After speaking to my grandparents on the matter of rationing during WW2 it appears to have been extremely hard to get beef in any capacity. However, I’d still say that it probably would have become the widespread norm to use potato during WW2 since rationing was far more stringent. However, that is not to say that when necessity arose during the rationing imposed in 1918 potato wasn’t turned to in lieu of beef. Not to mention the significant social “othering” that they experienced. The time frame doesn’t necessarily fit in either as the Irish population in England and Wales, according to census data, reached it’s peak around 1861 which was a mere 3% of the total population. I doubt whether the Irish would have had such an effect on what the general population of Great Britain would have eaten during the period. You might be interested in this from 1807: I’m surprised I’ve not blogged it yet actually! I would say that you should keep the ratio of potatoes to vegetables at least 1:1.Though it is very delicious if all you have left is mashed potato (in my house growing up, we often had fried mashed potato sandwiches with brown sauce!). Good additions are kale or dulse that have been crisped up in the oven or frying pan before being crumbled into the spuds You have to use some mashed potato as a base and then stir or mash in leftover boiled cabbage, broccoli, carrots or whatever you have. It’s hard to give amounts as it is just left-overs: Well, here is my recipe for the more familiar – and surprisingly modern – bubble and squeak.
It cannot be a coincidence that the dish went from beef-based to potato-based at around the same time as the Second World War and rationing. Indeed recipes for it in this form run right up the mid-twentieth century. This recipe goes back as far as the mid-eighteenth century. The beef should be thinly sliced and fried up with chopped boiled cabbage in butter and some salt and pepper. In The complete economical cook, and frugal housewife: an entirely new system, Mary Holland – in 1837 – describes a recipe that makes use of leftover boiled beef, not potatoes. It turns out it didn’t begin life as fried mashed potato patties, but as something quite different.
It’s difficult to give a recipe for it as you just have to use whatever vegetables you have leftover from a nice roast dinner. Bubble and squeak is one of my favourite left-over foods.
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