Feed Your Inner Gargoyle - Irish Treats for Halloween

What did the Irish eat at samhain? Lots - fresh meat and black pudding were plentiful. Black pudding, you see, is made from the blood of slaughtered animals. Just in case you did not know it ...

But this all changed when samhain became All Hallows' Eve. Not only did soothsaying druids become unpopular. As All Hallows' was a day of fasting, meat and meat products were suddenly off limits. So a traditional Halloween treat would have been vegetarian. Like pancakes and dumplings, sweet or spicy, apple fritters, cakes, bread and cheese.

Hungry? Having a gargoyle growling in your stomach?

Here are some ideas on what to cook for an Irish Halloween celebration: Colcannon, boxty, soul cakes and the popular bairin breac - the amateur's Halloween oracle of choice.

Photo © 2009 Bernd Biege licensed to About.com, Inc.