Corned-Beef-and-Cabbage-A-St-Patricks-Day-Delight
March 15, 2012
•Le Cordon Bleu
•Le Cordon Bleu
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Corned Beef and Cabbage: A St. Patrick’s Day Delight
Around the middle of March when the land begins to shake free from the grasp of winter, both the Irish and the Irish at heart turn their thoughts to the celebration of St. Patrick’s Day. Children bring their school-made artwork of shamrocks home to hang on the refrigerator. Cities and towns plan their St. Patrick’s parades. And everyone, everywhere, starts the wearin’ o’ the green.
It’s also a time for turning to that classic Irish dish, corned beef and cabbage. Or is it?
Despite the fact that most Americans believe that corned beef and cabbage is as authentically Irish as you can get, it isn’t. In fact, this delectable culinary art is no more Irish than all of those people wearing “Kiss Me, I’m Irish” t-shirts at the St. Paddy’s Day parade.
So how has this dish become so associated with Irish culinary cooking?
The History of Corned Beef and Cabbage
As with most things associated with Irish-American history, we must look back to The Great Famine of the 1840s and 50s. Nearly one million Irish people died of starvation as a result of a potato blight that decimated crops. Cruel and unforgiving laws favoring British colonial rulers and absentee landowners worsened the situation. By 1852, another one million Irish had left the country never to return, most of them coming to America.
Before coming to America most Irish were very familiar with the meal of green cabbage and salt pork or bacon. Beef of any kind was a rarity to poor Irish farmers. Culinary cooking was a luxury they simply couldn’t afford. Moreover, nearly all of the beef raised in Ireland was shipped to England and France by British landowners. Cows, if owned at all, were used predominately for dairy products. This left only pork, traditionally a poor man’s meat, available to the impoverished farmers.
Upon arriving in New York City through Ellis Island, the Irish looked for a replacement to their traditional cabbage and a joint of bacon. Pork was primarily a Southern meat at that time and, therefore, very difficult to find in New York.
The Jewish/Irish Connection to St. Paddy’s Day
What they did find, however, was corned beef, a salt cured beef product that was very popular with New York City’s growing Jewish population. Corned beef was cheap, easily accessible, and quickly became a replacement for their traditional bacon. Most foodies will tell you that the best corned beef and cabbage still comes from New York City.
A New American Tradition Is Born
Even though corned beef and cabbage was long considered a peasant food and shunned by anyone of means, even those of Irish descent, nostalgia and a growing appreciation for Irish ancestry brought the dish back to the forefront of American cuisine in the 1920s. A new American culinary art was born.
Now the dish is a staple of St. Patrick’s Day culinary cooking, both in the home and in restaurants. So this St. Patrick’s Day remember how that bowl of steaming corned beef and cabbage in front of you had to take a sad trip across the Atlantic before it became a celebrated part of Irish-American history.
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