Northern Irish cuisine

Northern Ireland's culinary heritage has its roots in the staple diet of generations of farming families: bread and potatoes.^[1] Historically, limited availability of ingredients and low levels of immigration resulted in restricted variety and relative isolation from wider international culinary influences.^{[citation needed]}

Recent decades have seen significant developments in the local cuisine, characterised by an increase in the variety, quantity and quality of gastropubs and restaurants. There are currently three Michelin-starred restaurants in Northern Ireland, all of which specialise in traditional dishes made using local ingredients.^[2]

Northern Irish cuisine received international attention in March 2018 when it was reported that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had Irish stew and sausage with champ for lunch at the Crown Liquor Saloon during a tour of Belfast.^[3]

Breads

Potato bread

Potato bread is a flat bread prepared with potato, flour, and buttermilk.^[4] It is cooked on a griddle.^[4] Also known as fadge or tatie bread.

Soda bread

Soda bread is one of Northern Ireland's griddle breads; it can be eaten straightaway, or cooked until golden in an Ulster fry. They are sometimes eaten with butter and homemade jam, or with savoury food such as smoked salmon, fresh fried eel, or thick dry-cured bacon.

Soda bread is a soft, thick and fluffy bread. It was first baked in the 1800s in Ireland, and local people used baking soda to cause the dough to rise. It is typically served with an Ulster fry.^[4]

Wheaten bread

Wheaten bread is a brown bread made with whole wheat flour which also uses baking soda as a rising agent. It is often sweetened in contrast to the savoury white soda bread.^[4]

Veda bread

Veda bread is a small, soft, caramel-colored, malted loaf, typically eaten as a slice with a cup of tea. Veda is often toasted and/or served with butter or margarine.

Belfast bap

A large crusty but soft bread roll is traditionally filled with sausages, bacon and egg.

Plain loaf

A traditional style of dense, white loaf. It has a dark, well-fired crust on the top and bottom of the bread.

Barmbrack

A yeast bread with added sultanas and raisins.[2] The bread is associated with Halloween and is often flavoured with whisky.

Savoury dishes

Ardglass potted herring

Ardglass potted herring is found in butchers’ shops and fish traders. It is herring that is marinated in vinegar, rolled with bay leaf and baked with breadcrumbs.

Boxty

Boxty, mainly found in County Fermanagh, is a weighty, starchy potato cake made with a 50:50 mix of cooked mashed potatoes and grated, strained, raw potato. The most common variety is boiled boxty, also known as hurley, a large round loaf which is boiled whole for several hours, allowed to rest and then sliced and fried, often with bacon.

Champ

Champ is made with potatoes mashed with milk and chopped scallions.^[4]

Irish stew

A hearty stew, traditionally made with root vegetables and lamb or mutton, but also commonly with beef. As in all traditional folk dishes, the exact recipe is not consistent from time to time or place to place.

Vegetable broth

A vegetable soup made throughout Ulster contains carrots, celery, thin leeks and parsley, thickened with red lentils and barley. Packets of these six ingredients are often sold together as “soup veg”.^[4]

Dulse

Dulse is a seaweed snack food. Originally, it was harvested by fishermen for income supplementation when fishing was meager.^[4]

Pasties

Pasties are made from a mixture of sausage meat, onions, and mashed potato, shaped like a burger and spiced with black pepper. They can be ordered battered from most chip shops.

Tobacco onions

A popular side dish or topping made from thinly sliced onions that are coated in seasoned flour and then deep-fried until they are crispy and golden brown.

Ulster fry

The best known traditional dish in Northern Ireland is the Ulster fry. An Ulster fry, although not originally particularly associated with breakfast time, has in recent decades been marketed as Northern Ireland's version of a cooked breakfast. It is distinguishable from a full breakfast by its griddle breads—soda bread and potato bread, fried (or occasionally grilled) until crisp and golden, and sometimes also includes small pancakes. Bacon, sausages, an egg, and (as a modern development) tomato and sometimes mushrooms complete the dish. It is usually served with tea and toast.

Ulster seafood chowder

A creamy soup made with fish, potatoes and vegetables.

Black and white puddings

Blood sausages, often enjoyed as part of the Ulster Fry or in other dishes, are popular. White pudding is made without blood - it is made with pork meat and fat, suet, bread, and oatmeal. Both black and white puddings are available battered and deep fried in most chip shops.

Seafood

With its lengthy coastline and large loughs, Northern Ireland has an abundance of seafood. Smoked salmon, Irish oysters, and other fresh catches are popular, especially in coastal areas. The town of Royal Hillsborough hosts an annual oyster festival.

Vegetable roll

A vegetable roll is in fact made of beef, vegetables such as leeks and spring onions and seasoned with fresh herbs. It is shaped like a sausage and often comes sliced to be grilled and paired with potatoes and seasonal vegetables.

Cakes and confectionary

Fifteens

A soft tray bake cake which gets its name from using fifteen of each main ingredient (marshmallows, digestive biscuits, cherries).

Gravy ring

A ringed, dark-coloured and slightly crunchy doughnut, dusted in sugar. So-named because gravy is an archaic word for cooking oil in Ulster.

Paris bun

An Ulster-Scots food, they are a sweetened bread-like cake similar to scones, roughly cone-shaped, and topped with pearl sugar.

Florence cake

A Madeira-style cake covered in glace icing with a glace cherry on top in a pastry case spread with raspberry jam.

Cream horns

Horn-shaped puff pastry and sweetened cream.

Yellowman

Yellowman is a crunchy golden confectionery and looks a bit like honeycomb. It is mainly sold at fairs and markets.

Cheeses

Blue Rathgore
Boilie cheese
Coleraine Cheddar

Accompaniments

Black butter (a dark spicy spread prepared from apples, cider and spices, including liquorice)