What exactly are stovies?

[PineappleSeahorse]

A question for my fellow Scots. What exactly are stovies? What makes them stovies as the ingredients seem to vary so much?

I am Scottish but I’ve never had them in my life and they don’t appeal to me so I asked my (Also Scottish) Mother who hasn’t had them either and is equally stumped. So what makes stovies just that?

TIA

Traditionally, leftover meat with stoved potatoes.

at risk of outing myself, I have a funny story of when my English DH first met my Scottish family.

when he was asked if he wanted Stovies, he had no idea what they were talking about. Not wishing to appear rude (or knowing if he would like the dish) he replied ‘Er… just one please.’

He still gets teased about it 30 years later!

Imagine your have beef stew with some roughly mashed tatties all mixed together on your plate. Sound disgusting but tastes amazing!

I grew up in the NE though my parents are from the other end of Scotland where they never ate stovies. Mum learned to make stovies with leftover beef stew or roast beef, onions, tatties, lard and some gravy. I don't remember having oatcakes but we had beetroot. I still have beetroot if we have mince and tatties now. Delicious.

I agree, very different from the wet slop that they call stovies in the south. Not roast potatoes though, just sliced raw potatoes. They are cooked slowly on the stove (ie stoved potatoes) not boiled. The only liquid is left over gravy and fat skimmed off the roasting tin. Can be made with turkey at Christmas as well. No sausage, no corned beef, just pieces of roast meat. School dinner stovies were brilliant at our school, served with beetroot and oatcakes.

In my area of the NE there was something called white stovies when I was little.
I never found out what it was.

This. Mince is okay at a push.
Edited to say, they're absolutely delicious 😋

I saw a TV chef make them on This Morning last year and almost wrote to offcom to complain 😂

They had added butter, seasoning/herbs and layered the tatties with the butter. No sign of beef, onions, gravy or a good mash of them 🤦‍♀️

My ma (Lanarkshire) = Fry some sliced onion in dripping, add sliced potatoes, season well, any scraps of leftover roast, layer of left over gravy or stock. Keep layering up until you have run out of ingredients. Top with more stock. Cook slow for a few hours.

The chef at the pub I worked in (Aberdeen) = mash mixed up with bits of fried sausage and corned beef. Brown sauce to serve.

My colleague (Moray) = mash with leftover roast and fried onions. Beetroot and oatcakes on the side.

My mother's wins hands down. But the addition beetroot and oatcakes is excellent.

@Tintackedsea your mum’s stovies sound lovely. The is a place called Celebrations in Turriff in Aberdeenshire which does brilliant stovies in their restaurant (it’s a furniture shop), I highly recommend it. They do meringues the size of your head as well.

We use corned beef and eat with oatcakes.

Can't believe you've never tried them? We served them as our evening buffet at our wedding, and they are regularly the food offered at baptisms etc (in hotels).

Surely if you use corned beef instead of roast beef it becomes corned beef hash?

I’ve never been to a wedding, christening or funeral where they were on offer. They were never served at school either. I don’t know if it’s a regional thing.

Thanks for all of your replies. I appreciate them but I admit that I’m none the wiser as to what makes stovies “stovies”. Unless it’s leftovers?.

They are called stovies because of how they are cooked.

Stovies are delicious.

We make ours as my granny did.

Onion and potato's sautéed until nicely coloured then the lid put on the pan till they cook in the heat/steam generated. Then once done sprinkle an oxo cube or two into the mix to taste now there’s no Burdalls gravy salt anymore, and cook for a few minutes. Last but not least either add corn beef or a mince that’s been cooked in gravy but is not sloppy.

Yes but are there common ingredients? Because the recipe seems to vary hugely.

It’s been interesting to learn how everyone makes them though.

Melt beef dripping (hopefully from the Sunday roast) gently fry sliced onion so it remains soft. Peel and cut potatoes into slices 1/4 inch thick and 1-2in he’s across. Add to onion with water just covering. Add lots of salt and pepper. Cook gently until potato is cooked.
i add some oxo cube to add flavour if dripping doesn’t have tasty brown jelly.
Have it with cold sliced beef or sliced corned beef or whatever you fancy -very tasty,warming and filling.
Forgot tight fitting lid! Scottish Granny’s recipe.

Sorry - just to add I always aim for something resembling tartiflette but without the cheese.

Common ingredients are potatoes (mixed not mashed on top), usually onion, some sort of meat and fat based liquid to bind, be it gravy or dripping. Cooked on the stove top not the oven. That's what makes them stovies.

Exactly

I make corned beef hash - corned beef, onions and beans topped with mash and baked in the oven.
Corned beef stovies was always made in a big pan on the hob

Disgusting is what they are. I fear I may be the only Scot who thinks that though

To 'stove' is to cook something over heat in a little liquid. It's an ancient Scots-language word, related to the English-language word for 'stew'. See (b) here:
https://dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/stove_v

In medieval London, 'stew' was a slang word for brothel, because customers often enjoyed warm baths there, as well as other pleasures. As the dictionary quoted above shows, 'stew' was also used to mean 'bath' (or something rather like a sauna) in early Scots.

Utter heresy, I know, but vegetarian stovies can also be very good: layers of thinly sliced onion and perhaps leek, neeps (swede) and potatoes cooked very gently on the stove in olive oil. Lots of black pepper and, when ready, plenty of chopped parsley on top.

They don’t appeal to me either. It’s the thought of the texture and the way they look, though I appreciate that I’m probably being silly, as I haven’t actually tried them and that many foods look bad but taste good.

I may give @nameXname ’s version a go though as a vegetarian version sounds more appealing to me.

My mother's stovies were very good - in sort of peaks in the pan.
When I tried the same recipe it was a sloppy mess that made me cowk.