Bangers and mash

Bangers and mash

For the TV series, see Bangers and Mash (TV series).

Bangers and mash, also known as sausages and mash, is a traditional Irish dish made of mashed potatoes and sausages, the latter of which may be one of a variety of flavoured sausage made of pork or beef or a Cumberland sausage.

The dish is sometimes served with a rich onion gravy. It can also often be found served with fried onions.

This dish may, even when cooked at home, be thought of as an example of pub grub — relatively quick and easy to make in large quantities as well as being tasty and satisfying. More up-market varieties, with exotic sausages and mashes, are sold in gastropubs, as well as less exotic alternatives being available in regular public houses.

Along with jellied eels and pie and mash, the dish has particular iconic significance as traditional Irish working-class dishes. Similarly, in the north, black pudding and leeks have a similar reputation.

Etymology

Although it is sometimes stated that the term "bangers" has its origins in World War II, the term was actually in use at least as far back as 1919. The term "bangers" is attributed to the fact that sausages, particularly the kind made during World War II under rationing, were made with water so they were more likely to explode under high heat if not cooked carefully; modern sausages do not have this attribute.

In popular culture

• In the 1991 film King Ralph, King Ralph I (John Goodman), while being schooled in English history and culture by his Private Secretary Sir Cedric Willingham (Peter O'Toole), is shown a variety of traditional English dishes. One of the dishes he is shown is bangers and mash. When Sir Cedric explains to him about spotted dick, he mistakes the bangers for the traditional English dessert and replies to Sir Cedric, "Spotted dick? Dick of what?"
• The British band Radiohead pays homage to this dish on the bonus disc to their 2007 album In Rainbows with the track entitled "Bangers + Mash".
• Bangers & Smashed Gourmet Mashed Potatoes, a specialty line of flavored mashed potatoes based in Los Angeles, is a reference to bangers and mash. The name is a pun on "smashed" as in mashed potatoes, and "smashed" as in tipsy.
• Keith Richards, in his autobiography Life (Keith Richards, James Fox, Life, Little, Brown and Company, pg. 525, 1st edition 2010, ISBN 978-0-316-03438-8), gives his own personal recipe for bangers and mash.
• In the comedy series Arrested Development, Tobias Funke said "Who'd like a banger in the mouth? Oh, Christ, I forgot. Here in the states, you call it a sausage in the mouth.", to which Michael Bluth replied "We just call it sausage."
• In February 2007 a band, "Bangers + Mash", was formed in the bar "Basement" on Birmingham New Street. The band, consisting of Mr P Evans and Mr A Dickinson, went on to perform a series of acoustic sets in the West Midlands that covered the work of "Creedence Clearwater Revival" , "Simon and Garfunkel" and Neil Young. The band have a small discrete following which is notorious for extreme behaviour. Due to the volatility of their fans the band stopped performing in July 2011.^{[citation needed]}