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Bacon and cabbage with parsley sauce, the whole dishBacon and cabbage with parsley sauce, close up

Bacon and cabbage with parsley sauce

120 min · 57 g protein · 710 cals / serving

Ireland's Sunday dinner: a joint of bacon simmered until it slices like butter, cabbage cooked in the savoury bacon water, floury potatoes and a pourable white sauce green with parsley. Simple, warming and one of those dishes Irish families make the same way for generations.

Servings4

Ingredients

Bacon

  • 2 lb potato, floury, scrubbed, left whole in their skins

Cabbage

  • 1 large head savoy cabbage, quartered, core cut out, leaves sliced 1 cm (1/2 inch) wide
  • 1 tsp butter

Parsley sauce

Steps

  1. Put the bacon joint in a large pot, cover with cold water and bring slowly to the boil. If the water tastes very salty or a grey foam rises, pour it off and start again with fresh cold water. Add the bay leaf and simmer gently, partly covered, for about 20 minutes per 1 lb, so roughly 40–45 minutes for this joint, until a skewer slides in easily.
  2. While the bacon simmers, put the potatoes in a separate pot of cold salted water, bring to the boil and cook 25–30 minutes, until tender to the centre. Drain and leave to steam dry in the pot with a tea towel on top.
  3. Lift the bacon out onto a board, cover loosely and let it rest. Bring the bacon water back to a rolling boil, add the cabbage and cook uncovered 5–7 minutes, until just tender but still bright. Drain well, return to the pot and toss with the butter and plenty of pepper.Step 3, what it should look like
  4. For the sauce, warm the milk. Melt the butter in a saucepan, stir in the flour and cook 1–2 minutes without letting it colour. Whisk in the hot milk a little at a time until smooth, then simmer 4–5 minutes, stirring, until it lightly coats a spoon. Stir in the parsley, season with pepper and a pinch of salt (the bacon is salty) and simmer 1 minute more.Step 4, what it should look like
  5. Peel the rind and most of the fat off the bacon and slice it thickly. Serve with the cabbage, the potatoes in their jackets (or peeled at the table) and the parsley sauce poured generously over everything.

Good to know

What kind of bacon do I buy outside Ireland?

A boneless cured pork loin or collar joint, sold as a bacon joint or gammon in the UK and as a boneless smoked or cured pork loin elsewhere. It is not streaky bacon: you want a lean, solid piece that slices like ham.

Can I serve it with mash instead?

Champ (mash with milk and spring onions) or colcannon are both classic partners. Boiled potatoes in their jackets are the most traditional, and the parsley sauce does the job butter would on mash.

Can I make the sauce richer?

Whole milk, as Darina Allen uses, gives a slightly more velvety sauce at about the same score.

Alternatives

Per

Calories
100
Protein
(32%)
8 g
Fat
(33%)
4 g
Carbohydrates
(35%)
10 g
of which sugar
2 g
Fiber
1 g
Sodium
329 mg

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Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How

As written, 2842 kcal goes into the pot and 3297 g of ingredients comes out as about 2855 g of food: 100 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.