British cuisine
Encyclopedia
English cuisine encompasses the cooking styles, traditions and recipes associated with England
. It has distinctive attributes of its own, but also shares much with wider British cuisine
, largely due to the importation of ingredients and ideas from places such as North America
, China
, and India
during the time of the British Empire
and as a result of post-war
immigration
.
In the Early Modern Period
the food of England was historically characterised by its simplicity of approach and a reliance on the high quality of natural produce
. This, was in no small part influenced by England's Puritan
flavour at the time, and resulted in a traditional cuisine which tended to veer from strong flavours, such as garlic
, and an avoidance of complex sauces which were commonly associated with Catholic Continental
political affiliations. It is possible the effects of this can still be seen in traditional cuisine.
Traditional meals have ancient origins, such as bread
and cheese
, roasted and stewed meats, meat and game pie
s, boiled vegetables and broths, and freshwater and saltwater fish. The 14th century English cookbook, the Forme of Cury
, contains recipes for these, and dates from the royal court of Richard II
. In the second half of the 18th century Rev. Gilbert White
, in The Natural History of Selborne made note of the increased consumption of vegetables by ordinary country people in the south of England, to which, he noted, potato
es had only been added during the reign of George III: "Green-stalls in cities now support multitudes in comfortable state, while gardeners get fortunes. Every decent labourer also has his garden, which is half his support; and common farmers provide plenty of beans, peas, and greens, for their hinds to eat with their bacon."
Other meals, such as fish and chips
, which were once urban street food
eaten from newspaper with salt and malt vinegar, and pies and sausages with mashed potatoes, onions, and gravy, are now matched in popularity by curries
from the Bangladesh
and Pakistan
, and stir-fries based on Chinese
and Thai cooking. Italian cuisine
and French cuisine
are also now widely adapted. Britain was also quick to adopt the innovation of fast food
from the United States
, and continues to absorb culinary ideas from all over the world while at the same time rediscovering its roots in sustainable rural agriculture
.
The Sunday roast
was once the most common feature of English cooking. The Sunday dinner traditionally includes roast potatoes (or boiled or mashed potatoes) accompanying a roasted joint of meat such as roast beef
, lamb, pork, or a roast chicken
and assorted other vegetables, themselves generally boiled and served with a gravy
. Sauces are chosen depending on the type of meat: horseradish for beef, mint sauce for lamb, apple sauce for pork, and bread sauce for chicken. Yorkshire pudding
normally accompanies beef (although it was originally served first as a "filler"), sage and onion stuffing pork, and usually parsley stuffing chicken; gravy is now often served as an accompaniment to the main course. The practice of serving a roast dinner on a Sunday is related to the elaborate preparation required, and to the housewife's practice of performing the weekly wash on a Monday, when the cold remains of the roast made an easily-assembled meal. Sunday was once the only rest day after a six-day working week; it was also a demonstration that the household was prosperous enough to afford the cost of a better than normal meal. An elaborate version of roast dinner is traditionally eaten at Christmas, with almost every detail rigidly specified by tradition. Since its widespread availability after World War II the most popular Christmas roast is turkey, superseding the goose
of Dickens
's time. Before the period of cheap turkeys, roast chicken would be more common than goose although Chicken was still a once a year treat until the 1950's; goose being unsuitable for small groups of diners. Game
meats such as venison
which were traditionally the domain of higher classes are occasionally also eaten by those wishing to experiment with a wider choice of foods, due to their promotion by celebrity chef
s, although they are not usually eaten frequently in the average household.
that the English "drop everything" for a teatime
meal in the mid-afternoon. This is no longer the case in the workplace, and is rarer in the home than it once was. A formal teatime meal is now often an accompaniment to tourism, particularly in Devon
and neighbouring counties
, where comestibles may include scones with jam and clotted cream
(together known as a cream tea
). There are also fairy cakes
, simple small sponge cakes which can be iced or eaten plain. Nationwide, assorted biscuit
s and sandwich
es are eaten. Generally, however, the teatime meal has been replaced by snacking, or simply dispensed with.
England is internationally famous for its fish and chips
and has a large number of restaurants and take-away shops selling this dish. It may be the most popular and identifiable English dish. In some regions fish and chips were served with a side order of mushy peas
with salt and vinegar as condiments. Foods such as deep fried breaded scampi
are usually on offer as well as fishcakes (authentically a fish slice between two potato slices ) and a number of other combinations. Potato scallops, battered potato slices that were traditionally cooked with the fish and sold cheaply, are still popular .
The advent of take-away foods during the Industrial Revolution led to foods such as fish and chips, mushy peas, and pie and mash
. These were the staples of the UK
take-away business, and indeed of English diets, however, like many national dishes, quality can vary drastically from the commercial or mass produced product to an authentic or homemade variety using more carefully chosen ingredients.
, haddock
, plaice
, huss
, and skate are the fish-and-chip shop favourites. (The unadventurous approach and the tendency to eat fish battered were mocked by Keith Floyd
with the phrase "unidentified frying objects"). A few other species, such as coley and pollock
are found in the anonymous form of breadcrumb
ed fishcake
s and fish finger
s.
English sausages are colloquially known as "bangers". They are distinctive in that they are usually made from fresh meats and rarely smoked, dried, or strongly flavoured. Following the post World War II period, sausages tended to contain low-quality meat, fat, and rusk
. However, there has been a backlash in recent years, with most butchers and supermarkets now selling premium varieties.
Pork and beef are by far the most common bases, although gourmet varieties may contain venison, wild boar, etc. There are particularly famous regional varieties, such as the herbal Lincolnshire
, and the long, curled Cumberland
with many butchers offering their own individual recipes and variations often handed down through generations, but are generally not made from cured meats such as Italian selections or available in such a variety as found in Germany.
Most larger supermarkets in England will stock at least a dozen types of English sausage: not only Cumberland and Lincolnshire but often varieties such as pork and apple, pork and herb; beef and stilton; pork and mozzarella, and others. There are estimated to be around 400 sausage varieties in the United Kingdom.
Sausages form the basis of toad in the hole
, where they are combined with a batter similar to a Yorkshire pudding and baked in the oven, this can be served with an onion gravy made by frying sliced onions for anywhere over an hour on a low heat then mixed with a stock, wine or ale then reduced to form a sauce or gravy used in bangers and mash
.
Black puddings and white puddings
A variant of the sausage is the black pudding, strongly associated with Lancashire
similar to the French boudin noir or the Spanish Morcilla. It is made from pig's blood, in line with the adage that "you can eat every part of a pig except its squeal". Pig's trotters, tripe
and brawn are also traditional fare in the North. There are also white puddings
, similar but lacking blood.
s dates back to the Middle Ages
, when an open top pie crust was used as the container for serving the meat and was called a coffyn. Since then, they have been a mainstay of English cooking. Different types of pastry may be used, including the lard-rich pastry of a raised pie. Meat pies generally contain fillings such as chicken and mushroom or steak and kidney pie
(originally steak and oyster).
Pork pie
s are almost always eaten cold, with the Melton Mowbray pork pie being the archetype. Open pies or flans are generally served for dessert with fillings of seasonal fruit. Quiches and savoury flans are eaten, but not considered indigenous. The Cornish pasty is a kind of small pie originally used by the tin miners of Cornwall. The thick, pastry crust was held in the hand while the clean pastry covering and filling were eaten; the crust would have then been disposed of due to the transmission of dirt from the hand. Pasties have also been seen deep-fried in Mexico City, having been brought over by the Cornish miners imported to work in the Mexican silver mining industry.
Another kind of pie is topped with mashed potato instead of pastry—for instance, shepherd's pie
, with lamb, cottage pie
, with beef, or fisherman's pie.
, smoking
, pickling
and otherwise preserving foods. Kipper
s, bloaters
, ham
, and bacon
are some of the varieties of preserved meat and fish known in England. Onion
s, cabbage
and some other vegetables may be pickled. Meats other than pork are generally not cured.
Traditionally pubs in England were drinking establishments and little emphasis was placed on the serving of food, other than "bar snacks
", such as pork scratchings, and pickled egg
s, along with salted crisps and peanut
s which helped to increase beer sales. If a pub served meals they were usually basic cold dishes such as a ploughman's lunch
. In South East England
(especially London) it was common until recent times for vendors selling cockles
, whelk
s, mussels and other shellfish
, to sell to customers during the evening and at closing time. Many mobile shellfish stalls would set up near pubs, a practice that continues in London's East End.
In the 1950s some British pubs would offer "a pie and a pint", with hot individual steak and ale pies made easily on the premises by the landlord's wife. In the 1960s and 1970s this developed into the then-fashionable "chicken in a basket", a portion of roast chicken with chips, served on a napkin, in a wicker basket. Quality dropped but variety increased with the introduction of microwave ovens and freezer food. "Pub grub" expanded to include British food items such as steak and ale pie, shepherd's pie
, fish and chips
, bangers and mash
, Sunday roast
, ploughman's lunch, and pasties
. In addition, dishes such as burgers
, lasagne and chilli con carne are often served.
Since the 1990s food has become more important as part of a pub's trade, and today most pubs serve lunches and dinner
s at the table in addition to (or instead of) snacks consumed at the bar. They may have a separate dining room. Some pubs serve meals to a higher standard, to match good restaurant
standards; these are sometimes termed gastropubs.
", although the eponymous John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich
was not the first to add a filling to bread. English sandwiches are made with two slices of bread, or a some kind of roll. Fillings such as pickled relishes
and Gentleman's Relish
could also be considered distinctively English. Common types of sandwich are chicken salad, ham and mustard, cheese and pickle, BLT, egg mayonnaise
, prawn
mayonnaise, tuna
, marmite
and jam.
. Thus, the repertoire includes chutney
as well as Branston or "brown" pickle
, piccalilli
, pickled onion
s and gherkins. The Asian influence is also present in condiments such as tomato sauce (originally ketjap
), Worcestershire sauce
and "brown" sauce (such as HP
). Because Britain is a beer-drinking nation, malt
vinegar is commonly used. English mustard is strongly flavoured and bright yellow; served with meats and cooked with cheese; internationally noted for its pungency; and particularly associated with Colman's
of Norwich
. Pickles often accompany a selection of sliced, cold cooked meats, or "cold collation". This dish can claim to have some international influence, since it is known in French as an "assiette anglaise".
