Cork: An Irish Culinary Spot

a cheese course

If you’ve read my previous post on Ireland, you know one of my complaints about Rick Steves is that he omitted the City of Cork from his Ireland travel guide.  I thought that was an incredible oversight, although he was quick to offer Kinsale and Cobh as alternatives, and I agree that both are wonderful towns, but I wanted to correct the implication that Cork is not a destination.  For any culinary traveler visiting Ireland – Cork is worth a day trip for its English Market and Butter Museum.

A bit about Cork

Cork comes from the word corcach meaning “swamp” and is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland’s third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative center of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster with a population exceeding 200,000.

Cork is a shipping town, given its prime location along the River Lee which divides into two channels at the western end of the city. The city center is on the island created by the channels.  At the eastern end of the city center they converge; and the Lee flows into Cork Harbour, the world’s second largest natural harbour after Sydney Harbour in Australia. Not surprisingly, the city is a major Irish seaport with quays and docks lining the banks of the Lee on the city’s east side.

photo from tvlspecialists.com

Saint Finbarr founded Cork as a monastic settlement in the sixth century.  It developed into a more urban dwelling between 915 and 922 when Norseman (Viking) settlers founded a trading port.  Speculation exists that, like Dublin, Cork was an important trading center in the global Scandinavian trade network. The city’s charter was granted by King John in 1185.

The city was once fully walled, and like many old cities, some remnants of the wall and gates remain today.  For much of the Middle Ages, Cork was an outpost of Old English culture in the midst of a predominantly hostile Gaelic countryside and separated from the English government in the Pale around Dublin. Neighbouring Gaelic and Hiberno-Norman lords extorted “Black Rent” from the citizens to keep them from attacking the city.  The Cork municipal government was dominated by about 12-15 merchant families, whose wealth came from overseas trade with continental Europe – in particular the export of wool and hides and the import of salt, iron and wine. Of these families, only the Ronayne family were of Gaelic Irish origin.

A description of Cork written in 1577 speaks of the city as, “the fourth city of Ireland” that is, “so encumbered with evil neighbours, the Irish outlaws, that they are fayne to watch their gates hourly…they trust not the country adjoining [and only marry within the town] so that the whole city is linked to each other in affinity”

photo from latebreak.com

County Cork’s nickname “the Rebel County” stems from a reputation for rebelliousness it gained dating back to the town’s support of the English Pretender (to the English throne), Perkin Warbeck, in 1491 following the Wars of the Roses.  He recruited several prominent supporters in the city to follow him to England to overthrow Henry VII.  Unfortunately, events did not goe as planned and they were captured and executed.  Corkonians often refer to the city as the “real capital of Ireland”, and themselves as the “Rebels”.  The good people of Dublin are free to disagree, I’m sure.

During the War of Independence, found the center of Cork gutted by fires started by the British Black and Tans, and fierce fighting between Irish guerrillas and UK forces.  The city hall, a notable limestone structure, replaced the previous one which was destroyed by the fire started Black and Tans during the “Burning of Cork”.  The cost of this new building was absorbed by the UK Government in the 1930s as a gesture of reconciliation.

Cork was briefly held by anti-Treaty forces during the Irish Civil War, until it was retaken by the pro-Treaty National Army in an attack from the sea.

The climate of Cork, like the rest of Ireland, is mild and changeable with abundant rainfall and a lack of temperature extremes.  Cork is considered a foggy city averaging about 100 days of overcast a year, it is also known as one of Ireland’s sunniest cities averaging about 3.9 hours a day, and has 69 days with no recordable sunshine- which probably does not speak well to the amount of sunshine Ireland in general receives.  [source: wikipedia]

Places of note

Cork features a number of architecturally notable buildings from the Medieval (Red Abbey) to modern times.  There are two cathedrals in the city; St Mary’s Cathedral and St Finbarr’s Cathedral. St Mary’s Cathedral, quite often referred to as the North Cathedral is the Roman Catholic cathedral of the city and was built in 1808.  St Finbarr’s Cathedral serves the Protestant faith and is the more famous of the two.

