IOTD St Patrick’s edition

Corned Beef with Cabbage

Corned Beef with Cabbage

The recipe and introductory text below are from Irish Traditional Cooking by Darina Allen.

Although this dish is eaten less frequently nowadays in Ireland, for Irish expatriots it conjures up powerful nostalgic images of a rural Irish past. Originally it was a traditional Easter Sunday dinner. The beef, killed before the winter, would have been salted and could now be eaten after the long Lenten fast, with fresh green cabbage and floury potatoes. Our local butcher corns beef in the slow, old-fashioned way which, alas, is nowadays more the exception than the norm.

YIELD: Makes 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients:

4 lb corned brisket of beef

3 large carrots, cut into large chunks

6 to 8 small onions

1 teaspoon dry English mustard

 large sprig fresh thyme and some parsley stalks, tied together

 1 cabbage

 salt and freshly ground pepper

Preparation:

Put the brisket into a saucepan with the carrots, onions, mustard and the herbs. Cover with cold water, and bring gently to a boil. Simmer, covered, for 2 hours. Discard the outer leaves of the cabbage, cut in quarters and add to the pot. Cook for a further 1 to 2 hours or until the meat and vegetables are soft and tender.

Serve the corned beef in slices, surrounded by the vegetables and cooking liquid. Serve with lots of floury potatoes and freshly made mustard.

Reprinted with permission from Irish Traditional Cooking by Darina Allen, (C) 1995 (reprinted 2005)

Recent Review:

When cooking the meat, it generates a lot of foamy scum. I would highly recommend altering the procedure. I would first add only the corned beef and water, bring to a boil and skim off the foam/scum as it generates. Once you have all of that removed, then add the vegetables and proceed according to the recipe.
                              
                                                                                              -chofelt from Raleigh, NC

Thank you, Skeen!

xoxo ❤

Calendar day; March 17, 2015

Tuesday, the 17th of March, 2015 is the 76th day in 2015 and in the 12th calendar week.

General Events:

St. Patrick’s Day
March 17, 2015 in Ireland

Saint Patrick’s Day, colloquially St. Paddy’s Day or simply Paddy’s Day, is an annual feast day which celebrates Saint Patrick, the most commonly recognised of the patron saints of Ireland, and is generally celebrated on 17th of March.

The day is a national holiday of Ireland: it is a bank holiday in Northern Ireland and a public holiday in the Republic of Ireland and in Montserrat. In Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, Argentina and New Zealand, it is widely celebrated but is not an official holiday.

Saint Patrick’s Day is celebrated worldwide by those of Irish descent and increasingly by people of other ethnicities as well, notably in Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and North America. Celebrations are generally themed around all things Irish and, by association, the colour green. Both Christians and non-Christians celebrate the secular version of the holiday by wearing green, eating Irish food and/or green foods, imbibing Irish drink and attending parades, which have a particularly long history in the United States and in Canada.

As well as being a celebration of Irish culture, Saint Patrick’s Day is a Christian festival celebrated in the Catholic Church, the Church of Ireland, and some other denominations. The day almost always falls in the season of Lent, and some bishops will grant an indult, or release, from the Friday no-meat observance when St. Patrick’s Day falls on a Friday; this is sometimes colloquially known as a “corned-beef indult”.

Where is St. Patrick’s Day?
Nationwide Ireland

National Corned Beef and Cabbage Day
March 17, 2015 in the USA

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 traditional Irish Corned Beef and Cabbage recipes, salt pork or bacon joint were used instead of corned beef.  Uncertain of the date, but knowing it was sometime in the early 1800’s and possibly even earlier, in Ireland, cows were not used for their meat.  Cows were used for their dairy.  Considered a luxury food, it was only by the wealthy that beef was consumed.   Instead of beef,  it was pork that was served to celebrate the holidays.

Sometime in the mid 1800’s when the Irish immigrated to America, they found that Jewish corned beef was very similar in texture to bacon joint (pork).  It was then that corned beef was used as a replacement for the bacon when preparing corned beef and cabbage meals.    Soon after that time, the Irish-Americans began having Corned Beef and Cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day.

