St Patrick's Day Food: Traditional Dishes and Recipes
When and how is it celebrated?
St Patrick’s Day falls on 17 March every year, the traditional date of the death of Saint Patrick, who worked as a missionary in Ireland in the 5th century. In Ireland it is a public holiday, with parades in Dublin and in many small towns. Because it falls in Lent, the Church lifted the fasting rules for this one day. Families therefore ate meat, usually cured pork with cabbage. The big parades and green in every form came back to Ireland by way of the emigrants in the United States. The New York parade is now one of the largest in the world, and in Chicago the river is even dyed green for the day. The custom of eating corned beef also comes from there.
What is on the table?
In Ireland itself, Bacon and Cabbage is the classic festive meal. This means a boiled piece of cured pork, from the back or the collar, not breakfast bacon, served with white cabbage and a parsley sauce. Emigrants in America often bought cured beef from Jewish butchers, where it was cheap, and used it instead of pork. That is how Corned Beef and Cabbage came about, and in the US it is firmly tied to 17 March. Just as popular is Irish Stew made with lamb or mutton, potatoes, onions and carrots, braised slowly for two hours. The side dishes are all about potatoes. Colcannon is mashed potato with kale or savoy cabbage and plenty of butter, and champ is the version with spring onions. In counties Leitrim and Cavan people make Boxty, pancakes made from grated raw and cooked potatoes. Fresh Irish soda bread goes with it all. It rises with bicarbonate of soda and buttermilk instead of yeast and is ready in an hour.
Tips for your own festive meal
An Irish menu is easy to prepare ahead. Start with a potato and leek soup, which you can make the day before. For the main course, serve Irish stew, which tastes better on the second day anyway, or bacon and cabbage with colcannon. Bake the soda bread in the morning, as it is best lukewarm with salted butter. For dessert, an Apple and Blackberry Crumble with custard fits well. To drink, black tea with milk, which in Ireland is the drink for any time of day.
