Pictures of Irish Food
New! We've now collected all the Irish food images from across our website into a single Flickr photoset. To see the pictures as a slideshow, click here: or you can look at the main page for the photoset here.
Looking for pictures of Irish people? Click here. And afterwards, come back to find out what those people eat!
And if you're looking for traditional Irish recipes instead of just pictures of Irish dishes, please click here.
You probably already know or suspect that Irish people, like most other citizens of the industrial European Union, eat as much ready-made and ethnic food as anyone else. Our supermarkets are as full of locally produced cook-chill meals and frozen entrees as those in North America -- though we probably have a lot more imported ready-meals than North Americans do: it's great to get fresh pasta from Italy, fresh moussaka from Greece, and so on... (For much more information about what Irish people eat these days, see this article.)
The traditional Irish dishes are still around, though -- and in supermarket versions, too: the Tesco chain, for example, sells surprisingly good microwaveavable colcannon and champ. But lots of people are still interested in what the older traditional dishes look like when you cook them "from scratch". Such dishes are at their best here where they were invented, and where they can be made with some of the highest-quality produce in Europe -- including meats free from antibiotics and hormones, and fish from the unpolluted Irish offshore waters. Here are some examples. (Click on each dish's name for a recipe [when we have one. We'll be adding more recipe links to this page shortly: please bear with us].)
The complete Irish cooked breakfast, also known as "The Full Irish".
Black Pudding with Tart Apple Puree
(The word "pudding" still keeps its older meaning in Ireland, and can refer to various kinds of sausage as well as to desserts.) Black pudding is also part of the traditional Irish Breakfast.
Potato And Apple Cake
Eaten both as a "tea bread" and a dessert.
Irish Soda Bread
One of the most famous of Irish foods. For much more information and history of soda bread, more recipes, and a video tutorial on how to make both the "cake" and "farl" styles of soda bread, see Peter's Mum's Soda Bread Recipe Page.
A sort of cross between a quiche and an omelet, with herbs.
Leek And Potato Soup
A winter favorite.
Irish Stew
Everybody argues about it. Which seasonings should you use? To thicken or not to thicken? Where does the best lamb come from? And most contentiously -- carrots, or no carrots? Our Irish stew collection has all the main variations on the theme.
Simple, but excellent on a cold spring day.
Beef in Guinness
The Guinness produces a wonderfully rich, dark gravy.
Originally a way to use up leftover sausages, and one of those slow-cook dishes it's impossible to ruin if you use the right potatoes! Check our recipe for instructions on how to make this yummy dish.
Poached Salmon with Sorrel Sauce
Salt Beef with Cabbage And Parsley Sauce
Or "corned beef" -- people here do eat it, but it's hardly the national dish! (For more information on the subject, see this page, which includes a survey on what Irish people really eat on St. Patrick's Day.)
Colcannon (top) and Stampy (bottom)
Colcannon is a country dish that produces as many arguments and "favorite recipes" as Irish stew does. Everybody's mother makes the best one! Click here for lore about colcannon and several different recipes.
Stampy is one of Ireland's many, many potato breads. Click here for a typical recipe.
Whiskey Trifle
A multi-layered sweet dessert with a kick!
