17 Forgotten Suppers Irish Grandmothers Made When They Lived Alone

When I came home in 1970, the big pot that had fed ten of us for twenty years was hanging on a nail in the scullery. In its place on the hob was a little black saucepan, hardly big enough for four potatoes. The suppers my mother made in that small pot, once the house had emptied, were some of the best she ever cooked. Simple, warm, cheap, and made for one or two at the table. I still make every one of them, in that same pot, in a farmhouse kitchen outside Ballycroy in County Mayo. Here are 17 of them, through the year: Autumn: mushrooms on toast, boxty on the pan, and rabbit stew Winter: a small pot of Irish stew, tripe and onions, liver and onions, black and white pudding with fried apple, and barley broth from the Sunday bone Spring: nettle soup, champ, and cockles from the strand Summer: mackerel in oatmeal, new potatoes with dulse, and a proper Irish salad tea Any day: toasted cheese, eggy bread, and the one she made for me the night I came home A word on the mushrooms: my mother had one rule for wild mushrooms that was dangerously wrong. I explain it in the video. Unless someone who truly knows mushrooms is beside you, buy yours. Tell me in the comments: what did your mother make when it was just one or two at the table? The supper that came out of a small pot. Tell me what it was, and where. Nana Bridie's Kitchen. Old Irish kitchen wisdom from a County Mayo farmhouse, written down before it goes. #irishcooking #cookingforone #irishgrandmother #oldfashionedcooking #comfortfood