Bubble and Squeak is a mixture of mashed potatoes and cabbage browned in butter. So amazing!
Bubble and squeak is the funny name given to a dish made of leftovers from a British roast dinner. Leftover mashed potato is mixed with leftover cabbage and cooked in butter.
What’s in a name? The name has two meanings. The one I know is that it came from the sounds the ingredients make as they cook.
The other (which I’m not so sure about) is the noises your stomach makes after eating it.
If you’re familiar with British Cockney rhyming slang (if you’re not you will have to do a Google search to know what I’m talking about), Brits often refer to Greeks as Bubbles (as in bubble and squeak = Greek).
It is said that the dish originates back to 1770 and originally contained meat; boiled beef, actually.
It wasn’t until around 1951 that the meat was omitted and only potatoes and vegetables started to be used, and that has carried on until now.
Bubble and squeak is very similar to Irish colcannon which is a mix of mashed potato and cabbage. The difference is that bubble and squeak is cooked again after mixing.
Depending on what you had for your roast dinner, there’s any combination of ingredients that can be used, but there must be potato as the main ingredient.
How I was taught to make it by my mother is, after mixing it all gets put in a pan with melted butter and cook until the potato is browned.
Now, this does not make for prettiest of dishes when made this way.
For the sake of presentation, I form the mix into patties and shallow fried in a pan. Food should look appetizing, after all.
If you don’t have the leftovers to make this dish, I have been known to make the potatoes and cabbage just so I can enjoy this dish.
There’s no real traditional way to serve bubble and squeak, but on this particular occasion, I made British bangers and gravy – the mashed potatoes were left over from having bangers and mash a few days earlier.
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Bubble and Squeak Recipe
Ingredients
- 6 cups Mashed Potatoes
- 2 cups Cabbage
- 1 tablespoon Butter
Instructions
- Add the mash and cabbage to a bowl and mix well.
- Take 1 cup of mash and shape into patties. Use a little flour if they stick to your hands.
- Heat butter in a sauté pan over medium heat.
- Sauté the patties for 2-3 minutes per side until brown.
David
Sunday 25th of August 2024
I tried making it with frozen mash and it broke up when i cooked it. Is it because i'm using the wrong potato? Do you use boiled potato mash?