The Cold Table: Irish Stew

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Irish Stew

This weekend, I simply made a conventional "Irish Stew": lamb chunks, potatoes, carrots, peas, seasoned with salt and pepper and rosemary. (Yes, I missed St. Patrick's Day, obviously.)

It occurred to me to wonder how far back "Irish Stew" goes. In its present form it can't go back much further than the 16th century or so, because the potato is not native to Europe. But the rest of the ingredients go way back. (Though Wikipedia mentioned that there are many different kinds of peas, and I'm not sure how far back the modern green pea goes.)

I expect this week to be very busy. Perhaps next week I'll be more experimental.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Mission Statement

Welcome to "The Cold Table" (formerly called "Table Scraps" and, less recently, "Food Through Time")! This is a blog about the history of food worldwide. It's about the origins of foodstuffs; recreating period foods, cooking techniques, and cooking utensils; historic ideas about food and nutrition; eating customs; and tableware. I will also do reviews of books discussing any of the above topics. I hope you enjoy this blog, and find it worth reading and commenting upon.

Because we are also part of history, modern food and cuisine are part of the story, and fair topics for this blog (though my preferred area of interest is historic food, particularly food before 1600 CE). Non-food issues are off-topic, and I reserve the right to remove off-topic comments without notice.