Writing this column usually sends me on a trip down memory lane reliving scenes from my childhood and moments with my father, a meat-and-potatoes man if there ever was one. It never occurred to me while growing up that there might be reasons for Dad’s menu preferences, but investigating Ireland’s culinary history continues to reveal that his food choices were a much as part of his Irish heritage as his blue eyes and love of words.
An old Irish saying has it that “A dinner is not a dinner at all but only an excuse for one if it does not contain a plate of meat.” Another sings the praises of spuds with the words “Be eating one potato, be having your hand on another and your eye on a third.” In retrospect, eating at our house fit both adages perfectly.
Dinner always featured meat, two vegetables (a green plus potatoes or another root crop), a salad, and a sweet dessert for the finale. Sundays were special and mom honored the day with a roast dinner. It might be a plump stuffed chicken, a beef or pork roast, or when the price was right, a leg of lamb. Monday nights we had leftovers swimming in hot gravy or mixed into a savory hash. Weekday meals frequently centered around broiled steak or chops, smothered steak and onions, meatloaf, or a thick savory stew. Friday was fish night. On Saturday mornings. Dad made such a whopping huge Irish breakfast that it left little room for appetites to develop, and our evening meal was usually soup and sandwiches.
That the Irish and their descendants are potato lovers is no surprise. From the sixteenth century when Sir Walter Raleigh introduced spuds to Ireland at his plantation in County Cork, they were the main dietary staple of the poor. In good years, a small plot of potatoes fed a family of four for an entire year. In bad years, famine stalked the land. Millions died or emigrated to new homes across the sea, and potatoes went with them.
Meals built on meat have an even longer history. Tracing the tradition requires journeying back to the days of the High Kings. From the early tales of the saints’ lives, and the heraldic sagas we know that a chieftain’s wealth was determined by his cattle holdings. Tain Bo Culainge (The Cattle Raid of Cooley) tells how a war erupted over the theft of a great black bull. Leabhar na hUidhre (Book of the Dun Cow) records the story of Odhar Chiarain (St Ciaran’s Dun Cow). When the saint left home to study with St. Finian, is parents refused to give him a milk-cow. Trusting God to fill his needs, the child blessed a dun-colored cow in his father’s herd. The animal followed Ciaran to Clonmacnoise where it provided enough milk to satisfy not only Ciaran but all the students at the school.
Tributes to higher ranking rulers were paid in cattle. Records show that the king of Leinster delivered a hundred head of each kind of cattle to his Munster overlord. Church tithes called “First-fruits” included the first calf born to every cow. Cattle also served as financial barter exchanges. The Brehon Laws stipulated that tenants pay their landholders an annual rent of two cows. Culdee monks charged a yearly tuition fee, including bed and board, of one calf, several hogs, three sacks of malt and a sack of wheat. If a student could recite his lessons well, the monks earned an additional payment of one milk-cow.
Long ago the vast majority of animals in Ireland’s herds consisted of cows which provided a constant and virtually free supply of milk, butter and cheese. Beef came from unwanted bull calves, cows past milk-giving prime and animals that died accidentally. While fresh Irish beef has always been famed for its flavor, corned beef was equally prized. Herds were thinned in November because there was not enough fodder to support them through the winter, and the meat was salted to preserve it. By the thirteenth century, salted beef had become one of Ireland’s major exports.
Corned beef boiled with green cabbage and potatoes was considered a gourmet dish and was served at special occasions such as Hallowe’en, Christmas, St. Patrick’s Day, weddings and wakes. The custom was carried overseas by emigrants and to this day, corned beef and cabbage is served worldwide on March 17th to honor Ireland’s patron, St. Patrick.
Irish stew, a traditional dish of meat, carrots and onions cooked in one pot and thickened with potatoes, was devised by ingenious cooks who possessed few cooking utensils. Even the poorest households, however, owned a three-footed iron pot with a curved lid. When hung from a hook above the hearth’s glowing embers, stews simmered slowly for hours. The same pot, when stood on the hearth’s flagstone base amid the smouldering peat with its lid inverted and more coals piled on top, served as an oven. Meat cooked in this manner was called simply enough a pot-roast. Sometimes carrots, onions and a bit of broth or stout were added during the cooking process. As the juices simmered they braised the meat and made it more tender and flavorful. Though the utensils have changes, both tried-and-true cooking styles survive today.
During the seventeenth century so much live cattle was being shipped to England, the London government banned importation to protect its own farmers. Ireland quickly switched to provisioning ships sailing across the Atlantic to England’s American colonies. In the eighteenth century planted English landowners began building great manor houses in Ireland and beef became the cornerstone of every wealthy family’s menu. On June 12, 1732, the English wife of Doctor Patrick Delaney, the Dean of Down, wrote “I have not seen less than fourteen dishes of meat for dinner, and seven for supper.”
Such abundance only graced the tables of the gentry. The vast majority of people subsisted on oatmeal, milk and potatoes, and during the Famine Years the beef industry plummeted. By the end of the nineteenth century, however, Ireland had again become one of Europe’s most important suppliers of live cattle. Just fifty years ago W.P. O’Kane set up a beef-processing plant in Ballymena. County Antrim, and the first carcasses were shipped out in coal lorries arriving at their destinations safely if a bit grimy.
In the ensuing decades cattle farming has regained its position as one of Ireland’s major industries. With Irish beef now being shipped round the world, millions can enjoy a proper “plate of meat” at dinnertime, and a luscious dinner of corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick’s annual feast day. Slainte!
Recipes
Braised Steaks in Guinness
4 round steaks
8 ounces sliced mushrooms
1 large onion, peeled and chopped roughly
8 ounces Guinness
1 sprig of thyme
salt and fresh ground black pepper
oil for frying
4 baking potatoes, scrubbed and unpeeled
Preheat the oven to 350F. While the oven is heating, warm a little oil in a large frying pan and brown the steaks quickly on both sides. remove steaks from the pan and set aside. Add a little more oil to the frying pan if necessary, saute the mushrooms and onion in it for a few minutes until they begin to wilt, then spread the mixture over the base of a medium ovenproof baking dish. Lay the steaks over the mushrooms and onions. Barely cover all with Guinness. Float the thyme sprig in the liquid and season the pan contents with salt and pepper. Cover the fish with a lid or tinfoil and braise in the oven for 1-1 1/2 hours or until the meat is tender. Bake the potatoes alongside the steaks. Makes 4 servings.
- Classic Irish Recipes – Georgina Campbell
Corned Beef w/ Cabbage
1 3-pound corned beef
1 large onion, peeled and halved
4 cloves
2 bay leaves
8 whole peppercorns
1 large cabbage, shredded
Place the corned beef in a large stewpot and cover it with fresh cold water. Add the onion, cloves, bay leaves, and peppercorns. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat, cover and simmer for 2 hours or until the meat is tender. Half an hour before the corned beef is ready, remove some cooking broth to another pot, add the cabbage, and cook until tender. When ready to serve, place the corned beef on a large platter and surround with drained cabbage. The stock can be refrigerated and used to make soup. Makes 6 servings.
- Classic Irish Recipes – Georgina Campbell
Mustard Sauce
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons lemon juice
salt and pepper
Whip cream, then stir in mustard sauce and lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Makes approximately 1 cup.
- Classic Irish Recipes – Georgina Campbell
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in the March / April 1998 issue of Irish America. ⬥
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