March 17th, St. Patrick’s Day, is National Corned Beef & Cabbage Day.

Corned beef and cabbage is a St. Patrick’s Day standard. But wait: The dish isn’t from Ireland, but from New York City’s Lower East Side.
 
 
WHAT IS CORNED BEEF?

Although the exact beginnings of corned beef are lost to history, it most likely was created when people began preserving meat through salt-curing—an ancient practice.
 
Is There Corn? No.

Corning refers to curing or pickling the meat in a seasoned brine. The word refers to the “corns” or grains of rock salt (today, kosher salt is used) that are mixed with water to make the brine. (Curing meat and fish with salt was an ancient practice in numerous cultures.)

Typically, brisket is used to make corned beef. Brisket is a cut of meat from the breast or lower chest of the cow (photo #2)

The dish has many regional variations and seasonings. Smoking a corned beef and adding extra spices produces pastrami.
 
 
THE HISTORY OF CORNED BEEF & CABBAGE

Historically, cattle in Ireland were not used for meat but for dairy products. Pork, affordable, was the predominant meat.

It wasn’t until England’s 16th century conquering of Ireland that the cow became a meat animal—but its availability was limited to the Irish population because of the cost.

Then came the massive migration of Irish, Jewish, and other populations from Europe to the U.S.

Corned beef was a staple in middle-European Jewish cuisine. Irish immigrants learned about corned beef from their Jewish neighbors on New York’s Lower East Side.

They adopted it as a cheaper alternative to imported Irish bacon. (Irish bacon is a lean, smoked pork loin similar to Canadian bacon. Here are the different types of bacon.)

In the U.S., pork was much more expensive than the American staple meat, beef. Brisket, which required several hours of cooking to tenderize, was an affordable cut.

Bacon and cabbage is a popular Irish dish, so the marriage was made:

Irish Americans substituted corned beef for the bacon, and Corned Beef & Cabbage was born (photo #3).
 
 
MORE CORNED BEEF RECIPES

[1] Corned beef and cabbage with potatoes and Irish soda bread (photo © Chef Eric LeVine).

[2] A brisket, transformed with into corned beef (photo © Omaha Steaks).

[3] One idea for leftovers: corned beef and cabbage tacos. See the other recipes below (photo © Tortilla Factory).

[4] Make a Reuben sandwich with leftovers. Since cole slaw is grated cabbage, dice the leftover cabbage and mix with mayo, shredded carrots, diced onions, vinegar, mustard, celery salt, and a pinch of sugar (photo © An Affair From The Heart).

[1] This bright green dip has layers of flavo5.

[2] A packet of dip mix provides ranch dressing flavor to the dip (photos #1 and #2 courtesy Hidden Valley).

[3] Everything’s better with bacon (photo courtesy Edwards Virginia Smokehouse).

We recently tasted this dip at a friend’s house, and liked it enough to ask for the recipe.

Turns out, it’s a Hidden Valley recipe, sent in by a customer. It includes everything from ranch dip to guacamole to chicken, bacon and hot sauce.

It may not be Irish in spirit, but it’s bright green in color (photo #1).

You can make the dip the day before, and let it chill until you’re ready to make the pita chips.

You can also use store-bought chips; but the fresh-from-the-oven chips are so much more of a treat.

For green beer to accompany the snack:

 
 
RECIPE: “GREEN WITH ENVY” CHICKEN & RANCH GUACAMOLE DIP

Ingredients For 8 Servings

 
Preparation

1. MAKE the pita chips. Heat the oven to 350°F. Separate each pita bread round horizontally, to yield 2 thin rounds. Stack the rounds, cut them in half, and then cut each half into fourths to form triangular wedges. Spread the wedges smooth side down on a large baking sheet.

2. MAKE the dip. Whisk together 1 tablespoon Hidden Valley Original Ranch Dips Mix, 1 tablespoon hot sauce and 2 tablespoons olive oil. Brush the mixture on the pita pieces and bake 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown. Flip the chips so the smooth side is up, and bake 5 minutes longer or until brown and crispy.

There have been edible utensils before, and edible dishes too (think of the tortilla salad bowl or the rice noodle cups in Thai restaurants).

But the category may be on the verge of a breakthrough:

The Best In Show Winner at this year’s International Restaurant Show was Planeteer, for their edible utensils in different flavors.

An estimated 40 billion plastic utensils are used worldwide annually. Planeteer and other companies that are edging their way into the edible category are ostensibly doing it to help save the planet from plastic spoons and forks—quickly used and tossed at fast-food restaurants, food carts, etc.

While people get into the business for sustainability reasons—and we’re very pro-sustainability—we like edible flatware for food fun and flavor.

Search online and you’ll see edible cups, bowls, plates and more. (The easiest way is to search Google Images.)

They are made by small companies that don’t have economies of scale, although some are more affordable than others. Bocado Edible Spoons are $69 for 100 pieces—69¢ per spoon, which isn’t egregious for a special occasion.

Perhaps Planeteer’s win, in front of the restaurant industry, will help spur economies, so more creative cooks and hosts can use edible tableware.
 
 
PLANETEER’S EDIBLE SPOONS

The company is launching three types of spoons for different culinary needs. All have a choice of flavors to complement the food.
 
Tablespoons

 
Soup Spoons

 
Dessert Spoons

[1] Use these Asian-style soup spoons to serve amuses-bouche (photo courtesy Bocado).

