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Colcannon Lore

Category: Irish

Author: The Savvybearcat

Date: 1/1/2007

Rating:

(2.0) by 2 users

Ingredients:

***** Not Found *****

Instructions:

(from IRISH TRADITIONAL FOOD, Theodora Fitzgibbon:)

"This is traditionally eaten in Ireland at Hallowe'en. Until quite
recently this was a fast day, when no meat was eaten. The name is
from *cal ceann fhionn* -- white-headed cabbage. Colcannon should
correctly be made with chopped kale (a member of the cabbage family)
but it is also made with white cabbage; an interesting version is
the Irish Folklore Commission's, which gives it as mashed potatoes
mixed with onions, butter,and a boiled white cabbage in the center.
Colcannon at Hallowe'en used to contain a plain gold ring, a
sixpence, a thimble or button: finding the ring meant marriage within
the year for the person who found it, the sixpence meant wealth, the
thimble spinsterhood and the button bachelorhood."

(from THE POOLBEG BOOK OF IRISH TRADITIONAL FOOD:)

"For a dish that is not widely eaten or served today, colcannon
remains remarkably widely known. Maybe the song about colcannon is
better known than the dish. If you say "colcannon" in a crowded room,
the chances are that half the room will break into one version of the
song and the other into a completely different version. Like the
recipe itself, there are two versions commonly known.

Did you ever eat colcannon Did you ever eat colcannon when
'twas made with yellow cream when 'twas made with thickened
cream And the kale and praties
blended And the greens and scallions
blended Like the picture in a
dream? Like the picture in a dream? Did you ever take a forkful Did
you ever scoop a hole on top And dip it in the lake
To hold the melting cake Of heather-flavored butter Of
clover-flavored butter That your mother used to make? Which your
mother used to make?

Oh, you did, yes you did! Did you ever eat and eat,
afraid So did he and so did I,
: You'd let the ring go past, And the more I think about
it And some old married sprissman Sure, the more I want to cry. Would
get it at the last?

God be with the happy times
When trouble we had not,
And our mothers made colcannon
In the little three-legged pot. " -- Colcannon
is so like champ, cally, stampy and poundies that it's difficult to
understand how it ever came to have a different name. Yet, all over
the country, colcannon is colcannon and known as nothing else. As in
the two versions of the song, it can be made with kale or with
greens, meaning cabbage. Those reared on the version made with kale
can never understand how the cabbage version can be considered
colcannon, and vice versa...."