Cheese
is generally hard, and made from cows' milk. Cheddar cheese
, originally made in the village of Cheddar
, is by far the most common type, with many variations. Tangy Cheshire
, salty Caerphilly
, Sage Derby
, Lancashire Cheese
, Red Leicester, creamy Double Gloucester, pungent Lincolnshire Poacher
and sweet Wensleydale
are some traditional regional varieties. Cheddar and the rich, blue-veined Stilton have both been called the king of English cheeses. Cornish Yarg is a successful modern variety. The name 'Cheddar cheese' has become widely used internationally, and does not currently have a protected designation of origin
(PDO) under European Union law. However West Country farmhouse Cheddar has been awarded a PDO. To meet this standard the cheese must be made in the traditional manner using local ingredients in one of the four designated counties of South West England: Somerset, Devon, Dorset, or Cornwall. Sheep and goat cheeses are made chiefly by craft producers. Continental cheeses such as Brie
are sometimes also manufactured.
During the dessert
course, puddings such as bread and butter pudding
, Eccles cake
, Eton Mess
, rhubarb crumble, apple pie
, treacle tart
, spotted dick
, summer pudding
and trifle
are served. An accompaniment, custard
, sometimes known as crème anglaise ("English sauce") is a substitute to "eggs and milk" made from cornflour and vanilla. These dishes are simple and traditional. There is also a dried fruit
based Christmas pudding
, and the almond flavoured Bakewell tart
originating from the town of Bakewell
. Crystallised Ginger or a Peppermint Sweet might be offered after a heavy meal to aid digestion.
, fruit cake is often served with Wensleydale cheese. Coffee can sometimes be a culminatory drink.
Catherine of Braganza
, wife of Charles II, took the tea
habit to Great Britain around 1660, subsequently to the introduction of coffee. Initially, its expense restricted it to wealthy consumers, but the price gradually dropped, until the 19th century, when tea became as widely consumed as it is today.
In Britain, tea is usually black tea
served with milk (never cream; the cream of a "cream tea
" is clotted cream served on top of scones then normally strawberry jam on top, a tradition originating from Devon and Cornwall). Strong tea served with lots of milk and often two teaspoon
s of sugar, usually in a mug
, is commonly referred to as builder's tea. Much of the time in the United Kingdom, tea drinking is not the delicate, refined cultural expression that the rest of the world imagines—a cup
(or commonly a mug) of tea is something drunk often, with some people drinking six or more cups of tea a day. Employers generally allow breaks for tea and sometimes biscuits to be served. A mug of tea is the standard accompaniment to a meal in an inexpensive unlicensed eatery, such as a café or"caff".
Earl Grey tea
is a distinctive variation flavoured with Bergamot
. In recent years, herbal teas and speciality teas have also become popular.
Introduced in the 17th century, coffee
quickly became highly popular by the 18th century.. The coffee houses of London were important literary, commercial and political meeting-places, and in some cases paved the way for the great financial institutions of 19th Century London.
Coffee is now perhaps a little less popular than in continental Europe, but is still drunk by many in both its instant
and percolated forms, often with milk (but rarely with cream). Italian coffee preparations such as espresso
and cappuccino
and modern American variants such as the frappuccino
are increasingly popular, but generally purchased in restaurants or from specialist coffee shops rather than made in the home. White sugar is often added to individual cups of tea, or brown sugar to coffee, but never to the pot.
and cocoa
were promoted by temperance campaigners in the 19th century, and remain fairly popular. The major brands are manufactured by the quaker-founded businesses such as Cadbury's.
They are typically drunk late at night, as are Ovaltine
and Horlicks
.
Apple juice in its fresh pressed form, and varying stages of fermentation would be drunk, warmed and spiced in the winter time. Locally growing fruits and berry extract would also be used to flavour water with their juices.
Roast dandelion root and the fresh leaves would be made into teas and tinctures and drunk for good health. Other herbal teas such as rose-hip, raspberry leaf and nettle, amongst others, would also be drunk in this way.
s", though it has now been largely replaced by supermarket shopping. Some areas of the country still, however, enjoy door to door fresh milk to this day.
was originally a lightly fermented beverage similar to root beer
. Later versions more artificially made and were alcohol free. Soft ginger beer
was popular from the late 19th to mid 20th century. Tizer
and Lucozade
are British carbonated drinks, the latter marketed as an energy drink. Lemonade
generally refers to a clear, fizzy beverage in the UK. International brands of cola
and energy drinks have become popular since the late 20th century.
Barley water
, usually flavoured with lemon
or other fruit, is a traditional British
soft drink
. It is made by boiling washed pearl barley
, straining, then pouring the hot water over the rind and/or pulp of the fruit, and adding fruit juice and sugar to taste, although ready-made versions are usually consumed.
Squash
es and cordial
s are a alternative to carbonated beverages. They are a non-alcoholic concentrated
syrup
that is usually fruit
-flavoured and usually made from fruit juice
, water, and sugar
, which needs to be "diluted to taste" before drinking. Some traditional cordials also contain herbal extract
s, most notably elderflower and ginger
.
Beer was the first alcoholic drink to be produced in England, and has been brewed continuously since prehistoric times. England is one of the few countries where ale
(cask conditioned beer) is still a major part of the market. Lager
or Pilsener
style beer has increased considerably in popularity since the mid 20th century, and is often used as an accompaniment to spicy ethnic food. Any kind of beer may accompany a meal in a pub. English beer cookery includes steak and ale pie and beer-battered fish and chips.
Stout
is a globally known style of beer which originated in England, although it came to be associated
with Ireland. It has a culinary association with oysters; they can be used to flavour stout, or it can be drunk with them.
In Britain, "cider
" always means an alcoholic drink of fermented apple juice. Technically, it is a member of the wine family, but it is always served by the pint or half pint like beer. It is traditionally associated with certain regions, such as the South West
, Worcestershire
and Herefordshire
, but commercial brands are available nationwide. The cloudy, unfiltered version is called scrumpy
, and the related beverage made from pear
s, is called perry
. In England it is sometimes distilled into apple brandy, but this is not as widespread as with Calvados
in France. Culinarily, cider is sometimes used in pork or rabbit
dishes.
often accompanies formal meals. It was introduced to England, for both production and consumption, by the Romans
. Wine has been imported ever since, although it has not always been accessible to the average person.
From the Middle Ages, the English market was the main customer of claret
s from Bordeaux
, France, helped by the Plantagenet kingdom, which included England and large provinces in France. In the 18th century, the Methuen Treaty
of 1703 imposed high duties on French wine. This led to the English becoming a main consumer of sweet fortified wine
s like sherry
, port wine
, and Madeira wine
from Spain
and Portugal
. Fortified wine became popular because unlike regular wine, it does not spoil after the long journey from Portugal to England. Fortified wines are used in dessert cookery, for instance sherry features as an ingredient in trifle
.
By the late, 20th century wines from around the world were available to the mass market. Viticulture was restarted in the 1970s after a very long break. England is currently a major consumer, but only a very minor producer of wine, with English and Welsh wine sales combined accounting for just 1% of the domestic market.
Another form of domestic wine production is "country wines" or "fruit wine
s", which are made from wide variety of fruit and vegetables — elderberry
, damson
, parsnip
and so on — other than grapes. Commercial varieties are available, but country wines are also often home-made, sometimes from garden produce or personally harvested wild fruit.
Mead
, fermented honey, was popular in the middle ages, but is now a curiosity.
itself is not a British invention, its most popular style, London Dry Gin was developed in England. Gin and tonic
has historical roots going back to the British empire
, since the tonic was originally quinine
taken to combat malaria
in tropical climate
s. Rum
likewise has historic associations for the English.
Whisky
production in modern England re-started in Norfolk
in late 2006, and the first resulting single malt whisky was made available to the public in November 2009. This was the first English single malt in over 100 years. It was produced at St George's Distillery by the English Whisky Company. Previously Bristol
and Liverpool
were centres of English whisky production.
Although the English do not have a strong tradition of inventing cocktails, they did invent the mixed drink
known as punch
. It is typically made of water, fruit,fruit juice and spirits and served in a large bowl. Pimms is a company which has been selling ready-mixed drinks for well over a century. Pimm's associated with the British summertime and events such as Wimbledon
, the Henley Royal Regatta
, and the Glyndebourne
opera festival. It is often used as the basis of further mixtures including fruit, lemonade, etc.
Mixed drinks can also be based on beer (Lamb's wool) and cider (wassail
).
Indian cuisine
is the most popular alternative to traditional cooking in Britain, followed by Chinese
and Italian cuisine
food. The chicken tikka masala is now considered one of Britain's most popular dishes.
Indian food was served in coffee houses from 1809, and cooked at home from a similar date as Mrs Beeton
's cookbook attests. There was a sharp increase in the number of curry houses in the 1940s and again in the 1970s.
In the Victorian era
, during the British Raj
, Britain first started borrowing Indian dishes, creating Anglo-Indian cuisine
. Kedgeree
and Mulligatawny soup are traditional Anglo-Indian dishes. The word curry, meaning 'gravy', has been used since the medieval period.
Anglo-Indian fusion food continued to develop with chicken tikka masala
in the 1960s and Balti
in the 1980s, although some claim the latter has roots in the subcontinent.
Home-cooked curries by ethnically English people are often based on ready made curry powder
s sauces or pastes, with only a minority grinding and mixing their own spice masala
s. The highly successful Patak's
brand defines the taste of curry for many. Curries are sometimes home-cooked to use up leftovers.
In 2003, there were as many as 10,000 restaurants serving Indian cuisine in England and Wales alone. It is commonly mistaken that the majority of Indian restaurants in Britain are run by entrepreneurs of Indian origin, when in fact they are predominantly Bangladeshi and Pakistani. According to Britain's
Food Standards Agency
, the Indian food industry in the United Kingdom is worth £3.2 billion, accounts for two-thirds of all eating out, and serves about 2.5 million British customers every week. Pat Chapman
's Curry Club has a membership of several thousand.
