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Corned Beef

Corned beef

Corned beef is beef that is first pickled in brine and then cooked by boiling. Usually, cuts of meat are used that feature long muscle grain, such as the brisket. The name corned beef is due to a coarse salt used in the pickling process. Corn originally meant grain, as in a small particle of something, and referred to the corns of salt.

In the United States

In the United States, corned beef is often purchased at delicatessens. Perhaps the most famous sandwich made with it is the Reuben sandwich, consisting of corned beef, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and Russian dressing on rye bread and served hot. It is also associated with Saint Patrick's Day when Irish Americans eat a traditional meal of corned beef and cabbage. According to the [http://www.historychannel.com/exhibits/stpatricksday/?page=history7 History Channel], while cabbage has long been a traditional food item for the Irish, corned beef serving as a substitute for Irish bacon, first became traditional in the late 1800s. Irish immigrants living in New York City's Lower East Side learned about this cheaper alternative to bacon from their Jewish neighbors. Corned beef hash is commonly served as a breakfast food with eggs and hash browns.

Local variants


- New York style corned beef is called pastrami, which is highly spiced.
- Montreal style corned beef is called smoked meat, or less commonly, smoked beef.

In other countries

In the United Kingdom corned beef is normally bought in canned form, and usually regarded as a 'cheap' foodstuff. Most of it is sourced from Brazil and Argentina. It is common in the United States in this form, as well. It is known in UK military circles as bully-beef. In Denmark corned beef is alternatively known as either saltkød (lit. "cured meat") or sprængt oksebryst (lit. "lightly salted beef brisket"). Traditional uses of the two are distinctive. Saltkød is used as a cold cut (pålæg), and figures prominently in the famous Danish open sandwich, smørrebrød, called Dyrlægens natmad (lit, "Veterinarian's midnight snack")— On a piece of dark rye bread, a layer of liver paté (leverpostej) is topped with a slice of corned beef (salt kød) and a slice of meat aspic (sky). This is all decorated with raw onion rings and cress. Sprængt oksebryst, on the other hand, is often served warm, as well as cold. It is traditionally served warm with boiled potatoes, horseradish sauce and pickles, a mixture of chopped, pickled vegetables (cauliflower, carrots, onion) in a yellow gelatinous sauce.

19th century corned beef recipe


- Fifty pounds (23 kg) of beef
- Three pounds of coarse salt
- One ounce of saltpeter
- Three-quarters of a pound of sugar
- Two gallons of water Mix the above ingredients together and pour over the meat. Cover the tub closely.

References


- [http://www.mspong.org/cyclopedia/cookery.html#corned_beef The Household Cyclopedia], 1888 Category:Cold cut Category:Beef Category:Jewish foods Category:Pickles ja:コンビーフ

Beef

]] Beef is meat obtained from a bovine. Beef is one of the principal meats used in European cuisine and cuisine of the Americas, and is important in Africa, East Asia, and Southeast Asia as well. In the Middle East, it is very rare to have lunch without beef. Beef can be cut into steak, pot roasts, short ribs, or ground into hamburger. Several Asian and European nationalities include the blood in their cuisine as well -- it is used in some varieties of blood sausage, and Filipinos use it to make a stew called dinuguan. Other beef variety meats include the tongue, which is usually sliced for sandwiches in Western cooking; tripe from the stomach; various glands—particularly the pancreas and thyroid—referred to as sweetbreads; the heart, the brain, the liver, the kidneys; and the tender testicles of the bull commonly known as "beef balls", "calf fries", "prairie oysters", or "Rocky Mountain oysters." The better cuts are usually obtained from steers, as heifers tend to be kept for breeding. Older animals are used for beef when they are past their reproductive prime. The meat from older cows and bulls is generally tougher, so it is frequently used for ground beef. Cattle raised for beef may be allowed to roam free on grasslands, or may be confined at some stage in pens as part of a large feeding operation called a feedlot. The United States, Brazil, the EU, China, and India, are the world's five largest producers of beef. Beef production is also important to the economy of Argentina, the Russian Federation, Australia, Mexico, and Canada.

USDA Beef grades

In the United States, the USDA operates a voluntary beef grading program. The meat processor pays for the presence of a highly trained USDA meat grader who grades the whole carcass prior to fabrication. The carcass grade is stamped on each primal cut (six stamps) and applied with roller stamp to each side as well. You can often see traces of the USDA grading stamp on boxed primal cuts. The grades are based on two main criteria, the degree of marbling (intramuscular fat) in the beef rib eye and the age of the animal prior to slaughter. Some meat scientists object to the current scheme of USDA grading since it does not take tenderness into account. Most other countries beef grading systems mirror the US model. Most beef offered for sale in supermarkets is graded choice or select. Prime beef is sold to hotels and upscale restaurants. Beef that would rate as Standard or leaner is almost never offered for grading.
- Prime — most tender and highest in fat
- Choice
- Select — the leanest grade commonly sold
- Standard
- Commercial
- Utility
- Cutter
- Canner

Cuts of beef

(This section denotes the American system of beef cutting. Other cultures have similar systems, but the exact cuts and terminology differ). American

Primal cuts

Beef is first divided into primal cuts. These are basic sections from which steaks and other subdivisions are cut. The following is a list of the primal cuts, ordered front to back, then top to bottom. The short loin and the sirloin are sometimes considered as one section. When looking at a diagram such as the one above, note that the closer to the middle back, the more tender the meat is. Since the animal's legs and neck muscles do the most work, they are the toughest; the meat becomes progressively more tender as distance from "hoof and horn" increases. upper half
- Chuck - one of the most common sources for hamburger.
- Rib
- Short Loin - the most tender, and the most expensive; from which porterhouse steaks, and filet mignon are cut.
- Sirloin - less tender than short loin, but more flavorful.
- Round lower half
- Brisket and Shank
- Plate
- Flank Also see the external links section below for links to more beef cut charts and diagrams.

Special beef designations


- Buccleuch Scotch beef originates in a designated area on and around the estate of the Duke of Buccleuch in Scotland.
- Certified Angus Beef ™ is beef certified by the USDA to have come from Angus cattle.
- Dry aged beef has been aged using a special process.
- Grass fed beef has been raised primarily on forage rather than in a feedlot.
- Halaal beef has been certified to have been processed in a prescribed manner in accordance with Muslim tradition.
- Kobe beef : Cattle of the Wagyu breed raised and fattened in the hills above Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. During the fattening period, the beef is hand-fed (using high-energy feed, including beer and beer mash) and hand-massaged for tenderness and high fat content.
- Kosher beef has been certified to have been processed in a prescribed manner in accordance with Jewish dietary laws.
- Organic beef is produced without hormones, pesticides, or other chemicals though requirements for labeling something "organic" vary widely.
- Roast beef

Religious proscription

Beef is a taboo meat in a number of religions, most notably Hinduism, whose adherents consider cows deserving of reverence. This taboo is believed to have arisen from the necessity of cattle for milk and draft labor preempting the slaughter of young cattle for veal. Also, consumption of beef (along with other meats) is frowned upon by many Buddhists, although it is not strictly taboo. In Judaism, Beef is one of the meats considered Kosher, if butchered and prepared in accordance with religious law, under the supervision of a Rabbi. Beef is also considered Halal by Muslims under similar strictures.

"Mad cow disease"

The over-intensive farming of beef resulted in the world's first recognised outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or, colloquially, "mad cow disease") in the United Kingdom in 1986. Eating beef from cattle with BSE is thought to have caused the new variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (nvCJD) in about 131 cases (2003 June data) in the United Kingdom and some few in France. The perception of beef as potentially lethal caused significant damage to the UK beef industry. The attempts to wipe out BSE in the UK by a kill-and-burn campaign, although ultimately successful, did further damage from which the beef industry is only recently recovering. Since then, a number of other countries have had outbreaks of BSE. BSE is an illness that cattle can get by feeding them other animals (especially their brains and spines), including their own. Due to a BSE scare last year, the American border is currently closed to live Canadian cows.

