Celtic Engagement Rings

Irish Country Cooking

Irish Country Cooking

The Ultimate Corned Beef and Cabbage

Americans still think we live on corned beef and cabbage over here," says Irish cookbook author and teacher Darina Allen.

In fact, the dish that's synonymous with St. Patrick's Day and all things Irish in the U.S. is so rarely eaten in Ireland—for the holiday or otherwise—that some people wonder if it's actually Irish. In Irish Country Cooking, Malachi McCormick says he likes corned beef, but then adds: "But our national dish? No, it's a New World dish!" Furthermore, thanks to the many awful versions served in bars in the U.S.—and washed down with plastic cups of green beer—this one-pot meal is often reviled by Irish Americans and Irish-for-a-Day Americans or, at the very least, relegated to a sloshy once-a-year tradition.

So let's set a few things straight: First, corned beef and cabbage is most definitely Irish. Second, when properly made it's "delicious," says Allen—recent taste tests here at Epicurious confirm that the corned beef and cabbage recipe from Allen's cookbook Irish Traditional Cooking is indeed fantastic. Third, with the current multicontinent trend of chefs looking to the past for inspiration coupled with a craze among food-lovers for all things cured, this briny classic is poised for a comeback.

Although corned beef is "almost a forgotten flavor in Ireland," according to Allen it was once an extremely popular and important food for all classes. To "corn" something is simply to preserve it in a salty brine (the term corn refers to the coarse grains of salt used for curing). In the days before refrigeration, corning was essential for storing meat, especially from large animals like cows. Historically, beef that was slaughtered and corned before the winter was served with the first fresh spring cabbage to break the Lenten fast on Easter.

Corned beef has always been associated with Cork City, because, Allen explains, "that was the provisioning port for boats before they crossed the Atlantic." In fact, between the 1680s and 1825, corning beef was Cork City's most important industry. The meat was exported to Britain, continental Europe, and as far away as Newfoundland and the West Indies.

These days in Ireland, corned beef is still most associated with County Cork, where Allen's Ballymaloe Cookery School and the Ballymaloe House and restaurant started by Allen's mother-in-law, Myrtle Allen, are based. Corned beef is sold at the English Market, a huge covered market in Cork City, and is also available at the Farmgate Café within the market—Allen says Ballymaloe House also serves it occasionally for lunch. "So there are people who eat it all the time."

But even in Cork, Allen says, corned beef "seems to be a flavor that a lot of older people enjoy more than younger people." Why, then, has corned beef dwindled in popularity? "The Irish economy is very, very strong, and with that comes changes in people's diets," she says. Yet for Irish immigrants, many of whom fled their famine-stricken homeland during the heyday of corned beef, the dish remained important. "The immigrants brought it with them and it became sort of like a cult food," says Allen. "I think what happens sometimes when people immigrate is life stands still. Their memories of a country, and of the traditions, stay as it was when they left."But with so many chefs looking to the past for inspiration, corned beef could be poised for a comeback in its country of origin. "[Irish] chefs are serving a lot of peasant foods and highlighting them again," says Allen. D.I.Y. fever could also play a role in corned beef's return to the Irish table. "Over here, just as over on your side [of the Atlantic], a lot of younger people are getting involved in curing their own bacons and hams and things again, making sausages and salamis," says Allen, who runs a series of "forgotten skills" courses at Ballymaloe Cookery School, teaching students how to keep chickens, make homemade sausages, build a smokehouse, and so forth.The Epicurious edit team put Allen's corned beef and cabbage to the test: We purchased a four-pound piece of cured meat from Prime Cuts, an Irish butcher in the Woodlawn neighborhood of the Bronx in New York and slow-cooked it with cabbage, carrots, and onions. The scrumptious results convinced us that the dish is indeed ready for a revival. Allen says of the St. Patrick's Day corned beef and cabbage connection, "It's lovely to have one dish associated with a day." As we thoroughly enjoyed many days of leftovers from our St. Patrick's Day preview, we'll add that it's even lovelier for that dish to be so good you'd eat it any day.

Ready to try it yourself? Click on the menu links for Allen's recipes for Corned Beef with Cabbage, two authentic and tasty side dishes, and a perfect early spring dessert. Then see the Tips tab for buying and cooking advice.

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