Hello again. Everything seems to have changed since I last wrote. We now have huge lines outside the supermarket, and everyone’s wearing masks, keeping a safe distance from each other. Obviously, this means a drastic reduction in shopping, and an increasing reliance on leftovers.

The British have taken leftovers to a fine art, creating dishes that utilize everything that might be on hand. Most of the time, this involves the detritus of the traditional Sunday Dinner – a feast featuring a beef roast, potatoes, and some kind of cabbage or Brussels Sprouts. These would all be chopped up and fried the next day, resulting in a dish known as Bubble and Squeak, due to the sound it makes while cooking. It’s generally meant to be served with a poached egg on top, not unlike hash.

The dish itself seems to date back to the mid-18th century, and has several variants throughout the British Isles, including Colcannon in Ireland and Rumblethumps in Scotland. One early reference to the dish appears in the “Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue” from 1785: “Bubble and squeak is beef and cabbage fried together. It is so called from its bubbling up and squeaking while over the fire.”

Although beef was the backbone of this dish in more prosperous times, the advent of two World Wars and subsequent rationing curtailed that particular ingredient. Instead, the potatoes took center stage, cooked with the greens. Really, there is no particular recipe for this dish, as people just used what they had in the fridge.

Like Spotted Dick and Toad in the Hole, it has become a source of amusement over the centuries. For instance, in 1753, the noted wag Christopher Smart published this recipe in “The Mid-Wife, or, The Old Woman’s Magazine.” Obviously, it isn’t meant to be taken seriously:

“LECTURE IN COOKERY. “LECTURE the first. Which contains the Art of making BUBBLE AND SQUEAK for Supper. Published at the Request of the Gentlemen of both Universities.

“Take of Beef, Mutton, or Lamb, or Veal, or any other Meat, two Pounds and an half, or any other Quantity; let it lay in Salt, till the saline Particles have lock’d up all the Juices of the Animal, and render’d the Fibres too hard to be digested; then boil it over a Turf or Peat Fire, in a Brass Kettle cover’d with a Copper Lid, till it is much done. Then take Cabbage (that which is most windy, and capable of producing the greatest Report) and boil it in a Bell-Metal Pot till it is done enough, or if you think proper, till it is done too much. Then slice the Beef, and souse that and the Cabbage both in a Frying-Pan together, and let it bubble and squeak over a Charcoal Fire, for half an Hour, three Minutes, and two Seconds. Then eat a Quantum sufficit, or two Pounds and a half, and after it drink sixteen Pints of fat Ale, smoak, sleep, snoar, belch, and orget your book. MARY MIDNIGHT.”

When making this dish, I recommend forming it into patties before frying, to facilitate easier turning. It should also be served with brown sauce. In England, this would be HP brand, recognizable from the drawing of the Houses of Parliament on the label. I realize this is hard to find here, so any kind of steak sauce would do in a pinch.

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Bubble and Squeak

½ medium head cabbage, sliced

3 slices bacon, diced

1 onion, thinly sliced

1 cup cubed cooked beef

1 tablespoon butter

3 cups potatoes – baked, cooled and thinly sliced

Poached or fried eggs, to serve.

½ teaspoon paprika

salt and pepper to taste

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In a medium saucepan, cook cabbage in a small amount of water for about 5 minutes, or until tender. Drain, and set aside.

In a well-seasoned cast iron skillet, cook bacon and onion until onion is soft and bacon is cooked. Add beef, and cook until heated through. Add butter, then mix in the cooked cabbage and potatoes. Season with paprika, salt, and pepper. Cook until browned on bottom, turn, and brown again. Serve with egg on top. Makes 6 servings.

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