Make Your Mondays Bubble and Squeak With This Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What does the British term bubble and squeak mean? ›

noun. : a British dish consisting of usually leftover potatoes, greens (such as cabbage), and sometimes meat fried together.

Bubble and squeak is a fried British dish made with potatoes and cabbage. It's quite similar to the Irish colcannon. Bubble and squeak, which often contains meat such as ham or bacon, is traditionally made on Monday with the leftovers from Sunday's dinner or on Boxing Day with leftovers from the Christmas feast.

How Do You Keep Bubble and Squeak From Falling Apart? A good base of leftover mashed potatoes should help to keep your bubble and squeak glued together. If the mixture is a little loose and falling apart, try adding a sprinkle or two of flour.

The dish's name supposedly derives from the noises made when the ingredients are fried. Similar dishes, also based on fried vegetables, include colcannon (Ireland) and rumbledethumps (Scotland).

In co*ckney rhyming slang the phrase was formerly used for "beak" (magistrate) and more recently "Bubble" has been used for "Greek". The term has been borrowed by authors of children's books as names for a pair of puppies and (by two different authors) pairs of mice.

chatter, small talk [bubble (and squeak) v.].

Champ is mashed potato with spring onions/scallions from Northern Ireland. Bubble and Squeak is left over potatoes, mashed with whichever veg and then fried from England. Colcannon is boiled and crushed potatoes with cabbage from ROI.

Bubble and Squeak vs.

The main ingredients include mashed potatoes and cabbage, fried to crispy perfection. Colcannon, on the other hand, is an Irish dish. Like Bubble and Squeak, it contains mashed potatoes and cabbage. However, the cabbage is usually kale.

A great leftover recipe that can be made with any vegetable leftovers. Serve with a poached, fried or scrambled egg and crispy bacon or with poached smoked haddock fillets or grilled trout. Pop them in the freezer at the end of step 4 for a delicious snack on another day.

How long will it keep? Leftover mashed potato and vegetables will keep in the fridge for up to three days. Once you have made the Bubble & Squeak you can keep the leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge. I would then eat them the next day.

What if my bubble and squeak is too wet? ›

Do not add milk etc., if there is too much moisture then the bubble & squeak patties will break apart. If the bubble & squeak mixture is dry then fry them in a little oil (3mm deep), if the bubble & squeak mixture is a little wet then fry them off in a dry pan or on a griddle wiped with butter.

This British dish was invented in the 18th century and gets its name from the audible bubbling up and squeaking sounds it makes while cooking over the fire.

About Bubble and Squeak

Then there's Rumbledethumps, a Scottish traditional dish that's also named after the apparent sounds the ingredients make in the pan as they fry!

Bubble and Squeak is a tasty British hash made from potatoes and cabbage similar to colcannon, named for the noise it made while cooking.

Cooks tips

Yes, bubble and squeak can be frozen.

'Having a bubble means to have a laugh and I think it's co*ckney rhyming slang for having a bubble bath' Surprisingly, there's no entry for bubble (bath) [= 'laugh'] in Green's Dictionary of Slang, which suggests it must be a relatively recent coinage.

It's slang for twice the normal rate. Someone working over on a Sunday and being paid 2 x their normal salary, might refer to it as double bubble. Commonplace term in the British building trade.

to succeed, survive, pass, win, etc., by a very narrow margin: They can barely squeak by on their income.