by Martin Gleeson
When Irish people go to live in Australia, these are the foods and drinks that they miss most of all: Cheese and Onion Tayto Crisps, Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate, Barry’s Tea, Kerrygold Butter and the full Irish fried breakfast.
They know that Ireland produces the best food in the world. This includes milk, barley, beef, wheat, potatoes, pork, oats, poultry, mushrooms, and mutton. It is not surprising that many food and drink products were invented by Irish people. Here are just some of them:
The Bacon Rasher
The son of a shoemaker, Henry Denny was born in Waterford in 1790. He became a food merchant. Instead of soaking bacon in brine to preserve it, Henry invented a process called ‘mild curing’ in which only a small quantity of dry salt is used. Instead of cutting it into large chunks, Henry used long flat pieces of bacon. These pieces were cut into what we call rashers of bacon. No full Irish breakfast is complete without a fried rasher or two.
Flavoured Potato Crisps
Until the 1950s, potato crisps, or chips as they were called in the US, came in one flavour only: plain. Joe Murphy from Thomas Street, in Dublin’s Liberties, started his own potato company in O’Rahilly’s Parade, off Moore Street, Dublin in 1954. Called Tayto, this company produced Cheese and Onion flavour initially and then Salt and Vinegar. Often nicknamed Spud Murphy, Joe’s firm was extremely successful and today they export potato crisps of many flavours to 37 countries.
Cream Crackers
In 1851, William Beale Jacob and his brother Robert founded a biscuit bakery in Bridge Street, Waterford. Their parents had been producing biscuits for many years as a stable food for sailors on long voyages. William wanted to produce a fancier biscuit suitable for people drinking tea. He travelled to the US to investigate cracker manufacturing. When he returned in 1885, he created the cream cracker. Today, when snacking is so popular, people add toppings like cheese, jam, or peanut butter to their cream crackers.
Waterford Blaa
In Waterford city, in 1702, Huguenots from France had set up a bakery producing bread. Locals began to use leftover pieces of their bread dough to make what they called blaas. The Waterford Blaa is protected legally by the Protected Geographical Indication, i.e. the name can only be used if they are made by recognised blaa bakers in Waterford city and county. People eat these beautiful small white floury rolls with butter for breakfast or often fill them with egg, bacon, or sausage to enjoy at any time.
Boxty
The traditional Irish potato pancake called Boxty, or bacstaí originated in Ireland in the 1700s. Grated potatoes are covered with mashed potatoes. Then flour, salt, pepper, and butter are added. This dough is shaped into small cakes before they are baked in the oven.
Boxty is associated with St. Bridget’s day, February 1st, and many Irish daughters may recall their mothers reciting this little poem:
Boxty on the griddle,
Boxty on the pan.
If you can’t make boxty,
You’ll never get a man.
Barmbrack
The Barmbrack or bairín breac is an Irish traditional yeast bread fruitcake with added sultanas and raisins. This speckled loaf is most popular on Halloween night. Small items are added to tell the fortune of the person eating it: a ring to foretell marriage, a coin to foretell wealth, a rag to foretell poverty and a matchstick to foretell many disputes.
Hot Chocolate Drink
The Irish botanist Sir Hans Sloane was born in Killyleagh, Co. |Down in 1660. While on a visit to Jamaica, he was introduced to the local drink of chocolate and water. It did not appeal to him, so he tried it again with milk instead of water and a little sugar. He believed it would be popular and on his return from Jamaica in 1689, he began to sell his drinking chocolate drink in pharmacies as a medicine. Hot drinking chocolate is now enjoyed all over the world. The Irish like to top it with cream and a sprinkle of hot chocolate powder.
Whiskey
There is controversy about who invented the spirit drink called whiskey, uisce beatha in Irish, but we do know that the world’s oldest licensed whiskey distillery is Bushmills. This whiskey is produced in the village of Bushmills, on the river Bush, in Co. Antrim. Barley, water, and yeast are distilled and then matured in oak casks, mostly ex-sherry casks. The casks give the whiskey its amber colour. Three million litres of Bushmills whiskey are produced every year.
Baileys Irish Cream
To utilise the availability of alcohol from its distillery and a surplus of cream from another of its businesses, Gilbeys of Ireland instructed a team headed by Tom Jago to produce an Irish cream liqueur. The result in 1974 was Baileys Original Irish cream. The cream comes from Tirlán in Virginia, Co. Cavan, and the whiskey from various distilleries. The added chocolate milk-based drink comes from Nestlé. Today, 2,000 glasses of Baileys Irish Cream are enjoyed every minute around the world.
Irish Coffee
In the 1940s, the era of the flying boats in Foynes, Co. Limerick, passengers often arrived very shaken from New York after a bumpy Pam Am flight. The chef at Foynes, Joe Sheridan, often revived them with a glass of coffee laced with whiskey and sugared cream. The cream was poured carefully over a spoon to create a creamy head on the drink. When asked what type of coffee he was using, Joe Sheridan replied: ‘Irish Coffee.’ He had named a drink that soon became popular all over the world.
Originating from Thurles, in Co. Tipperary, Martin Gleeson is a regular contributor to Tinteán. Before retirement, he worked as a Marine Radio Officer, a Radar Technician and a Lecturer in the Limerick Institute of Technology. He and his wife Carmel have five children, including Rory, who lives in Melbourne, ‘a city I dearly love’, says Martin.
Tinteán 