The Humble Housewife
This was a great article! My Irish-born grandmother always told us that corned beef & cabbage was not an Irish dish. It was "ham and cabbage" only in her house. As far as I can tell, it was the closest she could find in America to the "bacon" you describe.
I'll enjoy more articles that you write!
Great article, Deborah.
I have known for quite a while that Corned Beef is not Irish, but never knew how the myth came to be. It IS a good dish though. And since I'm not likely to find your Irish bacon in Ohio, I'll have to stick to corned beef and cabbage (and Killian's).
I thought that was well written. Especially for a food AND history geek, very entertaining.
I've also known for a while it's not the same, but I just have the cabbage anyway so no problem!
From someone that was pretty much "brought up" on bacon & cabbage, I found the article quite interesting. I never knew the reason behind corned beef & cabbage as I don't actually know anyone that ate it in Ireland growing up so it's good to find out the history behind it. It's funny because everyone has their own variation of bacon & cabbage - we have it served with white sauce (no parsley), my boyfriends family has it with turnip & gravy, another friend of mine has it with cabbage water. Everyone's different - even the potatoes vary, mash, floury, skin off...
Very well writen and easy to read Deborah.
When I moved here 13 yeas ago I found that what the Irish call corned beef we English call luncheon meat. What we call corned beef isin't sold here. I'm now wondering what American corned beef is.
When an Irish person talks about bacon I automatically assume they're talking about a rasher not a joint of ham!
I enjoyed your article and the history is interesting, some of which I was aware. However, I did not know about 'corned beef' which now I've read beccy's comment means I might not even be thinking about the right product. To me luncheon meat(as in spam) is nothing like corned beef (which makes a very good hash)!
Corned beef is a cut of beef (usually brisket, but sometimes round or silverside) cured or pickled in a seasoned brine. The meat joints were in the brine for at least three or four days. Not all butchers prepared Corned beef. Growing up in Dublin in the 50's & 60's we had Corned beef and Cabbage at least once a week. It was sometimes the joint for Sunday lunch. I never remember having it on St Patrick's Day. For some reason it was a dish I associated with Dublin, perhaps because I never had it anywhere else. I have asked for it on several occasions in Northern Ireland butchers and they looked at me like I had two heads.
Our meat came from the same butcher week by week, and on occasions my mother was discouraged from buying the Corned beef (not a good batch this week Missus!) This butcher did not sell Pork. There were separate butchers selling only Pork, Bacon and other pork products.
Pickled Pork was another dish I remember with mouth-watering pleasure. It was belly pork pickled. It looked like a large piece of un-sliced streaky bacon. Mammy boiled it and when cooked she removed the skin and crisped the fat under the grill. Very yummy!
In our household bacon was the poor relation of ham! A ham was boiled, baked or roasted whole and part of all Holiday meals. For Instance at Christmas we had a large turkey, full ham and also a large joint of pork.
Here in Northern Ireland if you have a group meal for St Patrick’s Day it is always Irish Stew and it has the potatoes cooked along with the meat. I remember when I came here 30 years ago asking what another diner had chosen, to me it looked like a bowl of grey mush. I am told it was very tasty, I prefer my own version.
Sorry this is so long.
So it appears the "humble housewife" can actually write. Perhaps if your blog read like this regularly you'd actually have some decent readers.
Barb - You're Grandma sounds great! Thanks!
Barbara - No one is disputing the fact that corned beef is super yummy! I always enjoyed it when we were in the states, possibly since the last time I had Irish ham before moving back here was 1990, so I didn't really know the difference.
Sarah - What is cabbage water? Do I want to know? 
We usually have it plain , although if I have foreign visitors I tend to go all out and make some parsley sauce.
Beccy - Are you talking about the canned stuff? That's not the real deal at all. Grannymar nailed it - it's a pickled brisket usually. Canned stuff is foul and no comparison!
Chris - See above. I think we have the same idea of corned beef, at least in what I was referring to. It's a very tasty pickled beef.
