Irish Bacon & Cabbage Recipe

Another very popular meal within Irish families is the boiled bacon & cabbage recipe. This meal has been popular in Ireland for many years due to its simplicity, low cost but yet it’s a very rewarding meal.

One of the misconceptions about Ireland is that we eat corned beef and cabbage when actual fact corn beef and cabbage is more popular in the USA than in Ireland. Corned beef in Ireland is a very different type of meat to what it is in the USA but we do have bacon and cabbage.

The ingredient to making Cabbage and Bacon

  • 2 Pounds of Irish Streaky bacon
  • 1 Fresh white cabbage
  • 1 onion
  • black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon breadcrumbs
  • ½ tablespoon brown sugar
  • 8-10 cloves

How to cook Irish bacon & cabbage

Soak the bacon in cold water for 12 hours. Place in saucepan and cover well with fresh cold water. Bring slowly to the boil and simmer gently for 1 ½ hours. You know it is cooked when the bone slides out easily. Leave the bacon in the water to set.

Cut cabbage into quarters wash well and remove the tough stalks. Place cabbage into a pan of boiling water. (If you place a skinned onion in the pan as well it will counteract the smell of the cabbage) boil fast for 5 minutes. Add 2-3 cupfuls of the water that you boiled the bacon in. this will salt the cabbage and give it a lovely bacon flavor. Cook until cabbage is tender. Drain well and season with black pepper.

Skin the bacon and cover with the breadcrumbs and stud with the cloves. Brown in the oven and serve sliced on a bed of cabbage. Serve with potatoes boiled in their skins.

There is another variation of this meal and its even more basic. Shallow fry bacon or rashers and serve with boiled potatoes and tough this a very bland meal its enough to keep the hunger at bay.