Beef in the English Language

Beef occurs in various slang forms in American English that are unrelated to it being a type of meat, but perhaps more to the animal it comes from. Beef is used in a noun form in the phrase "to have (a) beef", the use of which dates back to the 19th Century, when "to beef" initially meant to loudly complain about something. The phrase means to have a feud or dispute with another party, usually an odious and publically known one. It was re-popularized by hip-hop music, especially the late Notorious B.I.G., who had a song entitled "What's Beef". Beef can also be used as the adjective "beefy" describing someone's weight, or rather their excess amount of it. However, a "beefcake" is a male considered desirable by women, due to his robust physique. This meaning relates back to an earlier meaning of "beefy" as a synonym for "muscular" or "well-built". Finally, "to beef up" has the same meaning as "to reinforce" or "to shore up", usually seen in connection with increasing numbers of soldiers, police, or other security measures in response to a perceived threat. The absence of beef also made a notable appearance in American pop culture. During the 1980's, there was an ad campaign entitled "Where's the Beef?" in which patrons of other fast food restaurants examined the hamburgers and pronounced the amount of beef lacking. The phrase has become synonymous with anything lacking substance. In British English, beef is far more established in colloquialisms, though many are vulgar. Beef also gets a more playful treatment from the British through Cockney Rhyming Slang; instead of saying "beef" one could say "stop thief" or "itchy teeth" to start the non-completed rhyme format. And, according to Cassell's Dictionary of Slang, there is a rhyming slang to describe the act of flatulation - "beef-heart".

External links


- [http://www.unhappycows.com/Beef as food]
- [http://www.grasslandbeef.com Information on Grass Fed Beef]
- [http://www.beef.org National Cattlemen's Beef Association Site]
- [http://www.foodtv.com/food/show_ea/article/0,1976,FOOD_9956_2245424,00.html Food TV diagram of various cuts of beef]
- [http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/meatcharts.html Many different meat cut charts] ([http://web.archive.org/web/20040324104236/http%3A//www.virtualweberbullet.com/meatcharts.html Internet Archive version])
- [http://www.mbn.montana.edu/ Montana Beef Network]
- [http://www.ams.usda.gov/lsg/stand/standards/beef-car.pdf USDA beef grading standards] (PDF)
- [http://web.archive.org/web/20030801230509/http%3A//www.ams.usda.gov/lsg/stand/standards/beef-car.pdf Internet Archive version]) Category:British cuisine
- ko:쇠고기 ja:牛肉 simple:Beef

Brine

Brine is water saturated or nearly saturated with salt. It is used (now less popular than historically) to preserve vegetables, fish, and meat. Brine lakes, like the Dead Sea, develop as a result of high evaporation rates in a desert climate and lack of an outlet to the ocean. The salt in these bodies of water comes from either minerals washed out of the surrounding watershed or from a geologically old, previous connection to the ocean. Another example is the Great Salt Lake in Utah. In other locations a body of water abutting the sea may have a salinity between that of sea and fresh water. This is sometimes described as brackish. An example is the Etang de Vaccares and surrounding waters in the Camargue. Man-made brine ponds, usually located along an ocean shore, are a source of commercial table salt, which is obtained by evaporating and purifying seawater. Commercial table salt is also obtained by way of a salt mine. A town in England famous for its abundance of saturated brine is Droitwich Spa.

See also


- Brining
- Sea salt
- Salt pan
- Sea water ja:食塩水 Category:Edible salt Category:Liquid water

Delicatessen

:This article is about food stores. For the movie, see Delicatessen (film). The word delicatessen designates a kind of food store. The word is of German origin, meaning "delicacies," and has different meanings in different countries. A North American delicatessen is often referred to, informally or affectionately, as a deli. In some regions of Australia, the same words are used to mean a general store or convenience store.

The US delicatessen

The delicatessen as found in the cities of the United States (and occasionally Canada) emphasizes take-out food. It is a boon to the contemporary city dweller with a distaste for chain fast food joints but without time for a sit-down or home-cooked meal. It is meant to be a one-stop in-and-out dining venue for later day meals. A delicatessen is something between a fast-food restaurant and a grocery store. It offers a much wider and fresher menu than chain fast food restaurants, never employing fry machines and always making sandwiches to order. A grocery store or supermarket may make its own deli food, or even have a deli within it. Like a market, a delicatessen may also offer a selection of shelved food, often of the type that is not likely to be kept for more than a day. Produce, when present, is limited in quantity—and often freshness. Delicatessens vary greatly in size, but are typically not as large as grocery stores. In areas with high rents for retail space, delicatessens are often quite small.

Product base

Every good delicatessen has a solid sandwich menu, all of which are made to order behind the counter. Most have a wide selection of various sandwiches, ranging from clubs to hero, hot to cold, from sandwiches to wraps. The pastrami sandwich is sometimes considered the ultimate criterion of quality in a delicatessen. Delicatessens often sell their meats by weight, as cold cuts, and prepare party trays. In addition to made-to-order sandwiches, nearly all delicatessens offer made-to-order green salads. Equally essential is a selection of pre-made—often in house—pasta, potato, chicken, tuna, shrimp, and other variety of "wet" salads, displayed underneath the counter and bought by weight. Pre-cooked chicken, shrimp, or eggplant products, possibly fried or parmigiana style are found frequently, though they do not constitute the mainstay of a delicatessen. In order to provide an opportunity for a complete meal, delicatessens also offer a wide variety of beverages, usually pre-packaged soft drinks, coffee, teas, milk, etc. Chips and similar products are available in some variety, though they rarely rival the selection of small package cookies and snack foods; some pre-packaged, others store-made and cellophane wrapped. Alongside these primarily lunch and dinner products, a delicatessen might also offer a number of additional items geared toward the breakfast eater, including baked goods (breakfast pastries, bagels, toast), yogurt, and warm, egg "breakfast sandwiches". Newspapers and small food items such as candy and mints are also usually available for purchase. Most delicatessens are run by a regular staff; getting to know them will probably improve your service.

Urban affiliation

The North American delicatessen is skewed towards cities, particularly older cities that are less car-oriented, thus favoring walk-in traffic. The residents of New York City have a particularly close connection to their delis, and many delicatessens outside of New York call themselves "New York Delicatessen," to evoke the emotional appeal of the traditional New York City delicatessen.

Delikatessen in Germany

In Germany, "Delikatessen" (as it is spelled) has a rather different meaning. The traditional German Delikatessenläden ("stores for delicacies") sold mostly top-quality foodstuffs for cooking, not the take-out food characteristic of North American delicatessens. Such stores have mostly disappeared today, while the need for specialty stores has shifted to foreign specialties, like "Asia shops" and so on.

Canadian usage

In Canada, both uses of the term are found. First-generation immigrants from Europe often use the term in a manner consistent with its original German meaning.

Origin of the word

Reference works state that the word delicatessen comes from German Delikatessen, and that this German word is the plural of Delikatesse, which in turn comes from French and means "delicate things (to eat)". The word delicate is recorded in Latin as delicatus, with the meaning "giving pleasure, delightful". An alternative popular etymology supposes that the -essen part of the word is in fact the German word essen (= English: to eat, German: das Essen = English: the food). This would mean that the word is a portmanteau of the German words "delikates" (delicate, nominative case) and "Essen".

List of famous delicatessens


- Katz's Deli, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan
- 2nd Avenue Deli, a kosher deli in Manhattan's East Village
- Canter's, a delicatessen-restaurant in the Fairfax district of Los Angeles
- [http://www.german-grocery.com German-Grocery.com] Purchase German food and deli - worldwide delivery

See also


- Supermarket
- Fast food
- Urban culture Category:Jewish foods Category:Food retailing

Reuben sandwich

The Reuben or Reuben sandwich is a grilled or toasted sandwich made with corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, and Russian dressing. It is typically made with rye bread though originally it may have been served on pumpernickel bread. The origins of the Reuben are contested. One account holds that Reuben Kulakofsky (sometimes spelled Reubin), a grocer from Omaha, Nebraska, was the inventor, perhaps as part of a group effort by members of Kulakofsky's weekly poker game held in the Blackstone Hotel from ca. 1920-1935. The participants, who nicknamed themselves "the committee," included the hotel's owner, Charles Schimmel. The sandwich first gained local fame when Schimmel put it on the Blackstone's lunch menu. Descendants of Arnold Reuben, owner of the now defunct Reuben Restaurant on 58th Street in New York City, also claim the invention. They maintain that Arnold Reuben invented the sandwich in 1914 to serve to Annette Seelos, an actress who supposedly was one of Charlie Chaplin's leading ladies. The former version appears more widely accepted. The oldest known Reuben artifact is a menu from the Cornhusker Hotel in Lincoln, Nebraska, from 1937. Also, in an article published in the Omaha Evening World-Herald in 1965, Ed Schimmel, son of Charles Schimmel, is quoted as claiming to have visited the Reuben Restaurant where he ordered a Reuben only to discover that "they had never heard of it."