St. Patrick’s Street, the main street of the city and is known for the architecture of the buildings along its pedestrian-friendly route and is the main shopping thoroughfare. The reason for its curved shape is that it originally was a channel of the River Lee that was built over on arches.  The adjacent Grand Parade is a tree-lined avenue, home to offices, shops and financial institutions.  Most of the action, at least from a visitors standpoint seems to take place close to these routes.  Side streets off St. Patrick Street are designation as pedestrian priority zones or pedestrian streets to promote the slow meandering along store fronts.

longest sign I'd ever seen

Many of the city’s buildings are in the Georgian style, although there are a number of examples of modern landmark structures, such as County Hall tower, which was once the tallest building in the Republic of Ireland until being superseded by another Cork City building: The Elysian. Across the river from County Hall is Ireland’s longest building; built in Victorian times, Our Lady’s Psychiatric Hospital now renovated and converted into a residential housing complex called Atkins Hall, after its architect William Atkins.  We saw it from our train window and it was indeed an impressive site.

Cork’s most famous building is the St. Anne’s church tower on Shandon Street, which dominates the northern part of the city. It is widely regarded as the symbol of the city. The North and East sides are faced in red sandstone, and the West and South sides are white limestone. It is known for its bells and clock which have the nickname “four faced liar” on account that the time is a bit different on each of the four faces.   At the top sits a weather vane in the shape of an eleven-foot salmon which both represents fishing in the Lee and also given this is a Christian church, a fish was an early symbol for the name of the Lord.

The English Market

a welcome sign

This market is one of the oldest of its kind, with trade continuing since 1788 in its present building, but its origins go back to 1610.  It pre-dates most similar types of markets.  Indeed, another 80 years would pass before Barcelona’s famous Boqueria would open its doors.  Given that it was a shipping town, the diversity of food stuffs found here is not surprising.

When you first enter, its a bit like Aladdin’s cave for a food lover, every corner offers new  and delicious surprises that must be explored.  This is not a place to set aside an hour – more time is definitely required to do the market justice and to appease the attack of hunger that strikes the minute you pass through the entrance given the food choices:

• cheese – check, check, and check again!
• chocolate – oh yes!
• meats – pick a cut!
• charcuterie – not to be missed
• fish – the fresh delicacies were a delight to look at and the smoked, well
• Irish ice cream – oh my yes – wicked concoctions with Baileys, and Irish whiskey and the like.
• spices – yes! one stall had spices from Algeria and given its relatively proximity they were, even with the exchange rate, a good deal for Americans
• traditional local dishes such as crubeens (pig trotter’s), tripe and drisheen (intestines stuffed with sheep or pigs’ blood, and bitter tansey all boiled in milk)

good stuff ahead, and behind, and to the left...

The only down side for me, was knowing that back in my hotel room was a suitcase that still must be lugged from train station to lodging and back for several more days, so I was very mindful of weight and volume.  Also, with all the ingredients spread out before me, my hands literally itched to delve into a kitchen and cook, and tackle the ingredients before me.

I did manage to bring back some items:

From Frank Hederman, I brought back some smoked mackerel as I knew my husband would love it.  I took a chance that I’d be able to avoid turning into paste in my cramped baggage.  It was truly stunning – the flavors were delicious and not too smokey to overwhelm the taste of the fish.  Their shop is actually in Cobh, which is about 20 minutes away from Cork by train, and another town worth a visit.  I missed it there, but was relieved to check out their products in Cork.  They had also just started selling some smoked eel when I was there, and it was incredible,

a local batch of goodness

but I knew buying some of that to take back to the US would have really pressed my luck.

I got some smoked sausages from Gubbeens that were delicious and fared well in my suitcase until I could share them back in the States.

Did I mentioned the cheese?  Given that Cork is blessed as a very agrarian county, much of the cheese found in this market is local and it was dairy bliss.  I picked up several samples, which proved to be far more than we could consume for an evening meal and served as a lunch on the train the next day: goat, cow, sheep milk cheese were all well represented.

The Butter Museum

a butter churner

This place gets barely a mention in the guidebooks we used – someone needs to focus on its marketing.  We stopped into a store two blocks away to ask for directions as we felt we were turned around and the clerk had no idea of what we were talking about.  The museum is located on bank on the opposite side of the river from the main pedestrian mall, including the English market and the train and bus stations- so an extra effort is required to get here.  It is in the Chanden area near St Anne’s church.