Grannymar - Wow! Thanks for the input - never too long around here! My Mam grew up eating it in Dublin as well, 50s/60s/early seventies. Her and my Granny were the only two who ate it though. Granny always made it for us when we came back to visit although most of us stuffed it into our napkins and pretended we ate it!
Am with you on the stew though. Will have to do an Irish stew post. My Mam makes it with parsley and thyme and bisto for the stock then carrots potatoes, beef and an onion. Wouldn't be a favourite for me, but the girls love it. Now add some red wine and real beef stock and we're talking
Anonymous - My first troll! How exciting. As you might have missed from the comments, I have wonderful more than "decent" readers. If writing "properly" means attracting readers like you I'd rather not bother. Thank you.
Fab article, Deb - very informative - I didn't know any of the background, so I found it very interesting. I've also heard about 'spiced beef' and that people either love it or hate it. I'm intrigued to try it some time.
As for that 'troll'... You have to laugh really. What an total idiot.
Boiled ham, yum. You can also put it in a hot oven for 30 minutes after boiling, smear a paste of honey and english mustard on the pork skin, and push some cloves into the skin too ... DELICIOUS crackling skin.
Congrats on the writing, all sounds very exciting and very much deserved.
Thanks Jen! Never actually tried spiced beef. It's always such a big joint that I'm reluctant to buy in case no one likes it and it goes to waste.
Thanks Rebecca - yes the glazed ham is my favourite too, but you know I'm a divel for pork fat and all sweet and crispy like that. YUM! Thanks for the heads up on the Hugh FW chicken campaign. I'm a big fan of his and caught the show tonight. Great stuff - hope it makes a difference!
Excellent article; so interesting -looking forward to your next one!
If you can't take a compliment there's no reason to be rude.
Corned beef in a can makes a great hash especially when camping but I'm talking about the slices you buy at the cold meat counter. I've never seen here what I used to love as a child in England. Maybe I'm shopping at the wrong cold meat counter.
I haven't a clue what a brisket is?
Cabbage water is the water that the bacon & cabbage were boiled in! I don't really get it either but you'd be surprised at how popular it is!
Debs that is really well written, well done! Oh god the days of being force fed cabbage and bacon! Memories, yukey ones! Would love to be able to cook cabbage in a different way to how my mother did it, and that was just simply boil it in the bacon water, any left overs of cabbage was fried the next day in a bit of butter, far nicer than having it just boiled and straight out of the pot! But not for breakfast, as was often the case!
Deborah,
Irish stew is traditionally made with Lamb/mutton, gigot chops. layers of sliced potato and onion. Repead the layers as needed. Season with Bouguet Garni and cover with water. bring to boil and then simmer. To me it is grey and tasteless.
My mother used a better cut of lamb and added carrots, onions, celery and seasoning. She thickened it with Bisto and always cooked the potatoes seperatly. Elly will confirm that I always had a bottle in the pantry and a swig was added to all stews, soups and gravies.
As I said, here in NI the stew is cooked until the potatoes have gone to mush, that way there was no need to thicken it. I like to see and know what I am eating.
Grannymar - Yes I do forget that it's normally made with lamb. I refuse to eat lamb so Mam had to sub beef and she keeps doing it like that even though I won't eat any stew these days!
Thanks Mandy. Oh I am so with you on the fried cabbage the next day! A little onion in there maybe some lardons... corrr... See you soon!
Sarah - I suppose it would be a bit like a ham consommé!
Beccy - You can normally get it at butchers. Brisket is a large cut from the front of the cow, just under the chuck cut or above the shank. It's often used for barbecue (the American slow cooked kind.) One of my best friends is from Texas and her Momma makes the best damn brisket in the world... or so I'm told!
Anonymous - Whilst you may have given me a backhanded compliment, you insulted my readers, something I won't stand for here. I will be deleting any further comments.
Coastal Aussie - Many thanks!
Thank you for a very informative article. I am South Arican and love hearing the history of foods from around the world. It is amazing how foods get adapted as people leave their homelands and have to source new ingredients in their new home country. Thanks again, look forward to reading more.
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