Who knew Stovies are considered the ultimate Scottish food by so many?! With such a wide range of Scottish dishes available, we’ve been astounded at the number of times we’ve been asked how to make traditional Scottish Stovies.
It turns out that Stovies are a nostalgic favourite of many, but the recipe differs from family to family, and many people have fond memories of the version that their Mother or Granny made.
So, what was the biggest problem we faced when asked by everyone how to make them? Offending someone’s granny because everyone’s recipe is different!
Scroll to the end or use the table of contents to be taken straight to the Printable Recipe Card.
- What are Stovies?
- Where does the name Stovies come from?
- When were Stovies first made?
- Things you'll need to make Stovies
- Ingredients for Stovies
- How to Make Stovies – Step by step method
- Variations for Stovies
- Corned Beef Stovies
- Sausage Stovies
- Vegetarian Stovies
- Stovies Printable Recipe Card
- Other Scottish Recipes to Try:
As usual, we dove headfirst into as many old recipe books as we could, researching Stovies to try and find the most traditional recipe that we could, and then made adjustments based on what we’ve learned from friends and family (and you guys!) too.
While the basic premise of frying off an onion in fat, covering it with potatoes and stock or gravy, then allowing it all to simmer away on the stove seems to be the same, it’s the rest of the ingredients that can differ hugely.
There is leftover Beef Roast Stovies, Sausage Stovies, Corned Beef Stovies and Vegetarian Stovies recipes, to name but a few!
And all are correct, delicious, and all have their place in our Stovies post, but where to start?
Traditionally, Stovies likely didn’t even include meat, but just beef or lamb dripping or fat from a roast that could be bought to give the potatoes and onion a meaty flavour. Some families still make it this way.
Later on, leftover meat from mutton or beef roast would also have been added, and now people often buy meat specifically for Stovies, like sausages or corned beef.
Since we were having a delicious beef roast one Sunday, we decided to use the leftovers to make Beef Stovies! we added in a carrot (controversially) to give it some colour and a little different flavour as well, but otherwise stuck to the traditional method with our Stovies recipe as you can see below.
But let’s get a bit more into what exactly Stovies are first!
What are Stovies?
Stovies is a popular Scottish dish made of potatoes, onions and, traditionally, leftover roast meat with beef dripping. It’s the ideal dish to use up leftovers and ensure there is as little wastage as possible.
The finished dish comes out as a blend of potatoes, other vegetables and the meat of your choice, all boiled together with some stock and seasoning that help Scottish Stovies burst with flavour and make the perfect comfort food.
This was generally a Monday sort of dish, made with the leftover bits from a Sunday roast and turns out a bit like a potato stew, but of course, you can make it any day of the week!
Like many of the dishes we have recreated, Stovies began life trying to reduce wastage and save money, similar to Cullen Skink and Tattie Scones.
All of these dishes have been created through necessity, when times were hard, to make sure everything that could be was used.
Now all of these dishes are made for the love of them because they’re all so tasty and they remind people of home and growing up.
Where does the name Stovies come from?
In Scots, to Stove or Stove means to cook meat in a little liquid. It’s said to come from the French ‘étuvé,’ which translates as steam room or oven or, in cooking terms, steam or braise. It’s easy to see how the jump was made to Stovies!
When were Stovies first made?
This is the impossible question! Stovies are such a simple dish made with common ingredients so there is no recorded history as such.
It is believed that potatoes were introduced to Britain at the end of the 16th century so they’re likely to be as old as this, made using whatever scraps were available at the time.
Variations of leftover recipes can be found in every country. For example, the English have Bubble and Squeak, the Welsh have Cawl, and the Irish have Colcannon.
And so in Scotland, we have Stovies, with every family having their own recipe stretching back who knows how long!
Since starting Scran we’ve been asked numerous times for a Scottish Stovies recipe because a grandmother/mother or other relative used to make them for the person when they were little.
Well, here’s our new family recipe plus a few variations provided to us by the Scottish Scran Facebook Group.
As always, we’ve tried to stay as traditional as possible so we’ve used leftovers from a roast dinner as a key part to our Stovies recipe.
We think its better if as much as possible can come from a roast dinner to add a depth of flavour to the dish.
