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If the Irish had created Thanksgiving it would have been called Giving Out Day. We’re much better at complaining than giving thanks usually, but if there’s one thing we know how to do well it’s cook for a cold climate. Thanksgiving isn’t an Irish holiday.
When you first arrive here as a wide-eyed immigrant you quickly come to see it as the most Yankee event on the calendar, even more so than Memorial Day or the fireworks and flag-waving of the Fourth of July. That’s because Thanksgiving is a secular holiday that’s open to every citizen regardless of their background or religion (or lack thereof), and unlike Christmas, no one is fretting over what gifts to give or what they’ll cost. The point of Thanksgiving is just to count all the things you’re grateful for – like your family, your health, and that you've survived another year going by.
Clearly, that’s not Irish at all. If the Irish had created the holiday it would more likely have been called Giving Out Day. Ours would have been an annual opportunity to list all of the things that have gotten on our nerves over the course of the year, a thing we can do with an eloquence unmatched in the western world.
Of course, another real point of Thanksgiving is to cook an epic meal that will guard against the winter blues. That’s why the Irish just get the concept of Thanksgiving right away. Our northerly outcrop of a nation has taught us how to stave off winter with hearty dishes to delight your senses.
Over the centuries we have learned what works too, creating time-honored menus that are guaranteed to appeal to every guest. In recent decades, Ireland’s farm-to-table tradition, where food is minimally processed – in most cases organic and washed and cooked and then on your plate – has caught the world’s attention. Nothing beats produce grown in your own country in tune with the seasons and harvested at the optimum moment.
At the forefront of this cooking, revolution is Ireland’s national treasure Darina Allen, the chef and cookbook writer at the head of the world-famous Ballymaloe School in West Cork. Darina Allen. Rolling News For four decades Allen has practiced and promoted the Irish cooking philosophies and recipes of the traditions she, in turn, inherited from Myrtle Allen, the “matriarch of Modern Irish cuisine,” a woman as important to contemporary Irish cooking and baking as Julia Child has been to American cooking.
Irish culinary know-how brought to a Thanksgiving table can result in unexpectedly happy marriages. That’s because we cook winter root vegetables in a myriad of ways that are always a big hit. This starter recipe for winter leek and potato soup is easy to make, surprisingly hearty and flavorful, and belongs in any cook’s repertoire.
Ingredients Method Ingredients Method Ingredients Method Happy Irish Thanksgiving! These recipes have been selected from "Rachel’s Irish Family Food," and Darina Allen’s "Ballymaloe Cooking School Cookbook". * Originally published in November 2015. Updated in 2024.
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