Despite its popularity in children’s rhymes and the abundance of folkore surrounding the dish, there is little concrete evidence of what boxty’s origins actually are. As part of his dissertation Pádraic Óg was able to trace the earliest written references back to William Carlton’s Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry, published 1828, but it likely goes back much further than this. Although the book doesn’t offer insights into the dish’s early evolution, it does rule out one popular myth surrounding boxty: that it was invented during the Great Famine.
The catastrophic Irish potato famine started in the mid 1840s. Boxty’s presence in a book over fifteen years prior to the famine confirms it was very well-established by the 1820s, and can’t have come about as a result of the famine. But, more practically speaking, Pádraic Óg explains that no one could have made boxty, which requires very high quality potatoes, during a potato blight. 'It wasn’t a famine dish, it could never be a famine dish,' Pádraic Óg explained to me in some exasperation, 'because you cannot make boxty with bad potatoes, as a way of extending your potatoes to make bread.' In fact, according to Gallagher boxty is the very opposite of a famine dish. 'It was a celebratory dish more than anything else because it was labour intensive.' The need for a grater to grate the potatoes, a cloth or pillowcase to squeeze out any excess water and a deft hand to shape the pancakes makes boxty fairly fiddly, so it was historically brought out for special occasions like St. Brigid’s day, alongside colcannon and freshly churned butter.
The potato pancakes or dumplings were eaten to celebrate the patroness saint of Ireland and dairy, as well as the coming of spring. Pádraic Óg added that in his family they were also eaten as a weekly treat. 'You had a choice either fish or boxty on a Friday, and it was always boxty for me.'
Potatoes are, unfortunately, undeniably something of a punchline with Irish cuisine. But the work of Pádraic Óg Gállagher – and the deliciousness of boxty – underscores the fact that the nation’s ability to endlessly iterate on the humblest combination of ingredients – potatoes and flour – deserves as much respect and attention as Italy’s endless reinvention of semolina and water. And while Irish food has only received a fraction of the international attention of Italian food so far, with luck boxty will be just the beginning.
