Europe

Dublin Coddle: Irish Sausage and Potato Stew

Name: Dublin Coddle: Irish Sausage and Potato Stew
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 2 h 2 min
Total time: 2 h 17 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Irish, Dublin
Ingredients: 8 Pork sausages; 8 slices Bacon; 450g Potatoes; 3 medium Onions; 3 tbsp Parsley; 475ml Chicken stock; a little Coarsely ground black pepper; 1 tsp Vegetable oil

A recipe for Dublin coddle, the Irish home dish made with pork sausages, bacon, potatoes, and onion, for a home kitchen. Covers the origin of this layered, gently simmered one-pot dish, ingredient substitutes, heat control to keep it from falling apart, checking that the sausage is cooked through, and what to do with leftovers.

Published: October 25, 2026Total: 2 hr 17 minLevel: Easy

Cooking flow

Cooking steps

STEP 11 / 4

Prepare the sausages

Briefly browning the surface of the sausages — Once colored all around, take them out and cook through in the simmer

If browning, heat 1 tsp vegetable oil in a skillet and brown the sausages all around for a guide of 1 to 2 minutes, then take them out. This optional browning time is added to the cooking time. Color only the surface, without cooking through, and let the heat finish in the pot as it simmers. This pre-browning is a step in the IrishAmericanMom recipe. Some people simmer them as they are without browning, so you may skip it.

STEP 22 / 4

Cut the vegetables and bacon

about 10 min

Cut onion, potatoes, and bacon — Match the potatoes to a size that cooks through easily and does not fall apart

Peel the potatoes and cut into about 2.5 cm cubes. Cut the onion in rings or thick slices, and the bacon in about 2.5 cm widths. Matching the sizes makes the pieces uniform. Finely chop the parsley and divide into 2 portions so you can use half at a time.

STEP 33 / 4

Layer the ingredients

Layering onion, sausages, bacon, and potatoes in the pot — Lay onion on the bottom of the pot and stack the ingredients alternately

In a heavy pot, divide the ingredients in the list in 2, and for the first layer stack in this order: half the onion, 4 sausages, half the bacon, half the parsley and black pepper, half the potatoes. For the second layer, stack the remaining halves in the same order, so that potatoes are on top. This uses all the 450 g potatoes and 3 medium onions in the ingredient list. Layering takes about 5 minutes as a guide. Pour in 475 ml stock or water. The liquid level changes with how the ingredients stack and the shape of the pot, so it is not specified by number. Keep to a level where the liquid does not completely cover the ingredients, so that they are not all submerged.

STEP 44 / 4

Simmer over low heat

Coddle covered and simmering over low heat — Simmer until the potatoes are soft and the sausages are cooked through to the center

Cover and bring to a boil once, then drop to low heat at once. Keep a quiet simmer, not a hard boil, for about 2 hours as a guide. It is done when a skewer goes into the potatoes easily and they are soft while holding their shape. The cooking liquid is not thickened and should stay thin. If the liquid reduces along the way and the bottom of the pot seems about to dry out, add a little boiling water or warmed stock. Leave the pot alone so the potatoes do not break up. At the end, insert a thermometer into the thickest part of the sausage and check that the center is 71°C or above. That is the standard FoodSafety.gov in the United States gives for ground meat and sausage.

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Ingredients

1 / 1

Ingredients to layer in the pot

Ingredient	Amount	Substitutes & notes
Pork sausages	8	If Irish pork sausages are unavailable, mild plain pork sausages. A home adjustment
Bacon	8 slices	Cut into 2.5 cm widths. A home substitute for Irish rashers
Potatoes	450g	Peeled and cut into 2.5 cm cubes. Choose a variety that does not fall apart easily
Onions	3 medium	Rings or thick slices
Parsley	3 tbsp	Finely chopped. Layered half at a time
Chicken stock	475ml	Replace with water for a more rustic result. Chicken stock is a home option
Coarsely ground black pepper	a little	Judge the salt at the end, looking at the saltiness of the bacon
Vegetable oil	1 tsp	Only if you optionally brown the sausages

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A pot set on the heat in the morning. In Dublin homes, Dublin City Council Libraries says, it was a widespread habit to set the pot going in the morning and warm it again by the time it was eaten. In the pot go sausages, bacon (what Ireland calls rashers), potatoes, and onions. They are layered, kept low on liquid, and simmered slowly for a long time. A one-pot of layered ingredients, gently simmered: that is Dublin coddle.

The Dublin pot: layer the ingredients and simmer slowly

A home table with coddle simmered in a pot and bread laid out beside it

Coddle (Dublin coddle) is a different dish from the Irish stew eaten throughout Ireland, a stew that has been spoken of in connection with the city of Dublin. The basic ingredients are sausages, rashers (bacon), potatoes, and onion. Not every household makes it with the same mix, though, and not being fixed to a single right answer is what suits this dish. The recipe later is also one home-style version gathered to be easy to make for four.

Good to know

According to Dublin City Council Libraries, the name "coddle" comes from the French caudle and means to simmer gently or to parboil. The name of the dish itself shows how it cooks in the pot.

In the same library's explanation, coddle is a dish of Dublin's working class. It is made with leftovers in the house, so it is also written that there is no fixed recipe. When eating it, the custom described is to catch the cooking liquid with bread by wiping it up. Serving soda bread or everyday table bread is a natural example of how to eat it, not a required manner. It is a dish full of the ingenuity of daily life, gathering humble ingredients into one pot and finishing the last drop with bread.

