8 killer dishes to make for St. Patrick’s Day (other than corned beef)

Ireland isn’t exactly a culinary force in the world, especially when you consider that the only things they’re widely known for are corned beef and cabbage, potatoes and soda bread. But Irish cuisine has a great deal of comfort food deliciousness to offer hungry and/or drunken revelers on St. Paddy’s Day. Let’s take a look at a few good reasons to skip the corned beef this year.

(Click the links below for recipes.)

8. Cod Cobbler

Cod Cobbler is a delicate fish pie made with cod (or another flaky white fish), butter, flour, milk, cheese and seasonings, then topped with a scone or biscuit.

7. Irish Stew

Lamb, goat or mutton (older, gamier, fattier sheep meat) is cooked down with potatoes, onions and parsley to create a hearty stew. Carrots, turnips and barley are also included in certain recipes.

6. Colcannon

Mashed potatoes and cabbage (or pre-hipster kale) are mixed with butter and milk to make a satisfying vitamin and roughage-packed stew. Mmm, roughage.

5. Champ

This is similar to Colcannon, but it’s made with scallions. Plus, it has a way cooler name.

4. Battered Sausage

Take a pork sausage, dip it in batter, deep fry that bad boy, serve it with chips (French fries) and you’ve got the non-American equivalent of a corndog. Nom away.

3. Fried bread

Though this is just bread fried in bacon fat, it couldn’t be more ingenious. The Irish know that you should never throw away bacon fat because it can always be put to good use. And now you do too. You can donate to NeverThrowAwayBaconFat.org by clicking on this link.

2. Dublin Coddle

This pork-centric dish has many variations, but most involve sliced pork sausage, fatty bacon rashers, potatoes and onions. It can sometimes include parsley, barley and/or carrots. A simple, stick-to-your-ribs supper, indeed.

1. The Full Breakfast

The Full Breakfast varies in each country, region and culture, but the most common ingredients are rashers of bacon, fried eggs, toast, fried tomato, white pudding (a mix of pork meat and fat, bread and oatmeal), black pudding (cooked pork blood and oatmeal), baked beans, soda bread and sometimes sautéed mushrooms. “The Full Day’s Worth of Food” is more like it.

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Irish Stew image by Shutterstock
Champ image by Shutterstock
Full Breakfast image by Shutterstock