March 17: St. Patrick and the Jews

A good deal of the 13 million tons of corned beef produced in the U.S. will be consumed today, St. Patrick’s Day, yet many culinary experts consider this dish to be essentially a Jewish export to the Irish, who arrived in the U.S. eating not corned beef and cabbage but salt bacon and cabbage as their traditional dish. Although Ireland under British rule was a major producer of beef, the Irish people themselves were unable to afford it and were all but driven off their land by cattle farming. Beef was much less expensive in America, however, especially the brisket that was beloved by many Jews and was salt-cured into corned beef. According to David Sax who runs a “Save the Deli” website, “corned beef and cabbage is an Irish-American/Jewish-American fusion, made famous by the Irish in New York, who adopted the Jewish corned beef so common there in the late 19th century, spiced it to their liking, added cabbage, and made it the patron saint of Saint Patrick’s Day foods.” Today, nearly 35 million people of Irish ancestry live in the U.S. — seven times more than in Ireland itself.

“Others have a nationality. The Irish and the Jews have a psychosis.”—Brendan Behan