Recipe for Corned Beef and Cabbage

Corned beef has a distinctive regional association with Cork city. Between the late 1680s and 1825, the beef-corning industry was the most important asset to the city and the country.

Cork exported corned beef to England and much of Europe and as far away as Newfoundland and the West Indies. During the Napoleonic wars, the British army was principally supplied with corned beef from Cork.

For Irish emigrants it conjures up powerful nostalgic images of a rural Irish past. Originally, it was a traditional Easter Sunday dinner. The beef killed before the winter would have been salted and could be eaten after the long Lenten fast with fresh green cabbage and floury potatoes.