Name a more iconic March dinner. I'll wait.
This is probably one of the stranger St. Patrick's Day I've ever celebrated, but fortunately I managed to get out and get my hands on a brisket to share this traditional favorite with all of you well in advance of panic buying and social distancing.
Corned beef and cabbage is one of the most iconic holiday dishes, but many people are quick to claim it's not "authentic" Irish cuisine. Much like spaghetti and meatballs and chop suey, corned beef and cabbage is rather an American spin on a traditional Irish dish. That doesn't make it less authentic, just that it's a staple of a community that isn't centered in Ireland itself. Read on to find out more about this tasty dinner I wish I got to enjoy more than once a year!
Corned beef and cabbage is one of the most iconic holiday dishes, but many people are quick to claim it's not "authentic" Irish cuisine. Much like spaghetti and meatballs and chop suey, corned beef and cabbage is rather an American spin on a traditional Irish dish. That doesn't make it less authentic, just that it's a staple of a community that isn't centered in Ireland itself. Read on to find out more about this tasty dinner I wish I got to enjoy more than once a year!
Corned beef and cabbage was adapted from bacon and cabbage, a traditional Irish dish that would've basically very familiar to Nellie's family before they immigrated to the United States. Many Irish families had their own vegetable gardens and reared their own pigs, and while many families would not have been able to eat this every single day, it offered an important variety in a diet that - for the most vulnerable parts of Ireland's population - all too often involved potatoes and milk, with not much else.
Much like Italian immigrants to the United States realizing that meat was less expensive, leading to the popularity of meatballs in many dishes, Irish immigrants realized that beef was cheaper than pork in the United States. Corned beef was sold at Jewish delis and other Jewish run businesses, and as Jews and Irish immigrants lived in similar neighborhoods, newcomers to the States quickly realized their neighbors had created a delicious treat that was similar enough to Irish bacon to easily substitute it, and so the dish was adapted.
It goes without saying that corned beef is a popular deli meat and has many iconic adaptations out there, but eating it with boiled cabbage and other veggies is definitely emblematic of Irish American cuisine in the United States. It's likely this was something the O'Malleys would have enjoyed and shared with their children as a familiar, nutritional dish that reminded them of home.
When St. Patrick's Day rolls around, many people choose to go to their closest deli to buy corned beef, but we live in a sadly deli-challenged part of the world, and so we picked up our corned beef at the grocery store. You can corn your beef from scratch, but it's a bit of a process and requires a decent amount of time. I am lazy at heart, and so we got pre-brined corned beef. We added this to a pot, covered it with water, and added several tablespoons of pickling spices. Most pre-brined corned beef comes with its own packet of spices, but we'd splurged on some new ones at Penzey's with the help of a gift card.
The beef cooks for about three hours, at which point you want to add in a couple potatoes and carrots to the pot. Cook them until they're tender, and then add your cabbage, which has been quartered... or cut up more depending on how much space you have in your pot. Pull out your beef and let it rest before you add in the cabbage. Everything's ready to be eaten once the cabbage is wilted, so start plating it up.
Much like Italian immigrants to the United States realizing that meat was less expensive, leading to the popularity of meatballs in many dishes, Irish immigrants realized that beef was cheaper than pork in the United States. Corned beef was sold at Jewish delis and other Jewish run businesses, and as Jews and Irish immigrants lived in similar neighborhoods, newcomers to the States quickly realized their neighbors had created a delicious treat that was similar enough to Irish bacon to easily substitute it, and so the dish was adapted.
It goes without saying that corned beef is a popular deli meat and has many iconic adaptations out there, but eating it with boiled cabbage and other veggies is definitely emblematic of Irish American cuisine in the United States. It's likely this was something the O'Malleys would have enjoyed and shared with their children as a familiar, nutritional dish that reminded them of home.
When St. Patrick's Day rolls around, many people choose to go to their closest deli to buy corned beef, but we live in a sadly deli-challenged part of the world, and so we picked up our corned beef at the grocery store. You can corn your beef from scratch, but it's a bit of a process and requires a decent amount of time. I am lazy at heart, and so we got pre-brined corned beef. We added this to a pot, covered it with water, and added several tablespoons of pickling spices. Most pre-brined corned beef comes with its own packet of spices, but we'd splurged on some new ones at Penzey's with the help of a gift card.
The beef cooks for about three hours, at which point you want to add in a couple potatoes and carrots to the pot. Cook them until they're tender, and then add your cabbage, which has been quartered... or cut up more depending on how much space you have in your pot. Pull out your beef and let it rest before you add in the cabbage. Everything's ready to be eaten once the cabbage is wilted, so start plating it up.
Much like pasta fagoli, this was a traditional dinner at my grandmother's growing up, but only on St. Patrick's Day. My grandma always insisted on making corned beef and cabbage on the holiday, or as close to it as we could get everyone together to enjoy it. Between that and her festive decorations, for the longest time, I figured my grandma must be partially Irish like I was because of how into St. Patrick's Day she was, but it turns out, she just knows how to celebrate a holiday.
And much like pasta fagoli, I really didn't like corned beef for a long time. I have no idea why. Everything about it is theoretically something I'd enjoy, and I like it a lot as an adult. The meal I've got plated here - along with the leftovers - was quickly gobbled down by Jess and I, with our cat begging for scraps because he's a bit of a pest about the forbidden human food.
If done right (and it's hard to do wrong), corned beef and cabbage is a really satisfying meal. It's easy to imagine the O'Malleys sitting down to a meal like this and telling their daughters stories about their homeland, or Nellie trying to keep the tradition alive once she and her sisters were adopted by Uncle Gard and Aunt Cornelia. It might strike Gard and Cornelia - and even Samantha - as a strange, common dish, but I like to think these forward thinking characters would've quickly been convinced that this was a tradition worth keeping alive.
And much like pasta fagoli, I really didn't like corned beef for a long time. I have no idea why. Everything about it is theoretically something I'd enjoy, and I like it a lot as an adult. The meal I've got plated here - along with the leftovers - was quickly gobbled down by Jess and I, with our cat begging for scraps because he's a bit of a pest about the forbidden human food.
If done right (and it's hard to do wrong), corned beef and cabbage is a really satisfying meal. It's easy to imagine the O'Malleys sitting down to a meal like this and telling their daughters stories about their homeland, or Nellie trying to keep the tradition alive once she and her sisters were adopted by Uncle Gard and Aunt Cornelia. It might strike Gard and Cornelia - and even Samantha - as a strange, common dish, but I like to think these forward thinking characters would've quickly been convinced that this was a tradition worth keeping alive.
Hope everyone is staying safe!
Imagine how this dish would look in a Irish-Latinix household :)
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