St. Patrick’s Day / National Corn Beef And Cabbage Day

St. Patrick’s Day

March 17

St. Patrick’s Day commemorates the saint who introduced Christianity to Ireland in 432.  One of the biggest celebrations is the New York City parade which began in 1762. The City of Chicago has been dying its river green since 1962. All of the St. Patrick’s Day revelry is great news for brewers. A 2012 estimate pegged the total amount Americans spent on beer for St. Paddy’s celebrations at $245 million.

A classic boiled dinner of corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, onions, and carrots.

National Corn Beef and Cabbage Day

March 17

Corn Beef and Cabbage is celebrated on March 17 to coincide with St. Patrick’s Day. Pork was the meat of choice for Irish immigrants first immigrating to America, specifically smoked pork loin. It was cheap to get in Ireland, but not so much in the United States. Therefore, people got creative and started cooking beef. Irish immigrants were inspired to make corned beef after visiting the markets of Jewish immigrants in New York City. Their corned beef had a similar taste and cured preparation to the popular Irish cut smoked pork back home. The addition of cabbage was new. Irish families discovered that adding cabbage to a salty corned beef stew made a hearty and delicious meal that was also cost effective.

Today’s Birthdays of Note….

Nat King Cole – Singer – born in Montgomery, Alabama

Rob Lowe – Actor – born in Charlottesville, VA

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