Irish Bacon and Cabbage Recipe - A Spicy Perspective (2024)

FAQs

Where did bacon and cabbage come from? ›

Bacon and cabbage (Irish: bagún agus cabáiste) is a dish traditionally associated with Ireland. The dish consists of sliced back bacon boiled with cabbage and potatoes. Smoked bacon is sometimes used. The dish is served with the bacon sliced, and with some of the boiling juices added.

For breakfast, Canadian bacon or slices of ham can often be used as substitutes to Irish bacon. Sometimes, pancetta can also be substituted when the recipe calls for Irish bacon and none is available. A little less fatty than American bacon, Irish bacon is meatier and leaner.

This one calls for whole loin bacon, a British Isles export which is cooked along with the cabbage, sliced before serving, and paired with a creamy parsley sauce.

Irish bacon, also known as back bacon or rashers, is a popular type of bacon commonly enjoyed in Ireland. Unlike the traditional American bacon, which is typically made from pork belly, Irish bacon is made from pork loin. This results in a leaner and less fatty cut of meat that is often considered healthier.

So it was the Irish-American consumption of corned beef that initiated its association with Ireland and the holiday of St. Patrick's Day. And as for pairing cabbage with corned beef, it was simply one of the cheapest vegetables available to Irish immigrants, so it was a side dish that stuck.

China produces nearly half of the world's cabbage while Russia consumes the most per person. The average Russian eats about 44 pounds of cabbage a year. That compares to the 8.6 pounds eaten by Americans. Raw cabbage is rich in vitamin C.

IMPORTANT WORD YOU SHOULD LEARN: Rashers. That's Irish slang for bacon. You'll find back (wide) or streaky (narrow) rashers in an Irish breakfast; both types may look and taste different to what you might expect. Irish bacon is chunkier than American bacon, with a little more meat.

The health risk of bacon is largely to do with two food additives: potassium nitrate (also known as saltpetre) and sodium nitrite. It is these that give salamis, bacons and cooked hams their alluring pink colour.

These immigrants found that corned beef was a similar meat to the bacon they traditionally ate back in Ireland, but it was much cheaper and more readily available in America. So, they started incorporating corned beef into their traditional Irish dishes, particularly on special occasions like St. Patrick's Day.

An alternative to Back Bacon, the Belfast Bacon is cut from our Smoked Gammons that are cured to a traditional recipe originating in Belfast. The Belfast Bacon can be fried or grilled but traditionally would normally be fried.

What is chunky bacon called? ›

Bacon chops, sometimes called bacon steaks, are thick cut chops, which are taken from whole bacon loins. In other words, a bacon chop is basically a super thick cut rasher of bacon. It comes from exactly the same place, and is produced the same way, as the back bacon you put on your sandwich, it's just, well, thicker.

Why Does Cooking Bacon in Water Work? The addition of water keeps the initial cooking temperature low and gentle, so the meat retains its moisture and stays tender as the fat renders. Plus, since the water helps render the fat, there will be significantly less splatter as your bacon finishes in the pan.

This variety is also known as “cottage bacon.” Though cured and smoked like regular bacon, it's made from pork shoulder, a cut also known as pork butt or Boston butt. The resulting bacon is meatier than bacon made from pork belly.

"Bauchspeck" is bacon used for cooking. The most common bacon on both sides of the Atlantic comes from the pork belly and is cured and smoked. In Germany, it is cured with salt, then cold-smoked with beechwood (predominantly) and air dried.

Fry. Definition: A traditional Irish breakfast. Example: “Nothing beats a hearty fry-up with bacon, eggs, and black pudding.”

Bacon's history dates back thousands of years to 1500 B.C. in which the Chinese were curing pork bellies with salt, creating an early form of bacon, although pigs were domesticated in China in 4900 B.C. and were also being raised in Europe by 1500 B.C. Speculation exists that the Romans and Greeks learned bacon ...

Cultivars of cabbage (Brassica oleracea) originated in the Eastern Europe and Asia Minor. Fresh cabbage for sauerkraut is harvested mechanically or by hand and transported to the processor, where it is grade, cored, trimmed, shredded, and salted.

Nonheading cabbages and kale were probably the first to be domesticated, before 1000 BC, perhaps by the Celts of central and western Europe, although recent linguistic and genetic evidence enforces a Mediterranean origin of cultivated brassicas.

Traditional Irish bacon (ham) and cabbage. However, when these Irish got off the boats in America it was quite the opposite. Corned beef was the meat that they could easily and more cheaply get their hands on and, so, this became the meal of choice for generations of Irish Americans to come.