This museum is not a place to learn about the different types of butter and sample the flavors.  This museum tells the story of how butter came to have a considerable impact on the Irish economy, coming from a truly commodity product to something that really helped drive the Irish market both at home and abroad – making it the world’s largest butter market and Ireland’s most successful food export.  Along the way you learn fun facts about:

• early butter making
• cattle raiding
• baptisms in milk
• bog butter

a butter working table

Milk and milk products have been an integral part of the Irish diet.  Nothing was allowed to come between an ancient Irish man and his milk.  Most bull calves, except those needed for breeding or working the plows were put to death and the calves were carefully separated from the cows to ensure that most of the milk went to human consumption.  Such was the importance of milk that in ancient literature, saints and children of noble birth were baptized in milk.  A man’s worth was determined by the number of cows he owned.  A king’s measure was taken by the number of cows he stole from his enemy along with the daringness of his raids.

If you had been in Cork towards the end of the eighteenth century you would have seen a spiderweb of mountain tracks and roads along the boundaries of Cork.  They were the result of farmers bringing butter into the Cork Butter Market.  Their journeys were long and difficult compounded by the weather and the unwanted attentions of highwaymen.  To counter some of these annoyances, they bounded together in small convoys.  In the late 1800s, the government took steps to improve the roads, and sometimes shorten them to dramatically reduce the time it took to get to market.

inspector markings

In the 1720′s, legislation requiring butter to be weighed, so weight houses and weigh-masters were introduced. In Cork they went one step further and introduced a unique quality control system that garnered an international reputation for the quality of Cork butter, as it proved to be one of the most rigorous rating systems in Europe.  They applied one of six grades to the butter.  Inspectors reviewed the casks before it was sent to the farmer and again on its return ensuring that the butter had been properly packed.  To guarantee that counterfit casks, bearing the markings, were not shipped out – the quays were patrolled by additional inspectors.

table top churn

Farmers worked with butter brokers at the Cork market.  These brokers made cash advances to the farmers, supplied them with firkins (branded butter barrels issued and regulated but the exchange), paid the tolls on butter brought into the city, and for all this work they received a fee.  The butter market was open round the clock to facilitate the farmers who traveled great distances.    The market was divided into four sections: A, B, C, and D – the inspectors drew lots to determine which section they would inspect on a given day.  This system deterred bribery as there was no prior knowledge of which inspector would examine a producers firkin.  The Butter Market also regulated the price of the various grades of butter.  Exporters were compelled to buy lots containing all grades to insure that the lower grades of butter would be sold off.

In Ireland, cows were milked in the mountain pastures and makeshift dairies called ‘booleys’ (from the Irish buaile, “a milking place”) were commonly established.  Driving cows to the mountain pastures in the summertime was known as transhumance. Lightly salted butter (gruiten) and fresh butter (lmur) were made, with the fresh butter mainly eaten in the summertime.

Bogs were considered nature’s refrigerator – from AD 200 – 1800s butter was made and packed in special containers and buried in the peat bogs.  3000 year old butter has recently been discovered.

Cattle raiding was elevated to a near national past time.  Almost as much time was spent in conducting missions to swipe cattle as was spent in tending them.  Both functions appeared to be fully integrated and resulted in a formation of nomadic communities called creaghts.  Members of the creaghts wandered the countryside herding the cows which accompanied the Irish armies on their raids providing milk for curds, butter and cheese making.  Members of the raiding party sought the element of surprise and considered it especially lucky if the victim, was himself, on a raid.  Separating the cattle was the easy part, getting them back to the safety of home was another matter, as they were now slowed by the cattle and chased by the spitting mad owner.  These raids were not necessarily on the neighbors, and the most daring traversed hundreds of miles.

seal of goodness

But the history of butter aside, the overriding story is the creation of Kerrygold, and how the small, independent dairy farmer, who could not get a break in the market as his product was such a commodity, finally found a voice with the creation of The Irish Dairy Board, An Bord Bainne.  Before that farmers would like up and the buyer would go down the line until he got to the cheapest prices.  Imagine, you hear your neighbor ask X for his milk, you offer X-.01 and the next guy offers just less than you, and so it went until no more buyers were to be found.  They also struggled as many less industrial countries do with selling the raw materials (milk) often at a loss and then having to pay the relative exorbitant prices for the finished product (butter) which is where the margins lied.  If you have an interest in business, this is a true marketing success story.

Finally, I stumbled across this writing by Noreen Kinney regarding her work on making Irish Cuisine something to be reckoned with.  She chronicles the long time it took to get recognized.

Tags: bog butter, butter, Butter Museum, Cork, dairy, English Market, Ireland, milk