Corned beef contains no corn, but it does contain salt—lots of salt, because that is how the meat is cured. Nonetheless, despite the absence of corn in corned beef, the salty meat and the yellow niblets do derive their names from the same source. In the Germanic language from which English developed, the word kurnam, meaning particle, developed in two directions: it became the Old English kernel, meaning seed, but it also became the Old English corn, meaning both seed and, more generally, particle. From the seed sense of corn arose words such as peppercorn, denoting the dried berry of the pepper plant, while from the particle sense of corn arose compounds such as corned beef, named after the particles of salt that permeate the beef after it is soaked in brine (a similar compound, corn-powder, was used up until the eighteenth century as a name for granulated gunpowder). The term corned beef appeared in English in the mid sixteenth century, about a hundred years before the appearance of the synonymous bully beef, formed as a corruption of the French bouilli boeuf, meaning boiled beef. Incidentally, the corn in corned beef and in corn on the cob is not related to the corn in cornucopia nor to the corn caused by wearing too-tight shoes; both of these latter corns derive from the Latin cornu, meaning horn.
Corned beef is a type of pickled beef that is cooked slowly in simmering water and is typically served with boiled potatoes and cabbage. There are numerous ways to utilize leftover corned beef, with the simplest being to slice it and serve it cold with salads. However, many people prefer to use it in cooked dishes, such as ragouts, stews, curries, fritters, and more.