In Ireland today, the serving of corned beef is geared toward tourist consumption and most Irish in Ireland do not identify it as native cuisine. Corned beef and cabbage remain a popular food in some areas of the United States.

Where is the event?
Nationwide USA

Submarine Day 2015
March 17, 2015 in the World

Believe it or not, the first recorded submersible was built by Cornelius Drebbel in 1620 for James I of England, although why anyone would want to plunge beneath the surface of a 17th century Thames is beyond us.

Today’s submarines are of course far more sophisticated than that particular oar-powered contraption, having played major parts in military operations for over a century. The amount of expertise that goes into their design, construction, maintenance and operation is quite staggering, especially when you take into account the inclusion of navigation and communication networks; sensors, armaments and weaponry; powerful propulsion systems; and of course, a large number of rigorously trained and highly skilled men and women, often putting their lives on the line for their countries.

So today can take many forms: We can think about the ingenuity and majesty of the mighty submarine itself. We can celebrate its place in the modern world. We can imagine what they’ll be like in a hundred years’ time. But most importantly, we can take a moment to think about those lost at sea over the years, and pay tribute to the courage of those who are beneath the ocean waves at this exact moment in time.

Submarine Day 2015 in the USA takes place on April 11, 2015.

Where is the event?
Worldwide

Evacuation Day in Massachusetts
March 17, 2015 in Massachusetts

Evacuation Day in Massachusetts takes place on March 17, 2015. It is observed in Suffolk County and also by the public schools in Cambridge and Somerville, Massachusetts. The holiday commemorates the evacuation of British forces from the city of Boston following the Siege of Boston, early in the American Revolutionary War. Schools and government offices are closed. If March 17 falls on a weekend, schools and government offices are closed on the following Monday in observance. It is the same day as Saint Patrick’s Day, a coincidence that played a role in the establishment of the holiday.

Where is Evacuation Day in Massachusetts?
Nationwide Massachusetts

Historical Events on 17th March:

45 BC – In his last victory, Julius Caesar defeats the Pompeian forces of Titus Labienus and Pompey the Younger in the Battle of Munda.

432 – St Patrick aged 16 is carried off to Ireland as a slave (traditional date)

1190 – Crusades complete massacre of Jews of York England

1521 – Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reaches the Philippines

1753 – 1st official St Patrick’s Day

1756 – St Patrick’s Day 1st celebrated in NYC at Crown & Thistle Tavern

1762 – 1st St Patrick’s Day parade in NYC

1845 – Rubber band patented by Stephen Perry of London

1861 – Italy declares independence; Kingdom of Italy proclaimed

1876 – Gen Crook destroy Cheyennes & Oglala-Sioux indian camps

1898 – John Philip Holland achieves successful test runs of the first modern submarine off Staten Island

1908 – Quickest world heavyweight title fight (Burns KOs Roche in 88 seconds)

1912 – Camp Fire Girls organization announced by Mrs Luther Halsey Gulick

1921 – Dr Marie Stopes opens Britain’s 1st birth control clinic (London)

1921 – Sailors revolt in Kronstadt (thousands die)

1926 – Spain & Brazil prevent Germany joining League of Nations

1927 – US government doesn’t sign league of Nations disarmament treaty

1939 – Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945): The Battle of Nanchang between the Kuomintang and the Japanese breaks out

1955 – After Maurice Richard is suspended for the remainder of the season, riots break out in Montreal. 37 people are injured and over 100 are arrested. The following morning, Richard goes on the radio to ask citizens to stop vandalizing the city

1959 – Dalai Lama flees Tibet for India

1960 – Eisenhower forms anti-Castro-exile army under the CIA

1963 – Eruptions of Mount Agung Bali, kills 1,900 Balinese

1973 – Queen Elizabeth II opens new London Bridge

1992 – De Klerk wins a white only referendum

1995 – USt approves 1st chicken pox vaccine, Varivax by Merck & Co

2000 – The 800+ deaths of members of the Ugandan cult Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God is considered to be a mass murder and suicide orchestrated by leaders of the cult