Page 308 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Ireland

306  TR A VELLERS ’ NEEDS

The Flavours of Ireland

Boxty, barm brack, champ, coddle, cruibins, colcannon – the basic
dishes that have nourished Ireland are spiced with fancy names.
But the secret of their success is their in gredients, which are
nurtured in a warm, damp climate on lush hills that brings
them flavour. Beef and dairy cattle can stay out all year and
they make abundant butter, cheese and cream. Pork and
pork products, such as ham and bacon, are a mainstay, though lamb
is traditional, too. Potatoes, the king of vegetables, turn up in soup,
pies, cakes, bread and scones that are piled on breakfast and tea Oysters
tables. And the rivers, lakes and shores are rich in seafood.

can be especially meaty. Dublin addition of butter and some
coddle, a fill-me-up after the milk. Boxty is a bake of raw and
pub on a Saturday night, relies cooked potato mashed with
on sausages and potatoes as butter, buttermilk and flour;
well as bacon. Ham is champ is potatoes mashed with
sometimes smoked over peat milk, butter and onions.
and, for special occasions, it is
baked with cloves and brown Fish and Seafood
sugar and served with buttered
cabbage. Colcannon is made The Atlantic Ocean and Irish
with cabbage, cooked and Sea have a rich variety of
chopped with mashed potato shellfish, from lobsters and
A chef in Connemara displays traditional and onions, sometimes with the Dublin Bay prawns to mussels
Irish cuisine
Barm brack White soda bread Brown soda bread Potato bread
The Basic Dishes
Irish stews are thick and tasty,
traditionally featuring lamb or
mutton, onion and potatoes,
while beef and Guinness make
a darker casserole, sometimes
with the addition of oysters.
Carrots and turnips are the
first choice of vege tables for the
pot. Pork is the basis of
many dishes. Trotters, called
cruibins or crubeens, are Potato farls Wheaten bread
sometimes pickled, while bacon Selection of the many traditional Irish breads
Irish Traditional Food
If your heart is up to it, start the day
with an Ulster Fry. This breakfast
fry-up includes thick, tasty bacon,
plus black pudding, soda farls and
potato cake. A “lady’s breakfast”
will have one egg, a “gentleman’s”
two. Goose berry jam will be
spread on fried bread, and mugs of
tea will wash it down. Irish stews
traditionally use mutton, not so
common today, while Spiced Beef uses
Gubbeen cheese up brisket, which is covered in a various
spices then left for a week before being Irish Stew Traditionally, neck of
cooked slowly with Guinness and vegetables. A high tea in the early mutton, potatoes, carrots and
evening is the major meal in many homes; a main course will be onions are slowly cooked
followed by a succession of breads and cakes. together for hours.

IR_306-307-IrelandFood.indd 306 25/04/16 10:49 am
Eyewitness Travel LAYERS PRINTED:
Feature template “UK” LAYER
(SourceReport v1.3)
Date 7th January 2013
Size 125mm x 217mm