Recipe

Ingredients: drained sauerkraut, chopped sweet onion, chopped parsley, creamy Russian dressing (2:1 mayonnaise to chili sauce), sliced rye bread, sliced corn beef, sliced Swiss cheese, and butter
- combine the sauerkraut, onion, and parsley
- spread Russian dressing on two slices bread
- pile layers of corned beef, cheese, and sauerkraut mixture on one slice
- add second slice of bread
- grill in butter A modern variation of the Reuben substitutes Thousand Island dressing for the traditional Russian dressing. The Reuben has many variations , including a "sister" sandwich, the Rachel, which is made with pastrami in place of corned beef and cole slaw in place of sauerkraut. A Georgia Reuben is made with turkey instead of the corned beef, and cole slaw. The names of the various Reuben variations are dependent upon the region, and there are many approaches to a Reuben derivative. Most of them include the basal ingredients of a meat of some sort, slaw or sauerkraut or some cabbage variation, cheese, and a dressing - almost all variations are then grilled, although one variation includes a monte cristo treatement of being dipped in sweet batter and deep fried.

External link


- [http://www.rowlandweb.com/reuben/ Reuben Realm] In-depth reviews of reuben sandwiches from dozens of restaurants.

References


- Claiborne, Craig. "Whence the Reuben? Omaha, It Seems." The New York Times (May 17, 1976).
- McMorris, Robert. "Omaha Saw Invention of Reuben Sandwich." Omaha Evening World-Herald (September 11, 1965).
- McMorris, Robert. "Just When You Thought Reuben's Roots Were Safe." Omaha World-Herald (January 31, 1986): 2.
- McMorris, Robert. "This Reuben Explanation Seems Hard to Swallow." Omaha World-Herald (July 24, 1989): 2.
- [http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/Sandwiches/ReubenSandwich.htm History of Reuben Sandwich] Category:Sandwiches Category:American cuisine Category:Eponymous foods

Sauerkraut

meats]] Sauerkraut is finely sliced white cabbage fermented by Lactobacillus bacteria. It has good keeping qualities and a distinctive sour flavor that both result from lactic acid, which forms when the bacteria ferment sugars in the fresh cabbage. The word comes from the German Sauerkraut, which literally translates to sour cabbage. Sauerkraut is a prominent feature of cuisines from all the cold regions of Europe.

Preparation

Sauerkraut is made by a process of pickling called lacto-fermentation that is analogous to how traditional (not heat-treated) cucumber pickles are made. Fully cured sauerkraut keeps for several months in an airtight container stored at or below 15°C. Neither refrigeration or pasteurization are required, though these treatments can prolong storage life. Traditionally, the container is a stoneware crock and the seal is created with a piece of wet linen cloth, a board, and a heavy stone. This arrangement is not fully airtight and will lead to spoiled sauerkraut unless the surface of the brine is skimmed daily to remove molds and other aerobic contaminants that grow on the surface where there is contact with air. An alternative that avoids this problem is a type of ceramic jar (made especially for home sauerkraut production) that has a trough around its lid. When this trough is filled with water the result is an airtight seal. Glass canning jars with clamped threadless lids can also be used. Whatever kind of container is used, it must allow the escape of fermentation gasses. Commercial-scale sauerkraut production typically employs large airtight plastic barrels. No special culture of Lactobacillus is needed because Lactobacillus is already present on raw cabbage. Yeasts are also present, which cause soft sauerkraut of poor flavor when the fermentation temperature is too high. Variations include sauerkraut prepared from whole cabbages instead of shredded strips. Sometimes other vegetables are added, such as carrots. Spices may be added; caraway and juniper berries are traditional. Sometimes wine is added. Red cabbage can be used to make sauerkraut, but this is rare and not traditional. When sauerkraut is made from turnips or rutabagas, the product is called sauerrüben. For preparation at home, the USDA recommends a greater amount of salt than is traditional, making the sauerkraut unpalatably salty unless rinsed before eating. Such rinsing removes much of the nutrient content and flavor. When traditional amounts of salt are used, temperature control is critical, because spoilage leading to food poisoning can occur if the fermentation temperature is too high. However, once made, sauerkraut is a very safe food, because its high acidity prevents spoilage. USDA also recommends pasteurizing sauerkraut for storage, though this is not necessary if the raw sauerkraut has been properly made and stored. To be safe, do not eat any sauerkraut that has a slimy or excessively soft texture, or a discoloration or off-flavor, any of which can indicate spoilage.

Serving

Sauerkraut is a common and traditional ingredient in German cuisine, Alsatian French cuisine, and the Slavic cuisines of Central and Eastern Europe. Sauerkraut can be eaten raw and unadorned; in this form it is often eaten as a relish with meat dishes, for example, as condiment on bratwurst or North American hot dogs. Raw sauerkraut dressed with oil and onions is served as a salad. However, sauerkraut is commonly cooked before it is eaten. Cooked sauerkraut preparations include Central and Eastern European soups and stews, such as bigos, shchi or kapusniak (sauerkraut soup); filled dumplings (pierogi); and seasoned saukraut served as a hot vegetable side dish. In Alsace (a region of France that belonged to Germany from 1870 until 1919), the traditional sauerkraut dish is choucroute garnie (garnished sauerkraut): a one-dish meal of sauerkraut, sausages, pieces of meat such as ham knuckle, and perhaps potatoes, all cooked together in goose fat. Typical accompaniment beverages are beer or white wine (Riesling). Common ingredients in cooked sauerkraut dishes (besides those already mentioned) are bacon, caraway, and apples. Kraut juice is a regional beverage in the USA that consists of the liquid in which sauerkraut is cured.

Geographical spread

Sauerkraut, a relative of kimchi and other fermented vegetables, is thought to have originated in the north of China among the Mongols and been introduced in Europe by invading Asiatic tribes. Eastern Europeans, in particular, consume a large amount of sauerkraut, and it has long been a staple of the winter diet in Germany, the Netherlands, and Poland (as bigos). The popularity of the dish in Alsace has spread sauerkraut (choucroute in French) to other regions of France. Immigrants to America from Germany (e.g. the Pennsylvania Dutch) and other European regions brought their traditional preparation methods and appreciation of this food. Sauerkraut's popularity in Europe and America continues today, though in somewhat reduced measure due to the convenience of modern alternative preserving methods. An annual sauerkraut festival is held in Waynesville, Ohio. The area of continental Europe where Sauerkraut is probably the most typical regional dish is Leinfelden-Echterdingen, the town where Stuttgart Int.Airport is located and the annual "Kraufest" takes place since 1978 in order to celebrate the end of the cabbage season around the middle of October with nowadays up to 40,000 visitors.

Health

Raw sauerkraut is an extremely healthy food. It is an excellent source of Vitamin C, lactobacilli (even more than yogurt), and other nutrients. However, the overabundance of lactobacilli can easily upset the stomach of people who are not used to eating raw sauerkraut. Sauerkraut provided a vital source for these nutrients during the winter, especially before freezing and importation of foods from southern countries became generally available in northern and central Europe. Captain James Cook always took a store of sauerkraut on his sea voyages, since experience had taught him that it was an effective remedy against scurvy.

Similar Foods

There are many other vegetables that are preserved by a similar process, for example in Korean cuisine.
- Korean Kimchi
- Japanese Tsukemono
- Chinese sun cai Also silage, a feed for cattle, is made the same way.

See also


- Pickling
- Kraut
- [http://www.krautfest-le.de/ Official L-E Kraufest Homepage]
- Bratwurst (Bratwurst, Sauerkraut and potatoes being a traditional dish in various parts of the southern German-speaking world)

Bibliography

USDA Canning guides, Volume 7 Keeping Food Fresh rec.foods.preserving FAQ Category:Pickles Category:German cuisine Category:German loanwords Category:Slavic cuisine ja:ザワークラウト

Rye

References:
[http://www.itis.usda.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=42089 ITIS 42089] 2002-09-22
Rye (Secale cereale) is a grass grown extensively as a grain and forage crop. It is a member of the wheat tribe and is closely related to barley and wheat. Rye grain is used to make flour, feed, some whiskeys and most vodkas. Rye, alone or overseeded, is planted as a livestock forage or harvested for hay. It is highly tolerant of soil acidity and is more tolerant of dry and cool conditions than wheat, though not as tolerant of cold as barley. The first possible use of domestic rye comes from the site of Tell Abu Hureyra in northern Syria, in the Euphrates Valley, dating to late Epi-Palaeolithic. Rye was not one of the main cereals of Classical Antiquity. Probably it was only an accidental plant occurring in small numbers in most wheat fields. Since the middle ages, it is widely cultivated in Central and Eastern Europe and is the main bread cereal in most areas east of the French-German border and north of Hungary. Some non-food uses of rye include rye whiskey and medical uses of rye extract. Its straw is used to make corn dollies. The flame moth, the turnip moth are among the species of lepidoptera whose larvae feed on rye.

