I got in a long phone conversation last night with a friend of mine, Chef Josh Gamage, about St. Patrick's Day. I asked about how it's celebrated here in Maine from a food and drink standpoint. Growing up in NY I am used to enormous partying, eating mediocre corned beef and cabbage, and drinking many pints of stout; while grooving to the madness of the Upper East Side and the Parade. No green beer for me, thanks. Then the next day I buy a half dozen corned beef when they go on sale and freeze them for later use.

Josh told me that here in Maine it isn't celebrated as much as I am used to, but at home there is usually a New England boiled dinner on March 17th. The question is, what meat is boiled for the dinner? It seems that according to Josh there is a 50/50 break on whether it will be boiled Corned Beef or boiled Smoked Pork Shoulder.

I immediately ran to my library and the internet to do some research. I found that boiled pork is much more likely to be an authentic Irish meal. Beef wasn't a traditional Irish food, but pork was and is. With bacon, basically any cut of pork or smoked pork the choice for St. Patrick's Day dinner. It seems that beef was exported to England but too expensive for the Irish, but pork was a plentiful food.
It wasn't until the Irish settled in America that they started eating corned beef. In fact they picked it up from the Jewish population in NYC and Boston. Irish didn't start eating corned beef in Ireland until the war, and that was very inexpensive, imported, canned, corned beef at that, probably from South America.

In addition I found that St. Patrick's Day as a celebration is also a North American thing, with the first celebration held in Boston in 1737 and the first parade in NYC in 1766. In Ireland it was a religious feast day, but until the 1970's pubs had to be closed march 17th and drinking and parades were not part of the scene. It was only in 1995 that Ireland started celebrating like the rest of the world and that was because of a national campaign to increase tourism.

So my question to all of you is, which do you eat? Corned Beef or Smoked Pork Shoulder for St. Patrick's Day dinner?

In addition I ran out and bought several corned beef and a smoked pork shoulder and during the following days I will have recipes for both to share with you.