Bubble and squeak

fudgem

My husband makes a right mess of this as he ca't resist stirring it up in the pan. Don't stir it, put it in and leave it alone for five minutes until its nicely done on the bottom.

[Deleted User]

Yup it's got to have a well-done bottom to it.:rotfl: The crispier the better.:j My old Mum always cooked it on Monday with left-overs from Sunday dinner.
I only have to smell cabbage cooking and it takes me back 50+ years. Monday morning was wash-day and everthing got boiled or washed in the big wash-tub,I had to stand on the stool and every now and then poke the washing with the big dolly-stick ..It was a hot and wet job but I loved doing it. The clothes were then wrung out and rinsed and then I had to turn the handle on the mangle and watch as the sheets and washing got squeezed through the two rollers. This operation took most of the morning ,so lunch was usually a sandwich of cooked cold meat from yesterdays joint with pickle , but after lunch whilst the washing was hopefully blowing on the line in the garden Mum would get all the left-overs from the day before together to make tea for us at 6.00.p.m. when my Dad and brothers came home. I often wondered how come she had so many left-overs ,but as I grew up I realised that she always cooked more than we needed so there would be lots left for Monday tea.
She had a huge black frying pan and in went the chopped up onion followed by the spuds and cabbage and anything else she could find. She had a big beef dripping pot that held all the dripping from Sunday's joint and she used some dripping to cook it in.
A plate of Bubble & Squeek with a runny fried egg on top filled even the hungriest of children. Not very healthy I suppose, but it was delicious on a cold winters day.
She always made sure that the bottom of the bubble was nice and brown and crispy and I am sure that the beef dripping made it taste just wonderful.
To my Mum, oil was something that you put on a squeeky door ,not something you cooked with.
Another job as a child I had to do was if my Dad had wrung the neck of one of the chickens, my brother and I had to sit and pull the feathers off, then my Mum would burn the stubble with a candle and then came the fiddley bit pulling all the burnt bits off as well.
Everything was done at a different pace in those days, she had no washing machine,fridge,spin-dryer,microwave or any of the modern appliances that we now all take for granted.Shopping was bought fresh everyday ,shops shut on Sundays, there was a regularity in life that as a child you knew what day it was by what you did. Monday was wash day, Tuesdays was family allowance day (you might be lucky and get an ounce of sweets if there were enough ration points).Wednesday; tea was sausage and mash Thursday; was bits and bobs pie ( basically anything my Mum could find to put in a pie) as Friday was pay day. it was always fish and chips on Fridays .Saturday was spam or corned beef fritters . When rationing was on back then, food became a topic of everyones conversation as it was in such short supply.Probably why I can remember our menu's so clearly :rotfl:


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Penny-Pincher!!

OH does a great Bubble & Squeak. He uses veg left etc from day before or even 2 days before. Puts all the veg and mash in a bowl. Fries an onion and adds to the bowl with a little butter, then mashes down. Puts it all in an oven proof dish....sticks in oven on high, after 10 mins puts grated cheddar on top and he has with a friend egg.

PP
xx

MortgageMamma

We all love sprouts in our house, but the smell they leave behind after you've cooked them is less than desireable!

fudgem

MortgageMamma wrote:

We all love sprouts in our house, but the smell they leave behind after you've cooked them is less than desireable!

Put some vinegar in a cup and leave it out in the kitchen. This takes care of most smells. I always use it when I've dyed my hair cos that smells the house out as well.

JackieO, you might have been describing my own childhood, were you in the house next door?;)

twink

jackie 0 i can relate to all that, brings back memorys, the smell of singed feathers and the big mangle, outside loo and tap just outside the front door, the big range with open fire that gran would get going again with some mansion polish and having to scrape the soot from the kettle, large kitchen garden with the midden and a treat was gran and me to go to the bottom of the garden with a stream to have tea and digestives, getting bathed in the tin bath, i had better stop i think, what was the original post about?

[Deleted User]

twink wrote:

jackie 0 i can relate to all that, brings back memorys, the smell of singed feathers and the big mangle, outside loo and tap just outside the front door, the big range with open fire that gran would get going again with some mansion polish and having to scrape the soot from the kettle, large kitchen garden with the midden and a treat was gran and me to go to the bottom of the garden with a stream to have tea and digestives, getting bathed in the tin bath, i had better stop i think, what was the original post about?

Ah yes the kitchen range that shone with 'blacking' and my Mums pearly white step that woe betide anyone marked with their mucky boots ( She 'stoned it' everyday)
Friday night was bath night in the tin-bath from the back of the coal-cellar door ..As the tail-end charlie of the family, and a girl I was probably cleaner than my mucky brothers so I always went in first. Scrubbed from head to toe with a bar of red carbolic soap or if my Mum was feeling in a good mood, a brick of green Fairy soap.
The outside loo that was full of hairy-legged spiders that terrified me:eek: .I used to whistle or sing when I went inside in the hope that I would frighten them off. Newspaper on a bit of string ,none of that softy, doggy Andrex stuff in our house:eek: ,
Proper toast and dripping for supper in front of the kitchen range ,along with a cup of cocoa, then the mad dash upstairs to bed across the icy lino floor.
Diving under the blankets and looking forward to my Dad coming home on leave with his army great-coat over my feet.
Now I have a lovely warm bathroom, and a cosy double-glazed house, with wall-to-wall carpets and as much hot water as I need. No boiling up kettles for the tin bath anymore.
I am glad I had my childhood ,but I am also pleased that I have today's comforts as well.:j

[Deleted User]

I had a great big plateful last night of left over veggies from my DD who was going to chuck it out . It's such a waste to throw perfectly good food out. It was delicious.
Does anyone else eat this very old-fshioned dish or has it been forgotten by the 'foodie brigade'.
There always seems to be lots of food left-over at this time of the year and i can't see the point of feeding your dustbin.:rolleyes:

comping_cat

Every boxing day we have bubble and squeak made from the left over xmas dinner!!!! My children are very picky about veg, but this is a way of getting some more down them without them realising!!!!

squeaky

Yep.

Roasties and roast parsnips make a really good base