Irish Bacon and Cabbage Pot Pie

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Hey guys it’s Alicia and I have a really fun recipe for you today. I’m starting my Irish recipes. If you don’t know what I’m talking about I’ve been doing a series of posts of international recipes you can find German recipes here and my Ecuadorian recipes here from February. I still actually have one Ecuadorian recipe left. March is Ireland.

And today we have a twist on a classic Irish dish.

Irish Bacon and Cabbage Pie

So in Ireland there’s a dish called bacon and cabbage and it’s a sliced boiled ham with boiled cabbage. But I found this Donal Skehan recipe where he made it into a mini pies.

I really like this idea so I thought I would make a larger version.

Preparing the Bacon

His recipe calls for bacon joint and I didn’t know what that was. I looked it up and I found that in Ireland and other parts of Europe much of the pig is referred to as bacon (as opposed to what Americans think of as bacon) except for the leg because that is ham. Specifically, a bacon joint is from the front end of the pig and marbled with fat. So I decided I would just get some pork shoulder and brine it with some seasonings commonly used in Irish cooking.

I prepared the brine 3 days before I planned to make the pie. I let my pork marinate in the brine that whole time. When it was done I boiled it in enough water to cover the pork, until the pork was just done. The meat came out very tender and juicy. It was quite delicious. I didn’t want to over cook it because I knew it’d be getting a bake in the oven.

Later when I realized he had a video (after I had already bought my ingredients) I saw that he was actually using ham! Ham would be good in this recipe as well. But I do really like the flavor my pork got from the brine.

Pork Brine 

Preparing the Bacon and Cabbage Pie

For the crust of my pie I used the recipe we shared with you before, Mom’s Pie Crust. A classic recipe in my family. I made the dough and then refrigerated it while I prepared the filling for the pie. This made the dough a bit easier to handle.

I tried to cut out a little shamrock for the center of my pie with leftover dough.

The filling is full of vegetables and a beautiful white sauce. Not too many spices but the mustard adds something special to the filling. It doesn’t taste mustardy, yet you can taste it. I know that doesn’t make sense but if you make it you’ll see what I’m talking about. It’s a very subtle flavor that adds depth to the sauce.

And it’s so delicious! My husband was skeptical at first because everything is basically boiled and there weren’t many spices besides salt and pepper. But he kept telling me “This is so good babes!” And he went for seconds so I consider this a win.

I made my pie based on Donal’s recipe but changed a few things, so I include here my version of a Bacon and Cabbage Pie.

Irish Bacon And Cabbage Pot Pie

Check back next week for another Irish recipe and later this week for another Ecuadorian recipe!