.”

Then the clincher, or what has since turned out to be the start of a beautiful relationship: “Would you allow me to send you a carton of Ox & Palm so you can taste this quality product? I will request the Rustan’s people to withdraw stock from their Subic outlets. Once you have tasted it, I am sure you will give it a thumbs-up. I am attaching some recipes from the Hamper Kitchen. Hamper is the brand being marketed solely for the Australian market by HJ Heinz. It’s specifically made for the Aussie taste and the way they like to eat CB. They open the can, slice (like the way we do Spam) and put in a sandwich. Not a CB Pinoys would enjoy eating.

“Ox & Palm is manufactured by HJ Heinz with the Pinoy’s taste in mind — but without sacrificing quality. Hence O&P has a bit more salt, a bit more fat. 

In any case, to my pleasant surprise, a carton of Ox & Palm corned beef made its way to my door soon enough, and I had a wonderful time sharing the contents with equally discriminating carne norte lovers in our neck of the AsPac woods — or as far as Passi City in Iloilo where Banggero buddy Eduard Percival Labadia, who’s since retired from Jersey City, indulged in a comparative taste test between Ox & Palm and Highlands Gold (also from my gift cache).

  Meanwhile, Milette was also generous with production history that proved quite enlightening. To think that this self-proclaimed carne norte expert had always thought that Libby’s started the canned food fad (with the precious twister key) only in the 1950s of his Asia-Pacific boyhood.

“The brand was launched in 1936 and the product was produced and shipped out of a Corned Beef factory in Rockhampton, Queensland. In the mid-1980’s production was shifted to a factory in Port Moresby where the brand has reached iconic status, with the company as a whole being one of the most respected businesses in the country.

“From the beachhead in Papua New Guinea, the brand spread throughout the Pacific Islands, Guam and Saipan and the discriminating mainland USA market.

“Its success is based on its chunky and juicy style as opposed to the other products which are of a very fine texture and much drier.

“The Rockhampton factory continued to produce corned beef for the Pacific Islands, the domestic Australian market and all canned meat requirements outside of Papua new Guinea.

Ownership of the Brand was originally with the Angliss Group, a UK based family-owned company that purchased the business in 1989 and shifted production of Ox & Palm to the newer more modern factory in Wagga Wagga (in NSW)… renaming it ‘Southern Country Foods’”.

This in turn was purchased in 1996 by H.J. Heinz Co. Australia, which to date remains the only corned beef manufacturing company in Australia. It also produces Crown corned beef, for the US market only, and Hamper corned beef for Australia.

Other interesting tidbits from Milette are the curious ways the “Islanders” reportedly cooked their CB: “Since they are humongous people and have big families, they cook rice in a big vat and when it’s almost done (I think what we Pinoys term as ‘in-in’), they open the industrial-sized corned beef (these are several kilos in size) and just put on top of the rice. Just picture it: the rice grains slowly being coated with the CB fat as it melts and the meat being heated slowly. Then they all just dig in to eat! They also cook their CB with coconut milk and chili. Not to my liking but those from Quezon and Bicol would probably enjoy it cooked this way.”

Well, that we still have to try. The initial feedback I gave Milette was that I found O&P to be meaty and beefy and juicy alright, but found it a mite too salty for my taste. Eduard of Passi City confirmed this, albeit the world-class equine painter Salvador “Dodong” Arellano, here on holiday vacation, entirely approved of the O&P corned beef lunch he had in our lanai.

Well, what do you know? I received another carton of Ox & Palm in time for the new year coming in, and true enough, as Milette had said, the salt content had been reduced. She also repeats that O&P will soon be marketed in Metro Manila, as the local distributor is just waiting for the release of the Certificate of Product Registration from NMIS.

The good news is doubled. Another brand, Globe corned beef, is also arriving in Manila this January.

“Jess Cham who is the distributor there for Globe will have it delivered to your place as soon as he can have the container released from the congestion that is plaguing the Port of Manila. Globe CB’s taste and quality are the same as O&P. Just a different label/name because Jess wanted his own brand.”

Hmm. So, things are looking up for 2015 for us local legions of corned beef lovers. Soon we’ll have a Top Six to select from: Purefoods, Palm, Delimondo, Highlands, Ox & Palm and Globe!  

Now to get that rice vat for an industrial-sized cook-in. And, of course, to keep writing on our fave de lata since the ’50s. A good lesson here: If you write it, they will come (and fill up your field of corned beef dreams)!