Food and culinary cultures in pre-Famine Ireland

Abstract:AbstractThis essay investigates how the treatment of food—its acquisition, preparation and consumption, and in particular how food was cooked—can express differences between social classes in pre-Famine Ireland. It describes culinary cultures that range from the singularly simple to the decidedly flamboyant. Drawing on the evidence of estate papers and manuscript receipt (recipe) collections, this paper illustrates how cookery at the upper echelons of Irish society was sophisticated, refined and closely aligned to the norms of British culinary culture. The paper will also briefly describe the stagnant and debased food culture of the rural poor, most especially in the early decades of the nineteenth century. Between these extremes existed a rural ‘middling’ class for whom food and cookery was varied and imbued with value beyond that dictated by the market. The stratified nature of Irish society suggests the coexistence of a number of food and culinary systems. Questions of how distinct, overlapping and interdependent these systems were deserve investigation. However, of equal concern is the fact that these issues also raise the question as to whether the evidence is substantial enough to frame and support any reliable comparative analysis.