[2][3][4] It was reputedly a favourite dish of the writers Seán O'Casey and Jonathan Swift,[5] and it appears in several references to Dublin, including the works of James Joyce.

[6] The dish is braised in the stock produced by boiling the pieces of bacon and sausages.

The dish is cooked in a pot with a well-fitting lid in order to steam the ingredients left uncovered by the broth.

[2] Sometimes raw sliced potato is added, but traditionally is eaten with bread.

The name comes from the verb coddle, meaning to cook food in water below boiling (see coddled egg), which in turn derives from caudle, which comes from the French term meaning ‘to boil gently, parboil or stew’.