Coddle

Ingredients

Meat

• 8pork sausages
• 8rashers thick-cut bacon, cut into pieces

Pot

• 4onions, thickly sliced
• 1 kgpotatoes, thickly sliced
• 1 litreham or chicken stock
• 2bay leaves
• black pepper
• salt

To finish

• 1large bunch parsley, chopped

To serve

• soda bread
• stout

Directions

1. Blanch the bacon pieces in boiling water for 2 minutes and drain them. Irish bacon is salty enough to make the entire pot inedible otherwise.
2. Traditional Dublin coddle browns nothing at all. The sausages and bacon go in pale and the finished dish is famously and unapologetically grey.
3. If you would rather brown the sausages first, do it. Most modern versions do, and it is the one departure that improves the look without changing the character.
4. Layer the pot: onions on the bottom, then the sausages and bacon, then the potatoes over the top.
5. Add the bay leaves and plenty of black pepper, but hold back on salt until the very end.
6. Pour in the stock to just cover and no more. This is a coddle rather than a soup, and the liquid should reduce down to a thin gravy.
7. Cover and simmer very gently for 1 hour 30 minutes, or cook it at 150°C (300°F) in the oven.
8. Do not stir it at any point. The layers are meant to stay distinct and the potatoes on top should steam rather than boil.
9. Stir in a great deal of chopped parsley right at the end.
10. Taste, and add salt only now that the bacon has given up what it is going to give.
11. Serve in deep bowls with soda bread and a glass of stout.

Technique

• It was cooked on a Thursday to use up meat before Friday abstinence, and it is a genuinely thrifty dish rather than a nostalgic one.
• It improves overnight and reheats better than almost anything else in this book.
• Grey is authentic. Anyone promising you a browned, glossy coddle has made something else.

Substitutions

• Any good pork sausage, though a coarse Irish-style one suits it best.
• Water with a stock cube if you have no ham stock.

Variations

• With a bottle of stout replacing some of the stock.
• With carrots layered in, which purists dispute.
• Browned first and finished in the oven, which is the common modern treatment.

History

Dublin’s pot of sausages, rashers and potatoes, traditionally cooked on Thursday to use up meat before Friday abstinence.

Frequently asked questions

What is Coddle?

Coddle is a soup & stew from Ireland: dublin pot of sausages, bacon, onions, potatoes. Dublin’s pot of sausages, rashers and potatoes, traditionally cooked on Thursday to use up meat before Friday abstinence.

How long does Coddle take to make?

Coddle takes 20 min of preparation and 1 hr 30 min of cooking. The recipe makes 6 servings. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Coddle?

Yes, within limits. Any good pork sausage, though a coarse Irish-style one suits it best. Water with a stock cube if you have no ham stock.

What is the most important thing to get right in Coddle?

Blanch the bacon pieces in boiling water for 2 minutes and drain them. Irish bacon is salty enough to make the entire pot inedible otherwise.