Why Do People Eat Corned Beef on St. Patrick’s Day?

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Britannica Editors

History

Every year on St. Patrick’s Day, Americans of all backgrounds celebrate Ireland’s patron saint by eating corned beef and cabbage. The culinary pairing is as much a holiday tradition as parades, Guinness, and the color green. Understandably, many people assume that this food tradition comes from Ireland. In reality, eating corned beef on March 17 is about as American as eating apple pie.

Although corned beef was not unknown in Ireland historically speaking, we have 19th-century immigrants to thank for its modern popularity. It was the Irish diaspora, particularly in the United States, who adopted it in their new homelands. Beef has historically been relatively scarce in Ireland, and, as a measure of wealth in ancient Irish society, it was not widely eaten because it was prohibitively expensive. A St. Patrick’s Day meal was instead likely to involve Irish bacon, a kind of ham, in a culinary culture that favored pork over other meats.

In the United States, however, Irish immigrants found that beef was abundant and inexpensive, and they also discovered that their Jewish neighbors in New York and other cities with significant immigrant populations ate corned beef. Notably, its texture is similar to that of Irish bacon. In addition, the food was typically eaten with the eastern European staples of cabbage and potatoes, which were also staples of Irish cooking. In time, the connection between Irish consumers and kosher butchers and the ready availability of beef both helped make corned beef an Irish American tradition.

Fun fact

Just how popular is corned beef on St. Patrick’s Day? According to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, nearly 70 percent of all sales in volume of corned beef in the United States occur during the four weeks surrounding the holiday.

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