Corned Beef, Potatoes and Cabbage

     While living in Baltimore, MD, I lived with a couple from 2016-2020 and the lady of the house cooked for us a traditional Irish meal, cabbage, potatoes and corned beef. She used the freshest ingredients in preparing her meal and would let me help her serve the food. Since she would cook it mainly during St Patrick’s day, she would invite close family and friends over to eat with us. Finally, she had a lot of experience cooking meals and providing this meal for her family was essential to them coming together, being welcomed and enjoying fruitful conversations.

     Just to give you a little history, before I met her, her family ran a restaurant so they were really great at cooking together. I’ve never seen the restaurant or been to it. I have been the recipient of their food and experienced their delicious meals from their well developed cooking skills. Finally, there were times where she invited me to cook for them.

     There was a time where I cooked some shrimp and grits for one of our family dinner gatherings. I cooked the shrimp in oil, and seasoned it with old bay seasoning. Using old bay seasoning is popular in Baltimore, Maryland since people eat seafood a lot here. I cooked the grits separately in a pot, letting them boil until the grits were soft and soaked up the water. I then added the shrimp. Everyone in the house loved it and I was really inspired to grow in my cooking skills while living at the couple’s house. Finally, this experience helped me appreciate it more when I did see the lady of the house cooking special meals for us.

     During Saint Patrick’s day we would look forward to the lady of the house cooking cabbage, potatoes and corned beef. She boiled the cabbage and potatoes together. She baked the corned beef separately. She would season the corned beef with pepper. The flavor of the meat with the juices was bursting with flavor. She would ask me to help in small meaningful ways.

     I would help by serving everyone drinks and setting the table. I would serve tea or water to drink. I would also help set the dishes out on the table for everyone to easily grab the serving utensils and pass their plates around. The person closest to each dish would serve the person whose plate they grabbed. Everyone would then sit at the table and spend quality time with each other. This dish was definitely easy for me to eat given the positive history I had with corned beef.

     I remember when my mom would make us corned beef sandwiches. She would use rye bread and toast it. She would spread bread with mustard. She bought the corned beef from the local deli. She used Swiss cheese and melted it on the bread. This was my first introduction to corned beef.

     Later on as an adult, I noticed certain deli’s would serve a sandwich called the Reuben. It was similar to what my mom made but they would serve it with coleslaw. The pickles would go as a side. With that, the lady of the house helped create new memories after some old memories from the past when she made this dish. Learning more about the Irish’s use of this meal during Saint Patrick’s Day is something that I found to be interesting. Especially since I wasn’t used to growing up in Ireland to learn about Irish foods.

     I’m not very knowledgeable about the history of this corned beef, potatoes and cabbage dish for the Irish but I did some research on it. The Irish immigrants who came to America in the 19th century substituted beef for pork because it was less expensive. This would later be a popular dish in the Irish community.

     In regards to the National dishes of Ireland, “Irish stew is a thick hearty dish of mutton, potatoes and onions.” A person would cook the beef in oil. They would then chop up all of the fresh vegetable ingredients and place them in a pot. They would use chicken stock to boil them in. They would then place the meat in the pot and cook it on the stove for one hour. Finally, this reminds me of why beef is popular amongst people with Irish heritage.

     In conclusion, getting to know more about corned beef and family gatherings has inspired me to think of what I could serve my family in the future. Lately, I have been practicing making chicken and dumplings with hopes that one day it could be a traditional family meal. However, since I don’t have children, hopefully one day I can make it for my nieces and nephews to see how they would like it.