Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with Irish Meatcakes

Early Irish Ingredients

To make ends meet, Irish wives would add bread to the meat, making it seem like there was more meat than there actually was. They would usually add their stale bread and crusts, saving the scarce fresh bread for their actual meal. Just as edible potatoes were very scarce, good onions were also hard to find, due to the potato blight which also damaged turnips. So to offset the often very strong taste of so-so onions, a pinch of sugar was used.

Meatcakes in Brooklyn

Meatcakes were especially popular with the Irish in the Brooklyn areas of Park Slope, Brooklyn Heights, the Columbia Street waterfront and Red Hook docks by the mouth of New York Harbor across from the Statue of Liberty. Many an Irishman would come home from a day tunneling to build the Brooklyn Bridge, or working as policeman or firemen (there were many fires in early New York and Brooklyn), to a traditional Irish dinner of meatcakes, a baked potato and freshly-shelled peas. Meatcakes are still served today in many Irish American families by wives and mothers who remember their grandmothers making them for dinner in their kitchens.

County Mayo Recipe

• Heat butter in sauce or frying pan.
• Combine 1 lb. lean ground beef, 1 egg, 3/4 cup chopped onions
• Add 1 and 1/2 cup torn bread into a mixture.
• Add 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper and 1 teaspoon sugar.
• Shape into 6 partially flattened meatballs.
• Cook on medium heat for about 10 minutes, compressing gently with spatula.
• Be sure inside of meatcake is cooked thoroughly.
• Remove from pan. Drain on paper towel.
• Serve with baked potatoes, green peas and ketchup to taste.

 
Besides being extremely economical, ’tis a grand family meal!