The South and The West of It: Boxty

07/10/2011

Boxty is what you do with your leftovers, as far as I'm concerned, but this mornings 'Irish Cuisine" (the Irish I'm sure appreciate the irony in that term) was freshly made - potato boiled, mashed, mixed with scallions and grated potato, fried in lard or bacon fat. Boxty is also served as a pancake, mashed potato thinned with milk and egg added to bind it. Seaweed - carrageen or Carraigin is a traditionally accompanying dish, as is black pudding , which is also called blood pudding. I've added white cabbage as a less offensive ingredient, as bacon and cabbage is another staple dish of the Irish. While cooking this morning, it has brought back childhood memories of holidays in the west of Ireland, of watching my father boil live crabs he had caught that day, and my mother eat tiny yellow periwinkles with a pin, as she considered these a delicacy. I'm still shy of shellfish now.

Boxty on the griddle,
boxty on the pan,
If you can't bake boxty
sure you'll never get a man.

. and today is the first and last day I'll ever make Boxty.

The south and the west of it: Ireland and me, Oriana Torrey Atkinson, Random House, 1956

Comments

Alex Barrett

07/13/2011 19:05

I’m brought back to thinking of tradition and heritage here, the notion of leftovers particularly conjuring thoughts of times that have passed. You’ve made much light of your own feelings regarding this project and the use of food as a medium, the worry of waste, the seeming indulgence, the almost frivolous nature, and it is easy to see here why such questions would be raised. The notion of creating something from the recipe of a dish that is intended to be a way of lessoning waste, and perhaps even making ends meet, is actually quite charming. To consider such values in relation to being constructed from scratch, and freshly made, could in fact appear counterproductive, but I think it is there that the weight of the matter is held. Years ago society would have on the most part scorned such concepts, which goes without question, as there were generations that knew rationing. In the modern day western world of readymade meals and seemingly disposable clothes, it begins to seem acceptable.

There is every reason to be constructing these works, and the use of the materials in question is in my opinion completely justified, and certainly essential to the project. You said yourself that the works serve an emotional purpose far beyond the shelf life of the materials or ingredients (or rather you expressed that intention; the exact words have now escaped me) and indeed there are photographs, comments and memories that serve to document each work.

That personal memories have been conjured just by the use of certain foods is a testament to how important food actually is. A trigger for the senses, it is a constant background element to all of our endeavours, and capable of transporting us to a given place or time. Your afterthought regarding the first and last time that you’ll ever make Boxty would prove poignant for me even without the inclusion of the rhyme, a sense of moving on and acceptance seems to be inherent – knowledge that one can reminisce, without having to relive. The past is the past, now is now, and I’m drawn to the conclusion that one can recycle leftovers in more than just a physical sense.