Indian restaurants typically allow the diner to combine a number of base ingredients — chicken, prawns or "meat" (lamb or mutton) — with a number of curry sauces — from the mild korma
to the scorching phall
— without regard to the authenticity of the combination. The reference point for flavour and spice heat is the Madras curry sauce (the name represents the area of India where restauranteurs obtained their spices rather than an actual dish). Other sauces are either prepared from scratch, or are variations on a basic curry sauce: for instance, vindaloo
is often rendered as lamb in a Madras sauce with extra chilli, rather than the original pork
marinated in wine vinegar and garlic
.
In addition to curries. all restaurants offer "dry" tandoori and tikka
dishes of marinated meat or fish cooked in a special oven, and biriani dishes, where the meat and rice are mixzed together. Samosa
s, Bhajis
and small kebab
s are served as starters, or can be eaten by themselves as snacks.
English diners usually accompany their meals with basmati rice, bread being sometimes ordered in addition, and eat with spoon
and fork
. India's well-developed vegetarian cuisine is sketchily represented outside specialist restaurants.
In recent years, some Indian restaurants have started aiming higher than the norm for ethnic food, two of them garnering Michelin stars in the process.
, it may be so adapted to Western tastes that Chinese customers may be offered an entirely separate menu. Spare ribs in OK sauce
is an example of crossover cuisine. Other East Asian cuisines,such as Thai, Indonesian and Vietnamese are catching up in popularity.
Italian cuisine
is the most popular form of mediterranean food, vying with Chinese and Indian food as the most popular ethnic food. Greek and Spanish
restaurants are well established. Turkish
tends to be associated with the take-away sector in particular late night kebab shops. Whilst Middle Eastern cooking in particular Lebanese has grown in popularity from its traditional enclaves in London.
Apart from beefburgers and hotdogs
, food from the Americas tends to be represented by Mexican
or Tex-mex cuisine
, although there a few Creole and South American
restaurants.
Caribbean
and Jewish cuisine
can usually only be found where there is a concentration of the community in question.
In England French cuisine
stands somewhat apart from other generally less expensive cuisine, although there are some inexpensive French bistros.
or French cuisine
. However, for many English people this perception seems outdated, for the poor reputation of industrially produced urban food in the twentieth century did not ever really represent the quality of food cooked in the home. Traditional English food, with its emphasis on 'meat-and-two-veg' falls squarely into the north European tradition extending from Northern Germany to the Low Countries and Scandinavia, albeit with a French influence.
During the Middle Ages
and Enlightenment
, English cuisine enjoyed an excellent reputation; its decline can be traced back to the move away from the land and increasing urbanisation of the populace during the Industrial Revolution
. During this process Britain became a net importer of food. British food also suffered heavily from effects of rationing
during two World Wars (food rationing finally ended in 1954), followed by the increasing trend toward industrialised mass production of food. However, in Britain today there is a renewed fascination with the culture of food popularly led by celebrity chef
s who seek to raise the standard of food understanding in the UK.
In 2005, 600 food critics writing for (British) Restaurant
magazine named 14 British restaurants among the 50 best restaurants in the world with the number one spot going to The Fat Duck
in Bray, Berkshire
and its chef Heston Blumenthal
. In particular, the global reach of London
has elevated it to the status of a leading centre of international cuisine. Meanwhile the heavy promotion of gastronomy
as a post-industrial economic solution has led to a proliferation of very fine quality producers across the country.
, especially since the BSE
crisis of the 1990s. it was estimated that there were between 3 and 4 million vegetarians in the UK, one of the highest percentages in the Western world, and around 7 million people claim to eat no red meat
. The majority of restaurants will have at least one vegetarian meal on the menu.
under European law, see List of United Kingdom food and drink products with protected status.
Savoury dishes
Sweet dishes
Other specialities
, elevenses
, brunch
, lunch, dinner, supper
, dessert
, tea
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It has distinctive attributes of its own, but also shares much with wider British cuisine
British cuisine
English cuisine encompasses the cooking styles, traditions and recipes associated with England. It has distinctive attributes of its own, but also shares much with wider British cuisine, largely due to the importation of ingredients and ideas from places such as North America, China, and India...
, largely due to the importation of ingredients and ideas from places such as North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
during the time of the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
and as a result of post-war
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
immigration
Immigration to the United Kingdom
Immigration to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland since 1922 has been substantial, in particular from Ireland and the former colonies and other territories of the British Empire - such as India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Caribbean, South Africa, Kenya and Hong Kong - under...
.
In the Early Modern Period
Early modern period
In history, the early modern period of modern history follows the late Middle Ages. Although the chronological limits of the period are open to debate, the timeframe spans the period after the late portion of the Middle Ages through the beginning of the Age of Revolutions...
the food of England was historically characterised by its simplicity of approach and a reliance on the high quality of natural produce
Produce
Produce is a generalized term for a group of farm-produced goods and, not limited to fruits and vegetables . More specifically, the term "produce" often implies that the products are fresh and generally in the same state as where they were harvested. In supermarkets the term is also used to refer...
. This, was in no small part influenced by England's Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
flavour at the time, and resulted in a traditional cuisine which tended to veer from strong flavours, such as garlic
Garlic
Allium sativum, commonly known as garlic, is a species in the onion genus, Allium. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, and rakkyo. Dating back over 6,000 years, garlic is native to central Asia, and has long been a staple in the Mediterranean region, as well as a frequent...
, and an avoidance of complex sauces which were commonly associated with Catholic Continental
Continental Europe
Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent, is the continent of Europe, explicitly excluding European islands....
political affiliations. It is possible the effects of this can still be seen in traditional cuisine.
Traditional meals have ancient origins, such as bread
Bread
Bread is a staple food prepared by cooking a dough of flour and water and often additional ingredients. Doughs are usually baked, but in some cuisines breads are steamed , fried , or baked on an unoiled frying pan . It may be leavened or unleavened...
and cheese
Cheese
Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....
, roasted and stewed meats, meat and game pie
Pie
A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that covers or completely contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients....
s, boiled vegetables and broths, and freshwater and saltwater fish. The 14th century English cookbook, the Forme of Cury
Forme of Cury
The Forme of Cury is an extensive recipe collection of the 14th century whose author is given as "the chief Master Cooks of King Richard II". The modern name was given to it by Samuel Pegge, who published an edition of it in 1791. This name has since come into usage for almost all versions of the...
, contains recipes for these, and dates from the royal court of Richard II
Richard II of England
Richard II was King of England, a member of the House of Plantagenet and the last of its main-line kings. He ruled from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. Richard was a son of Edward, the Black Prince, and was born during the reign of his grandfather, Edward III...
. In the second half of the 18th century Rev. Gilbert White
Gilbert White
Gilbert White FRS was a pioneering English naturalist and ornithologist.-Life:White was born in his grandfather's vicarage at Selborne in Hampshire. He was educated at the Holy Ghost School and by a private tutor in Basingstoke before going to Oriel College, Oxford...
, in The Natural History of Selborne made note of the increased consumption of vegetables by ordinary country people in the south of England, to which, he noted, potato
Potato
The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...
es had only been added during the reign of George III: "Green-stalls in cities now support multitudes in comfortable state, while gardeners get fortunes. Every decent labourer also has his garden, which is half his support; and common farmers provide plenty of beans, peas, and greens, for their hinds to eat with their bacon."
Other meals, such as fish and chips
Fish and chips
Fish and chips is a popular take-away food in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada...
, which were once urban street food
Street food
Street food is ready-to-eat food or drink sold in a street or other public place, such as a market or fair, by a hawker or vendor, often from a portable stall. While some street foods are regional, many are not, having spread beyond their region of origin. Most street food are both finger and fast...
eaten from newspaper with salt and malt vinegar, and pies and sausages with mashed potatoes, onions, and gravy, are now matched in popularity by curries
Curry
Curry is a generic description used throughout Western culture to describe a variety of dishes from Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Thai or other Southeast Asian cuisines...
from the Bangladesh
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...
and Pakistan
Cuisine of Pakistan
Pakistani cuisine can be described as a refined blend of various regional cooking traditions of the South Asian subcontinent. Pakistani cuisine is known for its richness and flavour....
, and stir-fries based on Chinese
Chinese cuisine
Chinese cuisine is any of several styles originating in the regions of China, some of which have become highly popular in other parts of the world – from Asia to the Americas, Australia, Western Europe and Southern Africa...
and Thai cooking. Italian cuisine
Italian cuisine
Italian cuisine has developed through centuries of social and political changes, with roots as far back as the 4th century BCE. Italian cuisine in itself takes heavy influences, including Etruscan, ancient Greek, ancient Roman, Byzantine, Jewish and Arab cuisines...
and French cuisine
French cuisine
French cuisine is a style of food preparation originating from France that has developed from centuries of social change. In the Middle Ages, Guillaume Tirel , a court chef, authored Le Viandier, one of the earliest recipe collections of Medieval France...
are also now widely adapted. Britain was also quick to adopt the innovation of fast food
Fast food
Fast food is the term given to food that can be prepared and served very quickly. While any meal with low preparation time can be considered to be fast food, typically the term refers to food sold in a restaurant or store with preheated or precooked ingredients, and served to the customer in a...
from the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and continues to absorb culinary ideas from all over the world while at the same time rediscovering its roots in sustainable rural agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
.
The Sunday roast
Sunday roast
The Sunday roast is a traditional British main meal served on Sundays , consisting of roasted meat, roast potato or mashed potato, with accompaniments such as Yorkshire pudding, stuffing, vegetables and gravy....
was once the most common feature of English cooking. The Sunday dinner traditionally includes roast potatoes (or boiled or mashed potatoes) accompanying a roasted joint of meat such as roast beef
Roast beef
Roast beef is a dish of beef which is roasted in an oven. Essentially prepared as a main meal, the leftovers can be and are often served within sandwiches and sometimes is used to make hash...
