Article: Corned beef confidential: Inside the North Side meat factory: Watch the `oysters'; smell the pickle room.

Byline: Emily Nunn

Mar. 16--About six weeks before St. Patrick's Day each year, Steve "Schmitty" Schmidt starts wear ing his green leprechaun hat and blinking shamrock bowtie to work. Not that he cares that much about St. Patrick's Day - he's not even Irish. Schmidt does, however, care about corned beef - a lot. Never mind that corned beef isn't necessarily Irish, either. The hat and tie are a purely benevolent gesture on his part, meant to foster enthusiasm among his colleagues. "I'm kind of a nut," he says. He has been making the brine-cured brisket at Vienna Beef since he was 16, having joined the company in the corned beef curing room, to help support ...

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