I always make corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day – unless I forget, in which case I make it eventually. This year, I’m not gonna. I love corned beef and cabbage. Mmm… Leftover cabbage in a bowl, and corned beef sandwiches. I could eat it any time of the year. I cook so many other things though, that I ‘need the reminder of the occasion’. This year there are other things in the fridge.
I have pork chops. They would be good this weekend. Or, I’ve always wanted to attempt a deep-dish pizza. There’s pepperoni and salami and meatballs and provolone and mozzarella. I have a feeling that pizza will be on the menu Saturday or Sunday. Confit duck legs on a bed of Spring greens and a balsamic vinegar/lingonberry reduction sauce? Possibly. And there are those vegetarian Italian sausages I like, if I want to make sandwiches.
Too many other things to make, but Mexican food would be a natural for St. Pat’s. I associate Ireland with Mexico because of The Pogues (Fiesta and Straight To Hell – never mind that Spain figures in those; it’s the ‘feeling’), and there was a Mexican restaurant where I used to live called O’Malley’s Cantina.
In any case, no corned beef and cabbage for me this year.
We just decided last night to make corned beef and cabbage this year, so we’ll even it out for ya. I’m not a huge corned beef fan; IMO the only reason to make it is for the hash.
The last several years we’ve done a sausage & ham boil-up, which is really more authentic. But I figure St. Pat’s is an Irish-American holiday anyway, so might as well go with an Irish-American food.
Actually, I wanted to do Mexican for Saturday, but was outvoted.
A couple of years ago, the Ancient Order of Hibernians had an Irish Stew Cookoff to raise money for the Houston Parade. One team also offered San Patricio Chili.
This is also the beginning of Crawfish season. So some of the festivities this Saturday will include giant pots of spicy crawfish!
I’m not making it either this year. Saturday we go to a potluck at our church, and I’m planning on bringing my Greek-style Shepherds Pie. I figured someone else will probably be bringing the corned beef and cabbage.
I think only USAnians think it’s an Irish dish, but maybe we’ve convinced others as well.
Do you have something over there that consists of meat (e.g., sausage or ham), cabbage, potatoes, carrots, and onions boiled together? I’ve seen various names for it but can’t remember any at the moment except “boil-up”.
It’s basically the same thing, but done with a cured beef brisket instead.
At some point over here, salted brisket was cheaper and easier to get than pork in the east coast Irish immigrant communities.
So it’s really an American dish based on an Irish dish, is the way I understand it.
I sometimes suspect that our Chinese food isn’t really authentic, either, but don’t tell anyone.
I HATE corned beef for St. Patrick’s or any other day. I’m not wild about cabbage but I can eat it.
However, an Irish friend made some to-die-for lamb stew that he said is very traditional Irish and something you’d find more often where he was from (outside of Dublin) than corned beef. I don’t have the recipe but I know he used a good bit of garlic and mint (though that’s not to say it’s Irish as opposed to just him).
Just picked up the makings for corned beef and cabbage about an hour ago. Around here you looked at strangely for examining turnips carefully. Most people don’t even know what they are, much less use them regularly.
The story I’d heard is that in Ireland, the people tended to eat some kind of bacon and cabbage dish, but that in the US, corned beef was cheaper and available from their Jewish neighbors, so they made do with what they could get.
Over time, it’s become a dish associated with Irish-Americans, much the same way that Italian-American dishes are associated with them, but aren’t really authentically Italian. Or Tex-Mex, for that matter, is much the same kind of thing. Sort of a culinary syncretism I guess.
I’m not particularly Irish (I think maybe my grandmother’s side of the family was partially of Scots-Irish descent, so that’s as close as I get), but I do love me some corned beef and cabbage.
It is. It’s a public holiday for one, and there are parades in all the cities and many towns. You also get the olympian drinking that is associated with it in the US. In 2001, when the last foot and mouth epidemic was under way the festivities were postponed until the summer instead of being outright cancelled.
However, wearing green isn’t obligatory and dyeing things like beer green isn’t really a thing either.
It’s a common perception that the holiday isn’t a big deal in Ireland. I’m not sure where that comes from. I know that in days gone by the Dublin parade was considered a poor cousin to parades like the NYC one but I think they’ve long since got their act together.
Same here – as a kid I couldn’t stay in the house when my mother made it because the smell drove me up the wall and made me cry. I still HATE the smell now, but I’ll discreetly remove myself from the area without a sound
I LOVE lamb. I’ve never made lamb stew, but I sure as hell would love to. Is there any way you can get the recipe?
