Cooking Around the Calendar

Saint  Patrick’s Day, here in the U.S. goes  hand in hand with a traditional meal of corned beef and cabbage. But is it really a traditional Irish dish? The answer is definitely not! Corned beef and cabbage is firmly rooted in the melting pot of America.

In Ireland cows were historically too valuable for dairy production to be slaughtered for meat, making beef a luxury reserved for the wealthy. Pork was the more affordable and common meat for the working class.

When millions of Irish immigrants arrived in the United States, during and after the Potato Famine, they found that their familiar salt pork and back bacon were quite expensive. Beef was now the more affordable protein.

Immigrants like the Irish, Jewish or Italians, often lived grouped in urban tenements near each other. Irish immigrants shopping at kosher butchers discovered corned beef and found it had a similar flavor and texture to Irish bacon and was significantly cheaper in America. A so a new Irish-American dish was born.

I like to make my corned beef and cabbage with potatoes, carrots and a classic Guinness. Cook it low and slow for hours; and I’m getting hungry just thinking about it.  

But the real treat comes the next day! Leftover corned beef makes a perfect Reuben sandwich. Toasty rye bread, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, along with 1000 Island dressing makes the corned beef shine.

I like to make my own dressing for the sandwich, which switches up the flavor a bit with the addition of horseradish and some not so secret spices. It’s so simple to make and I typically have all the ingredients on hand. Give it a go, I know you’ll like it.