Things you’ll need to make Stovies
- Large pan or frying pan
- Measuring jug
- Spoon
- Knife and chopping board
Ingredients for Stovies
- 250g (8.8oz) Roast Beef from previous days roast or meat of your choice (see variations)
- 900g (2lb) Roast Potatoes from previous days roast, make up any difference with raw potatoes
- 50g (4 tbsp) Beef Dripping saved from previous days roast, or butter, oil, dripping or lard
- 400ml (2 cups) Stock or leftover gravy with water added to make up the difference. We used OXO cubes.
- 2-3 tbsp Beef Jelly from previous days roast *Optional – If you put the Beef fat from the roast into a container and leave to cool overnight it will separate out into dripping and meat jelly
- Other vegetables (from previous days roast) or 2 large raw carrots
- 1 Large Onion
How to Make Stovies – Step by step method
Stovies is all about bringing together delicious flavours from a leftover roast to boil away on the stovetop.
Start by dicing the onion and any peel and chop any extra potatoes you might need, plus a carrot if using. It’s best to use as many leftover roast potatoes as you can so always cook some extras!
Roughly dice your beef or substitute meat like sausages. You can see our variations below for some different ideas. Some people also use sausages to make up the difference if you need extra meat.
Add Beef dripping or a substitute fat to a large hot pan, see our variations about this too! You can use butter, olive oil, or lard.
Add the onion to the hot fat in a layer at the bottom of the pan, allow them to change colour but not to brown.
Add the diced meat to the pan on top of the onions once they begin to change colour. Stir together. Note: If using Corned Beef then add at the end and stir through to warm up other than at this point.
Add potatoes and any other vegetables to the mix, on top of the meat but do not stir together.
If required make up your stock, adding the beef jelly (this is what separates from the dripping if you leave to cool after having a roast) to the mix and stirring to combine.
Pour the stock into the pot. It should come to just below the top layer of vegetables so add more or less as necessary. Do not stir but leave everything in layers.
Bring to the boil and once boiling turn down to a low simmer and cover.
Cook for 45 mins-60 minutes until the potatoes begin to soften and break down. Test them with a knife to see if they’re ready.
Season with salt and pepper. Only stir at this point, so that the onion caramelises and the potatoes break down when you stir. The idea is to have some nice crispy bits on the bottom, and for some but not all of the potatoes to break down.
New potatoes will break down more than roast ones which is why it’s nice to have lots of roast potatoes in it too!
Serve with oatcakes or crusty bread.
Variations for Stovies
Gravy: Use leftover gravy instead of stock. You will want to use water to thin it out a little or top-up to the 400ml.
Marmite: Some people like to add a little marmite to the stock mix for an extra flavour
Beer: You can add around 4-6 tablespoons of a dark beer once the onions have fried and cook for a few minutes to allow the alcohol to burn off before continuing with the rest of the recipe. This will add another additional layer of flavour.
Corned Beef Stovies
Corned Beef Stovies have also proved popular when we’ve surveyed our Facebook Group members about how they make their Stovies.
Tinned Corned Beef is readily available and a pantry staple for some, so it’s easy to see why it would act as another meat option for Stovies.
Since the meat is already cooked and shredded you can add it when the potatoes are cooked and stir through to warm it up.
Sausage Stovies
Many people swear by making their Stovies with sausage. This could be sliced sausages, sausage meat, or cut up square sausage (Lorne Sausage – recipe here).
You can add these at the beginning just after the onions to allow some of the fat to come out and flavour the dish.
This means they will break down a lot in cooking, however, so if you want bigger pieces, we recommend adding them in closer to the end of cooking, around 20 minutes or so before, depending on how big the sausages are and if they’re pre-cooked or not.
If you don’t have enough leftover roast meat, these are a great addition.
Vegetarian Stovies
It is entirely possible to make Vegetarian Stovies or even Vegan Stovies. In fact, some people were brought up on stovies made purely of potatoes! Although often they were cooked in some sort of fat from meat.
The simplest way is just to omit the meat and use a vegetarian/vegan version of fat like olive oil or butter/vegan butter alternative and vegetable stock.
Make sure any leftover roast vegetables haven’t been cooked in meat fat, though!
You can also add vegetarian sausages or another meat alternative. Chop and add around 10-15 minutes from the end of cooking to allow them to cook through.
