Poverty and hardship could not stifle the inventiveness of Irish cooks who cooked with what little they could find. But although much of it was frugal food, the rivers teamed with wild salmon, The loughs ( pronounced locks ) of the West were full of eels, wild fruits grew by the roadside and wild garlic still grows naturally and was frequently used instead of onions.
I have tried to include just a few of the more unusual dishes rather than Irish Stew or Soda Bread.
Comments
Ireland was overpopulated in relation to its economic model. Parasitic landlords were draining wealth and resources from the island without putting in any goods or services to compensate. There was enough food in Ireland to feed its people,but grain was being shipped out to sell for landlords' profit. That is why potine was banned,it used grain that the landlords took for themselves.Then the potato crop failed.Moreover,landlords held the rights to fish in the loughs.
Derdriu
That is a mighty fine supply of mushrooms.
frank is good at identifying them. I am not!
Derdriu
Considering your close Irish ancestry, it must be extra meaningful for you to cook Irish recipes.
The Irish are very adaptable; just change ingredients as you like.
Veronica,though wild food was present,it was not sufficient to supply the eight million people who dwelt in Erin pre-_Famine. Ireland's population has still not recovered from the famine.
Thank you!
The frozen juniper berries are good.
The grocery store where I shop does nice ground turkey and turkey bacon.
Edible black trumpet (Craterellus caeruleofuscus) and yellowfoot (Craterellus tubaeformis) chanterelle, chicken-of-the-wood (Laetiporus sulphureus), giant puffball (Calvatia gigantea), old-man-of-the-wood (Strobilomyces strobilaceus,) and oyster (Pleurotus ostreatus) mushrooms grow around the box elder and eastern white pine trees and in the meadow.
I have wild onions.
Bread is offputting to me except when it's toasted. But there's a special on honey stinger waffles so I might use their crumbs.
So it'll be a go for Beacan Bruithe this weekend!
I am always saddened by discussions on the Irish Famines because Ireland is teeming with wild food....you can walk about and there are eels and salmon in the loughs, wild pears, apples , black berries, wild garlic, herbs . I have always been surprised why people did not utilise these foods during bad times.
As Ireland is cattle rearing land the fields tend to favour mushrooms that grow on soil to which dung has been added.An Irish friend of mine used to visit his grandfather who kept store cattle. This involved rearing cattle in nearly summer then selling them on. The result was that in late summer the untrampled fields were white with field mushrooms.
Derdriu
Any mushrooms would work here but i do like field mushrooms for flavour. I use dried juniper . Ground turkey or beef would substitute for ground pork
Do Irish preparers of Beacan Bruithe have a particular preference for the type of field mushroom?
I have fresh-collected field mushrooms that look and sniff nice and would look and sniff even nicer in Beacan Bruithe!
So everything is available and ready. The only delay may be if the juniper berries are the worse for freezing from six months ago.
But if it works, what would you substitute for minced pork?
Thank you, Frank and Veronica, for the information on the sadly non-replicability of Irish butter for us all east (Atlantic) ponders.
Frank, I'll be looking at your soil articles as I continue re-reading your wizzleys. I remember them but not to the point that I can answer this question for myself before re-visiting them.
Will I find that you already have mentioned the French approach to soil conditions as affecting drink and food flavor on a district-by-district basis (and that therefore spell checker has no excuse for not recognizing the concept and the word this time around)?