Irish cuisine – how much do we know about the culinary preferences of the inhabitants of this country? As a rule, Ireland is associated with coffee, Irish stews and potatoes. Of course, beer is traditional for Irish cuisine. In terms of foam drink consumption, the country is among the leaders – thousands of liters of the drink are drunk annually in pubs and themed festivals in Ireland. If you are going to travel to Ireland, it will not be superfluous to understand the culinary traditions of the country and make a list of national Irish dishes.
Culinary traditions of Irish cuisine
One of the main national traditions in the cuisine of Ireland is the love of meat, vegetables and bread. Special honor is given to dishes made from potatoes and cabbage, these vegetables are the basis of many dishes of Irish cuisine.
Interesting fact! In the most difficult and hungry years, local residents were saved by quinoa, and the traditional drink was Mead, which resembled mead. It was prepared by fermentation of honey solution.
The national cuisine of Ireland is far from such concepts as refined and refined. The main requirement is that the food must be satisfying, this is due to the difficult climatic conditions in which it is necessary to survive. That is why Irish cuisine is dominated by meat and fatty fish dishes. As for the side dish, most often use potatoes.
Interesting fact! The list of Irish national dishes includes butter, the product is of impeccable quality, excellent taste.
Typical Irish breakfast
The main feature of Irish cuisine is its high calorie content. This also applies to breakfast. The traditional set of products – several meat dishes-sausage, bacon, nipples, they are served together with scrambled eggs, toast, in some cases add beans.
A typical breakfast dish is black pudding, which tastes like black pudding, with the addition of oats, barley and animal blood.
Useful to know! At different times, black pudding was processed in different ways-cooked, fried, eaten raw.
This national Irish dish causes mixed impressions among some tourists, but it is still part of breakfast today. Today in the national cuisine there is a wide variety of puddings –with the addition of turmeric, cheese or herbs.
If you are a vegetarian, choose eggs, potato pancakes with fried tomatoes and, of course, mushrooms for breakfast. By the way, mushrooms are on the menu of any cafe and restaurant in Ireland.
Fish and seafood
For a long time, the main source of protein in Ireland was fish and seafood. Given the geographical location of Ireland and access to the Atlantic Ocean and the Irish Sea, for many centuries the locals ate seafood that residents of other European countries could only dream of-lobsters, shrimp, oysters.
The restaurants serve an original national dish – Dublin Lawyer made from lobster stewed in cream. One of the thematic festivals is dedicated to oysters. During the holiday, along with sea gifts, hundreds of liters of foamy drink are drunk. When it comes to fish, the Irish are not particularly whimsical and eat what they can catch.
Meat
In the past, in the country, meat dishes appeared only on the tables of wealthy people. The peasants ate offal, and on holidays they managed to cook poultry and game meat. The traditional method of processing game is on a bonfire, previously smeared with clay. If it was possible to catch large prey, it was cooked on a spit.
The famous national dish of Ireland is coddle made from sausage, bacon, potatoes, and other vegetables. Earlier, when potatoes were not yet grown in the country, barley was used instead.
When it comes to Ireland, you can’t help but think of the Irish stew. There is no single technology, and many families have their own way of preparing treats.
Useful to know! A variety of recipes for the dish is mentioned in the immortal work “Three in a boat, not counting the dog”. The stew from the book included meat, salmon, pudding, potatoes, peas, cabbage, bacon, and eggs.
The simplest recipe for stew is lamb (you can replace it with lamb), potatoes, carrots, onions, greens. It is traditionally stewed in winter to keep warm.
Traditional Irish dishes are characterized by practicality – different parts of the carcass are often used – tails, kidneys, ears, tripe. Of course, working with such original products required certain skills. Today, local chefs masterfully handle any part of the carcass and the best example of this is krubins-a beer appetizer made from pork legs.
Potato dishes
In the 16th century, the country began to grow potatoes, since then not only the way of life of local residents, but also the national dishes of Ireland have changed dramatically. Since then, the tuber has become the mainstay of the diet of peasant families. Each potato crop failure led to mass starvation and even a sharp decline in the country’s population. The worst famine in Ireland was recorded in the period 1845 to 1849, when the entire crop died from late blight.
The Irish have come up with a huge number of recipes from a hearty tuber. Most popular ones:
- Boksti-translated as “poor man’s bread”, the dish looks like potato pancakes, the main ingredients are mashed potatoes, butter, flour and soda. They are prepared in two ways-boiled or fried. In the first case, boksti are similar to pancakes, and tortillas are fried mainly on Halloween and served together with fried sausages.
- Champ – puree, whipped with milk, seasoned with green onions.
- Colcannon is the main component – potatoes, however, in translation the name means “white cabbage”, in accordance with the technology, cabbage is added to the puree.
