Recipe For Stovies With Corned Beef

Easy corned beef stovies is a Scottish recipe made with potatoes and onions. This cheap and delicious variation is great when you don't have any leftover meat!

The traditional Scottish stovies recipe calls for lard and butter, or leftover fat and meat from a roast dinner to be used.

But everyone is entitled to their opinion and this recipe for stovies is what I remember my mum making and the version I make.

Homemade Corned Beef Hash Recipe

I had a conversation at work the other day, some of my colleagues agreed that these are what they remember as stovies and someone said this was more like corned beef hash to them.

I very rarely have any leftover roast beef from a Sunday roast to make stovies so that's why I use corned beef. If you do have leftover beef then great just use that instead!

Indeed it was always a traditional camping recipe for me too. It's made all in one pot and with just a handful of ingredients.

How Do You Make Your Stovies Corned Beef Or Mince Or Sausages

Detailed instructions are in the recipe card below. But here is a quick step by step guide of how to make stovies with corned beef:

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Corned Beef Or Sausage

Add any vegetables into the cooked stovies like carrots, sweetcorn or peas. You can also add in any leftover vegetables from your Sunday roast!

Easy Scottish lentil soup is the authentic and classic healthy red lentil soup from Scotland. This simple soup is filling, comforting and perfect for cold weather days!

Scottish cock-a-leekie soup is a staple in most Scottish homes. This is an easier quicker version than the traditional recipe taking less than an hour to make!

Traditional Scottish Stovies With Oatcakes And Beetroot

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Calories: 320 kcal | Carbohydrates: 26 g | Protein: 17 g | Fat: 16 g | Saturated Fat: 5 g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1 g | Monounsaturated Fat: 9 g | Cholesterol: 46 mg | Sodium: 1244 mg | Potassium: 1007 mg | Fiber: 3 g | Sugar: 3 g | Vitamin A: 3 IU | Vitamin C: 50 mg | Calcium: 35 mg | Iron: 3 mg

I’d love to hear what you think of my recipe in the comments below and please do rate my recipe 5* if you like it! 🙂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.

Traditional Scottish Stovies Recipe

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, the biggest problem we faced when asked by everyone how to make them? Offending someone’s granny because everyone’s recipe is different!

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.

Slow Cooker Corned Beef Hash

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.

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.

In Praise Of

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.

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.

Ginisang Corned Beef (sautéed Canned Corned Beef)

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.

Easy Corned Beef Stovies

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.

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.

Stovies: A Scottish Classic

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.

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.

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.

Scottish Stovies And Oatcakes

We think its better if as much as possible can come from a roast dinner to add a depth of flavour to the dish.

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.

Cook With Susan: Corned Beef Hash

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.

Tartan Tastes In Texas: Scottish Recipes

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.

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.

Slow Cooker Scottish Stovies

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!

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.

Brooklyn: Corned Beef And Cabbage

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.

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.

Scottish Stovies Recipe

Many people swear by making their Stovies with sausage. This could be sliced sausages,