Bangers & Mash with Milk Stout Gravy {Sausages & Mashed Potatoes}

Bangers and Mash! Ever had ’em? I’ve ordered them many times at Pub’s and love them; after all what’s not to love about delicious sausages that have been slow cooked in a creamy milk stout, layered atop fluffy mashed potatoes; smothered in a rich stout onion gravy.

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In last weeks post for Milk Stout Fudge Brownies, I don’t claim to be even a teeny bit Irish, but, I can follow a recipe (and so can you!), use techniques I’ve learned, tweaking it a bit to make it my own, right!?

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What exactly are Bangers and Mash? I’m so glad you asked! The mash is obvious; creamy, fluffy mashed potatoes, try my Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes with this recipe. The bangers, they are a bit harder; I love looking into the origins of words and if the words relate to food, yipee! All the better! I enjoyed this post that explains how the name for these sausages came about, the article is quite fun, give it a read.

Why Are They Called Bangers?

This odd name used to describe these British sausages actually dates back to the early 20th century, during the time of World War I. Sausages were seen as a popular dish for the British working class, however, after the outbreak of the war, meat was in seriously short supply. In order to continue production and to get by on what meat they did have, cheap fillers and a high amount of water were used in the sausages which caused them to pop and explode rather violently in the cooking pan, giving them the name “bangers.”

Excerpt taken from Noble Hops | A History of Banger’s

Fun right!? So grab a skillet, go buy your bangers (sausages) and a bottle (or 6 pack) of your favorite dark beer and let’s make dinner. While the obvious time of year to eat these for us Yank’s is on St. Patrick’s day, folks in the UK eat them year round and you might too!

How to Make Bangers & Mash 

I buy my Bangers from Trader Joes, they start stocking them in late February through St. Patrick’s day, but you may also substitute Bratwurst for the bangers, or any pork sausage (or try a chicken or turkey brats if you don’t do pork). Make sure they are not pre-cooked sausages, you want to slowly cook them in the beer. I’ve also used German Weisswurst/Bockworst (white sausage) and it’s delicious as well.

Heating a heavy skillet over medium high heat, pour in oil. Carefully add in sausages and stout (see options below). That little mini measuring cup is one of the most often used tools in my kitchen!

Bring to a simmer, cover with a lid and prop a wooden spoon to vent just slightly, allowing steam to escape. Be careful your wooden spoon is not over any flame and careful when you grab it, it might be hot. Cook covered for about 5 minutes.

Can I Swap Out Other Beers for the Stout or Replace with Beef Broth?

Replace the Stout with any dark beer you’d like, I’ve used Milk Stout, Vanilla Porter, Porter, Guinness and more. The darker the beer, the creamier, richer the flavors. Gluten Free |  If you prefer not to use alcohol or are GF, just use a rich beef broth, or beef bone broth.

Turn the bangers and continue cooking, covered, for another 5 minutes.

Many ask me about cooking with alcohol and do I serve these meals to my kids. My answer is yes, I do, typically the foods that have alcohol in them are cooked long enough that the alcohol cooks down. I don’t pour them a mug of beer, but we believe removing the natural curiosity about alcohol actually allows kids to be able to say no when offered later.

After they’ve cooked 10 minutes and are nicely browned, remove the lid and allow the liquid to reduce slightly, thickening and coating the sausages.

When the liquid is almost gone, lower the heat to medium-low, with lid on continue cooking, rotating sausages occasionally, until evenly browned and cooked through, around 10 additional minutes.

Making Rich Stout Onion Gravy

While your sausages are cooking, in a medium saucepan, heat your butter/oil over medium to medium-high heat, add sliced onions.

Cook, stirring occasionally until they are slightly browned, soft and fragrant, about 10-15 minutes.

Sprinkle browned onions with all-purpose flour (substitute AP Gluten free flour), stirring and cooking for 2-3 minutes until brown bits collect on bottom of pan.

