Irish Colcannon
Floury potatoes steamed in their jackets, mashed with hot milk until fluffy, then folded with an equal volume of buttered Savoy cabbage and served with butter melting in the middle.
Colcannon is mashed potato with cabbage or kale, and Wikipedia gives its Irish name as cál ceannann, "white-headed cabbage". In Ireland it belongs to Halloween. Folklorist Michael Fortune, writing for RTÉ in 2025, says that in Wexford the night had local names including Colcannon Night, that a ring or coin was hidden in the mash to tell fortunes, and that the 1937 and 1938 Schools' Folklore Collection rarely mentions colcannon in Cork and Kerry but often in Leinster. Tourism Ireland adds the thimble, which meant staying single, and the coin, which meant wealth. The song "Colcannon", also called "The Skillet Pot", was first recorded in 1913 by vaudeville performer Shaun O'Nolan (Wikipedia). Darina Allen of Ballymaloe Cookery School, whose recipe we adapt, made it on Chicago television in 2015 while promoting "Irish Traditional Cooking".
🇮🇪 The original
Floury potatoes steamed in their jackets, mashed with hot milk until fluffy, then folded with an equal volume of buttered Savoy cabbage and served with butter melting in the middle.
🇺🇸 The American version
America kept the butter and milk, dropped the greens and made a smooth bowl of mash with gravy the Thanksgiving side. See the Classic American Mashed Potatoes recipe.
Why it works the kitchen science
Steam, don't drown
Pouring off most of the water halfway lets the potatoes finish in steam, so they stay floury and dry and soak up the hot milk instead of going watery.
Equal volumes
Folding in about as much cabbage as potato keeps colcannon a vegetable dish with mash in it, not mash with a few green flecks.
Step by step
- Step 1
Put the potatoes in a large saucepan, cover with cold water, add a good pinch of salt and bring to a boil over high heat. Boil about 15 minutes, until half cooked.
- Step 2
Pour off about two thirds of the water, cover tightly and steam over low heat 15 to 20 minutes more, until a knife slides in easily.
- Step 3
Meanwhile, pull off the dark outer cabbage leaves, quarter and core the cabbage and slice it finely. Boil it in 1 inch of salted water in a covered pan over medium-high heat for 5 to 7 minutes, until soft. Drain well and toss with the 1 tbsp butter, salt and pepper.
- Step 4
Bring the milk to a boil in a small saucepan.
- Step 5
Peel the potatoes while they are hot and mash them with a potato masher. Beat in enough of the hot milk to make a fluffy mash.
- Step 6
Stir in about the same volume of cabbage, taste and add salt and pepper.
- Step 7
Pile into a hot serving dish, make a hollow on top and drop in the 4 tbsp butter so it melts into a pool. Serve right away.
Irish Colcannon
Serves 6 · about 6 cups · 55 min total
Potatoes
- 2 1/2 lb floury potatoes (russet or Yukon Gold), unpeeled and scrubbed
- Salt
- 1 cup plus 1 tbsp whole milk
Cabbage
- 1 small Savoy or spring cabbage (about 1 1/2 lb)
- 1 tbsp butter
- Salt and black pepper
To serve
- 4 tbsp butter
Method
- Put the potatoes in a large saucepan, cover with cold water, add a good pinch of salt and bring to a boil over high heat. Boil about 15 minutes, until half cooked.
- Pour off about two thirds of the water, cover tightly and steam over low heat 15 to 20 minutes more, until a knife slides in easily.
- Meanwhile, pull off the dark outer cabbage leaves, quarter and core the cabbage and slice it finely. Boil it in 1 inch of salted water in a covered pan over medium-high heat for 5 to 7 minutes, until soft. Drain well and toss with the 1 tbsp butter, salt and pepper.
- Bring the milk to a boil in a small saucepan.
- Peel the potatoes while they are hot and mash them with a potato masher. Beat in enough of the hot milk to make a fluffy mash.
- Stir in about the same volume of cabbage, taste and add salt and pepper.
- Pile into a hot serving dish, make a hollow on top and drop in the 4 tbsp butter so it melts into a pool. Serve right away.
Adapted from Darina Allen's colcannon in "Irish Traditional Cooking", as published by WGN-TV Chicago with her "Lunchbreak" segment on October 9, 2015. That page gives 2 to 3 lb potatoes, 1 small cabbage, about 1 cup plus 1 tbsp milk and about 1/4 cup butter, with no serving count; we use 2 1/2 lb and call it 6 (her earlier "Simply Delicious Suppers" version for 1 to 1.35 kg potatoes says 8:). The 15 minute half-cooked point and the reheating temperature are hers; the other times are ours. WGN-TV. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
Tips
- Make it ahead: Allen reheats colcannon in a 350°F oven for 20 to 25 minutes.
- Leftovers fried in bacon fat make crisp potato cakes (Allen).
- For Halloween, wrap a clean coin in parchment before hiding it, and warn everyone first.
- Use a masher, not a food processor, or the mash turns gluey.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- Colcannon is a St. Patrick's Day dish. Folklore in Ireland: Michael Fortune (RTÉ) and Tourism Ireland tie it to Halloween; it is eaten other times of year too.
- A ring hidden in it means you will marry. Documented as a recorded custom: the 1930s Schools' Collection entries Fortune describes, and Tourism Ireland's list of ring, thimble and coin.
- Real colcannon uses cabbage, not kale. Disputed: Wikipedia says cabbage is most common; Fortune says Wexford families used garden cabbage while many in Dublin used curly kale.
- The name means "white-headed cabbage". Disputed in detail: Wikipedia gives cál ceannann as the likely root and says the second part "may" come from a word for white head.
- Parsnips belong in it. Disputed: Fortune's Wexford colcannon uses cabbage and parsnip; Allen's version has no parsnip.
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