Corned beef is a salt-cured beef product. The term comes from the treatment of the meat with large grained rock salt, also called corns of salt. It features as an ingredient in many cuisines.orned beef remains popular in the United Kingdom and countries with British culinary traditions and is commonly used in sandwiches, corned beef hash or eaten with chips and pickles. It also remains especially popular in Canada in a variety of dishes, perhaps most prominently Montreal smoked meat.