Further reading


- Gordon Hillmann: [http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/arn/hol/2001/00000011/00000004/art00172 New evidence of Lateglacial cereal cultivation at Abu Hureyra on the Euphrates], in: The Holocene 11/4 (July 2001), p. 383-393. Category:Cereals Category:Grasses ja:ライムギ

Bread

:For other uses, see Bread (disambiguation). Bread (disambiguation) Bread (disambiguation) Bread (disambiguation) Bread (disambiguation) Bread (disambiguation) Bread (disambiguation), oils, water, and the occasional spices make breads of different tastes and textures.]] Breads are a group of staple foods prepared by baking, steaming, or frying dough consisting minimally of flour and water. Salt is present in most cases, and usually a leavening agent such as yeast is used. Some sorts of bread also contain spices (such as caraway seed) and grains (sesame, poppy seeds). Grains are also used for decorative purposes. Bread may be eaten alone, often with butter, peanut butter, or other nut butter, preserves or sweet spreads such as jam, jelly, marmalade, honey, or savoury spreads such as Marmite or Vegemite. It is also used as an enclosure for a sandwich. It may have been only baked, or subsequently toasted, and may be served anywhere from room temperature to hot. Unwrapped bread can be stored in a breadbox to keep it fresh longer. It actually becomes stale more quickly in the low temperature of a refrigerator, although mold is less likely to grow.

Etymology

The word itself, Old English bread, is common in various forms to many Germanic languages; such as German Brot, Dutch brood, Swedish bröd, and Norwegian brød; it has been derived from the root of brew, but more probably is connected with the root of break, for its early uses are confined to broken pieces, or bits of bread, the Latin frustum, and it was not until the 12th century that it took the place—as the generic name for bread—of hlaf (modern English loaf), which appears to be the oldest Teutonic name; Old High German hleib and modern German Laib, or Finnish leipä, Estonian leib, and Russian khleb are similar (all are derived from Old Germanic).

History

Russian Bread is one of the oldest prepared foods, dating back to the Neolithic era. The first breads produced were cooked versions of a grain-paste, made from ground cereal grains and water, and may have been developed by accidental cooking or deliberate experimentation with water and grain flour. Descendants of these early breads are still commonly made from various grains worldwide, with the Mexican tortilla, Indian chapati, Chinese poa ping, Scots oatcake, North American johnnycake, and Ethiopian injera all being examples. The basic flat breads of this type also formed a staple in the diet of many early civilizations with the Sumerians eating a type of barley flat cake, and the 12th century BC Egyptians being able to purchase a flat bread called ta from stalls in the village streets. The development of leavened bread is commonly believed to have occurred in Egypt, due to its favorable wheat gowning conditions, and required the development of wheat varieties with two properties not available in earlier varieties. The first development occurred by the beginning of Dynastic Egypt and consisted of a grain that could be satisfactorily threshed without being first toasted. Discovery of a wheat variety containing sufficient gluten-forming protein was the second development required for raised bread. Initial development of leavened bread is believed to have occurred during the 17th century BC, but the wheat capable of producing it appears to have been rare for a very long time after it was initially developed. This scarcity is suggested by the fact that such grain did not become common in Ancient Greece until the 4th Century BC despite regular trade having occurred between Egypt and Greece for the previous 300 years. There were multiple sources of leavening available for early bread. Air borne yeasts could be harnessed by leaving uncooked dough exposed to air for some time before cooking. Pliny the Elder reported that the Gauls and Iberians used the foam skimmed from beer to produce "a lighter kind of bread than other peoples". Parts of the ancient world that drank wine instead of beer used a paste composed of grape juice and flour that was allowed to begin fermenting, or wheat bran steeped in wine, as a source for yeast. The most common source of leavening however was to retain a piece of dough from the previous day to utilize as a form of sourdough starter. Even within antiquity there was a wide variety of breads available. In the Deipnosophistae, the Greek author Athenaeus describes some of the breads, cakes, cookies, and pastries available in the Classical world. Among the breads mentioned are griddle cakes, honey-and-oil bread, mushroom shaped loaves covered in poppy seeds, and the military specialty of rolls baked on a spit. The type and quality of flour used to produce bread could also vary as noted by Diphilus when he declared "bread made of wheat, as compared with that made of barley, is more nourishing, more digestible, and in every way superior. In order of merit, the bread made from refined [thoroughly sieved] four comes first, after that bread from ordinary wheat, and then the unbolted, made of flour that has not been sifted." Within medieval Europe bread served not only as a staple food but also as part of the table service. In the standard table setting of the day the trencher, apiece of stale bread roughly 6 inches by 4 inches (15 cm by 10 cm), served as an absorbent plate. At the completion of a meal the trencher could then be eaten, given to the poor, or fed to the dogs. It was not until the 15th Century that trenchers made of wood started to replace the bread variety. Otto Frederick Rohwedder is considered to be the father of sliced bread. In 1912 Rohwedder started work on inventing a machine that sliced bread, but bakeries were reluctant to use it since they were concerned the sliced bread would go stale. It wasn't until 1928, when Rohwedder invented a machine that both sliced and wrapped the bread, that sliced bread caught on. A bakery in Chillicothe, Missouri was the first to use this machine to produce sliced bread. For generations, white bread was considered the preferred bread of the rich while the poor ate dark bread. However, the connotations reversed in the 20th Century with dark bread becoming preferred as having superior nutritional value while white bread became associated with lower class ignorance of nutrition. Recently, domestic breadmakers that automate the process of making bread are becoming popular in the home.

Types

Bread is a popular food in Western and most other societies except for the Asian societies that typically prefer rice. It is often made from a wheat-flour dough that is cultured with yeast, allowed to rise, and finally baked in an oven. Owing to its high levels of gluten (which give the dough sponginess and elasticity), wheat is the most common grain used for the preparation of bread, but bread is also made from the flour of rye, barley, maize (or corn), and oats, usually, but not always, in combination with wheat flour.

Composition and Chemistry

Flour

Flour is a product made from grain that has been ground into a powdery consistency. It is flour that provides the primary structure to the final baked bread. Commonly available flours are made from rye, barley, maize, and other grains, but it is wheat flour that is most commonly used for breads. Each of these grains provides starch and protein to the final product. Wheat flour in addition to its starch contains three water soluble proteins groups, albumin, globulin, proteoses, and two non-water soluble proteins groups, glutenin and gliadin. When flour is mixed with water the water-soluble proteins dissolve, leaving the glutenin and gliadin to form the structure of the resulting dough. When worked by kneading, the glutenin forms strands of long thin chainlike molecules while the shorter gliadin forms bridges between the stands of glutenin. The resulting networks of strands produced by these two proteins is known as gluten.

Liquids

Water, or some other liquid, is used to form the flour into a paste or dough. The volume of liquid required varies between recipes, but a ratio of 1 cup or liquid to 3 cups of flour is common for yeast breads while recipes that use steam as the primary leavening method may have a liquid content in excess of one part liquid to one part flour by volume. In addition to water, other types of liquids that may be used include dairy products, fruit juices, or beer. In addition to the water in each of these they also bring additional sweeteners, fats, and or leavening components.

Leavening

Leavening is the process of adding gas to a dough before baking to produce a lighter, more easily chewed bread. Most bread consumed in the West is leavened. But there is also unleavened bread which has important symbolic use in Judaism (Matzo) and is used by some Christian churches.

Chemical leavening

A simple technique for leavening bread is the use of gas-producing chemicals. There are two common methods. The first is to use baking powder or a self-rising flour that includes baking powder. The second is to have an acidic ingredient such as buttermilk and add baking soda. The reaction of the acid with the soda produces gas. Chemically-leavened breads are called called quick breads and soda breads. This technique is commonly used to make muffins and sweet breads such as banana bread.

