Ireland's Yellowmeal Griddle Bread

A staple of Irish cuisine, yellowmeal – or cornmeal – is used to make a variety of dishes, including a crisp and buttery flatbread that can be whipped up in just minutes.


Yellowmeal has been a cupboard staple of Irish kitchens for nearly 200 years. Its prevalence in Ireland is little known outside the country, as is the fact that it became a staple as a direct result of its use during the Great Irish Famine of the mid 19th Century.

Yellowmeal, or yellermeal, also known as maize or cornmeal, is made of dried corn kernels that have been ground into a fine, medium or coarse texture. It was used as a bulking agent whenever flour was in short supply or too expensive. But unlike the potato, its association with famine times has persisted without stigma; anyone under 40 is surprised the same yellowmeal that makes their Instagrammable taco was the same shipped to Ireland to stem the tide of famine-related disease and death.

The presence of yellowmeal in Ireland stems back to when Ireland was still a colony of the British Empire governed by Westminster, when the Great Irish Famine of 1845-1849 took hold, decimating the population. Sir Robert Peel, Britain's prime minister during the famine, presided over the importation of maize from the Americas into Ireland to feed the hungry. It quickly adopted the moniker of "Peel's Brimstone" because of its indigestibility – knowledge of how to prepare it (a process called nixtamalisation) and cook it was initially unknown. But once the Irish learned how to use it, yellowmeal embedded itself into Irish foodways and found its way into many Irish dishes, from pancakes to potato cakes and breads.