Authentic Irish Foods for Samhain
🩸 Blood pudding (living cattle could be bled through the winter to provide the material as well as collecting blood when the cattle were slaughtered to keep the numbers down for winter)
🫓 Brambrack
🍲 Stew
Lamb
Beef
Wild boar
Domestic pig
Deer
Goose
Mallard
Hare
🐗 Salted wild boar and domestic pig (it is possible that other meats were salted for preservation but given that salt was an expensive commodity and no records indicate other meats we simply do not know. I will note here that we also don't seem to have records of smoked meats for preservation during this time)
🦌 From Samhain to Bealtaine it was considered inappropriate to hunt wild game, including boar. So while wild meats were likely eaten and preserved through this time, much like crop harvests for Lughnasadh, any game that wasn't taken before this festival was supposed to be left alone to breed. (Very unlike our modern hunting schedules)
🍺 Mead and Barely ale
🥣 Porridge
Oat
Barley
🥛 Dairy (this would likely become more limited as the season progressed, but butter has been found in bogs, presumed to be preserved but potentially given as offerings)
Cow's milk
Butter
Curds
mulchán 'hard cheese' (the exact nature of this cheese is unknown but it was described as being extremely hard and could be stored for long periods of time)
🦪 Sea food
Sloke
Clams
Muscles
Crab
Halibut
Sea Salmon
🌿Native Culinary Plants growing in Ireland at this time of year
Skirret
Apples
Purple sprouting boccoli
Wild cabbage
Blackberry
Raspberry
Rowan berries
Elder berries
Sloes
Rosehip
Acorn
Chestnuts
Hazelnuts
Hen of the woods
Pullball
Fairy Ring Champignon
Chanterelle
Porcini
Black Trumpet
Saffron Milk Caps
Cauliflower Mushroom
Wood Blewit
Penny bun
There would be an abundance of foods at this point in the year, but that food would become lesser as the season progressed do to lack of production in the environment and the fact that this point in the year was a time for traveling and feasting (likely to increase bonds amongs the Tuatha and because people would not be as occupied with farming and raiding).
My Kofi