The origin needs to be read a little more carefully. The Dublin City Council Libraries article links the origin of coddle to the famine of 1740–41 and presents the story that it apparently began as a way to use up meat left over on Thursday. This part is written with "apparently" and "reputedly," however, and is not given as a verified origin. It seems best to accept that there is a part of the origin handed down as tradition. The same article also says that for many workers of the time, grain, especially oats, was a more important food than potatoes. Telling the famine years as a story of potatoes alone lets this background spill away.

Ingredients (serves 4)

Pork sausages, bacon, potatoes, onions, parsley, and chicken stock used for coddle

Using mild pork sausages and bacon that are easy to buy is a substitution for home cooking. It does not become the same product or the same taste as Irish pork sausages or rashers. The saltiness of store-bought bacon varies widely by product, so do not add salt at the start; taste after the simmering is done. Add salt after checking the saltiness of the bacon. You can make it in the pot you normally use. If you grind whole peppercorns coarsely you can use a spice mill, but store-bought coarse-ground black pepper is fine too.

Tip

For the sausages, choose a mild plain type with a gentle pork flavor rather than a strongly spiced one. Because it is a substitution to match what you can find, it will not taste exactly like the local product.

How to make coddle

Prep time is about 15 minutes as a guide. This allows about 10 minutes for preparing the vegetables and other items and about 5 minutes for layering. If you brown the sausages, add 1 to 2 minutes to the cooking time. The simmer is about 2 hours, so with browning the cooking time is about 2 hours 1–2 minutes and the total about 2 hours 16–17 minutes. Without browning, cooking time is about 2 hours and the total about 2 hours 15 minutes.

Caution

Under the U.S. FoodSafety.gov standard, ground meat and sausage are to be cooked until the center reaches 71°C. This is a U.S. recommended value. Judging doneness by change of color or simmering time alone can be wrong, so always measure the center with a thermometer.

Tip

The guide to doneness is potatoes that a skewer goes into, with not everything having broken down into soup. Add boiling water only when the bottom of the pot seems about to dry out, in small amounts. Do not stir the whole pot vigorously.

Cooking in water, or in stock

Water and pale chicken stock used for the coddle liquid

Both the Dublin City Council Libraries article and the IrishAmericanMom recipe say the traditional cooking liquid is water. Chicken stock is introduced as an option for adding flavor to that. The ingredient list this time uses chicken stock as the base, but you can make it with the same amount of water. With water it is rustic; with chicken stock the savoriness comes forward, so decide as if choosing between two different tastes. Simmered in water, the fat and saltiness from the sausages and bacon and the sweetness of the onion become the flavor of the cooking liquid as they are.

Good to know

IrishAmericanMom distinguishes Dublin coddle as a stew of sausages and rashers and Irish stew as a stew of mutton or lamb. Both change with the household, so it is best remembered as a guide by main ingredients rather than a strict definition that holds everywhere in the country.

How to eat it

A photo of the finished Dublin coddle served with bread — Sausages and potatoes coated in the cooking liquid, served with bread

Put sausages and potatoes in a deep dish and ladle plenty of the cooking liquid over them. Dublin City Council Libraries describes wiping the liquid left on the plate with soda bread. IrishAmericanMom gives an example of eating it with tea and bread. These are all examples of how to eat it, so you do not need to line up particular drinks or bread. Let the bread soak up the liquid: that unpretentious way of plating suits it well. If you want to make one more dish that stews layered ingredients, compare it with Norway's fårikål, which layers mutton and cabbage.

Frequently asked questions

Inserting a thermometer into the thickest part of a sausage to check the center is cooked

Do I have to brown the sausages first?

You can make it without browning. Browning first is a step in the IrishAmericanMom recipe for appearance, and the source also mentions that some people simmer them without browning. Either way, finish by cooking until the center of the sausage is at least 71°C.

Can I add carrots?

Dublin City Council Libraries writes that traditional coddle does not use carrots. If you add them, enjoy it as a home variation rather than the traditional mix.

What if I have no chicken stock?

Replace the 475 ml chicken stock in the ingredient list with the same amount of water. Both sources introduced in this article give water as the traditional cooking liquid.

What is the difference from Irish stew?

The main ingredients differ. In the sources this recipe is based on, coddle is distinguished as sausages and bacon, and Irish stew as a stew of mutton or lamb. The method changes with the region and the household, so it cannot be called a classification with a clear line.

Is there a set number of days for making ahead?

The IrishAmericanMom recipe page gives a guide of 3 days refrigerated and 3 months frozen, but no independent basis for safety could be confirmed. For that reason, this article gives no storage days or specific storage and reheating methods.

Sources

Dublin City Council Libraries, "A Brief History of Dublin Coddle," published 17 October 2022. Accessed and checked 21 October 2026. https://www.dublincity.ie/library/blog/brief-history-dublin-coddle
Irish American Mom, "Dublin Coddle." Accessed and checked 21 October 2026. https://www.irishamericanmom.com/dublin-coddle/
FoodSafety.gov, "Cook to a Safe Minimum Internal Temperature," update confirmed 21 November 2024. Accessed and checked 21 October 2026. https://www.foodsafety.gov/food-safety-charts/safe-minimum-internal-temperatures