Colcannon

Colcannon (Irish: cál ceannann, meaning "white-headed cabbage") is a traditional Irish dish of mashed potatoes with kale or cabbage.

Colcannon
A bowl of colcannon
CourseMain course or side dish
Place of originIreland
Serving temperatureHot
Main ingredientsMashed potatoes, kale or cabbage

Description

Colcannon is most commonly made with only four ingredients: potatoes, butter, milk and kale. Irish historian Patrick Weston Joyce defined it as "potatoes mashed with butter and milk, with chopped up cabbage and pot herbs".[1] It can contain other ingredients such as scallions (spring onions), leeks, Laverbread, onions and chives. Some recipes substitute cabbage for kale.[2] There are many regional variations of this staple dish.[3] It was a cheap, year-round food.[4][5] It is often eaten with boiled ham, salt pork or Irish bacon. As a side dish it goes well with corned beef and cabbage.[1]

An Irish Halloween tradition is to serve colcannon with a ring and a thimble hidden in the dish. Prizes of small coins such as threepenny or sixpenny bits were also concealed inside the dish.[6] The dish champ is similar but made with buttermilk.[2]

Etymology

The origin of the word is unclear. The first syllable 'col' is likely derived from the Irish 'cál' meaning cabbage. The second syllable may derive from 'ceann-fhionn' meaning a white head (i.e. 'a white head of cabbage') - this use is also found in the Irish name for a coot, a white headed bird known as 'cearc cheannan', or 'white-head hen'. The phrase may also be borrowed from the Welsh name for a leek soup known as cawl cennin, literally "broth (of) leeks."[7]

Song

The song "Colcannon", also called "The Skillet Pot", is a traditional Irish song that has been recorded by numerous artists, including Mary Black.[6][8] It begins:

Did you ever eat Colcannon, made from lovely pickled cream?
With the greens and scallions mingled like a picture in a dream.
Did you ever make a hole on top to hold the melting flake
Of the creamy, flavoured butter that your mother used to make?

The chorus:

Yes you did, so you did, so did he and so did I.
And the more I think about it sure the nearer I'm to cry.
Oh, wasn't it the happy days when troubles we had not,
And our mothers made Colcannon in the little skillet pot.

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See also

References
  1. Andrews, Colman. The Country Cooking of Ireland.
  2. Sheraton, Mimi. 1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die: A Food Lover's Life List.
  3. "Recipe from An Bord Bia (Irish food board)". Archived from the original on 2014-02-19. Retrieved 2011-05-12.
  4. Irwin, Florence (1986). The Cookin' Woman: Irish Country Recipes. Blackstaff. ISBN 0-85640-373-3.
  5. Friedland, Susan R. Vegetables: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cooking 2008.
  6. Allen, Darina (2012). Irish Traditional Cooking. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan. p. 152. ISBN 9780717154364.
  7. Evans, H. Meurig (1980). Y Geiriadur Mawr. Gwasg Gomer.
  8. "The Black Family" CD, 1986, Dara Records, DARA CD 023
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