St Patrick’s Day is the perfect time to enjoy some Irish food, such as Irish stew, brown soda bread, seafood chowder and maybe even a lesser-known dish such as Dublin’s coddle (a bacon, sausage and potato stew). Ireland’s food has a rich and interesting history that stretches back millennia, and to celebrate, we’ve got a potted history of everything from ancient salmon to the mighty crisp sandwich… Let’s eat.
1. The mighty spud (or potato as it’s also called!)
Was Ireland’s first potato washed ashore from Spanish Armada wrecks in 1588? Perhaps. Or maybe Sir Walter Raleigh introduced it, after the Spaniards brought it home from the Americas in the 1570s. Whatever its origin, the potato was cheap and easy to grow and thrived in the Irish climate, driving the island’s population from one million to 8.2 million. But the dependence on the potato came at a cost; potato blights hit in 1845, and by 1851, the Great Famine had seen one million die and another million emigrate. Today, the potato is still central to the Irish diet, with traditional potato dishes such as boxty (potato pancakes) and farls (potato bread) on menus around the island.
2. The smartest food pairing
We’re used to food pairings in Ireland – Guinness and oysters, anyone? But dig a little deeper, and you’ll find some intriguing food matches within Ireland’s legend and lore. Did you hear the one about the salmon of knowledge? When a mythical speckled salmon gained all the world’s knowledge after eating nine hazelnuts that fell into the Well of Wisdom, warrior Fionn Mac Cumhaill gained all that wisdom by inadvertently becoming the first person to taste this salmon.
This connection between hazelnuts and salmon can also be found in the site of Ireland’s earliest human settlement. Mountsandel Fort in County Londonderry overlooks a busy salmon run on the River Bann. Preserved in low-acidity soil here, archaeobotanical remains of fish bones and charred hazelnut shells in hearths used by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers have been carbon dated to 10,000 years ago.
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3. The first dairy farmers
One reason Ireland’s first settlers relied greatly on fish and nuts plus other plants and small animals like wood pigeon, hare or wild boar was the island’s lack of larger mammals. Radiocarbon dating of milk lipid traces absorbed into shards of pottery confirms that, in 3500 BC, Ireland was home to some of the earliest cattle and dairy farms in the world. Today, Ireland is still famous for its high-quality dairy produce, from chocolate to cheese.
4. Butter them up
In the 18th century, battalions of naval fleets regularly sheltered in Cork’s deep harbour to load up on salted butter, beef and pork. This was shipped to the West Indies colonies and fed the British navy during the American War of Independence and Napoleonic Wars. The Cork Butter Exchange (now The Butter MuseumOpens in new window), famed for its quality control, became the world’s largest butter market, and you find out all about it in a fascinating museum that occupies the building today.
5. Bringing the bacon
Irish people eat more pork today than any other meat, and that love is nothing new: the Annals of Clonmacnoise record 1038 as a good year for the acorns that fattened domestic pigs, who also fed on woodland beechnuts, chestnuts and whitethorn haws up to late medieval times. Later, the pig moved indoors, ate cooked spuds and whey, and became known as the ‘gentleman who paid the rent’ thanks to the value of their brined and smoked meat. In 1820, one Henry Denny set up shop in WaterfordOpens in new window where he developed and patented new techniques for curing bacon; his ‘sandwich method’ gave us the rasher (aka streaky bacon). Waterford is also home to a much-loved bread roll, known as the blaa (which has protected geographical indication). And the best way to eat a blaa? With streaky bacon, of course.
6. Alive, alive oh!
The Molly Malone who died of a fever is fictional, but Dublin’s anthem about a fishwife who sold cockles and mussels “alive, alive oh!” details the once-common sight of shellfish street-traders in Dublin’s “Fair City”. Today, mussels are a common feature on Irish menus and are best enjoyed fresh from the sea in places such as Kilmore QuayOpens in new window in County Wexford and Roaring Water Bay in West Cork. Cockles, meanwhile, are popular in fine dining restaurants, and you’ll see them paired with fresh fish dishes in restaurants such as Uno MasOpens in new window in Dublin and the Mourne Seafood BarOpens in new window in Dundrum, Northern Ireland.
7. The People’s Republic of Food
Modern Irish food culture has firm roots in County Cork. Ireland’s first farm-to-fork restaurant was opened in 1964 by the Irish Farmers Journal’s cookery correspondent, Myrtle Allen, in east Cork’s Ballymaloe HouseOpens in new window. Her daughter-in-law Darina helped her give cooking classes in the 1970s, before opening the world-famous Ballymaloe Cookery SchoolOpens in new window in 1983. Meanwhile, Ireland’s artisan food movement was kick-started in 1976 by the self-taught Veronica Steele’s experimentations with farmhouse cheese-making in west Cork’s Beara peninsula; her Milleens cheese appeared on menus at Ballymaloe House and Cork city’s Arbutus Lodge, where chef-owner Declan Ryan had secured Ireland’s first Michelin star in 1974.
8. Birth of the ultimate crisp sandwich
Once upon a time, crisps (aka “potato chips”, Stateside) came unflavoured, with just a small packet of salt for seasoning. In 1954, crisp history was made off Dublin’s Moore Street when the first ever cheese’n’onion-flavoured crisps were produced under the sharp eye of Joe “Spud” Murphy, founder of Tayto crisps. It’s hard to nail when the iconic crisp sandwich itself was invented – ambitious if arguably substandard experimentations with crisp sandwiches may even predate the brand itself – but it surely reached the greatest heights of recognition when, in 2015, it took pride of place on Irish airline Aer Lingus’s in-flight menu for one glorious year.
