Edible Cork 2023, Ireland’s 40 Shades of Green

This was not my first trip to Ireland.  Twenty years earlier, my husband Ed and I had cycled through Galway and the Connemara Coast on a Vermont Biking Tour. This initial experience exceeded our expectations. Being able to slowly explore on two wheels a country with such breathtaking, unspoiled beauty—rugged coastlines, rolling hills, lakes, and unique peat bogs—left us wanting to extend our stay.

We loved listening to the locals speak with their lilting brogue as they spun colorful stories often with more than a hint of blarney. In short, leisurely coasting along the narrow lanes with endless hedgerows of gorse and hawthorn, meeting the people, and enjoying their history filled with castles, druidic sites and medieval churches was nothing short of magical.

It felt good to be back in the land of “40 shades of green.” Embarrassingly, I thought this term referred to 40 different PMS shades of green! Later I learned the expression was popularized by country singer Johnny Cash in a song he wrote after a visit to Ireland and featured on his 1961 album "Ring of Fire.” Nevertheless, how apt for a country where the verdant color is omni-present and so vibrantly depicted in its picturesque landscape.

The mission on my first trip was tourism and physical exercise.  This time, it was to learn about the country’s burgeoning food movement under the skilled guidance of tour leaders, Sue Carter, Jacqui Pickles, and Cathy Sloman, all food professionals, and members of the London chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier.  We set out from the city of Cork to meet local producers and discover how to make a whole range of delectable products. Our group learned the tradition of smoking fish, fermenting mead from honey, producing blood sausage, cultivating oysters, and thickening “puddings” with Carrageen moss.  

We met chef, author, and TV personality Darina Allen at her legendary cooking school at Ballymaloe, where she shared her knowledge of Ireland’s rich culinary heritage. Our group interviewed some of Ireland’s best artisanal food producers whose reputations preceded them. And rightfully so for these were people with a quest both for tradition and excellence.

What follows are three topics which fascinated me the most: Ireland’s butter, potatoes, and promising new water buffalo industry.

Butter:

Given that Ireland’s Kerrygold is already a known commodity in America—as our second most important brand of butter—you might think this topic would have little interest.  Not at all. I couldn’t get over the intense color of Irish butter which also seemed so much more vibrant in taste and creaminess than what we traditionally spread on our toast back home.

Let’s unpack the wonders of Ireland’s butter whose choice and flavors go way beyond the albeit delicious Kerrygold. First of all, why is Irish butter a deeper shade of yellow than ours? The answer is simple: it’s all about what the cows eat. Turns out Irish dairy cows are fed fresh grass. On our side of the ocean, cows eat a lot of dried grasses, corn, seeds, grains, and even food byproducts. None of these feeds import the same color or taste that Irish butter offers.

Cows in Ireland graze in pastures which are known for being particularly lush and green thanks to the country’s temperate and damp climate. This grass-fed diet is rich in carotene. This is the naturally occurring plant pigment which is responsible for the deep, golden color of Irish butter.

There are other differences as well. Irish butter has a higher fat content (82% versus our 80%) and lower water count. This also makes it a superior choice for baking as it creates baked goods that are both flakier and rise higher. 

Incidentally, not all Irish butters are created equal. There is no uniform taste profile, other than being sinfully delicious. We found this out at our first dinner in Cork, a city which is considered “the Food Capital of Ireland.” Our group was hosted by some of the best-known female food purveyors from the city’s historic English Market where we dined that evening at its trendy Farmgate Café.

Our meal started with a selection of olives, homemade Irish soda bread and cultured butter. Cultured butter is essentially butter to which some form of live culture has been added. That can take the form of anything from buttermilk to yoghurt. What we tasted had the addition of leftover liquid from cheese making which gave it a strikingly rich, “cheesy” tang in addition to a deeper golden color than traditional Irish butter.

Potatoes:

Potatoes are intrinsically linked with Ireland’s history, and sadly, most often associated with the country’s Great Famine in the mid-1800s. It’s not sure who was responsible for introducing the potato to Ireland—Sir Walter Raleigh or sailors from the plundered ships of the Spanish Armada—but food history shows that it was being planted locally by the 17th century.

It was a crop well suited to the country’s soil and climate. Once planted, potatoes required little attention and produced greater yields than corn or grain, the country’s then traditional crops. Another benefit was that the potato plant was hardy, nutritious, and calorie dense. In fact, we now know that potatoes supply every vital nutrient except calcium, vitamin A and vitamin D. 

It was no surprise then that centuries ago farmers embraced potato as their agricultural savior. A tiny plot of land could feed an entire family and thus small farmers became dependent on them. By 1840 potatoes constituted a third of the crops grown in Ireland so that when the blight hit Europe and found its way to Ireland, the effects were devastating.