[2] How about a mint spoon with strawberry sorbet (photo courtesy Bakeys on Kickstarter)?

Here’s a recipe for fork, spoon and knife cookies.

They’re cookies rather than utensils, but are very fun to serve with ice cream, mousse, panna cotta, etc.

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*Amuse-bouche (pronounced ah-MEEZ boosh) is French for “amusing the mouth.” It’s an hors d’oeuvre-size portion plated on a tiny dish, sent as a gift from the chef after the order has been placed but before the food arrives. It is brought after the wine is poured. It is just one bite: A larger portion would constitute an appetizer. Amuses-bouches tend to be complex in both flavors and garniture, and enable the chef to show creativity. They are now very popular for parties and events, to offer from a tray with cocktails.

[1] The Ploughman’s Lunch, a staple lunch in Britain for centuries (photo ©Taste | Australia).

[2] Have an Irish beer with your lunch (photo © Murphy’s Irish Stout).

[3] Smithwick’s Irish Ale (photo © Smithwick’s).

For St. Patrick’s Day, how about a Ploughman’s lunch? You can bring it to work or dig in at home.

Pronounced “plow man,” Ploughman’s, as it’s called for short, is a cold lunch that farmers (the plow men) and other laborers in the British Isles (including Ireland), out for the day, would take with them.

The lunch included bread and butter, cheese (cheddar, stilton or other local cheese), relish such as a Branston pickle (chutney),* piccalilli* and/or pickled onions.

 
The history of the ploughman’s lunch is below.
 
 
RECIPE: DIJON VINAIGRETTE

Dress your salad with a Dijon vinaigrette.

Ingredients

 
Whisk in a bowl or shake in a jar to combine.
 
 
UPGRADE FOR ST. PATRICK’S DAY

For St. Patrick’s Day, substitute Irish soda bread for everyday bread.

Add an Irish beer.

Beyond the well-known Guinness and Fuller’s beers, look for something new.

There’s a lot to choose from, including:

There’s not much mystery to it: bread and cheese were the basis of a poor person’s diet, and was what rural English labourers carried when they left the house [source].

A reference as far back as c.1394 mentions the traditional ploughman’s meal of bread, cheese and beer.

Meat was a luxury, so cheese provided the protein.

 
Over the years, the romance of “the rural life” led middle-class people to embrace the Ploughman’s Lunch. See if your local Irish pub offers it.

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*Branston pickle is a chutney typically made of carrots, cauliflower, gherkins, onions and rutabaga, pickled in a sauce of vinegar, tomato, apple and dates flavored with chutney spices such as mustard, coriander, garlic, cinnamon, pepper, cloves, nutmeg and cayenne pepper, plus sugar. British piccalilli is similar but tangier, less sweet, and colored bright yellow with turmeric.

An everyday beef stew can be turned into a special-occasion dish, merely with the addition of some puff pastry and wine or beer.

This recipe, Beef & Guinness with Puff Pastry, was created for his St. Patrick’s Day menu by Justin O’Connor, Executive Chef at the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin. Patrick’s Day. The recipe serves four.
 
 
BEEF & GUINNESS WITH PUFF PASTRY RECIPE

Ingredients For 4 Servings

 
Preparation

1. SLICE the vegetables as desired. In a pot, brown the diced beef all over. Add the vegetables and cooked for 5 minutes. Add the herbs and beef stock. Finally, add the Guinness.

2. BRING the stew to a slow boil and simmer for 1 to 1¼ hours. If needed, add a bit of water towards the end.

3. MAKE the egg wash. Beat the egg thoroughly with a fork. Add 2 tablespoons of water or milk and a pinch of salt. Stir until combined. (Milk creates a more browning on the pastry.)

4. CUT the puff pastry into 8 even pieces. Brush each piece of pastry with a pastry brush. Make four double packets by placing one piece of pastry atop another piece. Score the top of the pastry to give it the effect of a vol au vent.

5. BAKE at 390°F for 14 minutes. When cool, cut the top of to form a lid. Core some of the top out in the centre of each packet. Spoon the beef stew into each case and serve.
 
 
MORE GUINNESS RECIPES

 
 
GUINNESS HISTORY

[1] Add Guinness to beef stew for a hearty St. Patrick’s Day dinner (photo courtesy Guinness).

[2] A more-hopped, higher alcohol version of Guinness Extra Stout (photo courtesy Evensi).

[3] Brewer Arthur Guinness (photo courtesy Guinness).

Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease (was there a clause for rent increases??) for an vacant brewery and began to brewing ale in 1759. Guinness was first a domestic product, but began export 10 years later.

Guinness stout evolved from the porter style of beer that originated in London in the early 18th century.

A distinctive feature of Guinness is the burnt flavor, which derives from roasted unmalted barley. It has a thick, creamy head, created by the “surging” of bubbles of nitrogen as the beer is poured.

The brand became wildly popular, even without advertising or discounts. Guinness became a public company in 1886, with average sales of 1.2 million barrels a year.

By 1914, Guinness was producing 2.6 barrels of beer a year—more than double that of its nearest competitor. In the 1930s, Guinness became the seventh largest company in the world.

Guinness is brewed in approximately 50 countries and sold in more than 100. [source].

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*Guinness Foreign Extra Stout was first brewed in 1801, designed for export; hence the name “Foreign.” It is more heavily hopped than Guinness Draught and Extra Stout, and typically has a higher alcohol content (7.5% ABV). The extra hops were used as a natural preservative for the long journeys the beer would take by ship.