Bubble and squeak is leftover mashed potato mixed with leftover cooked greens — usually cabbage, sprouts or whatever survived Sunday — pressed into a pan and fried until a dark crisp crust forms. It is the standard British answer to the question of what to do with the vegetables nobody finished.
Where the name comes from
From the noise. As the cabbage heats in the pan it releases moisture, and the mixture bubbles and then squeaks audibly against the hot metal. It sounds like an invented explanation and it is entirely accurate.
It used to have beef in it
The earliest recorded versions, from the late eighteenth century, were made with leftover boiled beef and cabbage, with no potato at all. The potato arrived in the nineteenth century and the meat gradually dropped out, largely because there was rarely any left.
Meat rationing during and after the Second World War fixed the modern vegetarian version in place, and by the 1950s bubble and squeak meant potato and greens.
Making it
The method is forgiving and the technique is entirely about patience:
- Roughly mix cold mashed or crushed potato with chopped cooked cabbage, sprouts, or any other leftover vegetable. Roast potatoes work, chopped up.
- Melt dripping, bacon fat or butter in a heavy frying pan.
- Press the mixture in flat and leave it alone over a medium heat for several minutes.
- Turn it — in pieces, if it will not come out whole — and crisp the other side.
The mistake everyone makes is stirring. The entire point is the browned crust, and it will not form if the mixture is disturbed. It should be left long enough that you begin to worry it is burning.
What to eat it with
Traditionally it is a breakfast, served the morning after a roast, and it is one of the great additions to a fry-up. Also excellent with:
- A fried egg on top, the yolk broken over the crust.
- Cold cuts of the leftover roast meat, with pickle or brown sauce.
- Gravy, if any survives.
- Bacon, and a fried tomato.
The regional relatives
Every part of Britain and Ireland has a version, and each insists it is distinct:
- Colcannon — Irish, potato with kale or cabbage, but mashed and served soft rather than fried.
- Rumbledethumps — Scottish Borders, potato, cabbage and onion baked with cheese on top.
- Panackelty — from the North East, closer to a baked hash with corned beef.
- Stovies — Scottish, potatoes cooked down with meat and dripping.
Why it still matters
Bubble and squeak belongs to a British domestic tradition of using everything, formed by rationing and by generations who could not afford to throw food away. It has since been reclaimed by restaurants, which serve it in neat rings at considerable prices — but it is at its best made carelessly at home from things that would otherwise have gone in the bin.