Scouse (food)

Scouse is a type of stew typically made from meat (usually beef or lamb) with potatoes, carrots, and onions. It is particularly associated with the city of Liverpool, to the extent that the Liverpool accent is also widely referred to as "Scouse" and locals as "Scousers". The word scouse comes from lobscouse, a dish of meat and ships biscuit commonly eaten by Northern European sailors, and which survives in different forms there today.

The food writer Felicity Cloake describes scouse as being similar to Irish stew or Lancashire hotpot, though generally using beef rather than lamb. Although ingredients can vary, the essentials are potatoes, carrots, onions and diced meat, gently simmered together. The choice of meat varied: some cooks did not stipulate a particular meat; among those who did, beef was chosen rather than lamb by a majority of nearly two to one. Proportions of ingredients vary, from equal amounts of meat and vegetables to a 1:5 proportion between meat and potato. Scouse is often served with pickled red cabbage or beetroot and crusty bread.

A similar recipe was used by nineteenth-century sailors, and such dishes are traditional in countries around the North Sea, such as Norway (lapskaus), Sweden (lapskojs), Finland (lapskoussi), Denmark, (skipperlabskovs), and northern Germany (Labskaus).

By the mid-19th century the term lobscouse had been shortened to scouse in Liverpudlian usage. In his book The State of the Poor: or a History of the Labouring Classes in England (1797), Sir Frederick Eden cites a report from the early 1790s listing expenditure on food in the Liverpool poorhouse. It included "Beef, 101 lbs. [46 kg] for scouse … 14 Measures potatoes for scouse []; and Onions for ditto []".