This change was committed to print in the 1951 edition of the food bible of the day, the Good Housekeeping - Home Encyclopedia: This may have been due to the rationing in force in the UK during WWII, when meat was scarce. It is so called from its bubbling up and squeaking whilst over the fire.'īy 1951, and possibly earlier, bubble and squeak lost meat as an ingredient.

'Bubble and Squeak, beef and cabbage fried together. Francis Grose was a collaborator in the publication and goes on to give a definition of 'bubble and squeak' in his Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785, which indicated how the dish got its name: The Homer in that work would be more at home in the Simpsons than in the Iliad, so perhaps the reference isn't so surprising after all. 'We therefore cooked him up a dish Of lean bull-beef, with cabbage fry'd. The first reference to the meal is from an apparently surprising source - Thomas Bridges' 'A burlesque translation of Homer', 1770: Those that do bother to cook might be horrified to know that 'bubble and squeak' is now available in packaged, microwaveable form.

It is somewhat less popular in the UK than before, which isn't surprising as the Sunday roast is less common too. The dish didn't spread to the countries of the British Empire either - possibly because they had unsuitable climates for roast dinners or, more likely, they just didn't like it. By 'we' I mean predominantly the inhabitants of the United Kingdom there are few references to the term in American literature or media and the few that there are point back to the UK origin. The dish as we currently know it is usually made from cold vegetables that have been left over from a previous meal, often the Sunday roast. What's the origin of the phrase 'Bubble and squeak'?

Nowadays it is more often fried potatoes and other vegetables, usually greens. In the 18th century this was a dish of fried meat and cabbage.

Food and drink What's the meaning of the phrase 'Bubble and squeak'?.

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