Irish cuisine - Page three - By food author Howard Hillman

Irish cuisine
facts and tidbits

conversation pieces

Interesting
Irish cuisine
facts and tidbits

"Corned beef cabbage is Irish"

That's erroneous. It's an Irish-American immigrant dish. The relatives that the immigrants left behind in Ireland used cured pork, not beef, for the dish because beef (unlike in America) was too expensive for the average family. And in the USA at the time, beef was more economical and plentiful than pork.

Great Irish potato famine

The potato was introduced to Ireland (via the Continent) from the New World. It eventually became the chief source of food for the poor. Then, in the 1840s, a potato blight destroyed the crops. Millions of Irish either died, emigrated to America, or stayed put and suffered extreme poverty.

Regional cuisines

Unlike most European countries, Ireland does not have pronounced regional cuisines.

Popular ingredients

They are potatoes, cabbage, onions, lamb (or mutton), pork (cured and fresh), and fish (salmon, trout, cod) and shellfish (prawns, oysters, mussels).

Irish Coffee

This whiskey, coffee, and whipped cream concoction was invented a half-century ago as a promotional tool for the whiskey industry.