Yeast leavening

Many breads are leavened by the fungus yeast. The yeast ferments carbohydrates in the flour and any sugar, producing carbon dioxide. Most commercial and home bakers in the U.S. leaven their doughs with baker's yeast. Baker's yeast produces uniform, quick, and reliable results. Both the baker's yeast, and the sourdough method of baking bread follow the same pattern. Water is mixed with flour, salt and the leavening agent (baker's yeast or sourdough starter). Other additions (spices, herbs, fats, seeds, fruit, etc.) are not necessary to bake bread, but often used. The mixed dough is then allowed to rise one or more times (a longer rising time results in more flavor, so bakers often punch down the dough and let it rise again), then loaves are formed and (after an optional final rising time) the bread is baked in an oven. Many breads (such as the famous baguette) are made from a straight dough, which means that all of the ingredients are combined in one step, and the dough baked after the rising time. Alternatively, doughs can be made with the starter method, when some of the flour, water, and the leavening are combined a day or so ahead of baking, and allowed to ferment overnight. On the day of the baking, the rest of the ingredients are added, and the rest of the process is the same as that for straight doughs. This produces a more flavorful bread with better texture. Many bakers see the starter method as a compromise between the highly reliable results of baker's yeast, and the flavor/complexity of a longer fermentation. It also allows the baker to use only a minimal amount of baker's yeast, which used to be scarce and expensive when it first became available.

Sourdough

The sour taste of sourdoughs actually comes not from the yeast, but from a lactobacillus, with which the yeast lives in symbiosis. The lactobacillus feeds on the byproducts of the yeast fermentation, and in turn makes the culture go sour by excreting lactic acid, which protects it from spoiling (since most microbes are unable to survive in an acid environment). All breads used to be sourdoughs, and the leavening process was not understood until the 19th century, when with the advance of microscopes, scientists were able to discover the microbes that make the dough rise. Since then, strains of yeast have been selected and cultured mainly for reliability and quickness of fermentation. Billions of cells of these strains are then packaged and marketed as "Baker's Yeast". Bread made with baker's yeast is not sour because of the absence of the lactobacillus. Bakers around the world quickly embraced baker's yeast for it made baking simple and so allowed for more flexibility in the bakery's operations. It made baking quick as well, allowing bakeries to make fresh bread from scratch as often as three times a day. While European bakeries kept producing sourdough breads, in the U.S., sourdough baking was widely replaced by baker's yeast, and only recently has that country (or parts of it, at least) seen the rebirth of sourdough in artisan bakeries. Sourdough breads are most often made with a sourdough starter (not to be confused with the starter method discussed above). A sourdough starter is a culture of yeast and lactobacillus. It is essentially a dough-like or pancake-like flour/water mixture in which the yeast and lactobacillus live. A starter can be maintained indefinitely by periodically discarding a part of it and refreshing it by adding fresh flour and water. (When refrigerated, a starter can go weeks without needing to be fed.) There are starters owned by bakeries and families that are several human generations old, much revered for creating a special taste or texture. Starters can be obtained by taking a piece of another starter and growing it, or they can be made from scratch. There are hobbyist groups on the web who will send their starter for a stamped, self-addressed envelope, and there are even mailorder companies that sell different starters from all over the world. An acquired starter has the advantage to be more proven and established (stable and reliable, resisting spoiling and behaving predictably) than from-scratch starters. There are other ways of sourdough baking and culture maintenance. A more traditional one is the process that was followed by peasant families throughout Europe in past centuries. The family (usually the woman was in charge of breadmaking) would bake on a fixed schedule, perhaps once a week. The starter was saved from the previous week's dough. The starter was mixed with the new ingredients, the dough was left to rise, then a piece of it was saved (to be the starter for next week's bread). The rest was formed into loaves which were marked with the family sign (this is where today's decorative slashing of bread loaves originates from), and taken to the communal oven to bake. These communal ovens over time evolved into what we know today as bakeries, when certain people specialized in bread baking, and with time enhanced the process so far as to be able to mass produce cheap bread for everyone in the village. The most famous sourdough bread made in the U.S. is the San Francisco Sourdough. It is a white bread, characterized by a pronounced sourness (not all sourdoughs are as sour as the San Francisco Sourdough), so much so that the dominant strain of lactobacillus in sourdough starters was named lactobacillus sanfrancisco.

Steam leavening

The rapid expansion of steam produced during baking leavens the bread, which is as simple as it is unpredictable. The best known steam-leavened bread is the popover. Steam-leavening is unpredictable since the steam isn't produced until the bread is baked. Steam leavening happens regardless of the rising agents (soda powder, yeast, baking-powder, sour dough, egg snow…)
- The rising agent generates carbon dioxide - or already contains air bubbles.
- The heat vaporises the water from the inner surface of the bubbles within the dough.
- The steam expends and makes the bread rise. It is actually the main factor in the rise. CO2 generation, on its own, is too small to account for the rise. Heat kills bacteria or yeast at an early stage, so the CO2 generation is stopped.

Bacterial leavening

Usually called salt-risen bread, this is an uncommon form of leavening due to its inconsistent results. However, the bread has a unique cheese-like flavor that is often desired.

Fats or shortenings

Fats such as butter, vegetable oils, lard, or that contained in eggs affects the development of gluten in breads by coating and lubricating the individual strands of protein and also helping hold the structure together. If too much fat in included in a bread dough, the lubrication effect will cause the protein structures to divide. A fat content of approximately 3% by weight is the concentration that will produce the greatest leavening action. In addition to their effects on leavening, fats also serve to tenderize the breads they are used in and also help to keep the bread fresh longer after baking.

Breads across different cultures

popover There are many variations on the basic recipe of bread, including pizza, chapatis, tortillas, baguettes, pitas, lavash, biscuits, pretzels, naan, bagels, puris, and many other variations.
- In the British Isles and the United States, the most widely consumed type of bread is soft-textured with a thin crust and is sold ready-sliced in packages. It is usually eaten with the crust, but some eaters or preparers may remove the crust due to a personal preference or style of serving, as for high tea.
- In Scotland, another form of bread called plain bread is also consumed. Plain bread loaves are noticeably taller and thinner, with burned crusts at only the top and bottom of the loaf. Plain bread has a much firmer texture than British and American pan bread. Plain Bread is becoming less common as the Bread consumed elsewhere in Britain is becoming more popular with consumers.
- In France, such bread is known as pain de mie and is used only for toast or for making stuffing; standard bread (in the form of baguettes or thicker breads) has a thick crust and often has large bubbles of air inside. Some fancy breads contain walnuts, or are encrusted with poppy seeds.
- White bread is made from flour containing only the central core of the grain (endosperm).
- Brown bread is made with endosperm and 10% bran.
- Wholemeal bread contains the whole of the wheatgrain (endosperm and bran).
- Wheatgerm bread has added wheatgerm for flavouring.
- Wholegrain bread is white bread with added wholegrains to increase the fibre content.
- Granary bread is bread made from granary flour, trademarked to Hovis made from malted white or brown flour, whatgerm and wholegrains.
- Stottie cake is a thick, flat, round loaf. Stotties are common in the North East of England. Although it is called a cake, it is a type of bread.

Bread in Germany

Germany has the widest variety of bread available to its residents. About 300 types of breads and approximately 1200 different types of pastry and rolls are produced in about 17,000 bakeries and another 10,000 in-shop bakeries. 80 million people consume around 1,100,000 tons of bread, 5,024,000,000 rolls and 454,000,000 pretzels per year. This is a world record. Bread is served with almost every meal. A German breakfast typically consists of sliced bread or Brötchen (rolls) with either cold cuts, cheese etc. or jam, honey and other sweet toppings. For supper it is usually just cold cuts and cheese. Bread is not considered a side dish and is considered important for a healthy diet. Germany's top nine in bread are:
- 1. Rye-wheat ("Roggenmischbrot")
- 2. Toastbread (white bread)
- 3. whole-grain ("Vollkornbrot")
- 4. Wheat-rye ("Weizenmischbrot")
- 5. White bread ("Weißbrot")
- 6. Multi-grain ("Mehrkornbrot")
- 7. Rye ("Roggenbrot")
- 8. Sunflower seed ("Sonnenblumenkernbrot")
- 9. Pumpkin seed ("Kürbiskernbrot") Especially the darker kinds of bread like Vollkornbrot or Schwarzbrot are typical of German cuisine. Internationally well known is Pumpernickel which is steamed for a very long time, it is one kind of dark bread from Germany but not representative. Most German breads are made with sourdough. Whole grain is preferred for high fibre. Germans use almost all available types of grain for their breads: wheat, rye, barley, spelt, oats, sorghum, corn and rice. Some breads are even made from potato flour.

French Style Baking

The French are renowned for their artisan breads. By using the four basic ingredients of water, flour, yeast, and salt, the French have mastered the art of creating complex breads that widely vary, despite the fact that each loaf contains the mixture of the same ingredients. French law dictates that for “French” style breads, only the four above-mentioned ingredients may be used, along with ascorbic acid and rye flour. By manipulating rising times, kneading techniques, and with the use of specialty brick ovens, the French breads are as varied and unique as the regions in France.

