Bubble and squeak
A dish made from Sunday lunch leftovers, said to be named after the bubbling and squeaking it makes in the pan. The whole technique comes down to one rule: leave the pan alone. The crust forms when the mixture sits untouched for eight minutes over well-heated fat — stirring it about simply gives you reheated, broken-up potato.
Your own work in that: 5 min.
- Vegetables 10 min
- Frying 25 min
- Serving 5 min
Step by step
0 / 7 doneCrush the potatoes, but not smooth
Crush the cold potatoes with a fork, leaving clear lumps. A smooth mash would glue together into a rubbery mass — an uneven texture gives crisp edges inside the cake, not only underneath.
Ingredients: 700 g potatoes · 300 g cabbage · 1 pcs onion · 40 g butter · 2 tbsp lard · 1 tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper
A fork, with lumps — never mashed smooth.Squeeze the cabbage dry
Squeeze the cooked cabbage hard, in your hands or a tea towel, and chop it. Water from the cabbage is the most common reason bubble and squeak fails to brown — evaporating moisture stops the pan reaching frying temperature.
Ingredients: 700 g potatoes · 300 g cabbage · 1 pcs onion · 40 g butter · 2 tbsp lard · 1 tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper
Soften the onion in butter
Fry the onion in the butter for 6 minutes, until soft and golden. Raw onion in the cake would stay sharp and crunchy in the wrong way — here it should bring the sweetness that balances the cabbage.
Ingredients: 700 g potatoes · 300 g cabbage · 1 pcs onion · 40 g butter · 2 tbsp lard · 1 tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper
Combine and season firmly
Mix the potato, cabbage and onion and season generously with salt and pepper. Potatoes need noticeably more salt than you expect, and this dish lives on its seasoning — it is by definition made from things that have already been cooked once.
Ingredients: 700 g potatoes · 300 g cabbage · 1 pcs onion · 40 g butter · 2 tbsp lard · 1 tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper
Press into hot fat and leave it
Heat a tablespoon of the lard in a cast iron pan (about 26–28 cm), press the mixture in as an even cake and fry over medium heat for 8 minutes without touching it. This is the moment that decides everything: the crust forms in stillness, and every shake of the pan tears it apart.
Ingredients: 700 g potatoes · 300 g cabbage · 1 pcs onion · 40 g butter · 2 tbsp lard · 1 tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper
Eight minutes untouched — that is how the crust forms.Turn it using a plate
Slide the cake onto a plate, cover with a second plate and invert. Heat the second tablespoon of lard in the pan and slide the cake back in, crust upwards. Fry another 6 minutes. Attempting to flip it with a spatula ends in collapse — nothing binds this cake together.
Ingredients: 700 g potatoes · 300 g cabbage · 1 pcs onion · 40 g butter · 2 tbsp lard · 1 tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper
Through a plate, never with a spatula.Serve with egg and bacon
Fry the bacon and the eggs, set them on the cake and serve with mustard. The runny yolk works as the sauce here — bubble and squeak is dry by nature and needs something to bind it on the plate.
Ingredients: 4 pcs eggs · 8 pcs bacon · 2 tbsp mustard
Before you start
Leftovers beat fresh
This is not an excuse: potatoes boiled a day earlier and chilled hold less moisture and firmer starch, so they brown better. Freshly boiled ones collapse into mush in the pan.
Sprouts and other leftovers
Classically you use whatever survived Sunday lunch: sprouts, carrots, leeks, even scraps of roast meat. There is one rule — everything must be cooked and squeezed dry before it goes in.
Small cakes instead of one big one
If turning through a plate puts you off, shape four smaller cakes and flip them with a spatula. You get more crisp surface per portion, though classically it is one large cake filling the pan.
