An old Irish dish to Appalachian tastes: Kalecannon with smoked ham

[theHandpuppet]

I spotted this recipe in the Irish Times and it sounds as if it could have been served right off an Appalachian table. The original recipe called for cabbage but this version substitutes that for the Appalachian staple, kale. The full (and simple) recipe can be found at the link provided below.

http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/food-and-drink/give-me-five-kalecannon-with-smoked-ham-1.1973080
The Irish Times
Give Me Five: Kalecannon with smoked ham
Trick or treat? This dish is definitely the former
Fri, Oct 31, 2014

Kale is the wonder vegetable we all know we should be eating more of. But instead of feeling guilty and skulking past it in the vegetable aisle, grab a bunch confidently and rush home to make this delicious dish.

It is rich in calcium, vitamins and folate and is easy to prepare and cook. I’m amazed that my children eat kale chips, and I was delighted at their reaction to this week’s recipe, a creamy mash rippled with buttery kale, leeks and smoked ham: perfect for Halloween.

The traditional colcannon uses cabbage and is a real comfort food from my childhood. I recently learned that it’s also an old Irish tradition to hide a ring and a thimble in the green-flecked mash come Halloween night. My mother never risked doing this as we ate the dish at such speed she was afraid the hidden treats would go unnoticed.

My great grandmother used to make a huge pot of cabbage boiled in bacon water on Sunday mornings, and, after Mass, the village would gather outside her house and stand around eating the cabbage from saucers while gossiping about the week. It shows how important food is for bringing people together. Even when people had nothing they still shared it, and in those days it led to a healthier community in rural Ireland. It may also have been the first of the impromptu pop-up supper clubs; news of a flash mob demanding salty cabbage on mismatched china saucers wouldn’t look out of place on my Twitter feed.... MORE at link provided above

[proReality]

1. Brings some great memories of family New Year feasts

of boiled cabbage, potatoes, carrots (smothered in butter) and ham. The meal was served shortly before midnight and not finished until after the hour struck. It was supposed to bring good luck for the year. Some years it actually seemed to work.

The recipe sounds good, I might have to try it this weekend. Thanks.

[theHandpuppet]

2. My grandmother often served a dish very much like the recipe in the OP

Last edited Sat Nov 1, 2014, 12:35 AM - Edit history (1)

It was basically whole potatoes cooked in pork broth, kale, onions and fatback (or ham trimmings). This would be served with a coarse, unsweetened cornbread baked in an iron skillet coated with bacon grease and the meat would always be slow-cooked pork roast.

Just a couple of things about the Appalachian menu...I had wondered why curly kale (also known as scotch kale) is such a staple in Appalachia but once I did a little research it made perfect sense.

http://www.scotlandinaweek.com/scottish-cooking.html
Kale’s historical popularity as a mainstay of Scottish cooking owes much to the fact that it can survive a harsh Scottish winter. Many Scottish phrases mention it, indicating its former importance in the Scots’ diet. The kailyard or kaleyard was an old name for the kitchen garden or vegetable plot. Take a look at the kaleyard at Robert Burns Cottage here. The kaleyard school of Scottish literature is a description of a 19th century vogue for Scottish writing about parochial, cosy (or couthy) subjects. Cauld kale het up (cold kale warmed) means any old tale or fashion revived. Kale can even mean, broadly, food itself (like the old generic sense of ‘meat’ as in ‘one man’s meat is another man’s poison’), which suggests its prevalence in the Scots’ diet of olden days. It also used to mean more specifically a thick and warming vegetable soup that would have kale in it. (It certainly did in my mum’s house.) Sometimes, modern recipes substitute parsley, but that’s positively decadent.

Logic would follow, then, that the early Scots-Irish settlers in Appalachia would have brought some of their culinary tastes along with them. The clime and rugged terrain of Appalachia were perfectly suited for this hardy and nutritious vegetable.

Many was the day when my father and I would head over to his uncle's house to pick kale after the first frost, as kale is supposed to be sweeter after it's been "kissed". But the kale itself was never sweetened with sugar. Sweetened greens was something that shocked my palate when I lived for a few years in southern Virginia; never could get used to it. Where I come from that would be considered sacrilege. (The copious amounts of sugar in southern food & drink is something to which I just couldn't adjust.)

Here's another article on the history of kale in the highlander diet:
http://huntgatherlove.com/content/highlander-diet

[proReality]

3. Just makes me wonder

why other traditional dishes, like haggis never caught on here. It's on nearly every menu over there, it's even served for breakfast.

[theHandpuppet]

4. Sheep aren't a common livestock animal in our region

Appalachia, being heavily wooded, isn't prime sheep country. Neither is it prime beef country, as both cattle and sheep need large grazing areas. The primary source of meat in Appalachia became hogs, an animal that can be quite at home in the wooded hills as they are both excellent foragers and have a much more varied diet than grazing animals. Of course, many families kept a milk cow.

These days you can pick up any kind of meat you want at the store but my grandparents and even my parents ate a more traditional diet of pork and chicken. We rarely had beef and I'd never had a steak until I went to college. I still haven't developed a taste for beef. My mother, who grew up desperately poor, rarely ate meat at all because it just wasn't something she was accustomed to in her diet.

So some foods transferred quite nicely into the Appalachian diet and others didn't, for various reasons. I think the diet is much more varied in the southern Appalachians where growing seasons are longer and there are more of the influences of southern cooking.

[Worried senior]

5. Our family made a dish very similiar to your grandmothers.

The only difference is the bacon was left in and we added potatoes.

Very good mashed on a plate with butter, salt and pepper and plenty of juice to sop it up with bread when done eating.

[theHandpuppet]

6. Did you keep a grease jar?

My grandmother always kept a grease jar with the bacon drippings, which she liberally used for cooking. I do the same and although I'm sure it's not healthy, it surely does make everything taste great!

[Worried senior]

7. Yes we do

Some things just taste better cooked in bacon grease.