Denmark and Bread

Bread is a very important part of the Scandinavian table and lunches at home or in the workplace (and in Danish restaurants) will usually be based on bread, primarily rugbrød, which is unleavened ryebread. It is a dark, heavy bread which is often bought pre-sliced, in varieties from light-coloured rye, to very dark, and refined to wholegrain. It forms the basis of smørrebrød, which is closely related to the Swedish smorgasbord, literally 'spread bread' (smør is butter). Traditional toppings include sild, which are pickled herrings (marinerede - plain, krydder - spiced, or karry - curried, being the most popular), slightly sweeter than Dutch or German herrings; thinly-sliced cheese in many varieties; sliced cucumber, tomato and boiled eggs; leverpostej, which is pork liver-paste; dozens of types of cured or processed meat in thin slices, or smoked fish such as salmon; mackerel in tomato sauce; pickled cucumber; boiled egg, and rings of red onion. Mayonnaise mixed with peas and diced carrot, remoulade or other thick sauces often top the layered open sandwich, which is usually eaten with utensils. It is custom to pass the dish of sliced breads around the table, and then to pass around each dish of toppings, and people help themselves. Hundreds of combinations and varieties of smørrebord are available. A famous and very old restaurant in Copenhagen's historic Nyhavn harbour, Ida Davidsen, serves up many imaginative combinations, and the fridge in a typical Danish home will often be stocked with toppings for rugbrødsmad, or 'ryebread meal', which is a way of saying 'a plain normal lunch'. Denmark has strong traditions of special types of food eaten at particular times of the year, such as smoked eel with slices of a sort of scrambled-egg loaf eaten on ryebread at New Year, accompanied by beer. Other types of bread are sold in supermarkets and in bakeries, which are important shops in every town and shopping centre. Many women still bake at home, particularly boller, which are small bread rolls, and often the traditional kringle, which is a long cooked dough with currants and a brown-sugar and butter paste. Home-baked bread uses moist yeast, and many thousands of packs are sold every day, the major brand being a division of Carlsberg Brewery. In the great trucking strikes of 1998, yeast was one of the first products to be sold out in shops, indicating the importance of home baking in Denmark. Sliced square white bread is known in Denmark as franskbrød, literally 'French bread', and is not as common as it is in many other western countries. People often eat jam with cheese on crusty white bread for breakfst, and also very thin slices of chocolate, called pålægschokolade. Another popular way of consuming bread in Denmark is as tiny buns for long hotdogs, like small puffy napkins made out of white bread, which are available in little kiosks everywhere and in pølservogn ('sausage-vans') that move about the cities.

Recipes

The following instructions to make bread were taken from the Household Cyclopedia of 1881: :"Place in a large pan twenty-eight pounds of flour; make a hole with the hand in the centre of it like a large basin, into which strain a pint of brewer's yeast; this must be tested, and if too bitter a little flour sprinkled into it, and then strained directly, then pour in two quarts of water of the temperature of 100 °F (about 40 °C), or blood heat, and stir the flour round from the bottom of the hole formed by the hand till that part of the flour is quite thick and well mixed, though all the rest must remain unwetted; then sprinkle a little flour over the moist part and cover it with a cloth; this is called sponge, and must be left to rise. Some leave it only half an hour, others all night. :"When the sponge is light, however, add four quarts of water the same temperature as above, and well knead the whole mass into a smooth dough. This is hard work if done well. Then cover the dough and leave it for an hour. In cold weather both sponge and dough must be placed on the kitchen hearth, or in some room not too cold, or it will not rise well. Before the last water is put in two tablespoonful of salt must be sprinkled over the flour. Sometimes the flour will absorb another pint of water. :"After the dough has risen it should be made quickly into loaves; if much handled then the bread will be heavy. It will require an hour and a half to bake, if made into fourpound loaves. The oven should be well heated before the dough is put into it. To try its heat, throw a little flour into it; if it brown directly, it will do."

Trivia

Bread is mentioned in the Lord's Prayer, where it may mean necessities in general. Similarly, bread is now a common word in Britain for money from the rhyming slang "Bread and honey". The anime and manga Yakitate!! Japan chronicles the quest of a young baker to create a 'bread that tastes better than rice'; i.e., one that the Japanese people would accept as a staple food. The phrase "the greatest thing since sliced bread", to mean something of superlative quality, is common in the UK and United States. Lithuanian folk saying: "Bread cries when a lazy person eats it". Refers to how difficult it was to produce bread, from sowing to baking, in antiquity. The word "companion" literally means one with whom bread is shared (com with + pani bread). In some asian christian churches, the people eat rice cakes instead of bread served in the holy Communion.

Related patents


- -- Bread slicer
- -- Bread slicer wire
- -- Bread rack
- -- Bread staples
- -- Bread staples
- -- Bread handler
- -- Bread handler
- -- Bread handler

References


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See also


- Bun
- Flatbread
- Tortilla
- Cornbread
- Bread clip
- Bread roll
- Breading
- Breadcrumbs

External links


- [http://www.breadinfo.com Make Bread - From Planting the Wheat to Pulling a loaf from the oven.]
- [http://www.chefsimon.com/levan_ang.htm Make real sourdough starter exclusively based on water-flour-sugar]
- [http://www.completerecipes.com/bread1.htm Complete Recipes: Bread]
- [http://www.bbga.org/ The Bread Bakers Guild of America]
- [http://www.bakingcircle.com/ King Arthur Flour's Baking Circle]
- [http://www.breadworld.com/ Bread World]
- [http://www.frenchentree.com/france-brittany-restaurants-shops/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=7633 Types of French Bread]
- [http://www.sankey.ws/bread.html Canadian bread machine recipes]
- [http://www.bread-maker.net/Bread-Types/French-bread.htm French bread machine recipes]
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Saint Patrick's Day

Saint Patrick's Day (March 17), is the Christian feast day which celebrates Saint Patrick (386-461), the patron saint of Ireland. It is a legal holiday in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, the overseas territory of Montserrat and the province of Newfoundland. It is celebrated worldwide by the Irish and those of Irish descent (and increasingly by many of non-Irish descent). A major parade takes place in Dublin and in most other Irish towns and villages. The four largest parades of recent years have been held in Dublin, New York City, Manchester, and Savannah. Parades also take place in other places, including London, Paris, Rome, Munich, Moscow, Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore, Copenhagen and throughout the Americas. As well as being a celebration of Irish culture, St. Patrick's Day is a Christian festival celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of Ireland (among other churches in the Anglican Communion) and some other denominations. However, as a Christian festival, St. Patrick's Day sometimes is required to give way to a more important feast. The day always falls in the season of Lent, and it may fall in Holy Week. In church calendars, though rarely in secular ones, if St. Patrick's Day falls on a Sunday, it is moved to the following Monday. If it falls in Holy Week, it is moved to the second Monday after Easter. In Ireland it is traditional that those observing a lenten fast may break it for the duration of St. Patrick's Day.

Celebrations in Ireland

St. Patrick's Day parades in Ireland date from the late 19th century, originating in the growing sense of nationalism of the period. In the mid-90's, a group called St. Patrick's Festival was set up by the government with the aim to:
- Offer a national festival that ranks amongst all of the greatest celebration in the world
- Create energy and excitement throughout Ireland via innovation, creativity, grassroots involvement, and marketing activity
- Provide the opportunity and motivation for people of Irish descent (and those who sometimes wish they were Irish) to attend and join in the imaginative and expressive celebrations
- Project, internationally, an accurate image of Ireland as a creative, professional and sophisticated country with wide appeal, as we approach the new Millennium. The first St. Patrick's Festival was held in 1996, and was celebrated only on the day. In 1997, it became a three day event, and since 2000 has been a 4 day event. The most recent Festivals have encompassed spectacular fireworks displays (Skyfest), open-air music, street theatre and the traditional parade. The topic of the previous year's (2004) St. Patrick's Symposium was "Talking Irish," during which the nature of Irish identity, economic success and the future was discussed. Since 1996, there has been a greater emphasis on celebrating and projecting a fluid and inclusive notion of 'Irishness' rather than a fixed identity based around traditional religious or ethnic allegiance. Nevertheless, many Irish people still wear a bunch of shamrock on their lapels or caps on this day, while children wear tri-colour (green, white and orange) badges. Girls traditionally wore green ribbons in their hair (many still do). The biggest celebrations in Ireland outside Dublin are in Downpatrick, where Saint Patrick was buried following his death on March 17 461. In Downpatrick in 2004, according to Down District Council, the parade, during the week-long St. Patrick's Festival, had over 2000 participants and 82 floats, bands and performers. The parade was watched by over 30,000 people. Although celebrated by the Church of Ireland as a Christian festival, St. Patrick's Day as a celebration of Irish culture is rarely acknowledged by British loyalists in Northern Ireland, who consider it a republican festival. Belfast City Council recently agreed to give some funding to its parade for the first time. Previously the parade was privately funded.

