[LifeeStyle] Boxty pancakes and bacon for St Brigid's Day

[FRIDAY THE 13]

 

 

St Brigid is Ireland's foodie saint. One of the nation's three patron saints and the most associated with food (particularly farming and dairying), the Irish celebrate her for the first time this year with a new public holiday on 6 February.

St Brigid's Day itself, also known as Imbolc or Óimelg, falls on 1 February marking the beginning of spring in the ancient Celtic calendar. Associated with miraculous abundance of food and a powerful figure in Irish pre-Christian folklore, Brigid was brought under the church and proclaimed a saint.

The mixing of Celtic and Christian observances isn't unusual in Ireland. The tradition of making, sharing and eating boxty pancakes, or bacstaí, a traditional potato dish cooked on St Brigid's Day is influenced by both religions, creating a celebratory association unique to its food culture. Hailing from the north-western counties of Leitrim, Cavan, Fermanagh and Mayo, the traditional skillet-dish akin to a pancake is made with potato, milk and flour – and served with lakes of butter and sometimes a scattering of sugar as a treat for children. It was a dish reserved for eating on special feast days, and Brigid's Day was celebrated with equal fervour to Christmas Day.

Irish folklore associated with St Brigid focused on the dawn of a new dairying season, filled with anticipation for the valuable milk and butter to come, persisting well into the mid-20th Century. There was great excitement for the day, and homemade butter made from fresh morning milk was a common practice served generously with piles of boxty.

For all its intimate connection with Irish history and its people, the potato, boxty's core ingredient, is a relative newcomer. Potatoes arrived with Sir Walter Raleigh in 1589 from the Americas into the town of Youghal on the eastern shore of County Cork where he once lived; long after Christianity had taken root and elevated Brigid from high priestess of agriculture to an important saintly figurehead.

 

link:  https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20230203-recipe-boxty-pancakes-and-bacon-for-st-brigids-day