Last night I went to the 'rents for a St. Patrick's Day dinner. Mom cooked corned beef and cabbage, of course, but she also made tatties, Irish sausage (all garlicky and yummy) and slaw. I drank Rolling Rock but I pretended it was Guinness.
Her corned beef was excellent - very tender, hardly any fat, quite good. I do think I would like corned beef better if it weren't quite so salty but that's kind of impossible as being cured in brine is what, by definition, makes it corned beef. We were talking about why it was called "corned" beef since corn isn't involved at all, as opposed to something like brine beef or salt-cured beef - none of us knew. Google to the rescue with the answer! Corned beef is so called because it was packed in salt (and sometimes spices) for curing and the salt came in corn kernel-sized grains. Today, corned beef is usually made by soaking a brisket roast in a brine of water, salt, and spices. I still like the Irish sausage better.
Mom threatened us with a "real" Irish meal consisting solely of turnips and cabbage next year. Ick - turnips. Who is to blame for this? What tasteless (literally) moron in the annals of history ate a turnip and actually thought it would be a good idea to repeat the experience? Dad and I, in an abrupt switch of Celtic allegiance, voted instead for haggis. Yep, I'd rather eat a sheep stomach stuffed with guts, blood and oatmeal than a turnip, which says a lot about how low in my cuisine esteem that so-called vegetable ranks.
Accordingly, I embarked upon a search for haggis recipes. BTW, I like the recipe for "Dreaded Haggis" the best - yummers! Please to remember this valuable tip when cooking haggis, unless you'd like an unutterably disgusting mess in your kitchen: prick stomach several times with a sharp needle when it begins to swell in order to keep the bag from bursting. 'Tis no wonder they had to invent Scotch whiskey, with stuff like that for dinner, that's all I'm sayin'.
The much more interesting thing I learned is that haggis is most traditionally served on January 25, Burns Night (in honor of the great Scots poet Bobby Burns, of course, born in Ayrshire on 01/25/1759). As good fortune would have it, January 25 is also my mom's birthday! Does she really think she's getting taken to a nice restaurant for a big thick steak on her birthday next year?!? MWA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!!! Hell, no, it's HAGGIS TIME!!!!!
"What sort of person," said Salzella patiently, "sits down and writes a maniacal laugh? And all those exclamation marks, you notice? Five? A sure sign of someone who wears his underpants on his head. Opera can do that to a man." - Terry Pratchett, Maskerade
Her corned beef was excellent - very tender, hardly any fat, quite good. I do think I would like corned beef better if it weren't quite so salty but that's kind of impossible as being cured in brine is what, by definition, makes it corned beef. We were talking about why it was called "corned" beef since corn isn't involved at all, as opposed to something like brine beef or salt-cured beef - none of us knew. Google to the rescue with the answer! Corned beef is so called because it was packed in salt (and sometimes spices) for curing and the salt came in corn kernel-sized grains. Today, corned beef is usually made by soaking a brisket roast in a brine of water, salt, and spices. I still like the Irish sausage better.
Mom threatened us with a "real" Irish meal consisting solely of turnips and cabbage next year. Ick - turnips. Who is to blame for this? What tasteless (literally) moron in the annals of history ate a turnip and actually thought it would be a good idea to repeat the experience? Dad and I, in an abrupt switch of Celtic allegiance, voted instead for haggis. Yep, I'd rather eat a sheep stomach stuffed with guts, blood and oatmeal than a turnip, which says a lot about how low in my cuisine esteem that so-called vegetable ranks.
Accordingly, I embarked upon a search for haggis recipes. BTW, I like the recipe for "Dreaded Haggis" the best - yummers! Please to remember this valuable tip when cooking haggis, unless you'd like an unutterably disgusting mess in your kitchen: prick stomach several times with a sharp needle when it begins to swell in order to keep the bag from bursting. 'Tis no wonder they had to invent Scotch whiskey, with stuff like that for dinner, that's all I'm sayin'.
The much more interesting thing I learned is that haggis is most traditionally served on January 25, Burns Night (in honor of the great Scots poet Bobby Burns, of course, born in Ayrshire on 01/25/1759). As good fortune would have it, January 25 is also my mom's birthday! Does she really think she's getting taken to a nice restaurant for a big thick steak on her birthday next year?!? MWA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!!! Hell, no, it's HAGGIS TIME!!!!!
"What sort of person," said Salzella patiently, "sits down and writes a maniacal laugh? And all those exclamation marks, you notice? Five? A sure sign of someone who wears his underpants on his head. Opera can do that to a man." - Terry Pratchett, Maskerade
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