Proper Dublin Coddle with Stout and Thyme

⏱ 135 min · Serves 4

A gutsy Dublin classic: pork sausages and smoky bacon layered with waxy potatoes and onions, slowly coddled in stout-spiked stock until the spuds go silky and the broth turns rich. Bread and butter on the side is non-negotiable.

Per serving: 790 kcal · 34.0g protein · 54.0g carbs · 48.0g fat

Ingredients

• 8 good-quality pork sausages
• 250g thick-cut smoked streaky bacon or dry-cured rashers, cut into 2cm pieces
• 1 tbsp sunflower oil
• 3 large onions, thickly sliced
• 1kg waxy potatoes (Maris Piper or Charlotte), peiled and cut into 2cm slices
• 2 carrots, cut into thick coins (optional but nice)
• 500ml chicken or ham stock, hot
• 150ml Irish stout
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• Small handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• Salt, to taste
• 25g butter
• Crusty soda bread, to serve

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large casserole over medium-high heat. Brown the sausages all over, about 5 minutes, then lift out. Add the bacon and fry 3-4 minutes until the fat runs and the edges colour; lift out too.
2. Tip most of the fat away, leaving about a tablespoon. Soften the onions in it for 5 minutes, scraping up any sticky bits.
3. Cut the browned sausages in half on the diagonal. Layer everything into the casserole: half the potatoes, half the onions, half the bacon and sausage, then the carrots, then repeat, finishing with a neat layer of potatoes.
4. Pour in the stout, let it bubble for a minute, then add the hot stock so it comes about three-quarters of the way up. Tuck in the thyme and bay, season with the pepper and a little salt (bacon is salty, so go easy).
5. Dot the top with butter, cover tightly and cook in a preheated oven at 160C/140C fan/gas 3 for 1 hour 30 minutes, until the potatoes are tender and the broth has thickened slightly.
6. Uncover for the last 20 minutes if you'd like the top potatoes to catch a little colour.
7. Fish out the thyme stalks and bay leaf, scatter over the parsley and serve in deep bowls with buttered soda bread to mop the broth.