Yeah. Not sure why people think making beer green (or anything for that matter) makes it Irish.
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Yep, all too true… Being an American of Irish heritage, I’m depressingly aware!
Yep… I told my classes on Thursday NOT to drink green beer if they’re celebrating St. Patrick’s day…
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Drink a nice Irish whiskey (I recommend Connor mcgrefor’s Proper Twelve) or a nice milk stout like Left Hand Nitro.
Then have a simple corned beef with honeyed parsnips and colcannon.
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My traditional meal is corned beef, potatoes, onions, and cabbage, in a crockpot, soda bread, and some Guinness.
Colcannon would be nice, though, but I’d hate to break with tradition…
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…and Shamrock Shakes! That was a never-ending source of childhood mirth, given their effect on next day’s shoo-shoo.
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They weren’t available in my area and state. Had no clue what they were until I lived in Philly during the 00’s.
I wasn’t pleased.
These were an unpleasant surprise as well. Not least because they’re fucking disgusting.
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I’m led to believe that corned beef (as we shall have tomorrow, with cabbage) is an Irish-American tradition, but not particularly Irish.
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My understanding is that it is wrongly attributed as Irish due to mass production at somepoint in Ireland for use by the shipping industry.
In America, outside of saint patrick’s day, Jewish delicatessens are credited for its popularity.
My favorite meal made by my mom has always been corned beef and cabbage, and she’s just buy the market brined, bag of mass produced corned beef and boil it. I now use the slow cooker and go for a 10+ hour on warm (175F on mine) cooking period.
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We’ll use a slow cooker tomorrow, but it’s best in the solar oven.
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It was eaten in Ireland at various points, but beef was quite expensive. So until pretty recently it was most associated with urban, professional class and generally better off segments. And even then was always a holiday or special occasion meal.
Seems more popular over there now, but the more common version was bacon and cabbage. Basically a cured pork loin. And often enough seems to get served with parsley cream sauce.
The New England boiled dinner is also derived from the dish, and for the most part it’s the same as corned beef and cabbage save for the vegetables. But you get to more inland and rural parts of New England and they us a cured smoked pork shoulder.
So kind of a any meat you could get sort of thing.
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Story I’ve heard is that corned beef became an Irish American tradition because a) It somewhat resembled boiled bacon, which was/is eaten in Ireland on St Patrick’s b) It was cheaper and easier to get ahold of than a slab of bacon, because c) The Jewish Ghettos in many major cities were near the Irish ones.
No idea if there’s any truth to it, though.
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WHOA. I AM BUYING THIS…
Right now! 
This is exactly the truth. Traditional cuts in Ireland were unavailable here In The states. Many Irish were living side by side with Jewish immigrants in NYC in the early days and brisket was considered a cheap cut and peasant meat at the time. Pickling/brining was popular at the time not just as a Jewish kosher method but also for preservation due to lack of any refrigeration.
The Irish (a traditionally adaptable people) used what their Jewish neighbors had readily available and the corned beef swapped in for other traditional cuts (pork and beef were both popular in Ireland at the time).
The daily meals for the Irish were usually a stew of some kind (beef, pork or lamb) and plain soda bread. A fairly dry hard tack bread used for sopping. This is what became the Irish American CB & cabbage boil.
The holiday (or celebration) meal was a braised or roasted cut of meat with a side of champ or colcannon (basically a mash of those same veggies - usually potato, cabbage, or parsnip) with seasoning like mace. And a barmbrack bread (which is what most people think of as Irish soda bread these days) a similar bread to soda bread but with fruits and seeds in it/on it.
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I have a copy of Charcuterie, but so far, I’ve just stuck to things that are quick cured and cooked like city hams, corned beef, pastrami, hot dogs, summer sausage, and bacon.
The other stuff just seems too daunting. Hanging pork products in the garage, allowing them to collect the right type of mold, cutting out any insect damage, then eventually eating it raw.
Maybe one day I’ll do it and become a convert, but for now, I’ll leave that up to the experts.
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The think with home charcuterie is its kind of like home brewing.
There is so much awesome stuff widely available why do it yourself? At least here in New England it’s like that for me.
Some products just have great local/craft stuff available I can’t bring myself to invest the time in doing it myself. Like croissants. Just so much easier and just as good buying them at a local bakery.
I read this right after I added that book to my cart.
I have never been so conflicted in my life as to what to do.
My choice to be non-religious was easier…
Edit: I drink whiskey smoke cigars and I’ve inhaled and ingested more heavy metal than most of the human population of a small city (powdered carbide machinist years ago, EDM toolmaker now, chromium and graphite smoke).
My family has a history of cancer too.
Almost positively certain I’m going to die from something painful and cancerous.
Fuck it, bacon wins 
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There are even strong suggestions that any nitrite is dangerous and that the use of nitrites in the meat industry is the reason (processed) meat lovers have such a higher colon cancer rate.
Can’t be arsed to look up sources because I read it in the (ground up trees-) newspaper, so do with this information whatever you like and take it with a pinch of (nitrite-)salt.
While true, nearly everything you encounter in daily life can increase you cancer risk by (at least) 1%.
Living in the city as opposed to the countryside for example.
I can do without too much meat quite easily, so I choose to eat it sparingly. I like cured meat, but I treat it the same way as chocolate cakes or whiskey: only on special occasions. But if it is your main pleasure in life pick you battles.
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That seems to be the case for me. A few years back I had a corned beef sandwich, the first I’d had since my youth. The meat was nothing fancy like people are talking about here, ‘twas straight from the can. Nevertheless, after my first bite, I thought this is great, why have I been ignoring corned beef all these years? But, as I kept eating, I enjoyed the sandwich less and less, and ultimately didn’t even finish it.
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The risks of nitrites from meat is quite small, and hard to disentangle from other lifestyle choices associated with cured meat consumption. A balanced view is here http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190311-what-are-nitrates-in-food-side-effects
but the best strategy is moderation in all types of foods, and thus averaging out benefits and risks of any one food group.
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