This past year, in place of my usual St. Patrick’s Day cooking and drinking spree, I was convinced by a fellow pagan to ditch St. Paddy and celebrate the Feast of Cu Chulainn instead. I rather appreciated his idea, as St. Patrick is neither pagan (and I gave up Catholicism for Lent back in high school and never went back) nor Irish (he was a Romanized Briton). Replacing traditional St. Patrick’s Day with more traditional Celtic-Irish dishes was intriguing, giving me a reason to re-read the “Tain Bo Cuailnge” with my eye more focused on the social aspects rather than the martial. I own the Joseph Dunn translation of “Tain Bo Cuailnge”; however, a buddy of mine enjoys Thomas Kinsella’s version, partially due to the Louis le Brocquy’s illustrations that it contains. I also went through some other pagan thoughts on the food and drink of feasts and came up with a small and interesting menu to try for my first pagan-specific dinner.
My usual main dish is corned beef and cabbage, which isn’t even traditionally Irish, it was made big in the States. This was the hardest to replace. Not that there aren’t plenty of good main dishes to choose from, but I wanted something that would harmonize with pagan and Irish-Celtic roots. After searching, I decided upon beef heart. With cattle being one of the main themes in stories of Cu Chulainn, I thought beef would be appropriate. The Irish, even up into current times, use all parts of the animal for food, so nothing goes to waste. In many heathen/pagan cultures, eating the heart was considered a way to gain strength and courage, and in basic nutritional value, the heart is an excellent source of protein, vitamins, and minerals. (I also looked into preparing a pig heart, but felt the beef heart fit better with the story and was, honestly, easier to find.)
My side dish is typically mashed potatoes with a lot of butter, but I have also made honey glazed parsnips and potted shrimp. As the potato is a more recent Irish tuber, I looked deeper and discovered recipes for parsnips that date back centuries. In place of any seafood, I added a smoked oyster dressing to the beef heart.
I’ve tried many deserts with St. Paddy’s Day, and really couldn’t find anything that was specifically heathen, but did discover a wonderful Scottish dessert called
You’ll find the recipes below. One of the nice aspects of this is that while I’m calling it a feast, the cost of beef heart is less than most cuts of beef, and parsnips are as inexpensive as potatoes. With the exception of some of the Cranachan ingredients, this feast menu is quite affordable.
As a last note on the actual feast, I did go into it with the understanding that most people will not want to try heart or parsnips, so I did make a few other “normal dinner” dishes for the rest of the family. After all, a feast where everyone isn’t having fun isn’t much of a feast. Any drink can be served, and I had a couple of stout beers with the main course, but I finished the meal with a cup of homemade mead, which I will happily share in an upcoming article. Slainte!
The Feast of Cu Chulainn – A Pagan Menu
By James Slaven
41