Interesting fact! Potatoes are considered to be the national dish of Irish cuisine. According to statistics, this is a popular lunch among office employees. Most often, they buy an assortment of different potatoes – boiled, fried, baked.
If you need to quickly satisfy your hunger, give preference to the dish “Fish and Chips — – fish with French fries. Many people believe that this is a traditional fast food from Britain, but the birthplace of the treat is Dublin, Ireland, where immigrants from Italy offered delicious food in family restaurants. The dish was comfortably packed, so that it was impossible to buy fish or potatoes separately.
Snacks
The list of national dishes of Irish cuisine includes a variety of snacks. Dulce is a product that you can buy in health food stores. This algae is rich in trace elements, vitamins and proteins. They are dried in the sun, then ground and added to first courses to emphasize their taste qualities. Seaweed is also fried or baked in a cheese sauce, and sometimes eaten without any processing.
Irish cuisine is colorful and original, but it has a place for fast food, although it is unusual. The traditional dish is krubins-cooked pork legs, which are traditionally served with beer. Also, locals eat legs with soda bread.
Bakery products
The country has a special attitude to bread. For baking, do not use yeast or sourdough, but add soda to the dough. Most likely, this is due to the fact that soft wheat varieties with a low gluten content are grown in Ireland. Dough on yeast is prepared only for baking rich white buns with the name blaa. Bread with raisins – barmbreck, it can not be called dessert, because it is less sweet. Previously, it was customary to add a surprise to bread-peas, coins, rings.
Interesting fact! Be sure to try a sweet Irish dessert-Goody-these are sweet pieces of stale white bread that are first fried until golden brown, then poured with milk with sugar and spices, then baked in the oven. Served with chocolate or ice cream.
While traveling in Ireland, try the famous Dark Porter beer cupcake. The dessert is called porter cake. History is silent about who and when came up with the idea of using an alcoholic drink instead of molasses. As for the cooking technology, there are a huge number of baking options in Ireland, and everyone who tells you the recipe will definitely clarify that it is the original version and the most correct one.
All cupcake recipes combine several facts: the dessert is prepared on beer of only one variety – Porter, a lot of dried fruits, candied fruits and nuts are added to the dough. The finished dessert does not have a beer taste, because it disappears during the baking process. Beer gives the cupcake a pleasant shade, moist texture and aroma. Here are some interesting options for cupcake recipes:
- Porter is whipped with cream;
- The beer base is mixed with orange juice and whiskey;
- Porter is mixed with whiskey.
The finished dessert can be stored for a very long time. Immediately after baking, it is wrapped in parchment and kept for a week, only after that it is eaten.
Drinks
We found out what they eat in Ireland, now we find out what the locals prefer to drink. An old drink-Mead. They prepared a treat from a honey solution. According to a similar recipe in Russia, mead was prepared.
Whiskey
In the history of Ireland and national alcoholic beverages, there is a mysterious fact, the explanation of which historians can not find until now. On the territory of the country, about 4 thousand strange structures were discovered – a well next to a reservoir, and fuel and stones are located nearby. According to one version of historians, this is what the first breweries looked like, but there is another version – game was baked in these wells. The action of the furnace was as follows: hot stones were added to the well, thus beer or meat was prepared.
Of course, since the use of such stoves, the skill of Irish craftsmen in the preparation of alcoholic beverages has only developed and improved. Already in the 5th century, the distilling process was mastered here, and since then, specialists have developed exclusive whiskey recipes. In addition to traditional whiskey varieties, the Emerald Isle offers tourists a unique, pure drink made from barley and malt.
Beer
A popular alcoholic drink – Guinness beer, it is called a symbol of celebrations in honor of St. Patrick. The Irish say that real Guinness beer is very dark, through it you can see only a ray of sunlight, as well as the light that reflects the diamond. Beer was first produced in the 18th century. Today, the closest to the original drink is the Guinness Original variety. On its basis, local residents prepare a variety of cocktails.
Irish coffee
Traditional Irish coffee is more like a two-component cocktail of traditional black coffee and whiskey, of course, Irish, for a special, original taste add brown sugar, whipped cream.
Liqueurs
The culinary combination of coffee and whiskey is used by local chefs to prepare various liqueurs, for example, Baileys, Carolans. Another popular liqueur in Ireland is Irish Mist – made from whiskey, herbs, and wild honey. The recipe was used until the 17th century, then the recipe was undeservedly forgotten, it was remembered only in the middle of the 20th century.
Today, traditional Irish dishes are famous for their naturalness and environmental friendliness. Irish cuisine is experiencing a Renaissance – many old recipes are being revived, but in an updated form.