Corned Beef And Cabbage: Recipes And History For The Classic St. Patrick's Day Meal

No one dish defines St. Patrick's Day quite like corned beef and cabbage.

However, controversy surrounds the dish's St. Patty's origins. As Francis Lam explains at Salon, corned beef and cabbage is hardly an Irish tradition.

While the Irish certainly cooked corned beef, it was actually bacon (more like ham) and cabbage that was a yearly tradition. However, the move to America may have changed that for many Irish-Americans.

From Salon:

Many farmers in Ireland raised pigs for sale to help pay the rent, but somewhere along the line in America, that tradition mixed with the bitter cocktail of prejudice and xenophobia to turn it into a slur: "Paddy with his pig in the parlor."

The result was the adoption of corned beef, a dish they were already familiar with. Once pig was stigmatized, Irish immigrants found it easy to adopt the now traditional dish.

Corned beef is called corned beef because of its salted nature. The term comes from the addition of "corns" of salt added to the beef while it's slow cooked.

We've gathered some variations on corned beef and cabbage recipes for your St. Patrick's Day enjoyment, below:

Alton Brown's Corned Beef and Cabbage

James Beard's Corned Beef and Cabbage

Traditional Corned Beef and Cabbage

Simply Recipes' Corned Beef and Cabbage

Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage

BBQ Corned Beef and Cabbage

Beer Braised Corned Beef with Red Potatoes and Carrots from Food Network