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Years ago my husband and I started going to the Weston Irish Festival in Weston, MO. For several years we went if we were in town, sometimes even planning trips to visit family during the festival weekend. It’s something that we’ve only done a couple of times since having kids, but one of our favorite parts of the festival is the Irish Coddle. Yum.
Eventually we were no longer satisfied with only eating Irish coddle once a year, and attempted to recreate it at home. This is the story of the journey I took to the beloved recipe we now have.
Jump to Irish Coddle Recipe
A Foundation to Start From
I started with an Irish cookbook by Darina Allen, that we had on the shelf. We seem to have since gotten rid of it, but I THINK it was this one. Of course there was a coddle recipe in there. It was short and simple. Potatoes, rashers (we use bacon), sausage, onion, and cabbage. Throw it all in a pot, cover with water, season with pepper, and boil away. Basically.
I did that the first couple of times, but it wasn’t quite what we wanted to recreate the recipe from the festival. It had less flavor, and a different consistency. So I tried experimenting with different types of bacon/pork AND sausage. I knew rashers were different than the general bacon in the US, so there was a definite learning curve, but I eventually settled on using thick sliced bacon chopped up.
Determining the Flavors
Again, I knew I was missing key flavors in the recipe. So the next time we went to the festival we spoke about it with friends. Friends who knew their way around a kitchen. Together we tasted the coddle like snooty Food Network hosts to determine the seasonings. I came away with thyme, parsley, and some form of cream base. Okay, challenge accepted.
The next batch I tossed in a generous helping of thyme and parsley, as well as some coconut milk. It was only a little, so the coconut flavor didn’t come though much. It was pretty delicious, but still not right.
The next batch I decided I needed to help the liquid set up a but, so I drained off a little liquid and stirred in some arrowroot powder to thicken things up. It did the trick! The consistency was amazing, and added to the flavor even more.
Adding My Own Flair
I started experimenting even further. Sometimes I will sub out sliced sausage links for the bulk sausage, and sometimes I make my own sausage. Much like the tradition of Irish Coddle being a way of using up leftovers, I would make do with what I had in the refrigerator or freezer.
Soon stock became the base liquid instead of plain water when available. It added more flavor and nutrients to the recipe. Perfect for a crisp Fall day.
Eventually I also switched over to heavy cream added at the end instead of the coconut milk for added creamy texture. It was so good.
I also began adding the potatoes more toward the middle of the boiling process. The original recipe called for whole potatoes. I didn’t like the way that turned out. The potatoes at the festival seemed to be sliced, so I started doing that instead. When they were thin sliced, they had a tendency to fall apart if boiled the entire time, and I didn’t like that consistency. I discovered that if left out until the middle point, I could get deliciously cooked potatoes that weren’t disintegrating.
And that is how we took a traditional dish of Irish coddle, and made it our own!
Our Family Recipe for Irish Coddle
Hanks Family Irish Coddle
Equipment
- Stock pot
- ladle
Ingredients
- 1 lb bacon
- 2 lb bulk sausage
- 2 large onions diced
- 4 cups cabbage, shredded
- 8 cups beef stock
- 4-8 cups water
- 1 tbsp black pepper
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- 4 tbsp parsley
- 4 tbsp thyme
- 4 lbs gold potatoes, sliced
- 1/4 cup arrowroot powder
- 1 cup heavy cream
Instructions
- Add the bacon, sausage, onions, and cabbage to a large stock pot. Cover with stock and water, and place on stove over high heat. Add seasonings and stir to combine. Cover and bring to boil.
- Allow to boil, partially covered, for 15 minutes.
- Add the potatoes and bouil for 15-20 minutes, or until the potatoes are JUST cooked through.
- Spoon out some of the liquid into a small bowl, and mix in the arrowroot powder until well combined. Add the small bowl of liquid back into the stock pot. Stir well and allow liquids to thicken up slightly.
- Remove from heat to cool for 10-20 minutes. Once cooled, stir in cream.
- Serve and enjoy!
This post was written as part of a blog hop with Exhale—an online community of women pursuing creativity alongside motherhood, led by the writing team behind Coffee + Crumbs. Click here to read the next post in this series “The Story of a Recipe”.
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