Week 11: Breakfast - Corned Beef Hash

Last night's dinner

The combination of St. Patrick's Day and corned beef has always existed in my house. I did some reading to see just how Irish it really is and found that, while corned beef production was dominated by Ireland in the 19th century, it was rarely consumed by the Irish because they couldn't afford it. It was all consumed by the colonial English, especially the Royal Navy. The connection between the dish and St. Patrick's is purely an American invention. Still, I will always make corned beef on March 17th, if for no other reason than having corned beef hash for breakfast the next day.

This recipe from Alton Brown has been a standby in my house since the first St. Patrick's Day my wife and I lived together. We have substituted various meats in it as well: leftover turkey, pork shoulder carnitas, beef brisket. It is really easy to adapt it to whatever is in your fridge.

We didn't have bell peppers, but did have some sweet peppers. Like I said, adaptable.

If you don't have a cast iron skillet, get one. If you don't have friends that bring you Amish butter, get some of them too!

Brown up the peppers.

Chop everything else up and throw it in. Mix it up.

In fact, if you don't have two cast iron skillets, get two. Lined with parchment paper and used the second skillet to weigh down the hash. This is how Alton did it on Good Eats, but the recipe doesn't tell you that.

This is Kilgore. He is obviously very interested in how to cook, because he always right by me when I am cooking.

Fry up an egg and throw it on top. Hot sauce optional. Don't worry about a little char; it makes it better.

Recipe, as always, is available from the source.