John Daly Murphy

Two unrelated dishes share this page: a plain Irish boiled dinner given in a few lines, and the standard Knox gelatine Perfection Salad. Both assume knowledge the original does not spell out.

• Irish bacon is not American baconWhat Murphy means is a cured, unsmoked or lightly smoked joint of back bacon or collar, sold today as a bacon joint or Irish boiling bacon. Streaky breakfast bacon will disintegrate; a fresh pork loin will not taste right. A piece of cured, unsliced pork shoulder is the nearest common substitute.
• Soak the salt out firstTraditionally cured bacon joints were often heavily salted, and a common first step, not mentioned here, was to soak the meat several hours or overnight in cold water, or to bring it to a boil and discard that first water. Without it the cabbage cooked in the same pot can be unpleasantly salty.
• What "very tender" means in timeReckon roughly 20 minutes per pound at a bare simmer, so a little over an hour for a 4 lb joint; note that the half hour with the cabbage in the pot is the tail end of that time, not extra. A hard boil toughens the meat and clouds the liquor.
• The cabbage timing is the hingeHalf an hour in bacon liquor is the point of the dish, not a mistake: the cabbage is meant to be soft and salty, not crisp. Cut a firm green or Savoy head into thick wedges through the core so it holds together.
• The chicken is cooked separatelyMurphy assumes a second pot. A whole chicken poached gently, about an hour for 4 lb, then carved and laid on the same platter with the bacon, cabbage and peeled boiled potatoes. English mustard means the hot powdered kind, mixed fresh and left ten minutes to bloom.
• Vinegar quantityThe printed page gives 1/2 cup mild vinegar against 2 cups boiling water, as our text now reads. Cider or white wine vinegar works well here.
• One envelope of gelatineA Knox envelope is about 7 g, roughly 2 1/4 teaspoons, which is what a modern packet still holds. It is setting roughly three cups of liquid here, so the result is deliberately soft and quivering rather than rubbery; chill at least four hours, preferably overnight.
• Add the vegetables at the right momentWait until the mixture is the consistency of raw egg white before folding in cabbage, celery and pimiento, or everything floats to the top and sets in one layer. Pimientos come in jars now; drain and pat dry.
• YieldThe salad fills a 1½ quart mold and serves eight as a side. The boiled dinner as described will feed four to six, depending on the size of the bacon joint.