Originally, potatoes were eaten simply boiled, usually cooked in a three-legged pot over an open fire. Most often they were served ungarnished.  Eventually, people started to add buttermilk and milk to the preparation as these ingredients were readily available on the farms. For those who could afford it, small pieces of meat or fish were also boiled along with the potatoes. 

Today the type of potato most appreciated by the Irish is the dry, “floury” variety with a medium-high dry matter content. We Americans use the term “starchy” to describe potatoes which are high in starch and low in moisture. Our Irish hosts explained that the beauty of floury potatoes is that their skins crack open towards the end of cooking. These are lovingly referred to as “smiling spuds” or “balls of flour.” The fact that their flesh breaks down easily also makes them the perfect choice for mashing.

On the other end of the potato spectrum are the waxy potatoes with their low starch-high moisture content. These are less favored in Irish cuisine and are often scorned as being “wet” and “soapy.” The truth, however, is one of local taste preference. As in reality, waxy potatoes work beautifully for roasting and in gratins as they maintain their shape.

We will leave the discussion of all-purpose potatoes—which do exist in Ireland—for another day!

Today the variety of potatoes available in Ireland is vast. Luckily, the Irish Seed Savers Association has worked tirelessly to rescue some of the traditional heritage varieties which are now being reintroduced.

Whenever we saw potatoes on the menu with their fanciful names—Ladysbridge, Kerrs Pink, Golden Wonders, Ballycotton, or Queens, to name a few—we knew we were in for a treat.  On most occasions, the potatoes were presented simply steamed with their pale brown skins just bursting and inviting us to add spoonfuls of unctuous Irish butter. We happily indulged in both.

While we were in County Cork, potatoes were always on the menu in one form or another. As most of our restaurants were considered high end and “modern,” we did not have the chance to sample many of Ireland’s more rustic, traditional potato dishes. But that was hardly a deterrent as many of us were confident that we would try our hand at making Champ, Boxty, and Colcannon once we returned to our American kitchens!

Water Buffalo:

Our most unexpected visit was to Macroom Buffalo farm, Ireland’s first-ever, which is owned by the Johnny Lynch family. When faced with sinking milk prices in 2009, Johnny swapped out his Irish dairy cattle for water buffalo. This shocked everyone from his local bank to the Irish government.  He initially purchased 31 water buffalos from Italy. He now has a herd of more than 500 animals spread across three farms in the western part of County Cork.   

Early on Johnny expanded his business to include cheese production. His facility, named Macroom Buffalo Cheese Products Ltd., is located right on the farm. Here he produces five different chesses from buffalo milk: mozzarella; bocconcini, feta, ricotta and “buffaloumi,” a take-off of the Greek cheese halloumi. His first cheesemaker, Sean Ferry—also well known for his Desmond and Gabriel cheese—received two gold medals for his mozzarella from the World Cheese Awards in 2016 and 2017, much to the consternation of his Italian competitors.

The beauty of the cheese-making at Macroom is that it’s produced from fresh Buffalo milk directly from the farm which can be immediately turned into cheese and dispatched that same day. The entire process takes approximately seven hours. While Macroom’s award-winning mozzarella is available at retail around the country and featured on the menus of Ireland’s finest restaurants, the company still struggles to keep up with demand.  This price success?

According to Johnny, “Water buffalo are very healthy animals. Their milk is much more like goat’s milk than cow’s, in so far that you have a much higher yield for making cheese.” While water buffalo produce an overall lower milk yield, their advantage is that there are more solids in their milk—which means that it takes less buffalo milk to make the same amount of cheese as with cow’s milk.

We learned from our guide at the farm, Dorothy O’Tuama, that fresh mozzarella is generally considered a healthy cheese, due to its low fat and sodium content. She explained that mozzarella can be made from cow’s milk as well as mixed with other milks, such as goat. However, water buffalo's milk mozzarella is more nutritious than cow's due to its higher concentrations of calcium, protein, and iron, as well as being lower in cholesterol.

As part of our farm visit, Dorothy took us out to explore the pastures where we witnessed the water buffalo being brought in to be milked. Next, we toured the milking parlor, admired the baby calves with their shiny black, leathery noses and enormous, curious brown eyes, then finished our visit with a tasting of Macroom’s five different cheeses.

When asked what the difference was between raising water buffalo in Italy versus in Ireland, Dorothy lamented that in Italy the animals were not allowed to wander outdoors as freely as at Macroom farm. “They are kept mostly indoors, tended by Indian immigrants, and not given the same delicious green grass that our cows munch on here every day, year-round.” Then she added with singular pride, “Our weather conditions are particularly favorable for growing endless supplies of healthy, green grass.” 

Whether the comment about the Indian immigrants was a bit of blarney, we’ll never know.  However, Dorothy’s description of the grass—yet another example of the 40 shades of green—was indisputable!