# I'm NOT making corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick's Day

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-making-corned-beef-and-cabbage-for-st-patricks-day/615858>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [March 15, 2012, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-making-corned-beef-and-cabbage-for-st-patricks-day/615858 "2012-03-15T14:07:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 12\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2012, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-making-corned-beef-and-cabbage-for-st-patricks-day/615858/41 "2012-03-17T15:05:46Z")

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I had a Reuben sandwich for lunch yesterday.

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**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2012, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-making-corned-beef-and-cabbage-for-st-patricks-day/615858/42 "2012-03-17T15:46:04Z")

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Corned beef and cabbage with potatoes is a March 17th staple here at Stately Doors Manor. Of course, we both love it and I look forward to March 18 when the leftover briskets go on sale so I can make it throughout in the year. Despite being both Irish and Jewish, the sprog is not a fan. You’d think he’d be hard-wired to like it, but he doesn’t. (He doesn’t like onions, either. He might have been switched at birth.)

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**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2012, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-making-corned-beef-and-cabbage-for-st-patricks-day/615858/43 "2012-03-17T15:53:20Z")

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> [@Seamack](#):
>
> Coddle. Personally I wouldn’t touch it with a shitty shilleleagh.
> 
> [http://www.obrien.ie/files/extracts/BestOfTrad-Coddle.pdf](http://www.obrien.ie/files/extracts/BestOfTrad-Coddle.pdf)

If this were indeed a favorite of Jonathan Swift’s, I shudder to think what the bacon and sausages were made of. 😃

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**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2012, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-making-corned-beef-and-cabbage-for-st-patricks-day/615858/44 "2012-03-17T19:56:23Z")

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> [@MsRobyn](#):
>
> If this were indeed a favorite of Jonathan Swift’s, I shudder to think what the bacon and sausages were made of. 😃

I imagine the source was quite lean. I mean, grass fed and all. . . .

(I’ll save a seat in Hell for anybody who wants one.)

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**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2012, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-making-corned-beef-and-cabbage-for-st-patricks-day/615858/45 "2012-03-18T01:29:52Z")

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> [@Johnny\_L.A](#):
>
> I had a Reuben sandwich for lunch yesterday.

I did that today, with a side of coleslaw.

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**Author:** ![azraiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@azraiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/azraiel)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2012, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-making-corned-beef-and-cabbage-for-st-patricks-day/615858/46 "2012-03-18T04:08:44Z")

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> [@An\_Gadai](#):
>
> Perhaps the latter. Here’s links to videos of Paddy’s Day parades going back to 1965: [RTÉ Archives | Daily stories from television and radio records of Irish life](http://www.rte.ie/laweb/ll/ll_t16_main.html)
> 
> As I said above, I don’t think the parades in Dublin were up to much until recent years, but that’s quite another thing from saying the day wasn’t marked. When my late father was young (he would be 70 this year) it was marked so it’s not a new phenomenon. Your Irish friends were either lying to you or were ignorant of the long history of the day’s festivities on this island.

That’s awesome, thanks! I don’t know as much as I thought I did.

I knew Padraig was a more than significant figure. After all, I do have a photograph of the Patrick’s Day parade, on Patrick’s street, across Patrick’s bridge, from half way up Patrick’s hill (in Cork, FWIW).

In your personal opinion, have St. Patrick’s Day festivities become more Americanized in the last few decades? Have they become (more) commercialized, essentialized, and/or commodified?

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**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2012, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-making-corned-beef-and-cabbage-for-st-patricks-day/615858/47 "2012-03-18T05:15:19Z")

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> [@azraiel](#):
>
> In your personal opinion, have St. Patrick’s Day festivities become more Americanized in the last few decades? Have they become (more) commercialized, essentialized, and/or commodified?

They’ve definitely improved, I’ll say that. I think they were always commercial, commodified things but the level of professionalism involved nowadays has improved the main parades immensely in the last few decades. You get more tat for sale but that’s a year round thing with various outlets of [Carroll’s](http://www.carrollsirishgifts.com/) selling blarney all year round. It’s worth noting once more that there are discrete Irish traditions around the day that remain, for example you see a lot of people wearing fresh shamrocks and (not sure how common they are anymore) St. Patrick’s Day rosettes. Most bars (that I know of) don’t serve green drinks etc. You’d have to ask other Irish posters or indeed someone like **ruadh** (Irish-American who has lived here for many years) their perceptions but to me, no it hasn’t become that Americanised.

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**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2012, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-making-corned-beef-and-cabbage-for-st-patricks-day/615858/48 "2012-03-18T05:57:34Z")

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I despise corned beef and cabbage. I salute anyone who spares us from this monstrosity.

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**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2012, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-making-corned-beef-and-cabbage-for-st-patricks-day/615858/49 "2012-03-18T08:17:26Z")

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> [@An\_Gadai](#):
>
> They’ve definitely improved, I’ll say that. I think they were always commercial, commodified things but the level of professionalism involved nowadays has improved the main parades immensely in the last few decades. You get more tat for sale but that’s a year round thing with various outlets of [Carroll’s](http://www.carrollsirishgifts.com/) selling blarney all year round. It’s worth noting once more that there are discrete Irish traditions around the day that remain, for example you see a lot of people wearing fresh shamrocks and (not sure how common they are anymore) St. Patrick’s Day rosettes. Most bars (that I know of) don’t serve green drinks etc. You’d have to ask other Irish posters or indeed someone like **ruadh** (Irish-American who has lived here for many years) their perceptions but to me, no it hasn’t become that Americanised.

I’m American-Irish, not Irish-American! (Dual nationality, but acquired, not of ethnic Irish background 🙂 )

To be honest I avoid St Patrick’s Day festivities entirely, so I’m not the best person to ask. On the one occasion that I actually went out and watched the parade and then went to the pub it struck me as being very unlike the American celebrations. The parade wasn’t particularly Irish-themed at all, it was just, well, a _parade_. And the pub was just like a pub on an ordinary day except a lot more crowded. But that was twelve years ago and I really have no idea how things have changed since then, if at all.

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**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2012, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-making-corned-beef-and-cabbage-for-st-patricks-day/615858/50 "2012-03-18T11:46:42Z")

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> [@ruadh](#):
>
> I’m American-Irish, not Irish-American! (Dual nationality, but acquired, not of ethnic Irish background 🙂 )
> 
> To be honest I avoid St Patrick’s Day festivities entirely, so I’m not the best person to ask. On the one occasion that I actually went out and watched the parade and then went to the pub it struck me as being very unlike the American celebrations. The parade wasn’t particularly Irish-themed at all, it was just, well, a _parade_. And the pub was just like a pub on an ordinary day except a lot more crowded. But that was twelve years ago and I really have no idea how things have changed since then, if at all.

Oops I wasn’t sure what to write but I had assumed you were Irish-American. My apologies!

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**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2012, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-making-corned-beef-and-cabbage-for-st-patricks-day/615858/51 "2012-03-18T16:27:23Z")

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Yesterday I made the traditional Irish meal of macadamia nut crusted Ono with papaya salsa, sesame-jasmine rice, and soy-ginger broccolini.

What?

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**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2012, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-making-corned-beef-and-cabbage-for-st-patricks-day/615858/52 "2012-03-18T16:34:36Z")

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> [@garygnu](#):
>
> Yesterday I made the traditional Irish meal of macadamia nut crusted Ono with papaya salsa, sesame-jasmine rice, and soy-ginger broccolini.

Sounds kind of Hawaiian.

Which is appropriate, since the last queen of Hawaii was Irish.

What? You’ve never heard of Lilly O’Killarney?

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