Celebrations outside Ireland

The smallest parade is said to take place in Hot Springs, Arkansas in the United States; this parade is less than a single city block and is nevertheless the highlight of the day. Boulder, Colorado claims to have the shortest parade which is also less than a single city block. The first civic and public celebration of St. Patrick's Day in the American Colonies took place in Boston in 1737. The first St. Patrick's Day celebrated in New York City was held at the Crown and Thistle Tavern in 1756. Since then the New York celebration has become the largest St. Patrick's Day parade in the world. The parade itself dates back to 1762, and in 2003 more than 150,000 marchers participated, including bands, military and police groups, county associations, emigrant societies, social and cultural clubs. The parade marches up 5th Avenue in Manhattan and it attracts roughly 2 million people. The New York parade has been dogged with controversy in recent years as its organisers have banned Irish gays and lesbians from marching as a group. Gay rights groups have fought in court to obtain the right to march alongside other organizations, and there have been calls in Ireland (which, since 1992, has some of the most liberal gay laws in the world) for a boycott of the parade. The gay groups and their sympathisers would lie down in the middle of the street at the start of the parade route, and would be arrested when they refused to move; in the late 1980s such arrests averaged several hundred per year, but had dwindled to a dozen or less annually by the early 2000s. A tradition has begun in Queens, New York of organizing a parade the week before the official St. Patrick's Day parade which is open to all organizations wishing to march. The parade is organized and run by the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) [http://mill-valley.freemasonry.biz/marin_hibernians_orangemen_royal_black_knights.htm]. For many years, the St. Patrick's Day Parade was the primary public function of the AOH. On occasion the AOH has appointed controversial Irish republican figures (some of whom were barred from the U.S.) to be its Grand Marshal. The New York parade is moved to the previous Saturday (March 16) in years where March 17 is a Sunday. The event is also moved on the rare occasions when, due to Easter falling on a very early date, March 17 would land in Holy Week—this last occurred in 1913, when the parade was held on Saturday, March 15 because Easter that year was March 23 (making March 17 the Monday of Holy Week); this same scenario is scheduled to arise again in 2008, when Easter will also fall on March 23. In many other American cities (such as San Francisco), the parade is always held on the Sunday before March 17, regardless of the permutations of the liturgical calendar. liturgical calendar St. Patrick's Day celebration.]] Some U.S. cities paint the traffic stripe of their parade routes green. Others, including Chicago, dye their principal rivers green, an act that most native Irish find bizarre. The longest running St. Patrick's Day parades in the U.S. are:
- Boston, Massachusetts, since 1737
- New York, New York, since 1762
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, since 1780
- Savannah, Georgia, since 1813
- Carbondale, Pennsylvania, since 1833
- Chicago, Illinois, since 1843
- New Haven, Connecticut, since 1845
- San Francisco, California, since 1852 The longest running St. Patrick's Day parade in Canada takes place in Montreal, which began in 1824.

Other events

Since the 1990s, Irish Taoiseach (prime ministers) have attended special functions either on St. Patrick's Day or a day or two earlier, in the White House, where they present shamrock to the President of the United States. A similar presentation is made to the Speaker of the House. Originally only representatives of the Republic of Ireland attended, but since the mid-1990s all major Irish political parties from north and south are invited, with the attendance including the representatives of the Irish government, the Ulster Unionist Party, the Social Democratic and Labour Party, Sinn Féin and others. No northern Irish parties were invited for these functions in 2005. In recent years, it is common for the entire Irish government to be abroad representing the country in various parts of the world. In 2003, the President of Ireland celebrated the holiday in Sydney, the Taoiseach was in Washington, while other Irish government members attended ceremonies in New York, Boston, San Francisco, San Jose, Savannah, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Diego, New Zealand, Hong Kong, South Africa, Korea, Japan and Brazil. In Britain, the late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother used to present bowls of shamrock specially flown over from Ireland to members of the Irish Guards, a regiment in the British Army made up of Irishmen from both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland (as well as many Liverpudlians and other Britons). In many parts of the U.S., Britain, and Australia, expatriate Irish, those of Irish descent, and ever-growing crowds of people with no Irish connections but who may proclaim themselves "Irish for a day" also celebrate St. Patrick's Day, usually by consuming large quantities of alcoholic beverages, including lager often dyed green, Irish beer, such as Murphys, Smithwicks, Harp or Guinness, or other Irish liquors such as Irish whiskey, Irish Coffee or Baileys Irish Cream, by wearing at least one article of green-colored clothing, and by listening to Irish folk music. (Former Mayor of New York Ed Koch once proclaimed himself "Ed O'Koch" for the day and is one of the most famous people of non-Irish descent to publicly revel on the holiday.) Children in the U.S. celebrate St. Patrick's day by wearing green colored clothing and items. Traditionally, those who are caught not wearing green are pinched, leading to several St. Patrick's Day items hosting phrases such as "Can't pinch me!" It's also said, and shown in the TV show Angela Anaconda, that if you pinch someone wearing green, everyone else can double pinch you back, even if you are wearing green. In Canada a large lobby exists to make St. Patricks day a national holiday (as opposed to only Newfoundland and Labrador), lead, and promoted, by the Guinness corporation. In recent years, many Canadians feel that the number of public holidays (and holidays in general) in Canada pales in comparison to other Western countries.

See also


- San Patricios
- Saint Patrick
- Irish calendar
- Public holidays in the Republic of Ireland
- Four-leaf clover
- Leprechaun
- Evacuation Day (Massachusetts)
- Holidays in Canada

External links


- [http://www.kensmen.com/catholic/time.html Catholic Calendar - traditional]
- [http://www.saintpatricksdayparade.com/NYC/newyorkcity.htm New York City parade website]
- [http://www.aoh.com/history/archive/stpatdayandaoh.htm Ancient Order of Hibernians - St. Patrick's parade history]
- [http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/holidays/st_patricks_day.htm ReligionFacts.com: St. Patrick's Day] - History, customs, traditions and symbols.
- [http://www.stpatricksday.ie/ Dublin's St. Patrick's Festival]
- [http://www.st-patricks-day.sceala.com/ Saint. Patrick's Day] Category:Irish culture Category:Parades Category:Holidays Category:Christian festivals ko:성 패트릭의 날

