Apple Potato Cake is a version of fadge particularly popular in north-eastern Ireland around Hallowe’en. You take the potato mixture that you are about to make your fadge with, and divide it in half. Press one-half out flat to make a bottom layer, arrange on it some slices of raw apple, then cover with the…
Irish Food
Ardrahan Cheese
Ardrahan is a semi-firm, washed-rind cheese. Inside the cheese is butter-coloured, with a texture something like a firm camembert. As the cheese ages, it takes on a smokey, tangy flavour. The thin, crusy rind is slightly sticky, and has a salty, nutty-taste. Ardrahan Cheese is a bit smelly. The smell comes from Brevibacterium linens bacteria…
Ballyfatten Apple
A large, round cooking apple with firm white flesh that is dry and slightly tart. Popular in Northern Ireland, especially Londonderry. Cooking Tips Good for applesauce, cooks to a smooth purée. Storage Hints Sweetens up in storage. History Notes First documented in 1802.
Ballyvaughan Seedling Apple
A large, round but uneven apple with light yellowish-green skin with a red blush. The flesh is crisp and firm. The flavour is sharply tart, but sweetness lingers on the tongue after the tartness. Easy to propagate — you just put a cutting in the ground and it takes root. Ripens in November. Cooking Tips…
Bandon Vale Cheddar Cheese
Bandon Vale Cheddar Cheese is a pale yellow farmhouse cheese with a crumbly, soft texture. It is made from pasteurised cow’s milk curdled with vegetable rennet. The cheeses are formed into wheels and then aged for 12 months. For sale, the 3 pound (1.4kg) wheels are coated in black wax. The cheese is made in…
Barm Brack
Barm Brack is an Irish bread with dried fruit in it. Traditionally it was risen with yeast, but for some time now many recipes have called for baking powder or self-rising flour. Barm Brack is baked in a round shape, rather than a loaf shape. Some recipes have you soak the fruit overnight in tea…
Boiled Dinners
A boiled dinner takes tougher cuts of meat, or stewing chickens, and simmers them in a pot of water with vegetables (so really, it ought to be called a “simmered dinner.”)A boiled dinner differs from a stew in two ways. In a stew, all the pieces are cut down into bite-sized pieces that will fit…
Boilie Cheese
There are two varieties of Boilie Cheese. One variety is made from cow’s milk; the other, made from goat’s milk, is called “Goat’s Boilie.” Both are roughly-formed balls of cheese, marinated in sunflower oil, garlic, herbs and pink peppers. They are sold in the marinade in 7 oz (200 g) glass jars, or 2 1/4…
Boxty: Irish potato pancakes
Boxty is an Irish version of potato pancakes. It’s made from equal amounts of raw, cooked and mashed potatoes, along with some salt and flour. You grate the raw potato, (Many people say to wash the potatoes, but not to peel them before grating them, because the peel adds a great deal to the flavour.)…
Buttered Eggs (Cork)
Buttered eggs are a specialty in Cork, Ireland. Absolutely freshly-laid eggs straight from the nest are rolled in melted butter. The melted butter forms a protective seal over the shell, extending the storage life of the eggs in the absence of refrigeration, or even if they are refrigerated. The butter also permeates through the shell…
Carrageen Mould
Carrageen Mould is an Irish milk pudding thickened with seaweed. It ends up something like a blancmange. It is made from milk, dried Carrageen (aka the seaweed known as Irish Moss), and sugar. Some versions add egg; some add flavouring such as lemon rind or rum. To make, you wash the seaweed well, then rehydrate…
Carrigaline Farmhouse Cheese
Carrigaline Farmhouse Cheese is a semi-firm cheese with a spongey-texture from the many small holes in it. It has a mellow, almost sweet taste. It is sold covered in yellow wax; though it’s sometimes coated in green wax for export to America. Carrigaline Farmhouse is made in Carrigaline, County Cork, Ireland by Ann and Pat…
Cashel Blue Cheese
Cashel Blue Cheese is a farmhouse Irish cheese made near Cashel in County Tipperary, Ireland. It’s made on the farm of Jane and Louis Grubb, with milk from their herd of Holstein-Friesian cows. They started making it in 1984; production has doubled every year since then. The milk is pasteurized and cooled down to 90…
Champ
Champ © Denzil Green Champ is an Irish-style mashed potato dish. While the peeled potatoes are boiling, some greens or onions are simmered in milk. The potatoes are mashed, then the hot milk and veg mixture is stirred in. It’s served in hot mounds on plates with a well on top in which you put…
Coolea Cheese
Coolea is an Irish Gouda-style cheese made in Coolea, County Cork, near the Kerry border. It is made from cow’s milk that they procure from their neighbours’ Holstein and Freisian cows. The cheese comes in two sizes of yellow-wax coated wheels, 8.8 pounds (4 kg) and 17 1/2 pounds (8 kg.) Inside, it is firm…
Dulse
Dulse is edible seaweed. In general, dulse has flat, tough and leathery, purple or deep-red broad leaves (called “blades”) with jagged edges. The blades grow up to about 50 cm long (24 inches) and 20 cm wide (8 inches), depending on the variety. Dulse is an acquired taste, having a salty, strong seashore flavour, as…
Durrus Cheese
Durrus is a semi-soft cheese with a washed, yellowish-grey rind. Inside, the cheese is dotted with small holes, and has a buttery texture with complex aromas. It is made in two sizes: 380g rounds (5cm x 10cm) and 1.5kg wheels (18cm x 6cm.) The cheese is made from raw cow’s-milk curdled with animal rennet, and…
Farmhouse Cheese
Farmhouse isn’t a distinct type of cheese; the term “farmhouse” refers to the process of its being produced on farms, often with much manual work or intervention, rather than through a completely automated process in factories. The farmer will have his/her own herd and will use milk from that herd. The farmers feel that in…
Guinness
Guinness Stout © Denzil Green Guinness is a Stout. In your glass it will appear black, with a thick, creamy, foamy head on top. The two layers (the dark beer and the foamy head on top) are sometimes said to be “as dark as Cromwell’s heart and as white as snow.” Guinness, however, says that…
Irish Bacon
Irish Bacon is an American term, because in Ireland, there’s no such thing as “one kind” of bacon. There’s turkey bacon (smoked and unsmoked,) smoked bacon, hickory smoked bacon, maple flavoured bacon, streaky bacon — in short, practically every range of bacon that might be available in the UK, North America, Australia and New Zealand….
Irish Food
It’s important not to let images of the Irish potato famine cloud your picture of Irish food, as useful as it is still for beating the British over the head with. The fact is, Ireland is a land of plenty and abundance. Even at the time of the great potato crop failures, it actually produced…
Irish Porter Cheddar
Irish Porter Cheddar © Denzil Green Irish Porter Cheddar is a firm white cheddar cheese made with porter added to it. The porter is brewed by Guinness in Dublin. It is made by Marion Cahill at Cahill’s Farm in Limerick, Ireland, from pasteurized Holstein Friesian cow’s milk curdled with vegetarian rennet. One pint of porter…
Irish Spiced Beef
Irish Spiced Beef is not the same as corned beef. It is an Irish dish made from a cut of beef which is spiced and aged a bit, then cooked by simmering. Despite all the cooking, the inside comes out pink. It is often served with boiled potatoes or other root vegetables. The cut of…
Irish Stew
Of all the stews in the world, made all throughout time, why should Irish Stew become the most famous one? Perhaps it was something to do with the nostalgia of Irish immigrants in America, the most self-mythologizing country since Rome; maybe it has something to do with the Irish gift of packaging their history in…