St. Patrick's Day

The first Patrick’s Day parade took place in New York City in 1762. According to Census data, there are 39.6 million Americans who claim Irish heritage, almost seven times more than the population of Ireland (6.3 million).  After German, Irish is the most common ancestry of Americans. There are half as many Italian-Americans as Irish-Americans.

What are you having for dinner today? Corned beef and cabbage is about as "Irish" as lasagna. Pork and potato stew was the preferred dish for the dirt-poor Irish immigrants who arrived in America. They couldn't afford pork, but beef was cheap and the Irish in New York City tasted their first corned beef at Jewish delis and lunch carts.  Cured and stewed much like Irish bacon, it became a tasty and cheaper alternative to pork.

You either love it or hate it, but a lot depends on the quality of the meat. Instead of the supermarket special this year, I splurged on a big brisket at Costco. An expensive piece of meat deserves a better fate than 3 hours in boiling water. I rinsed off the salty slime and then oven-braised it with a bottle of beer, plenty of onions and garlic. 

After four hours cooked "low and slow" in the cast iron casserole the meat was fork tender and moist.  Time to add the cabbage and red potatoes.  Many folks won't touch cooked cabbage (I'm married to one) but I think it's delicious, especially stewed in salty corned beef broth.

A once-a-year treat of a dinner.

And I had time to bake a big batch of bread. Nothing fancy-- just old-fashioned Betty Crocker white.

That should make a dandy corned beef and cheese sandwich for lunch today.
 Happy St. Patrick's Day!