Colcannon ( ) is a traditional Irish dish of

mashed potato Mashed potato or mashed potatoes ( American, Canadian, and Australian English), colloquially known as mash (British English), is a dish made by mashing boiled or steamed potatoes, usually with added milk, butter, salt, and pepper. It is general ...

es with

cabbage Cabbage, comprising several cultivars of '' Brassica oleracea'', is a leafy green, red (purple), or white (pale green) biennial plant grown as an annual vegetable crop for its dense-leaved heads. It is descended from the wild cabbage ( ''B.& ...

. It is a popular dish on

Saint Patrick's Day Saint Patrick's Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick (), is a religious and cultural holiday held on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick (), the foremost patron saint of Ireland. Saint Patrick's Day was made an official Chris ...

and on the feast day of

St. Brigid Saint Brigid of Kildare or Saint Brigid of Ireland (; Classical Irish: ''Brighid''; ; ) is the patroness saint (or 'mother saint') of Ireland, and one of its three national saints along with Patrick and Columba. According to medieval Irish ...

Description

Colcannon is most commonly made with only four ingredients: potatoes, butter, milk and cabbage. Irish historian

Patrick Weston Joyce Patrick Weston "P. W." Joyce (1827 – 7 January 1914) was an Irish historian, writer and music collector, known particularly for his research in Irish etymology and local place names of Ireland. Biography He was born in Ballyorgan in the B ...

defined it as "potatoes mashed with butter and milk, with chopped up cabbage and pot herbs". It can contain other ingredients such as

scallion Scallions (also known as green onions and spring onions) are edible vegetables of various species in the genus ''Allium''. Scallions generally have a milder taste than most onions. Their close relatives include garlic, shallots, leeks, chive ...

s (spring onions),

leek A leek is a vegetable, a cultivar of ''Allium ampeloprasum'', the broadleaf wild leek (synonym (taxonomy), syn. ''Allium porrum''). The edible part of the plant is a bundle of Leaf sheath, leaf sheaths that is sometimes erroneously called a "s ...

laverbread Laverbread (; or '; ) is a food product made from laver, an edible seaweed (littoral alga) consumed mainly in Wales as part of local traditional cuisine. The seaweed is commonly found around the west coast of Great Britain, and the coasts of I ...

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' , from Latin ), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus '' Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion which was classifie ...

s and

chive Chives, scientific name ''Allium schoenoprasum'', is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaryllidaceae. A perennial plant, ''A. schoenoprasum'' is widespread in nature across much of Eurasia and North America. It is the only spec ...

s. Some recipes substitute cabbage with kale. There are many regional variations of this staple dish. It was a cheap, year-round food. It is often eaten with boiled

ham Ham is pork from a leg cut that has been preserved by wet or dry curing, with or without smoking."Bacon: Bacon and Ham Curing" in '' Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 39. As a processed meat, the term '' ...

salt pork Salt pork is salt-cured pork. It is usually prepared from pork belly, or, less commonly, fatback. Salt pork typically resembles uncut side bacon, but is fattier, being made from the lowest part of the belly, and saltier, as the cure is stronge ...

Irish bacon Back bacon is a cut of bacon that includes the pork loin from the back of the pig. It usually includes a portion of the pork belly in the same cut. It is much leaner than side bacon, also called "streaky bacon", which made from only the pork bel ...

. As a side dish it can be paired with

corned beef and cabbage Bacon and cabbage () is a dish traditionally associated with Ireland. The dish consists of sliced back bacon boiled with cabbage and potatoes. Smoked bacon is sometimes used. The dish is served with the bacon sliced, and with some of the boiling j ...

. Colcannon is similar to

champ Champ, CHAMP or The Champ may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Champ (cartoon character), an animated dog introduced in 1960 * The Champ, played on radio and created by Jake Edwards (radio personality), Jake Edwards * Champ ...

, a dish made with

s, butter and milk that is traditionally offered to fairies in a spoon placed at the foot of a hawthorn tree.

Etymology

The origin of the word is unclear. The first syllable "col" likely comes from the Irish "cál", meaning kale. The second syllable may derive from "ceann-fhionn", meaning a white head (i.e. "a white head of cabbage"). This usage is also found in the Irish name for a

coot Coots are medium-sized water birds that are members of the rail family, Rallidae. They constitute the genus ''Fulica'', the name being the Latin term for "coot". Coots have predominantly black plumage, and—unlike many rails—they are usual ...

, a white-headed bird known as "cearc cheannan" or "white-head hen". In Welsh, the name for leek soup is

cawl cennin Leek soup, or Leek and Potato soup, () is a soup based on potatoes, leeks, broth (usually chicken), and heavy cream. Other ingredients used may be salt, pepper, and various spices. Preparation and presentation Generally the potatoes are dice ...

, a phrase combining

cawl Cawl () is a Welsh dish. In modern Welsh, the word is used for any soup or broth; in English, it refers to a traditional Welsh soup, usually called ''cawl Cymreig'' (literally 'Welsh soup') in Welsh. Historically, ingredients tended to vary, bu ...

meaning "soup", "broth" or "gruel", when it is not a reference to the typical Welsh meat and vegetable stew named in full "cawl Cymreig", with "cennin", the plural of "cenhinen", meaning "leeks".

Song

The song "Colcannon", also called "The Skillet Pot", is a traditional Irish song that has been recorded by numerous artists, including

Mary Black Mary Black (born 23 May 1955) is an Irish folk singer. She is well known as an interpreter of both traditional folk and modern material which has made her a major recording artist in her native Ireland. Background Mary Black was born into a m ...

."The Black Family" CD, 1986, Dara Records, DARA CD 023 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.

Similar dishes

References

External links