Scottish Food Doesn't Get More Traditional Than With a Stovies Recipe (2024)

Elaine Lemm is a renowned British food writer, classically trained chef, teacher, and author with over 25 years of experience writing about British food and cooking.

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Updated on 01/11/23

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Prep: 10 mins

Cook: 50 mins

Ingredients

1 tablespoon lard, or beef dripping
2 medium onions, or 1 large, roughly diced
4 tablespoons dark beer, or stout, optional
4 ounces cold roast beef, diced
1 1/2 pounds potatoes, peeled and quartered
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
1 1/4 cups beef stock,or leftover gravy
Vegetables, any that you have leftover from the day before

Steps to Make It

Gather the ingredients.
Preheat the oven to375 F / 190 C / Gas 5. Place a Dutch oven or casserole dish on the stove over medium heat. Add the lard or drippings, and melt.
Add the onions and cook until soft, but not browned, about 5 to 8 minutes.
If using, add the beer or stout and turn the heat up and allow to boil for 2 minutes to burn the alcohol away.
Add the meat and stir well.
Add the potatoes in layers, seasoning each layer with salt and pepper as you go, before adding the next layer.
Pour over the stock or gravy (or both).
Cover with a lid and cook in the preheated oven for 45 to 50 minutes, checking from time to time to make sure the stock is not boiling dry. If it is, add a little extra.
Ten minutes before the end of cooking, add any leftover vegetables to suit. Stir well and check the seasoning.
Cover with the lid and cook for 10 minutes. The meat and vegetables will break up to create a thick, hearty stew-like consistency but still retain their shape. Be careful not to overboil.
Serve the stovies in a deep dish or bowl with rough oatcakes and brown sauce, if you like it. Enjoy!

Recipe Variations

Don't feel that you have to be restricted to the pickings from your Sunday lunch. Stovies can also be made using a tin of corned beef, some cooked minced beef, or sausages.

Corned Beef: Crumble the corned beef and stir through your potatoes 20 minutes before the end of cooking.
Cooked Minced Beef: Stir through the potatoes 20 minutes before the end of cooking.
Sausages:Cook the onions as above. Thickly slice one pound of sausage, layer it on the onions, followed by a layer of potatoes. Repeat the layers. Cook as above.

How to Store Stovies

Stovies will keep for several days, covered, in the refrigerator. Some people say it's best the day after you make it.
You can also freeze stovies in freezer-safe containers. Defrost in the refrigerator and reheat on the stove, or simply thaw and reheat in the microwave.

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
214	Calories
4g	Fat
36g	Carbs
8g	Protein

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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 6
Amount per serving
Calories	214
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 4g	6%
Saturated Fat 1g	7%
Cholesterol 14mg	5%
Sodium 471mg	20%
Total Carbohydrate 36g	13%
Dietary Fiber 5g	18%
Total Sugars 4g
Protein 8g
Vitamin C 14mg	70%
Calcium 43mg	3%
Iron 2mg	12%
Potassium 884mg	19%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

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Scottish Food Doesn't Get More Traditional Than With a Stovies Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What are Scottish stovies made of? ›

Stovies (also stovy tatties, stoved potatoes, stovers or stovocks) is a Scottish dish based on potatoes. Recipes and ingredients vary widely but the dish contains potatoes, fat, usually onions and often pieces of meat. In some versions, other vegetables may also be added.

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What is authentic Scottish food? ›

Scotland's national dish is haggis, a savoury meat pudding, and it's traditionally accompanied by mashed potatoes, turnips (known as 'neeps') and a whisky sauce. Which brings us to the national drink – whisky. Over 100 distilleries in Scotland produce this amber-hued liquid, many of which can be explored on a tour.

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What does the Scottish word "stovies" mean? ›

Scottish English. /ˈstəʊ.viz/ us. /ˈstoʊ.viz/ Add to word list Add to word list. a dish consisting of potatoes and onions cooked together with liquid in a pot, often with cooked meat added.

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What is the origin of Stovies? ›

The word stovies refers to a Scottish dish made from potatoes and often leftover meat, and this stew-like recipe uses whatever you happen to have to hand on a Monday, the day after your big Sunday roast. There are a lot of Scottish foods with meat and potatoes and stovies is one of them.

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What is the most traditional Scottish food? ›

Scotland's iconic national dish known as haggis consists of sausage meat made from the innards of the sheep mixed with onions, oatmeal, suet, stock, dried herbs and other seasonings.

What is the main ingredient in the Scottish dish? ›

The haggis is made from a sort of sausage-meat made from the offal (or innards - lungs, heart, liver etc.) of a sheep. These are boiled, then minced and mixed with onion, lightly toasted oatmeal, suet, stock and salt and pepper.

Get More Info Here ›