Green’s Dictionary of Slang

cheap, tasteless food, esp. a thin stew.

1843		Melville White Jacket I 208: Hence the various sea-rolls, made dishes and Mediterranean pies, well known by man-of-war’s-men- Scouse, Lobscouse, Soft-Tack, Soft-Tommy, Skillagolee, Burgoo, Dough-boys, Lob-Dominion, Dog's-Body, and lastly, and least known, Dunderfunk ; all of which come under the general denomination of Manavalins.
c.1850		‘Wakefield Gaol’ in R. Palmer Touch of the Times 252: Then all fell in for cans of scouse.
1863		Eye of the Storm 30 Nov. 167: Up all night cooking scouse.
1876		Manchester Eve. News 22 Feb. 3/2: The men used the cook’s slush to make scouse.
1887		Arizona Sentinel (Yuma, AZ) 1 Oct. n.p.: He will give you for ‘bub and grub’ a dish of ‘scouse’.
1898		H.H. Lewis A Gunner Aboard the ‘Yankee’ 174: The crazy captain put the doctor and the crew in the cages and began to feed them hardtack and berth-deck scouse.
1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 383: [We] told him [...] that he ought to be cooking scouse on a lumber schooner.
1908		Bemidji Dly Pioneer (MN) 30 Mar. 2/2: Scouse or lobscouse, a parson’s face sea pie, junk, tack, slush and duff —there’ a meal ye can’t beat [...] Scouse is soup, soup made o’ salt beef.
1914		S. Lewis Our Mr Wrenn (1936) 54: ‘Scouse and bread. And water.’ ‘What’s scouse?’ ‘Beef stew without the beef.’.
1939		Liverpool Dly Post 28 Feb. 11/1: Scouse. A Liverpool receipe.
1943		Liverpool Eve. Exp. 19 Nov. 3/5: ‘e want a bowl of scouse’.
1958		J. Arden Live Like Pigs Act IV: Here’s the Old Croaker, she’s daft and she’s dizzy, but she can shovel in the scouse, me lovely, can’t you?
1999		Guardian Travel 28 Aug. 12: A plate of Scouse and beetroot, the bubble and squeak of the North.
2003		N. Griffiths Stump 112: We’d be siting there eatin ar scouse, like, an she’d be [...] on a friggin commode.