AS AMERICAN AS CORNED BEEF & CABBAGE
Since they are staples on St. Patrick’s Day, pair them in casseroles, to top pizzas, fill egg rolls
Like many Irish restaurants in and far away from Pittsburgh, Mullaney’s Harp and Fiddle in the Strip District dishes up a ton of corned beef and cabbage in the days leading up to St. Patrick’s Day. Few dishes are more associated with the Emerald Isle than this hearty and economic meal of brisket that’s cured for days in brine and then simmered over low heat for hours more until it’s super tender. A staple on traditional Irish pub menus since the 1940s, it’s almost as mandatory on March 17 as a pint or three of Guinness.
“We probably go through 10 gallons of it,” head chef Bryan Regan says.
It’s so popular, in fact, that the kitchen has to slightly alter the way it serves the entree during the St. Paddy’s day crush, and is more like a stew with corned beef in a broth than the usual way of it being sliced thick atop a bed of braised cabbage,
potatoes and carrots.
Which is kind of funny, when you think about it, because corned beef and cabbage doesn’t enjoy the same acclaim in Ireland. That’s because the dish that’s so revered here on St. Patrick’s Day is actually not Irish at all, but an Americanized version of what the Irish ate before they started immigrating to the United States after the Great Potato Famine of the 1840s and 1850s.
“In Ireland, bacon and cabbage was actually the dish,” Mr. Regan says.
The only problem was, when many of those immigrant families settled on Manhattan’s Lower East Side after crossing the Atlantic from Europe, they discovered they couldn’t find the back bacon — a leaner type of bacon made from the back of the pig instead of just the belly — they knew and loved.
What was readily available, and tasted kind of similar, was corned beef from New York’s many Jewish delicatessens. Popular among working-class Americans of all ethnic backgrounds because it was cheap and filling, corned beef fit the bill. That it paired so well with cabbage, which was also easy to find and inexpensive, as well as a mainstay back in the old country, only added to its appeal.
The dish got more mainstream in the 1920s, thanks in large part to the comic strip, “Bringing Up Father,” which is about a poor Irish bricklayer who wins a million dollars in a sweepstakes. Despite his sudden wealth, the main character Jiggs loved nothing more than hanging out at a pub called Dinty Moore’s and eating its corned beef and cabbage.
By the 1940s, corned beef and cabbage was so closely associated with Irish-American cuisine, that it became the must-have dish on St. Patrick’s Day — despite the fact the dish was almost unheard of in Ireland.
Because corned beef and cabbage as most Americans know it today is about as Irish as green beer or emeraldiced cupcakes or green bagels, we decided we, too, could take some liberties in dishing up recipes that can be served at your St. Patrick’s Day celebration.
All three start with corned beef from your favorite deli or supermarket instead of meat pickled and cooked from scratch (a process that can take a week or longer). It’s then reimagined into three popular dishes, two of which you can eat with your hands — a Reuben-style egg roll and a savory pizza that pairs corned beef with sauteed cabbage and roasted potato. We also offer a meaty twist on tuna noodle casserole that even the kids will eat, thanks to a cheesy panko topping.