Increase heat to medium / medium-high and pour in stout (broth or other beer), scraping bottom of pan to deglaze (getting up all those rich, brown bits).

Add in beef broth and allow to simmer until no longer foaming, about 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, heat until reduced slightly, thickened and glossy.

Remove from heat, set aside, keep covered.

My Favorite Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Make up a batch of Roasted Garlic (roasting optional) Mashed Potatoes, recipe linked here, details and ingredients included in printable recipe below.

To plate; serve up some mashed potatoes, place a 1-2 Bangers (sausages) over the top of the potatoes and smother the entire thing in the rich onion stout gravy serve with a couple of the items from below.

Serving suggestions from a few of my favorite bloggers!

• Steamed or roasted broccoli
• Roasted or pan-fried asparagus
• Mushy Peas (Isn’t the  the color gorgeous! No mushy peas for me thank you very much!)
• Irish Soda Bread traditional, or a slightly sweeter version both eaten on St. Patty’s day, delicious  with Irish Stew or this Instant Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage.
• Irish Boxty Bread – a traditional potato bread, this mother-daughter team knows their stuff!

I made Boxty bread last year, no time to get it on the blog at the moment, however; it’s a fun thing to make with your kids and makes ye’ feel, all Irish-like! Beautiful huh!?

A few more great, heart-warming, totally St. Patrick’s day acceptable recipes are Tender Beer Beef Stew (slow cooked all day, amazing) with a Shepherd’s Pie option | Easy Beer Bread (soda bread-esque, super tasty) | and finally a hearty Beef Pot Pie.

Recipe lightly adapted from the darling Self Proclaimed Foodie.

Oh and one last thing, you have to end your St. Patrick’s Day celebration with these AMAZING Milk Stout Brownies and wash it all down with this crisp and tasty, Irish Mule!

I’m sharing this recipe on a few of my favorite link parties. Simply click on the links below to see other amazing recipes and join the fun!

Weekend Pot Luck

Meal Plan Monday

Foodie Friday

Bangers and Mash with Milk Stout Gravy {Sausages & Mashed Potatoes}

Bangers and Mash! Ever had ’em? I’ve ordered them many times at Pub’s and love them; after all what’s not to love about delicious sausages, cooked in a creamy milk stout, layered atop fluffy mashed potatoes; smothered in a rich stout onion gravy.

• Author: Kathleen | The Fresh Cooky
• Prep Time: 30 minutes
• Cook Time: 30 minutes
• Total Time: 1 hour
• Yield: 4 - 6 servings 1x
• Category: Main Dish
• Method: Stove
• Cuisine: Irish | St. Patrick's Day

Scale 1x2x3x

Ingredients

Bangers

• 1 lb bangers (sausage, bratwurst, weissworst, etc)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 oz stout (or other dark beer, or replace with beef broth)

Stout Onion Gravy 

• 2 tablespoons butter or olive oil
• 1 medium onion, sliced thin
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (All Purpose GF flour may be substituted)
• 1 cup stout (I used Left Hand Milk Stout, but try Guinness, Porter, another Stout/dark beer, or beef broth)
• 1 cup beef broth
• salt & pepper to taste

Garlic Mashed Potatoes (or substitute your favorite mashed potatoes)

• 5 pounds Russet or Yukon Gold potatoes (I like Yukon Gold) washed, peeled partially, cubed
• ½ onion, sliced thin
• 5–6 cloves of garlic, smashed, skins removed
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 garlic bulb, for roasted garlic (optional)
• 1–2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 bay leaf
• ¾ cup butter, softened (no substitutes)
• 1 package (8 oz) Cream Cheese (regular or Neufchatel), softened
• ½ – ¾ cup Half-and-Half
• ½ – 1 teaspoon Seasoning Salt (like Lawry’s)
• ½ teaspoon black pepper