Irish-American

St. Patrick's Day celebration.]] Irish Americans are residents or citizens of the United States who claim Irish ancestry. Thirty-four million Americans report Irish ancestry--more than any other ancestry but German. [http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/003581.html] "More than 5% of all Americans are Irish Protestant, and a little less than 5% of all Americans are Irish Catholic," says Andrew Greeley, a leading expert. (Encyclopedia of the Irish in America p1). This article deals primarily with the Catholics. For the Protestants see Scots-Irish American. Many Protestant Irish settlers moved to America during the colonial period (before 1775), settling especially in frontier areas of Pennsylvania, Virginia and the Carolinas. Much of the South shows their historic imprint. During and after the Irish potato famine of the 1840s millions of Catholic refugees came to North America. The largest numbers went to Boston and New York; lesser but significant numbers went to Canada, mostly Ontario. Many were hired by Irish labor contractors to work as manual laborers on canals, railroads, streets, sewers and other construction projects. Large numbers moved to New England mill towns, such as Lowell, Massachusetts where Protestant owners of textile mills welcomed the new workers. They took the jobs previously held by Yankee Protestant women known as Lowell girls. A large fraction of Irish women took jobs as maids in middle class households and hotels. The main business enterprises were taverns and construction. Large numbers of unemployed Irish lived in squalid conditions in the new [http://www.yale.edu/glc/archive/1021.htm city slums]. Although the Irish Catholics started very low on the social status scale, by 1900 they had jobs and earnings about equal on average to their neighbors. After 1945 the Catholic Irish consistently ranked toward the top of the social hierarchy, thanks especially to their high rate of college attendance. Irish descendants retain a sense of their Irish heritage. Many Catholics were enthusiastic supporters of Irish independence; after that was achieved in 1922, the American Irish generally lost interest in the politics of the old country until political violence erupted again in the 1970s. A sense of exile, diaspora, and (in the case of songs) even nostalgia is common in Irish America. Irish Catholics are found in cities throughout the United States. Strongholds included the metropolitan areas of New York, Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco, along with many small mill towns and railroad centers. A few became farmers, especially in Iowa and Minnesota. Massachusetts is the most Irish state, with about a quarter of the population claiming Irish descent. The most Irish American town is Milton, Massachusetts, with 43% of its 26,000 residents being of Irish descent. New York, Boston, and Chicago have neighborhoods with higher percentages of Irish-American residents. Regionally, the most Irish-American part of the country remains central New England. Common stereotypes of the Catholic Irish include perceptions of them as being more prone to alcoholism, violence and gang membership. Prejudice against Catholic Irish, overlapping with anti-Catholicism, was strong among Protestant Irish and some Yankees. Irish Catholics claimed that many employers would fend them off with window signs reading "HELP WANTED - NO IRISH NEED APPLY;" while this "NINA" slogan was known in Canada at the time, and in Britain up until the 1960s, one American scholar denies that such signs appeared in America [http://tigger.uic.edu/~rjensen/no-irish.htm]. Other 19th century complaints included illegal voting, violence at the election polls, high tolerance of crime and welfare, [http://www.nde.state.ne.us/SS/irish/unit_2.html] [http://www.rzuser.uni-heidelberg.de~el6/presentations/Irish_Americans_S2_WS2003/Anti_Irish_Sentiment.htm] and high rates of consumption. On the other hand the Catholic Irish moved rapidly into law enforcement, and (through the Church) built hundreds of schools, colleges, orphanages, hospitals, and asylums. Political opposition to the Catholic Irish climaxed in 1854 in the short-lived Know-Nothing Party. The Irish had a reputation of being [http://historyproject.ucdavis.edu/imageapp.php?Major=RE&Minor=D&SlideNum=23.00 very well organized], and since 1850 have produced a majority of the leaders of the Catholic Church in the U.S., labor unions, the Democratic party in larger cities, and Catholic high schools, colleges and universities. Politically, the Irish Catholic typically voted 80-95% Democratic in elections from the 1830s through 1964. John F. Kennedy was their greatest political hero. Al Smith was popular too, but he had only one Irish grandparent. Since 1968, however, they have split about 50-50, and some leaders are Republicans. The Irish Protestant vote has not been studied nearly as much. Supporters of Andrew Jackson emphasized his Irish background, but since the 1840s it has been uncommon for a Protestant politician to be identified as Irish. In Canada, by contrast, Irish Protestants remained a cohesive political force well into the 20th century, identified with the Conservative Party of Canada (historical)and especially with the Orange Order. Orange Order Irish Catholic authors, songsters, actors and humorists made a lasting contribution to American popular culture. Many police and fire departments, with their large Irish component, maintain active "Emerald Societies", bagpipe marching groups, or other similar units. The Irish American way of life has also been chronicled in the modern media, most notably in movies such as Angels with Dirty Faces, the labor epic On the Waterfront and on television in series such as Ryan's Hope. More adversarial are fraternal organisations especially the Ancient Order of Hibernians. Saint Patrick's Day is widely celebrated in larger cities across the United States as a day of celebration of all things Irish and faux-Irish. Parades, drinking parties, and festive events mark the day. The vast majority of Irish immigrants were Anglophones, but some have been Irish-speaking. According to the latest census, the Irish language ranks 66th out of the 322 languages spoken today in the U.S., with over 25,000 speakers in New York and New England. Many of these speakers immigrated in the late 20th century.

Scholarly Sources


- Glazier, Michael, ed. The Encyclopedia of the Irish in America, (1999), the best place to start--the most authoritative source, with essays by over 200 experts, covering both Catholic and Protestants.
- Meagher, Timothy J. The Columbia Guide to Irish American History. (2005).

Scholarly Secondary Sources: The Catholic Irish


- Anbinder, Tyler. Five Points: The Nineteenth-Century New York City Neighborhood That Invented Tap Dance, Stole Elections and Became the World's Most Notorious Slum (2001).
- Bayor, Ronald and Timothy Meagher, eds. The New York Irish (1996), best coverage of New York City.
- Blessing, Patrick J. The Irish in America: A Guide to the Literature and the Manuscript Collections (1992).
- Diner, Hasia R. Erin's Daughters in America : Irish Immigrant Women in the Nineteenth Century (1983).
- Erie, Steven P. Rainbow's End: Irish-Americans and the Dilemmas of Urban Machine Politics, 1840—1985 (1988).
- Greeley, Andrew M. The Irish Americans: The Rise to Money and Power. (1993).
- Jensen, Richard. "No Irish Need Apply": A Myth of Victimization," Journal of Social History 36.2 (2002) 405-429 [http://tigger.uic.edu/~rjensen/no-irish.htm online version]
- Kenny, Kevin. The American Irish: A History (2000).
- McCaffrey, Lawrence J. The Irish Diaspora in America (1976).
- Meagher, Timothy J. Inventing Irish America: Generation, Class, and Ethnic Identity in a New England City, 1880-1928 (2000).
- Miller, Kerby M. Emigrants and Exiles (1985), the most influential scholarly interpretation.
- Mitchell, Brian C. The Paddy Camps: The Irish of Lowell, 1821—61 (1988).

Scholarly Secondary Sources: The Protestant Irish


- Fischer, David Hackett. Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America (1991), major scholarly study tracing colonial roots of four groups of immigrants, Irish, English Puritans, English Cavaliers, and Quakers.
- Griffin, Patrick. The People with No Name: Ireland's Ulster Scots, America's Scots Irish, and the Creation of a British Atlantic World, 1689-1764. (2001)
- Leyburn, James G. Scotch-Irish: A Social History (1989), the best starting point.
- Webb, James. Born Fighting : How the Scots-Irish Shaped America(2004) by a popular novelist, not considered reliable by scholars.

Major Irish-American Communities


- Massachusetts
  - Boston:
    - West Roxbury
    - Brighton
    - South Boston
    - Allston
    - Charlestown
    - Dorchester
  - Milton
  - Quincy
  - Melrose
- Vermont
  - Burlington
- New York
  - New York City
    - Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
    - North Riverdale, Bronx
    - Bainbridge, Bronx
    - Riverdale, Bronx
    - Woodlawn, Bronx
    - Bay Ridge, Brooklyn
    - Gerritsen Beach, Brooklyn
    - Vinegar Hill, Brooklyn
    - Belle Harbor, Queens
    - Breezy Point, Queens
    - Sunnyside, Queens
    - Rockaway Beach, Queens
    - Roxbury, Queens
    - Woodside, Queens
    - St. George, Staten Island
  - Albany, New York
  - Troy, New York
  - Yonkers, New York
  - Tipperary Hill, Syracuse
  - South Buffalo, Buffalo
- Pennsylvania
  - Philadelphia
    - Fishtown, Philadelphia
    - South Philadelphia
    - Two Street, Philadelphia
  - Upper Lawrenceville, Pittsburgh
  - Scranton, Pennsylvania
- Maryland
  - Locust Point, Baltimore
- Ohio
  - Cleveland
    - Irishtown Bend, Cleveland
    - Kamm's Corner, Cleveland
    - West Park, Cleveland
  - Pleasant Ridge, Cincinnati
  - Dublin, Ohio
- Michigan
  - Corktown, Detroit
- Illinois
  - Chicago
    - Beverly, Chicago
    - Bridgeport, Chicago
    - Canaryville, Chicago
    - Edison Park, Chicago
    - Irishtown, Chicago
    - Mount Greenwood, Chicago
    - Morgan Park, Chicago
    - South Side of Chicago
    - West Beverly, Chicago
    - Wrigleyville, Chicago
- Indiana
  - Irish Hill, Indianapolis
  - Little Flower, Indianapolis
- Kentucky
  - Irish Hill, Louisville
- Missouri
  - Clayton Tamm, St. Louis
  - Dogtown, St. Louis
- Minnesota
  - St. Paul, Minnesota
- Louisiana
  - Irish Channel, New Orleans
- New Jersey
  - Jersey City, New Jersey
  - Monmouth County, New Jersey
    - Neptune, New Jersey
    - Spring Lake, New Jersey
  - Camden County, New Jersey
    - Gloucester City, New Jersey
      - Waldwick, New Jersey
- California
  - The Sunset, San Francisco
-