Another question that arose at the Gale Street Inn

From the Food Safety and Inspection Service:

Corning is a form of curing; it has nothing to do with corn. The name comes from Anglo-Saxon times before refrigeration. In those days, the meat was dry-cured in coarse "corns" of salt. Pellets of salt, some the size of kernels of corn, were rubbed into the beef to keep it from spoiling and to preserve it.

And from Ohio Department of Aging:

In this country, corn refers to maize, but in other countries, corn can mean wheat (England) or oats (Scotland and Ireland).

So, putting two and two together, the pellets of salt were probably the size of grains of wheat, rather than the size of grains of maize ...