, lamb, pork, or a roast chicken
Chicken
The chicken is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the Red Junglefowl. As one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, and with a population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other species of bird...
and assorted other vegetables, themselves generally boiled and served with a gravy
Gravy
Gravy is a sauce made often from the juices that run naturally from meat or vegetables during cooking. In North America the term can refer to a wider variety of sauces and gravy is often thicker than in Britain...
. Sauces are chosen depending on the type of meat: horseradish for beef, mint sauce for lamb, apple sauce for pork, and bread sauce for chicken. Yorkshire pudding
Yorkshire pudding
Yorkshire Pudding is a dish that originated in Yorkshire, England. It is made from batter and usually served with roast meat and gravy.-History:...
normally accompanies beef (although it was originally served first as a "filler"), sage and onion stuffing pork, and usually parsley stuffing chicken; gravy is now often served as an accompaniment to the main course. The practice of serving a roast dinner on a Sunday is related to the elaborate preparation required, and to the housewife's practice of performing the weekly wash on a Monday, when the cold remains of the roast made an easily-assembled meal. Sunday was once the only rest day after a six-day working week; it was also a demonstration that the household was prosperous enough to afford the cost of a better than normal meal. An elaborate version of roast dinner is traditionally eaten at Christmas, with almost every detail rigidly specified by tradition. Since its widespread availability after World War II the most popular Christmas roast is turkey, superseding the goose
Goose
The word goose is the English name for a group of waterfowl, belonging to the family Anatidae. This family also includes swans, most of which are larger than true geese, and ducks, which are smaller....
of Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
's time. Before the period of cheap turkeys, roast chicken would be more common than goose although Chicken was still a once a year treat until the 1950's; goose being unsuitable for small groups of diners. Game
Game (food)
Game is any animal hunted for food or not normally domesticated. Game animals are also hunted for sport.The type and range of animals hunted for food varies in different parts of the world. This will be influenced by climate, animal diversity, local taste and locally accepted view about what can or...
meats such as venison
Venison
Venison is the meat of a game animal, especially a deer but also other animals such as antelope, wild boar, etc.-Etymology:The word derives from the Latin vēnor...
which were traditionally the domain of higher classes are occasionally also eaten by those wishing to experiment with a wider choice of foods, due to their promotion by celebrity chef
Celebrity chef
A celebrity chef is a kitchen chef who has become famous and well known. Today celebrity chefs often become celebrities by presenting cookery advice and demonstrations via mass media, especially television. Historically, celebrity chefs have included Antoine Carême and Martino da Como.-External...
s, although they are not usually eaten frequently in the average household.
Afternoon tea
It is a widespread stereotypeStereotype
A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...
that the English "drop everything" for a teatime
Tea (meal)
Tea can refer to any of several different meals or mealtimes, depending on a country's customs and its history of drinking tea. However, in those countries where the term's use is common, the influences are generally those of the former British Empire...
meal in the mid-afternoon. This is no longer the case in the workplace, and is rarer in the home than it once was. A formal teatime meal is now often an accompaniment to tourism, particularly in Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
and neighbouring counties
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
, where comestibles may include scones with jam and clotted cream
Clotted cream
Clotted cream is a thick cream made by indirectly heating full-cream cow's milk using steam or a water bath and then leaving it in shallow pans to cool slowly. During this time, the cream content rises to the surface and forms 'clots' or 'clouts'...
(together known as a cream tea
Cream tea
A cream tea, Devonshire tea, Devon cream tea or Cornish cream tea is tea taken with a combination of scones, clotted cream, and jam....
). There are also fairy cakes
Cupcake
A cupcake is a small cake designed to serve one person, frequently baked in a small, thin paper or aluminum cup...
, simple small sponge cakes which can be iced or eaten plain. Nationwide, assorted biscuit
Biscuit
A biscuit is a baked, edible, and commonly flour-based product. The term is used to apply to two distinctly different products in North America and the Commonwealth Nations....
s and sandwich
Sandwich
A sandwich is a food item, typically consisting of two or more slices of :bread with one or more fillings between them, or one slice of bread with a topping or toppings, commonly called an open sandwich. Sandwiches are a widely popular type of lunch food, typically taken to work or school, or...
es are eaten. Generally, however, the teatime meal has been replaced by snacking, or simply dispensed with.
Chip shops and other takeaways
Fish and chips
Fish and chips is a popular take-away food in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada...
and has a large number of restaurants and take-away shops selling this dish. It may be the most popular and identifiable English dish. In some regions fish and chips were served with a side order of mushy peas
Mushy peas
Mushy peas are dried marrowfat peas which are first soaked overnight in water and then simmered with a little sugar and salt until they form a thick green lumpy soup. They are a traditional British accompaniment to fish and chips and sometimes mint is used as a flavouring...
with salt and vinegar as condiments. Foods such as deep fried breaded scampi
Scampi
Scampi is the term for a particular type of lobster, deriving originally from the Greek word κάμπη 'kampē' meaning a 'bending' or 'winding'. The name is sometimes used loosely to describe a style of preparation typically for seafood, and as a culinary name for some species of crustacean...
are usually on offer as well as fishcakes (authentically a fish slice between two potato slices ) and a number of other combinations. Potato scallops, battered potato slices that were traditionally cooked with the fish and sold cheaply, are still popular .
The advent of take-away foods during the Industrial Revolution led to foods such as fish and chips, mushy peas, and pie and mash
Pie and mash
Pie and mash is a traditional London working-class food.-History:Pie, mash and stewed eels shops have been in London since the 19th century and are still common in south and east London, in many parts of Essex and in places abroad, particularly Australia - where there are significant expatriate...
. These were the staples of the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
take-away business, and indeed of English diets, however, like many national dishes, quality can vary drastically from the commercial or mass produced product to an authentic or homemade variety using more carefully chosen ingredients.
Fish and seafood
Although a wide variety of fish are caught in British waters, the English tend to mainly eat only a few species. CodCod
Cod is the common name for genus Gadus, belonging to the family Gadidae, and is also used in the common name for various other fishes. Cod is a popular food with a mild flavor, low fat content and a dense, flaky white flesh. Cod livers are processed to make cod liver oil, an important source of...
, haddock
Haddock
The haddock , also known as the offshore hake, is a marine fish distributed on both sides of the North Atlantic. Haddock is a popular food fish and is widely fished commercially....
, plaice
Plaice
Plaice is the common name of four species of flatfishes.Plaice or PLAICE may also refer to:* USS Plaice , a Balao-class submarine* PLAICE, an open source hardware FLASH programmer, memory emulator, and logic analyzer...
, huss
Rock salmon
Rock salmon refers to either of two kinds of fish:The first, also called rock eel, flake, and huss in the UK, is any one of many species of small shark, including the spiny dogfish or the bull huss .Rock salmon is consumed in many European countries and is often sold by fish and chip shops in the...
, and skate are the fish-and-chip shop favourites. (The unadventurous approach and the tendency to eat fish battered were mocked by Keith Floyd
Keith Floyd
Keith Floyd was a British celebrity chef, television personality and restaurateur, who hosted cooking shows for the BBC and published many books combining cookery and travel...
with the phrase "unidentified frying objects"). A few other species, such as coley and pollock
Pollock
Pollock is the common name used for either of the two species of marine fish in the Pollachius genus. Both P. pollachius and P. virens are commonly referred to as pollock. Other names for P...
are found in the anonymous form of breadcrumb
Breadcrumb
Breadcrumbs or bread crumbs are small particles of dry bread, which are used for breading or crumbing foods, topping casseroles, stuffing poultry, thickening stews, and adding inexpensive bulk to meatloaves and similar foods. They are documented in cookbooks as early as 1716...
ed fishcake
Fishcake
A fishcake is a food item similar to a croquette, consisting of a filleted fish and potato patty sometimes coated in breadcrumbs or batter, and fried. Fishcakes are often served in British fish and chip shops....
s and fish finger
Fish finger
Fish fingers, known as fish sticks in North America, are a processed food made using a whitefish such as cod, haddock or pollock which have been battered or breaded....
s.
Sausages
Rusk
A rusk is a hard, dry biscuit or a twice-baked bread. It is sometimes used as a baby teething food. In the United Kingdom, the name also refers to a wheat-based food additive.- Germany :The zwieback A rusk is a hard, dry biscuit or a twice-baked bread. It is sometimes used as a baby teething food....
. However, there has been a backlash in recent years, with most butchers and supermarkets now selling premium varieties.
Pork and beef are by far the most common bases, although gourmet varieties may contain venison, wild boar, etc. There are particularly famous regional varieties, such as the herbal Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire sausage
Lincolnshire sausages are a distinctive variety of pork sausage developed in and associated with the English county of Lincolnshire.A widely available variety at most UK butchers and supermarkets, the sausage is commonly dominated by the herb sage, rather than the more peppery flavour balance found...
, and the long, curled Cumberland
Cumberland sausage
Cumberland sausage is a form of sausage that originated in the ancient county of Cumberland, England, now part of Cumbria. They are traditionally very long , and sold rolled in a flat, circular coil but within western Cumbria they are more often served in long curved lengths...
with many butchers offering their own individual recipes and variations often handed down through generations, but are generally not made from cured meats such as Italian selections or available in such a variety as found in Germany.
Most larger supermarkets in England will stock at least a dozen types of English sausage: not only Cumberland and Lincolnshire but often varieties such as pork and apple, pork and herb; beef and stilton; pork and mozzarella, and others. There are estimated to be around 400 sausage varieties in the United Kingdom.
Sausages form the basis of toad in the hole
Toad in the hole
Toad in the hole is a traditional English dish consisting of sausages in Yorkshire pudding batter, usually served with vegetables and onion gravy....
, where they are combined with a batter similar to a Yorkshire pudding and baked in the oven, this can be served with an onion gravy made by frying sliced onions for anywhere over an hour on a low heat then mixed with a stock, wine or ale then reduced to form a sauce or gravy used in bangers and mash
Bangers and mash
Bangers and mash, also known as sausages and mash, is a traditional English 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....
.