However you make your stovies, they’re a delicious and heartwarming meal. It’s often served with crusty bread or oatcakes (try our easy homemade oatcakes, they can be made while you wait for the stovies to cook!).
The best thing about a stovies recipe is that everyone will have their own take on it, with their own memories of the dish or favourite way of doing it. Let us know if you try something different!
Stovies Printable Recipe Card
Traditional Scottish Stovies Recipe
How to make Scottish Stovies is actually a matter of debate. No Scottish Stovies recipe is the same! This hearty dish is a bit like a potato stew, and usually consists of onion, potatoes, other leftover roast vegetables, stock or gravy, and some form of leftover roast meat or sausage. It's a nostalgic favourite of many and often eaten on a Monday after a big Sunday roast and served with crusty bread or oatcakes. Read on for our recipe and possible variations, including vegetarian and vegan stovies!
Ingredients
- 250g (8.8oz) Roast Beef from previous days roast or meat of your choice (see notes for variations)
- 900g (2lb) Roast Potatoes from previous days roast, make up any difference with raw potatoes
- 50g (3-4 tbsp) Beef Dripping saved from previous days roast, or butter, oil, dripping or lard
- 400ml (2 cups) Stock or leftover gravy with water added to make up the difference. We used OXO cubes.
- 2-3 tbsp Beef Jelly from previous days roast *Optional - If you put the Beef fat from the roast into a container and leave to cool overnight it will separate out into dripping and meat jelly
- Other vegetables (from previous days roast) or 2 large raw carrots
- 1 Large Onion
Instructions
- Dice the onion and any peel and chop any extra potatoes you might need, plus a carrot if using.
- Roughly dice your beef or a substitute meat like sausages.
- Add Beef dripping or a substitute fat to a large hot pan.
- Add the onion to the hot fat in a layer, allow them to change colour but not to brown.
- Add the diced meat to the pan as a layer on top of the onions once they begin to change colour. Stir together. Note: If using Corned Beef then add at the end and stir through to warm up other than at this point.
- Add potatoes and any other vegetables to the mix, on top of the meat but do not stir together.
- If required make up your stock, adding the beef jelly to the mix and stirring to combine.
- Pour the stock into the pot. It should come to just below the top layer of vegetables so add more or less as necessary. Do not stir but leave everything in layers.
- Bring to the boil
- Once boiling turn down to a low simmer and cover.
- Cook for 45-60 minutes until the potatoes begin to soften and break down. Test them with a knife to see if they’re ready.
- Season with salt and pepper. Only stir at this point, so that the onion caramelises and the potatoes break down when you stir.
- Serve with oatcakes or crusty bread.
Notes
Variations:
Gravy: Use leftover gravy instead of stock. You will want to use water to thin it out a little or top-up to the 400ml.
Marmite: Some people like to add a little marmite to the stock mix for an extra flavour
Beer: You can add around 4-6 tablespoons of a dark beer once the onions have fried and cook for a few minutes to allow the alcohol to burn off before continuing with the rest of the recipe. This will add another additional layer of flavour.
Meat: You can use leftover roast meat of any sort, and top up with sausage meat if you don't have enough. It's also possible to make entirely with sausage meat, using either ground sausage, square sausage cut up, or sliced sausages. These should all be added at the beginning after the onion. If you want to use Corned Beef instead add the at the end when the potatoes are done and stir through to warm up.
Fat: You can use any sort of fat you like, but the most flavoursome is the leftovers from a roast dinner. Save this in a dish overnight and it should separate into "dripping" and "meat jelly". You can use the dripping as fat and the meat jelly can be stirred into the stock for extra flavour. However, you can also opt for butter, olive oil, or lard.
Vegetarian/Vegan Stovies: Yes, it's possible! Use a vegetarian or vegan fat like a butter alternative and a vegetable stock. You can have it with just vegetables like potatoes and any others you may want to add (turnip/swede for instance) or use a vegetarian sausage or other meat alternative which can be stirred through at the end to warm up.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
6Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 550Total Fat: 33gSaturated Fat: 13gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 16gCholesterol: 154mgSodium: 150mgCarbohydrates: 21gFiber: 2gSugar: 6gProtein: 41g
The nutritional data in this recipe is provided by a third party and these values are automatically calculated and offered for guidance only. Their accuracy is not guaranteed.