Instructions

Bangers / Sausages

1. Heat a heavy skillet over medium to medium-high heat, pour in oil. Carefully add in sausages and stout (or broth).
2. Bring to a simmer, turn down heat, keeping at a simmer, cover with a lid and prop a wooden spoon to vent just slightly, allowing steam to escape. Be careful your wooden spoon is not over a flame and be careful when you grab it, it might be hot. Cook covered for about 5 minutes.
3. Turn the bangers and continue cooking covered, for another 5 minutes.
4. After they’ve cooked 10 minutes and are nicely browned, remove the lid and allow the liquid to reduce slightly, thickening and coating the sausages.
5. When the liquid is almost gone, lower the heat to low, with lid on continue cooking, rotating sausages occasionally, until evenly browned and cooked through, around 10 additional minutes.

Stout Onion Gravy

1. While your sausages are cooking, in a medium saucepan, heat your butter over medium heat. Add sliced onions and cook, stirring occasionally until they are slightly browned, soft and fragrant, about 10-15 minutes.
2. Sprinkle browned onions with all-purpose flour (substitute AP Gluten free flour), stirring and cooking for 2-3 minutes until brown bits collect on bottom of pan.
3. Increase heat to medium or medium-high and pour in stout (broth or other beer), scrapping pan to deglaze. Add in beef broth and allow to simmer until no longer foaming, about 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally until thickened reduced slightly and glossy. 
4. Remove from heat set aside, keeping covered.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

1. Peel and cut the potatoes into similar sized pieces and place in a large pot filled with cold water, potatoes should be covered in water, but only by a bit.
2. Slice onion and smash garlic and toss in with the potatoes. Add bay leaf and salt, stir to combine.
3. Bring to boil and cook for about 30-35 minutes until they are just about falling apart.
4. Optional | While potatoes are boiling, prep garlic. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and cut off tips of garlic bulb revealing the garlic cloves.
5. Drizzle a little olive oil and sprinkle a little sea salt over the top.
6. Seal in a foil pocket and bake for 30-40 minutes until soft and caramel colored. Drain in colander, discard bay leaf. Return potatoes, onions and garlic to dry pot (same one you cooked them in).
7. Mash the potatoes, onions and garlic in pot over low heat. Allowing the steam to escape before adding any other ingredients. The steam won’t completely go away but it will diminish.
8. Turn off stove and add 1 ½ sticks of butter, cream cheese and about ½ a cup of half-and-half.
9. Mash, mash it all up! Add your seasoned salt and black pepper, stir well. Squeeze out your roasted garlic cloves and mash into the potatoes, watch you don’t get skins in there. Stir and serve, piping hot! Potatoes may be made ahead of time and cooled, bring to heat in microwave or add a little milk or water to a pot and reheat over low heat, stirring often until hot.
10. To plate, serve up some mashed potatoes, place a 1-2 Bangers (sausages) over the top of the potatoes and smother the entire thing in the rich onion stout gravy serve with a couple of the items from below.

Serving suggestions from a few of my favorite bloggers:

• Steamed or roasted broccoli
• Roasted or pan-fried asparagus
• Mushy Peas (Isn’t the  the color gorgeous! No mushy peas for me thank you very much!)
• Irish Soda Bread traditional, or a slightly sweeter version both eaten on St. Patty’s day, delicious  with Irish Stew or this Instant Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage.
• Irish Boxty Bread – a traditional potato bread, this mother-daughter team knows their stuff!

Notes

Everyone’s range heats differently; if your sausages are browning to quickly, turn the heat down, if your liquid is not reducing or onions are taking forever, increase heat slightly. You get the idea.

© 2019 | This recipe for Bangers & Mash was featured first on The Fresh Cooky.

Recipe lightly adapted from the darling Self Proclaimed Foodie.

Keywords: Bangers and Mash, St. Patricks Day recipes, sausages and gravy, bratwursts, mashed potatoes, stout, beer gravy, onion beer gravy, easy recipe

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