Black puddings and white puddings
A variant of the sausage is the black pudding, strongly associated with Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
similar to the French boudin noir or the Spanish Morcilla. It is made from pig's blood, in line with the adage that "you can eat every part of a pig except its squeal". Pig's trotters, tripe
Tripe
Tripe is a type of edible offal from the stomachs of various farm animals.-Beef tripe:...
and brawn are also traditional fare in the North. There are also white puddings
White pudding
White pudding or oatmeal pudding is a meat dish popular in Scotland, Ireland, Northumberland, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland. White pudding is very similar to black pudding, but does not include blood. Consequently, it consists of pork meat and fat, suet, bread, and oatmeal formed into the shape of...
, similar but lacking blood.
Pies and pasties
The English tradition of meat piePie
A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that covers or completely contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients....
s dates back to the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, when an open top pie crust was used as the container for serving the meat and was called a coffyn. Since then, they have been a mainstay of English cooking. Different types of pastry may be used, including the lard-rich pastry of a raised pie. Meat pies generally contain fillings such as chicken and mushroom or steak and kidney pie
Steak and kidney pie
Steak and kidney pie is a savoury pie that is filled principally with a mixture of diced beef, diced kidney , fried onion, and brown gravy...
(originally steak and oyster).
Pork pie
Pork pie
A pork pie is a traditional British meat pie. It consists of roughly chopped pork and pork jelly sealed in a hot water crust pastry . It is normally eaten cold as a snack or as part of a meal.-Types:...
s are almost always eaten cold, with the Melton Mowbray pork pie being the archetype. Open pies or flans are generally served for dessert with fillings of seasonal fruit. Quiches and savoury flans are eaten, but not considered indigenous. The Cornish pasty is a kind of small pie originally used by the tin miners of Cornwall. The thick, pastry crust was held in the hand while the clean pastry covering and filling were eaten; the crust would have then been disposed of due to the transmission of dirt from the hand. Pasties have also been seen deep-fried in Mexico City, having been brought over by the Cornish miners imported to work in the Mexican silver mining industry.
Another kind of pie is topped with mashed potato instead of pastry—for instance, shepherd's pie
Shepherd's pie
Cottage pie or shepherd's pie is a meat pie with a crust of mashed potato.The term cottage pie is known to have been in use in 1791, when the potato was being introduced as an edible crop affordable for the poor Cottage pie or shepherd's pie is a meat pie with a crust of mashed potato.The term...
, with lamb, cottage pie
Cottage pie
Cottage pie or shepherd's pie is a meat pie with a crust of mashed potato.The term cottage pie is known to have been in use in 1791, when the potato was being introduced as an edible crop affordable for the poor Cottage pie or shepherd's pie is a meat pie with a crust of mashed potato.The term...
, with beef, or fisherman's pie.
Bacon and kippers
Northern European countries generally have a tradition of saltingSalting (food)
Salting is the preservation of food with dry edible salt. It is related to pickling . It is one of the oldest methods of preserving food, and two historically significant salt-cured foods are dried and salted cod and salt-cured meat.Salting is used because most bacteria, fungi and other potentially...
, smoking
Smoking (cooking technique)
Smoking is the process of flavoring, cooking, or preserving food by exposing it to the smoke from burning or smoldering plant materials, most often wood...
, pickling
Pickling
Pickling, also known as brining or corning is the process of preserving food by anaerobic fermentation in brine to produce lactic acid, or marinating and storing it in an acid solution, usually vinegar . The resulting food is called a pickle. This procedure gives the food a salty or sour taste...
and otherwise preserving foods. Kipper
Kipper
A kipper is a whole herring, a small, oily fish, that has been split from tail to head, gutted, salted or pickled, and cold smoked.In the United Kingdom, in Japan, and in some North American regions they are often eaten for breakfast...
s, bloaters
Bloater (herring)
Bloaters are a type of smoked herring. They are different from the kippers as they are smoked whole, with its innards intact which gives it its unique gamey flavour. The bloater is associated with Great Yarmouth, England; the kipper with Scotland and the Isle of Man...
, ham
Ham
Ham is a cut of meat from the thigh of the hind leg of certain animals, especiallypigs. Nearly all hams sold today are fully cooked or cured.-Etymology:...
, and bacon
Bacon
Bacon is a cured meat prepared from a pig. It is first cured using large quantities of salt, either in a brine or in a dry packing; the result is fresh bacon . Fresh bacon may then be further dried for weeks or months in cold air, boiled, or smoked. Fresh and dried bacon must be cooked before eating...
are some of the varieties of preserved meat and fish known in England. Onion
Onion
The onion , also known as the bulb onion, common onion and garden onion, is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium. The genus Allium also contains a number of other species variously referred to as onions and cultivated for food, such as the Japanese bunching onion The onion...
s, cabbage
Cabbage
Cabbage is a popular cultivar of the species Brassica oleracea Linne of the Family Brassicaceae and is a leafy green vegetable...
and some other vegetables may be pickled. Meats other than pork are generally not cured.
Pub food
Snack food
A snack is a portion of food oftentimes smaller than that of a regular meal, that is generally eaten between meals. Snacks come in a variety of forms including packaged and processed foods and items made from fresh ingredients at home....
", such as pork scratchings, and pickled egg
Pickled egg
Pickled eggs are hard boiled eggs preserved by pickling.After the eggs are hard boiled the shell is removed and they are submerged in a solution of vinegar, salt, spices, and other seasonings. Recipes vary from the traditional brine solution used for pickles to other solutions which can impart a...
s, along with salted crisps and peanut
Peanut
The peanut, or groundnut , is a species in the legume or "bean" family , so it is not a nut. The peanut was probably first cultivated in the valleys of Peru. It is an annual herbaceous plant growing tall...
s which helped to increase beer sales. If a pub served meals they were usually basic cold dishes such as a ploughman's lunch
Ploughman's lunch
A ploughman's lunch is a cold snack or meal originating in the United Kingdom, served in pubs, sometimes eaten in a sandwich form, composed of cheese ; often cooked ham slices, pickle , apples, pickled onions, salad leaves, bread...
. In South East England
South East England
South East England is one of the nine official regions of England, designated in 1994 and adopted for statistical purposes in 1999. It consists of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Surrey and West Sussex...
(especially London) it was common until recent times for vendors selling cockles
Cockle (bivalve)
Cockle is the common name for a group of small, edible, saltwater clams, marine bivalve molluscs in the family Cardiidae.Various species of cockles live in sandy sheltered beaches throughout the world....
, whelk
Whelk
Whelk, also spelled welk or even "wilks", is a common name used to mean one or more kinds of sea snail. The species, genera and families referred to using this common name vary a great deal from one geographic area to another...
s, mussels and other shellfish
Shellfish
Shellfish is a culinary and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater environments, some kinds are found only in freshwater...
, to sell to customers during the evening and at closing time. Many mobile shellfish stalls would set up near pubs, a practice that continues in London's East End.
In the 1950s some British pubs would offer "a pie and a pint", with hot individual steak and ale pies made easily on the premises by the landlord's wife. In the 1960s and 1970s this developed into the then-fashionable "chicken in a basket", a portion of roast chicken with chips, served on a napkin, in a wicker basket. Quality dropped but variety increased with the introduction of microwave ovens and freezer food. "Pub grub" expanded to include British food items such as steak and ale pie, shepherd's pie
Shepherd's pie
Cottage pie or shepherd's pie is a meat pie with a crust of mashed potato.The term cottage pie is known to have been in use in 1791, when the potato was being introduced as an edible crop affordable for the poor Cottage pie or shepherd's pie is a meat pie with a crust of mashed potato.The term...
, fish and chips
Fish and chips
Fish and chips is a popular take-away food in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada...
, bangers and mash
Bangers and mash
Bangers and mash, also known as sausages and mash, is a traditional English 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....
, Sunday roast
Sunday roast
The Sunday roast is a traditional British main meal served on Sundays , consisting of roasted meat, roast potato or mashed potato, with accompaniments such as Yorkshire pudding, stuffing, vegetables and gravy....
, ploughman's lunch, and pasties
Pasty
A pasty , sometimes known as a pastie or British pasty in the United States, is a filled pastry case, associated in particular with Cornwall in Great Britain. It is made by placing the uncooked filling on a flat pastry circle, and folding it to wrap the filling, crimping the edge at the side or top...
. In addition, dishes such as burgers
Hamburger
A hamburger is a sandwich consisting of a cooked patty of ground meat usually placed inside a sliced bread roll...
, lasagne and chilli con carne are often served.
Since the 1990s food has become more important as part of a pub's trade, and today most pubs serve lunches and dinner
Dinner
Dinner is usually the name of the main meal of the day. Depending upon culture, dinner may be the second, third or fourth meal of the day. Originally, though, it referred to the first meal of the day, eaten around noon, and is still occasionally used for a noontime meal, if it is a large or main...
s at the table in addition to (or instead of) snacks consumed at the bar. They may have a separate dining room. Some pubs serve meals to a higher standard, to match good restaurant
Restaurant
A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
standards; these are sometimes termed gastropubs.
Sandwiches
England can claim to have given the world the word "sandwichSandwich
A sandwich is a food item, typically consisting of two or more slices of :bread with one or more fillings between them, or one slice of bread with a topping or toppings, commonly called an open sandwich. Sandwiches are a widely popular type of lunch food, typically taken to work or school, or...
", although the eponymous John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich
John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich
John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, PC, FRS was a British statesman who succeeded his grandfather, Edward Montagu, 3rd Earl of Sandwich, as the Earl of Sandwich in 1729, at the age of ten...
was not the first to add a filling to bread. English sandwiches are made with two slices of bread, or a some kind of roll. Fillings such as pickled relishes
Branston Pickle
Branston is a British food brand. It is best known for the original Branston Pickle, a jarred pickled relish first made in 1922 in the Branston suburb of Burton upon Trent by Crosse & Blackwell....
and Gentleman's Relish
Gentleman's Relish
Gentleman's Relish is a type of anchovy paste. It is also known as Patum Peperium.It was created in 1828 by an Englishman called John Osborn. It has a strong, very salty and slightly fishy taste, and contains anchovies , butter, herbs and spices...
could also be considered distinctively English. Common types of sandwich are chicken salad, ham and mustard, cheese and pickle, BLT, egg mayonnaise
Mayonnaise
Mayonnaise, , often abbreviated as mayo, is a sauce. It is a stable emulsion of oil, egg yolk and either vinegar or lemon juice, with many options for embellishment with other herbs and spices. Lecithin in the egg yolk is the emulsifier. Mayonnaise varies in color but is often white, cream, or pale...
