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Close Family and Friends for a Saint Patricks Day Dinner

Perhaps you’ve done the St. Patrick’s Day parade route every year, but you’re looking for a better way to celebrate this year. Many Americans like to host an authentic St Patricks Day dinner for close family and friends.

You can either go all out and do it yourself or ask everyone to bring an Irish dish for a “potluck dinner.” While your first instinct may be to shop for corned beef and cabbage, there are a number of traditional dishes from which to choose.

According to the Food Services of America organization, a Saint Patricks Day dinner feast of corned beef and cabbage is perhaps more of an Irish immigrant luxury than a traditional dinner served in Ireland.

Thanks to the use of expensive salts in production, corned beef was a costly delicacy that was reserved for annual Easter feasts. Pork and fresh beef would be more authentic Saint Patricks Day dinner ideas.

The FSA recommends serving up the following dishes for your dinner this March. Mom had floury potatoes cooked up, with cabbage, butter and warm soda bread on the side.

Lest not we forget what drinks to serve with our special St Patricks Day feast ideas! A typical accompaniment to any Irish table would be something like Guinness or Murphy’s. The Guinness brewery originated in St. James’s Gate, Dublin circa 1725 and remains the top-selling beer in Ireland.

Murphy’s Irish Stout, based in County Cork since 1856, is the fastest growing stout in the world, available in 70 countries now. It’s a fallacy that green beer mug is representative of an authentic Irish celebration.

Some people think it’s cute to mix a few drops of green food coloring in a lighter beer like Harp, but you’re best served with Irish lager, Irish stout or Irish ale. The most popular lagers sold in Ireland include Harp and Heineken and not St Patricks Day party ideas.

Irish stouts like Guinness, Murphy’s and Beamish are heavier, darker beers. Smithwick’s is the most heralded Irish red ale. For Irish whiskey, look for Bushmills or Jameson.

What Saint Patrick’s Day dinner would be complete without a tasty Irish dessert? Irish chef Damien Brassel of Knife & Fork in Manhattan recommends serving a bottle of whiskey.

Cathal Armstrong, an Irish chef at Restaurant Eve in Alexandria, Virginia, recommends apple-based desserts like crumbles, pies, cakes, fritters, dumplings or soufflés. For an Irish-American take on desserts, try a Guinness Cake.

With any luck, your Saint Patrick’s Day dinner will inspire your children to carry on Irish customs and traditions of their own one day.