Bacon and Cabbage with Parsley Sauce
Bagún agus Cabáiste·(bah-goon ah-guss kah-bah-shta)
The "Irish Mammy's" Dinner (Weeknight Nostalgia)
In America, we are told that corned beef is the taste of the Irish homeland. Forget it. Ask any Irish grandmother, and she will tell you the true taste of home is salt-cured pork, boiled slowly until tender, served with sweet Savoy cabbage and a river of creamy parsley sauce. When immigrants arrived in New York, they made do with brisket because it was cheap, but back home, it was always the pig. This unfussy, sustaining supper reclaims that heritage. Using a simple weekend-brined pork shoulder and crinkly cabbage that drinks up the rich, savory broth without turning to mush, you get a plate of food that tastes exactly like Ireland.
Before you start
Brine a standard pork shoulder three days in advance if you cannot source authentic Irish boiling bacon.
In a large container, dissolve half a cup of kosher salt and a quarter cup of brown sugar into a quart of water. Submerge a boneless pork butt, cover, and leave it in the refrigerator until you are ready to cook on a weeknight.
Ingredients
- cured Irish boiling bacon or brined pork shoulder2 1/2 lb
- Savoy cabbage1 large
- Russet potatoes1 1/2 lb
- Irish butter3 tbsp
- all-purpose flour3 tbsp
- whole milk1 1/2 cup
- pork cooking broth1/4 cup
- fresh parsley1/2 cup
- black pepper1 pinch
- nutmeg1 dash
Method
- 01
Place the cured pork joint into a large, heavy Dutch oven and cover it completely with cold water.
Bring the pot to a rolling boil over medium-high heat and skim off the white froth that rises to the surface. If the meat is heavily salted and the water tastes like seawater, dump the water out, rinse the meat, and cover with fresh hot water to save the final dish from a saline death.
- 02
Reduce the heat to low, cover the pot, and let the pork simmer gently for an hour and a half.
Calculate roughly thirty minutes per pound of meat until it is tender when pierced. If you are short on time, an electric pressure cooker on high pressure will yield beautifully tender pork in forty-five minutes.
- 03
Boiling the peeled potatoes in a separate pot of salted water until tender.
Drain them well and let them steam dry in the hot pot so they become floury enough to soak up the butter and sauce on the plate.
- 04
Drop the thick wedges of cabbage directly into the bubbling pork broth fifteen minutes before the meat is finished.
Nudge them down so they are fully submerged. Cook until the cabbage is tender but still has a slight bite, taking care not to let it turn into a grey mush.
- 05
Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat and whisk in the flour to form a pale roux.
Cook for one minute, then slowly drizzle in the warm milk, whisking constantly to prevent lumps. Ladle in a splash of the hot bacon broth from your main pot, simmer until the sauce coats the back of a spoon, then remove from the heat and stir in the chopped parsley and black pepper.
- 06
Transfer the pork to a cutting board and carve it into thick, satisfying slices.
Use a slotted spoon to rescue the cabbage from the broth, serve the sliced pork over the greens alongside the floury potatoes, and drown everything in the vibrant parsley sauce.
Notes
Do not substitute standard American green cabbage for this dish.
It is far too dense and will require extensive boiling, resulting in a waterlogged, sulfuric mush. Savoy cabbage has a looser structure and crinkled leaves that perfectly absorb the pork fat and broth.
From Cook Irish-American Food.