Other Scottish Recipes to Try:
- Easy & Tasty Mince and Tatties Recipe
- How to Make a Haggis, Neeps and Tatties Stack
- Scottish Steak Pie Recipe
- Balmoral Chicken Recipe: Chicken Stuffed with Haggis
- Delicious Creamy Haggis Pasta Recipe
- Perfect Mince and Dumplings Recipe
Pin for later!
Pure comfort food, always welcome with crusty bread slathered in butter.
Interesting to read. Yes, we all make this kind of hash/stew with leftovers. I’m of Canadian decent and make similar dishes using leftovers. Thanks for sharing you receipe.
My mother would spin in her grave at your recipe I’m afraid. Stock? What stock?
Stovies should be a LOT of sliced onion fried in beef dripping lightly, sliced potatoes added & stirred through frequently. Lid on pot and allowed to steam, stirring frequently. Leftover roast meat added 20 mins before serving. Allow bottom of pan to caramelise. Plenty of salt and pepper. Nothing else.
Meat not necessary, but plenty of bread & butter.
We’re sorry for any spinning we’ve caused! As we mention in the post, there are many different ways to make stovies and everyone has a family recipe that they believe is the only way to make them. In the post we suggest as many variations as we have tried but sadly will never manage to cook stovies in every way possible! Thanks for the recipe every additional way to make them is always welcome!
Sure all your recipies are excellent but here is the real story. The word ‘stovie’ comes from the French,
‘etuver’ (cook in covered pot). Beef dripping and potatoes were all that some folk could afford! Sliced potatoes were layered with knobs of the dripping in between. It was cooked very slowly in a heavy pot with lid on and on the range therefore saving energy. My poor 1950’s mum added leftovers when cash allowed.
Steam? Do you put any liquid in?
That’s the proper recipe but with fried beef n pork links for serving
You are spot on, traditional Scottish stovies would never have stock or carrots, in fact proper stovies has no meat, adding left over beef would be added at the end 15/20 mins before serving, I like beetroot and oatcakes with mine
Yes it seems there’s a lot of variation so we were trying to cover it all! Beetroot sounds good!
An my aunty cath would spin in her urn and my granny nelly would jump off the shelf in hers!! each to there own, but Scottish scran, this stovies recipe is ridiculous. Mate table spoons of beef jelly from yesterday, stock maybe oxo, raw carrots, loads of roasters left from the day before and corned beef… I mean have a day off layer it up like hotpot Betty. There is no recipe for it everything is thrown in a pot and if you had loads of leftover food from yesterday’s dinner, I have news if they didn’t eat ur dinner they ent gonna eat it stoved the next day….
Wow, first off, sorry for upsetting any members of your family! As we mention in the recipe, though, there are many ways to make this classic, and everyone thinks theirs is the only way, sorry you’re not keen on ours. You should see the comments on social media; it would seem that everyone’s granny makes the best stovies, and no other version is ever to be tried! I wish we’d known; we would have shared this sooner. The engagement was great!
We’ve created a recipe that people can easily follow and then listed as many suggestions and variations as we could. We love that there are never leftovers at your house, and thank you for the day off. Very kind. 😂
Cheers, Phil & Sonja
Wow you didnt just step on the minefield you totaly jumped right in the middle of it with both feet.
I read your whole thing on Stovies and you said several times that there was many different ways to make Stovies. It is so true my mums stovies was different to my pals mums stovies when we was growing up.
Thanks for including stivies it was a staple of my growing up. We looked forward to it when mum made it and I still make it her way for my son.
Haha it certainly is a minefield! But one we’re fully prepared to jump in to, as you say! Glad you noticed we mentioned it several times. It’s what’s saved us many arguments! and how wonderful to be able to recreate your Mum’s stovies for your own son.
I have made stovies with all of the ingredients that you mentioned but also one that you didn’t, pork loin steaks, with just diced potato and onion. My gran and mother both made stovies this way but very few people have known them to be made with the pork loin steaks.
Pork loin would be a really tasty addition, thanks for sharing your family’s recipe!
Both my grannies and my mums stovies were brilliant, I used to eat tons of them. I did get my mum to show me once or twice but I didn’t really take it in too well. My granny had a great veg garden so swede and potato and carrot all came from there as well as shallot and onion. My mum’s other masterpiece was her corn beef hash. If only I had taken time to make notes! I’m going to give this a try mixed with some of the thing my Mum did. One popular thing was to add ‘doughballs’ , sorry not sure exactly what they were but loved the texture.