, prawn
Prawn
Prawns are decapod crustaceans of the sub-order Dendrobranchiata. There are 540 extant species, in seven families, and a fossil record extending back to the Devonian...
mayonnaise, tuna
Tuna
Tuna is a salt water fish from the family Scombridae, mostly in the genus Thunnus. Tuna are fast swimmers, and some species are capable of speeds of . Unlike most fish, which have white flesh, the muscle tissue of tuna ranges from pink to dark red. The red coloration derives from myoglobin, an...
, marmite
Marmite
Marmite is the name given to two similar food spreads: the original British version, first produced in the United Kingdom and later South Africa, and a version produced in New Zealand...
and jam.
Pickles, preserves and condiments
Pickles and preserves are given a twist by the influence of the British EmpireBritish Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
. Thus, the repertoire includes chutney
Chutney
Chutney is a a condiment used in South Asian cuisine that usually contains a spice and vegetable mix.Chutneys are wet or dry, having a coarse to fine texture. The Anglo-Indian loan word refers to fresh and pickled preparations indiscriminately, with preserves often sweetened. At least several...
as well as Branston or "brown" pickle
Branston Pickle
Branston is a British food brand. It is best known for the original Branston Pickle, a jarred pickled relish first made in 1922 in the Branston suburb of Burton upon Trent by Crosse & Blackwell....
, piccalilli
Piccalilli
Piccalilli is a British relish of chopped pickled vegetables and spices; regional recipes vary considerably. A more finely chopped variety "sandwich piccalilli" is also available from major British supermarkets.-Etymology:...
, pickled onion
Pickled onion
Pickled onions are a popular pickled food consisting of onions pickled in a solution of vinegar and salt, often with other preservatives and flavourings. In the United Kingdom they are often eaten alongside fish and chips or as part of a ploughman's lunch...
s and gherkins. The Asian influence is also present in condiments such as tomato sauce (originally ketjap
Ketchup
Ketchup is a sweet-and-tangy condiment typically made from tomatoes, vinegar, sugar or high-fructose corn syrup and an assortment of...
), Worcestershire sauce
Worcestershire sauce
Worcestershire sauce , or Worcester sauce is a fermented liquid condiment; primarily used to flavour meat or fish dishes.First made at 60 Broad Street, Worcester, England, by two dispensing chemists, John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins, the Lea & Perrins brand was commercialised in 1837 and...
and "brown" sauce (such as HP
HP Sauce
HP Sauce is a popular brown sauce originally produced by HP Foods in the UK, now produced by H.J. Heinz in the Netherlands.It is the best-known brand of brown sauce in the United Kingdom and Canada as well as the best selling, with 71% of the UK market....
). Because Britain is a beer-drinking nation, malt
Malt
Malt is germinated cereal grains that have been dried in a process known as "malting". The grains are made to germinate by soaking in water, and are then halted from germinating further by drying with hot air...
vinegar is commonly used. English mustard is strongly flavoured and bright yellow; served with meats and cooked with cheese; internationally noted for its pungency; and particularly associated with Colman's
Colman's
Colman's is a UK manufacturer of mustard and various other sauces, based at Carrow, in Norwich, Norfolk. Presently an operational division of the multinational Unilever company, Colman's is one of the oldest existing food brands, famous for a limited range of products, almost all varieties of...
of Norwich
Norwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
. Pickles often accompany a selection of sliced, cold cooked meats, or "cold collation". This dish can claim to have some international influence, since it is known in French as an "assiette anglaise".
Cheese
Cheese
Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....
is generally hard, and made from cows' milk. Cheddar cheese
Cheddar cheese
Cheddar cheese is a relatively hard, yellow to off-white, and sometimes sharp-tasting cheese, produced in several countries around the world. It has its origins in the English village of Cheddar in Somerset....
, originally made in the village of Cheddar
Cheddar
Cheddar is a large village and civil parish in the Sedgemoor district of the English county of Somerset. It is situated on the southern edge of the Mendip Hills, north-west of Wells. The civil parish includes the hamlets of Nyland and Bradley Cross...
, is by far the most common type, with many variations. Tangy Cheshire
Cheshire cheese
Cheshire cheese is a dense and crumbly cheese produced in the English county of Cheshire, and four neighbouring counties, two in Wales and two in England .-History:...
, salty Caerphilly
Caerphilly cheese
Caerphilly is a hard, white cheese that originates in the area around the town of Caerphilly in Wales, although it is now also made in England, particularly in the South West and on the English border with Wales...
, Sage Derby
Sage Derby cheese
right|thumb|200px|Sage Derby cheese with wax coatingSage Derby is a mild, mottled green, semi-hard cheese with a sage flavour. The colour is from sage and sometimes other colouring added to the curds, producing a marbling effect and the subtle herb flavour...
, Lancashire Cheese
Lancashire cheese
Lancashire is an English cow's-milk cheese from the county of Lancashire. There are three distinct varieties of Lancashire cheese. Young Creamy Lancashire and mature Tasty Lancashire are produced by a traditional method, whereas Crumbly Lancashire is a more recent creation suitable for mass...
, Red Leicester, creamy Double Gloucester, pungent Lincolnshire Poacher
Lincolnshire Poacher (cheese)
Lincolnshire Poacher is a hard unpasteurised cow's milk cheese that is generally of a cylindrical shape with its rind resembling granite in appearance. It is made in Lincolnshire, England. The cheese is matured between 14 and 24 months, depending on when the milk was collected...
and sweet Wensleydale
Wensleydale (cheese)
Wensleydale cheese is a cheese produced in the town of Hawes in Wensleydale, North Yorkshire, England.-Varieties:There are five main types:...
are some traditional regional varieties. Cheddar and the rich, blue-veined Stilton have both been called the king of English cheeses. Cornish Yarg is a successful modern variety. The name 'Cheddar cheese' has become widely used internationally, and does not currently have a protected designation of origin
Protected Geographical Status
Protected Geographical Status is a legal framework defined in European Union law to protect the names of regional foods. Protected Designation of Origin , Protected Geographical Indication and Traditional Speciality Guaranteed are distinct regimes of geographical indications within the framework...
(PDO) under European Union law. However West Country farmhouse Cheddar has been awarded a PDO. To meet this standard the cheese must be made in the traditional manner using local ingredients in one of the four designated counties of South West England: Somerset, Devon, Dorset, or Cornwall. Sheep and goat cheeses are made chiefly by craft producers. Continental cheeses such as Brie
Brie
Brie is a historic region of France most famous for its dairy products, especially Brie cheese. It was once divided into two sections ruled by different feudal lords: the western Brie française, corresponding roughly to the modern department of Seine-et-Marne in the Île-de-France region; the...
are sometimes also manufactured.
Pudding
Dessert
In cultures around the world, dessert is a course that typically comes at the end of a meal, usually consisting of sweet food. The word comes from the French language as dessert and this from Old French desservir, "to clear the table" and "to serve." Common Western desserts include cakes, biscuits,...
course, puddings such as bread and butter pudding
Bread and butter pudding
Bread and butter pudding is made by layering slices of buttered bread scattered with raisins in an oven dish into which an egg and milk mixture, commonly seasoned with nutmeg , is poured.-Instructions:...
, Eccles cake
Eccles cake
An Eccles cake is a small, round cake filled with currants and made from flaky pastry with butter and can sometimes be topped with demerara sugar.-Name and origin:Eccles cakes are named after the English town of Eccles...
, Eton Mess
Eton mess
Eton mess is a traditional English dessert consisting of a mixture of strawberries, pieces of meringue and cream, which is traditionally served at Eton College's annual cricket game against the students of Winchester College. The dish has been known by this name since the 19th century...
, rhubarb crumble, apple pie
Apple pie
An apple pie is a fruit pie in which the principal filling ingredient is apples. It is sometimes served with whipped cream or ice cream on top...
, treacle tart
Treacle tart
Treacle tart is a traditional English dessert. It is made using shortcrust pastry, with a thick filling made of golden syrup, also known as light treacle, breadcrumbs, and lemon juice. The tart is normally served hot or warm with a scoop of clotted cream, ordinary cream, ice cream or custard...
, spotted dick
Spotted dick
Spotted dick is a British steamed suet pudding containing dried fruit commonly served with custard. Spotted refers to the dried fruit and dick may be a contraction or corruption of the word pudding or possibly a corruption of the word dough or dog, as "spotted dog" is another name for the same...
, summer pudding
Summer pudding
Summer Pudding or Summer Fruit Pudding is a British dessert made of sliced white bread, layered in a deep bowl with fruit and fruit juice. It is left to soak overnight and turned out onto a plate. The dessert was most popular from the late 19th to the early 20th century. However, there is no clear...
and trifle
Trifle
Trifle is a dessert dish made from thick custard, fruit, sponge cake, fruit juice or gelatin, and whipped cream. These ingredients are usually arranged in layers with fruit and sponge on the bottom, and custard and cream on top....
are served. An accompaniment, custard
Custard
Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on a cooked mixture of milk or cream and egg yolk. Depending on how much egg or thickener is used, custard may vary in consistency from a thin pouring sauce , to a thick pastry cream used to fill éclairs. The most common custards are used as...
, sometimes known as crème anglaise ("English sauce") is a substitute to "eggs and milk" made from cornflour and vanilla. These dishes are simple and traditional. There is also a dried fruit
Dried fruit
Dried fruit is fruit where the majority of the original water content has been removed either naturally, through sun drying, or through the use of specialized dryers or dehydrators. Dried fruit has a long tradition of use dating back to the fourth millennium BC in Mesopotamia, and is prized...
based Christmas pudding
Christmas pudding
Christmas pudding is a pudding traditionally served on Christmas Day . It has its origins in medieval England, and is sometimes known as plum pudding or plum duff, though this can also refer to other kinds of boiled pudding involving dried fruit.-Basics:Many households have their own recipe for...
, and the almond flavoured Bakewell tart
Bakewell tart
The Bakewell Tart, not to be confused with the Bakewell Pudding, is a shortcrust pastry with a layer of jam and a sponge filling with almonds. The Bakewell Pudding on the other hand is a flaky pastry, with a layer of jam and an egg and almond filling. The tart then can be covered with a layer of...
originating from the town of Bakewell
Bakewell
Bakewell is a small market town in the Derbyshire Dales district of Derbyshire, England, deriving its name from 'Beadeca's Well'. It is the only town included in the Peak District National Park, and is well known for the local confection Bakewell Pudding...
. Crystallised Ginger or a Peppermint Sweet might be offered after a heavy meal to aid digestion.
Savoury course
Another English culinary tradition, rarely observed today, is the consumption of a savoury course toward the conclusion of a meal. This now though may be eaten as a snack or a light lunch or supper. Some meals today end with a sweet dessert, although cheese and biscuits may be consumed as an alternative or as an addition. In YorkshireYorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
, fruit cake is often served with Wensleydale cheese. Coffee can sometimes be a culminatory drink.
Tea
Catherine of Braganza
Catherine of Braganza was a Portuguese infanta and queen consort of England, Scotland and Ireland as the wife of King Charles II.She married the king in 1662...
, wife of Charles II, took the tea
Tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...
habit to Great Britain around 1660, subsequently to the introduction of coffee. Initially, its expense restricted it to wealthy consumers, but the price gradually dropped, until the 19th century, when tea became as widely consumed as it is today.
In Britain, tea is usually black tea
Black tea
Black tea is a variety of tea that is more oxidized than the oolong, green, and white varieties.All four varieties are made from leaves of the shrub Camellia sinensis. Black tea is generally stronger in flavor and contains more caffeine than the less oxidized teas. Two principal varieties of the...
served with milk (never cream; the cream of a "cream tea
Cream tea
A cream tea, Devonshire tea, Devon cream tea or Cornish cream tea is tea taken with a combination of scones, clotted cream, and jam....
" is clotted cream served on top of scones then normally strawberry jam on top, a tradition originating from Devon and Cornwall). Strong tea served with lots of milk and often two teaspoon
Teaspoon
A teaspoon, an item of cutlery, is a small spoon, commonly part of a silverware place setting, suitable for stirring and sipping the contents of a cup of tea or coffee...
s of sugar, usually in a mug
Mug
A mug is a sturdily built type of cup often used for drinking hot beverages, such as coffee, tea, or hot chocolate. Mugs, by definition, have handles and often hold a larger amount of fluid than other types of cup. Usually a mug holds approximately 12 fluid ounces of liquid; double a tea cup...
, is commonly referred to as builder's tea. Much of the time in the United Kingdom, tea drinking is not the delicate, refined cultural expression that the rest of the world imagines—a cup
Teacup
A teacup is a small cup, with or without a handle, generally a small one that may be grasped with the thumb and one or two fingers. It is typically made of a ceramic material. It is usually part of a set, composed of a cup and a matching saucer. These in turn may be part of a tea set in...
(or commonly a mug) of tea is something drunk often, with some people drinking six or more cups of tea a day. Employers generally allow breaks for tea and sometimes biscuits to be served. A mug of tea is the standard accompaniment to a meal in an inexpensive unlicensed eatery, such as a café or"caff".
Earl Grey tea
Earl Grey tea
Earl Grey tea is a tea blend with a distinctive flavour and aroma derived from the addition of oil extracted from the rind of the bergamot orange, a fragrant citrus fruit....
is a distinctive variation flavoured with Bergamot
Bergamot orange
Citrus bergamia, the Bergamot orange, is a fragrant fruit the size of an orange, with a yellow colour similar to a lemon. Genetic research into the ancestral origins of extant citrus cultivars recently matched the bergamot as a likely hybrid of Citrus limetta and Citrus aurantium...
. In recent years, herbal teas and speciality teas have also become popular.
Coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
quickly became highly popular by the 18th century.. The coffee houses of London were important literary, commercial and political meeting-places, and in some cases paved the way for the great financial institutions of 19th Century London.
Coffee is now perhaps a little less popular than in continental Europe, but is still drunk by many in both its instant
Instant coffee
Instant coffee, also called soluble coffee and coffee powder, is a beverage derived from brewed coffee beans. Instant coffee is commercially prepared by either freeze-drying or spray drying, after which it can be rehydrated...
and percolated forms, often with milk (but rarely with cream). Italian coffee preparations such as espresso
Espresso
Espresso is a concentrated beverage brewed by forcing a small amount of nearly boiling water under pressure through finely ground coffee. Espresso is widely known throughout the world....
and cappuccino
Cappuccino
A cappuccino is an Italian coffee drink prepared with espresso, hot milk, and steamed-milk foam. The name comes from the Capuchin friars, referring to the colour of their habits.- Definition :...
and modern American variants such as the frappuccino
Frappuccino
Frappuccino is a trademarked line of blended coffee beverages sold by Starbucks. It consists of coffee blended with ice and various other ingredients, usually topped with whipped cream. Frappuccinos are also sold as bottled coffee beverages in stores and from vending machines.-History:Frappuccino...
are increasingly popular, but generally purchased in restaurants or from specialist coffee shops rather than made in the home. White sugar is often added to individual cups of tea, or brown sugar to coffee, but never to the pot.
Other hot drinks
Hot chocolateHot chocolate
Hot chocolate is a heated beverage typically consisting of shaved chocolate, melted chocolate or cocoa powder, heated milk or water, and sugar...
and cocoa
Chocolate
Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...
were promoted by temperance campaigners in the 19th century, and remain fairly popular. The major brands are manufactured by the quaker-founded businesses such as Cadbury's.
They are typically drunk late at night, as are Ovaltine
Ovaltine
Ovaltine is a brand of milk flavoring product made with malt extract , sugar , cocoa, and whey...
and Horlicks
Horlicks
Horlicks is the name of a company and of a malted milk hot drink. It is manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline in the United Kingdom, South Africa, New Zealand, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Jamaica, and under licence in the Philippines and Malaysia....
.
Apple juice in its fresh pressed form, and varying stages of fermentation would be drunk, warmed and spiced in the winter time. Locally growing fruits and berry extract would also be used to flavour water with their juices.
Roast dandelion root and the fresh leaves would be made into teas and tinctures and drunk for good health. Other herbal teas such as rose-hip, raspberry leaf and nettle, amongst others, would also be drunk in this way.
Milk
For much of the 20th century Britain had a system where fresh milk was delivered to the doorstep in reusable glass bottles in the mornings, usually by electric vehicles called "milk floatMilk float
A milk float is a battery electric vehicle , specifically designed for the delivery of fresh milk. They were once common in many European countries, particularly the United Kingdom, and were operated by local dairies...
s", though it has now been largely replaced by supermarket shopping. Some areas of the country still, however, enjoy door to door fresh milk to this day.
Other soft drinks
Dandelion and BurdockDandelion and burdock
Dandelion and burdock is a traditional British soft drink, drunk in the British Isles since about 1265. Traditionally it is made from fermented dandelion and burdock roots, and is naturally fizzy.- History :...
was originally a lightly fermented beverage similar to root beer
Root beer
Root beer is a carbonated, sweetened beverage, originally made using the root of a sassafras plant as the primary flavor. Root beer, popularized in North America, comes in two forms: alcoholic and soft drink. The historical root beer was analogous to small beer in that the process provided a drink...
. Later versions more artificially made and were alcohol free. Soft ginger beer
Ginger beer
Ginger beer is a carbonated drink that is flavored primarily with ginger and sweetened with sugar or artificial sweeteners.-History:Brewed ginger beer originated in England in the mid-18th century and became popular in Britain, the United States, and Canada, reaching a peak of popularity in the...
was popular from the late 19th to mid 20th century. Tizer
Tizer
Tizer is a red-coloured soft drink sold in the United Kingdom. The name originally comes from the phrase 'Tizer the Appetizer'. It was launched in 1924 by Fred Pickup of Manchester when it was known as 'Pickup's Appetizer'. After the death of Pickup it was owned by the Armour Trust before being...
and Lucozade
Lucozade
Lucozade is an umbrella name for a 6 series of energy and sports drinks, produced by GlaxoSmithKline in Gloucestershire. The former company became part of Beecham and, after the mergers of SmithKline and Beecham in 2000, GlaxoSmithKline....
are British carbonated drinks, the latter marketed as an energy drink. Lemonade
Lemonade
Lemonade is a lemon-flavored drink, typically made from lemons, water and sugar.The term can refer to three different types of beverage:...
generally refers to a clear, fizzy beverage in the UK. International brands of cola
Cola
Cola is a carbonated beverage that was typically flavored by the kola nut as well as vanilla and other flavorings, however, some colas are now flavored artificially. It became popular worldwide after druggist John Pemberton invented Coca-Cola in 1886...
and energy drinks have become popular since the late 20th century.
Barley water
Barley water
Barley water, usually flavoured with lemon or other fruit, is a traditional British soft drink. It is made by boiling washed pearl barley, straining, then pouring the hot water over the rind and/or pulp of the fruit, and adding fruit juice and sugar to taste. The rind may also be boiled with the...
, usually flavoured with lemon
Lemon
The lemon is both a small evergreen tree native to Asia, and the tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit. The fruit is used for culinary and non-culinary purposes throughout the world – primarily for its juice, though the pulp and rind are also used, mainly in cooking and baking...
or other fruit, is a traditional British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
soft drink
Soft drink
A soft drink is a non-alcoholic beverage that typically contains water , a sweetener, and a flavoring agent...
. It is made by boiling washed pearl barley
Pearl barley
Pearl barley is barley processed to remove its hull and bran. Barley must have its fibrous outer hull removed before it can be eaten; pearl barley is taken a step further, polished to remove the nutritious bran layer....
, straining, then pouring the hot water over the rind and/or pulp of the fruit, and adding fruit juice and sugar to taste, although ready-made versions are usually consumed.