Fingers crossed ours lives up to your Mum and granny’s recipes!
Leaving aside the debate on how Stovies apparently ‘should’ be made, which is their own personal choice anyway… this recipe is absolutely delicious! I’m rubbish at free style cooking and need a recipe to follow. I made the square sausages from your recipe on here then put them through this Stovies recipe. So incredibly tasty. Will become a regular meal now. Everybody loved it, so thank you for this! Just discovered your website so looking forward to trying more of your recipes 🙂
This made us both smile. Thanks for the lovely comment!
Loving all the comments here. We’ve just had a discussion in our little ‘family chat’ about stovies and considering it’s my daughters we’ve all disagreed on how it’s made and what goes in it. I just used to chuck lorne sausage, onions and tatties in a pit with a bit of stock and let it cook. My daughters were saying they add carrots or mixed veg. Their partners are saying this makes it a casserole not stovies. Lol
Haha we find if you want to start a “debate” then bring up stovies to anyone with Scottish connections!
Ours would often have chopped up sausages and/or bacon as the protein, but I can empathise with those whose Ma or Granny didnae use stock!
We love hearing all the variations!
Bubble and squeak isn’t just an English version of stovies. Bubble and squeak is made in Scotland too and the difference is it’s made from vegetables left over from a previous dinner. All the vegetables including potatoes and whatever else you have left over are mashed up and fried in butter or oil, you can divide it up into rounds first if you like.
Whereas stovies are not made from leftover vegetables. Stovies are popular in Northumberland too (bordering with Scotland and what was formerly part of Northumberland is now in Scotland. A lot of us haveScottish ancestry. We celebrate Burns Night too with our stovies and haggis.
If you want to compare stovies with something, it’s like Dutch stamppot. I’m half Dutch half Scottish Northumbrian so I can categorically say those are similar but bubble and squeak is just fried leftovers.
Very brave of you indeed, I’m from the borders and a local facebook page once mentioned stovies and it resulted in over 700 comments!!!! My grandads stovies were just with corn beef but my step dads is with corn beef and sausage so theres even differences within families. It is well loved by my husband (who’d never had it before he met me) and my children. I havent made it for a long time so had a quick google to remind me of the basics. I wasn’t sure there would be anything online and was glad to find your recipe for a few prompts so it’ll be stovies in our house tonight, thanks for having it on here.
304 tbsp of beef dripping 🤔🤣
We love our beef dripping! 😂 But maybe not that much, thanks for pointing it out to us
So basically it is like what we in USA call “Beef Stew” which is just as good the next day.
We’re not sure about this one so will happily take your word for it.
Don’t take her word for it — beef stew is chunks of beef, potatoes and carrots, floating in a thickened liquid. Almost a thick soup. An onion and maybe some celery is added for flavor. But it’s nothing like stovies at all really, particularly since in beef stew the potatoes are added in just the last 20 minutes so that they don’t break apart, which would counter the entire premise of stovies.
We understand all of this Ella, but people call different things different names. Stovies always brings out lots of variations and family amendments. Maybe Stovies has been called stew in this neck of the woods. Who’s to say?
Anyway, thank you for your excellent stew description, you’ve made us very hungry! – Phil
My first mother-in-law (Aberdonian) used to make stovies (being a Sassenach, I’d never had them before) and as far as I can remember she would put the onions in a large pan, and lightly fry them off. Then added sliced potatoes and sliced roast beef. Cover the pan and leave to cook very slowly for a couple of hours.
Just before serving, she would give them a good stir so that the browned potato from the bottom of the pan was mixed through.
Delicious
The stovies in the pubs when a big football game was on 30 – 40 years ago were always best ,salty and made you drink more . Unfortunately I’m in Texas and no one knows what I’m talking about . No matter who or what ingredients they are the best .
They sounds great, though I’d imagine before a big footy game there was much need to encourage the drinking!
Finally, a proper recipe for stovies as my mum made them and not an anglified corruption with “posh”/wrong ingredients. Also in Aberdeen pickled beetroot, oatcakes and a glass of milk were the traditional accompanyments.
Thank you! Sounds delicious! As a Kiwi I’m a fan of pickled beetroot..