Squash
Squash (drink)
Squash is a non-alcoholic concentrated syrup that is usually fruit-flavoured and usually made from fruit juice, water, and sugar or a sugar substitute. Modern squashes may also contain food colouring and additional flavouring...
es and cordial
Elderflower cordial
Elderflower cordial is a soft drink made largely from a refined sugar and water solution and uses the flowers of the elderberry, also called the sambucus nigra...
s are a alternative to carbonated beverages. They are a non-alcoholic concentrated
Concentrate
A concentrate is a form of substance which has had the majority of its base component removed. Typically this will be the removal of water from a solution or suspension such as the removal of water from fruit juice...
syrup
Syrup
In cooking, a syrup is a thick, viscous liquid consisting primarily of a solution of sugar in water, containing a large amount of dissolved sugars but showing little tendency to deposit crystals...
that is usually fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
-flavoured and usually made from fruit juice
Juice
Juice is the liquid that is naturally contained in fruit or vegetable tissue.Juice is prepared by mechanically squeezing or macerating fruit or vegetable flesh without the application of heat or solvents. For example, orange juice is the liquid extract of the fruit of the orange tree...
, water, and sugar
Sugar
Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...
, which needs to be "diluted to taste" before drinking. Some traditional cordials also contain herbal extract
Herbal extract
Tincture is a liquid solution of herbs and a fluid menstruum, usually ethanol. The dried or fresh herbs are combined with alcohol, then the solid matter is removed leaving only the oils of the herbs mixed with the alcohol...
s, most notably elderflower and ginger
Ginger
Ginger is the rhizome of the plant Zingiber officinale, consumed as a delicacy, medicine, or spice. It lends its name to its genus and family . Other notable members of this plant family are turmeric, cardamom, and galangal....
.
Beer and cider
Ale
Ale is a type of beer brewed from malted barley using a warm fermentation with a strain of brewers' yeast. The yeast will ferment the beer quickly, giving it a sweet, full bodied and fruity taste...
(cask conditioned beer) is still a major part of the market. Lager
Lager
Lager is a type of beer made from malted barley that is brewed and stored at low temperatures. There are many types of lager; pale lager is the most widely-consumed and commercially available style of beer in the world; Pilsner, Bock, Dortmunder Export and Märzen are all styles of lager...
or Pilsener
Pilsener
Pilsner is a type of pale lager. It takes its name from the city of Pilsen , Bohemia, in today's Czech Republic, where it has been developed since 1842, when a bottom-fermented beer was first produced. The original Pilsner Urquell beer is produced there today.-Origin:Until the mid-1840s, most ...
style beer has increased considerably in popularity since the mid 20th century, and is often used as an accompaniment to spicy ethnic food. Any kind of beer may accompany a meal in a pub. English beer cookery includes steak and ale pie and beer-battered fish and chips.
Stout
Stout
Stout is a dark beer made using roasted malt or barley, hops, water and yeast. Stouts were traditionally the generic term for the strongest or stoutest porters, typically 7% or 8%, produced by a brewery....
is a globally known style of beer which originated in England, although it came to be associated
with Ireland. It has a culinary association with oysters; they can be used to flavour stout, or it can be drunk with them.
In Britain, "cider
Cider
Cider or cyder is a fermented alcoholic beverage made from apple juice. Cider varies in alcohol content from 2% abv to 8.5% abv or more in traditional English ciders. In some regions, such as Germany and America, cider may be termed "apple wine"...
" always means an alcoholic drink of fermented apple juice. Technically, it is a member of the wine family, but it is always served by the pint or half pint like beer. It is traditionally associated with certain regions, such as the South West
South West England
South West England is one of the regions of England defined by the Government of the United Kingdom for statistical and other purposes. It is the largest such region in area, covering and comprising Bristol, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire, Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. ...
, Worcestershire
Worcestershire
Worcestershire is a non-metropolitan county, established in antiquity, located in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region...
and Herefordshire
Herefordshire
Herefordshire is a historic and ceremonial county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire" NUTS 2 region. It also forms a unitary district known as the...
, but commercial brands are available nationwide. The cloudy, unfiltered version is called scrumpy
Scrumpy
Scrumpy is a term often used for strong ciders made in West Country of England. The term is especially used to distinguish those made locally in smaller quantities and using traditional methods from mass produced branded ciders....
, and the related beverage made from pear
Pear
The pear is any of several tree species of genus Pyrus and also the name of the pomaceous fruit of these trees. Several species of pear are valued by humans for their edible fruit, but the fruit of other species is small, hard, and astringent....
s, is called perry
Perry
Perry is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented pears. Perry has been common for centuries in Britain, particularly in the Three Counties of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire, and in parts of south Wales; and France, especially Normandy and Anjou.In more recent years, commercial...
. In England it is sometimes distilled into apple brandy, but this is not as widespread as with Calvados
Calvados
The French department of Calvados is part of the region of Basse-Normandie in Normandy. It takes its name from a cluster of rocks off the English Channel coast...
in France. Culinarily, cider is sometimes used in pork or rabbit
Rabbit
Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world...
dishes.
Wine and mead
WineWine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
often accompanies formal meals. It was introduced to England, for both production and consumption, by the Romans
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
. Wine has been imported ever since, although it has not always been accessible to the average person.
From the Middle Ages, the English market was the main customer of claret
Claret
Claret is a name primarily used in British English for red wine from the Bordeaux region of France.-Usage:Claret derives from the French clairet, a now uncommon dark rosé and the most common wine exported from Bordeaux until the 18th century...
s from Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
, France, helped by the Plantagenet kingdom, which included England and large provinces in France. In the 18th century, the Methuen Treaty
Methuen Treaty
The Methuen Treaty was an offensive military and commercial treaty between Portugal and England signed in 1703 as part of the War of the Spanish Succession....
of 1703 imposed high duties on French wine. This led to the English becoming a main consumer of sweet fortified wine
Fortified wine
Fortified wine is wine to which a distilled beverage has been added. Fortified wine is distinguished from spirits made from wine in that spirits are produced by means of distillation, while fortified wine is simply wine that has had a spirit added to it...
s like sherry
Sherry
Sherry is a fortified wine made from white grapes that are grown near the town of Jerez , Spain. In Spanish, it is called vino de Jerez....
, port wine
Port wine
Port wine is a Portuguese fortified wine produced exclusively in the Douro Valley in the northern provinces of Portugal. It is typically a sweet, red wine, often served as a dessert wine, and comes in dry, semi-dry, and white varieties...
, and Madeira wine
Madeira wine
Madeira is a fortified Portuguese wine made in the Madeira Islands. Some wines produced in small quantities in California and Texas are also referred to as "Madeira", or "Madera", although those wines do not conform to the EU PDO regulations...
from Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
. Fortified wine became popular because unlike regular wine, it does not spoil after the long journey from Portugal to England. Fortified wines are used in dessert cookery, for instance sherry features as an ingredient in trifle
Trifle
Trifle is a dessert dish made from thick custard, fruit, sponge cake, fruit juice or gelatin, and whipped cream. These ingredients are usually arranged in layers with fruit and sponge on the bottom, and custard and cream on top....
.
By the late, 20th century wines from around the world were available to the mass market. Viticulture was restarted in the 1970s after a very long break. England is currently a major consumer, but only a very minor producer of wine, with English and Welsh wine sales combined accounting for just 1% of the domestic market.
Another form of domestic wine production is "country wines" or "fruit wine
Fruit wine
Fruit wines are fermented alcoholic beverages made from a variety of base ingredients ; they may also have additional flavours taken from fruits, flowers, and herbs. This definition is sometimes broadened to include any fermented alcoholic beverage except beer...
s", which are made from wide variety of fruit and vegetables — elderberry
Elderberry
Sambucus is a genus of between 5 and 30 species of shrubs or small trees in the moschatel family, Adoxaceae. It was formerly placed in the honeysuckle family, Caprifoliaceae, but was reclassified due to genetic evidence...
, damson
Damson
The damson or damson plum is an edible drupaceous fruit, a subspecies of the plum tree. Sometimes called the Damask plum, damsons are commonly used in the preparation of jams and jellies...
, parsnip
Parsnip
The parsnip is a root vegetable related to the carrot. Parsnips resemble carrots, but are paler than most carrots and have a sweeter taste, especially when cooked. The buttery, slightly spicy, sweet flavor of cooked mature parsnips is reminiscent of butterscotch, honey, and subtle cardamom...
and so on — other than grapes. Commercial varieties are available, but country wines are also often home-made, sometimes from garden produce or personally harvested wild fruit.
Mead
Mead
Mead , also called honey wine, is an alcoholic beverage that is produced by fermenting a solution of honey and water. It may also be produced by fermenting a solution of water and honey with grain mash, which is strained immediately after fermentation...
, fermented honey, was popular in the middle ages, but is now a curiosity.
Spirits
Although ginGin
Gin is a spirit which derives its predominant flavour from juniper berries . Although several different styles of gin have existed since its origins, it is broadly differentiated into two basic legal categories...
itself is not a British invention, its most popular style, London Dry Gin was developed in England. Gin and tonic
Gin and tonic
A gin and tonic is a highball cocktail made with gin and tonic water poured over ice. It is usually garnished with a slice or wedge of lime, or lemon. The amount of gin varies according to taste...
has historical roots going back to the British empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
, since the tonic was originally quinine
Quinine
Quinine is a natural white crystalline alkaloid having antipyretic , antimalarial, analgesic , anti-inflammatory properties and a bitter taste. It is a stereoisomer of quinidine which, unlike quinine, is an anti-arrhythmic...
taken to combat malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
in tropical climate
Tropical climate
A tropical climate is a climate of the tropics. In the Köppen climate classification it is a non-arid climate in which all twelve months have mean temperatures above...
s. Rum
Rum
Rum is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from sugarcane by-products such as molasses, or directly from sugarcane juice, by a process of fermentation and distillation. The distillate, a clear liquid, is then usually aged in oak barrels...
likewise has historic associations for the English.
Whisky
Whisky
Whisky or whiskey is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Different grains are used for different varieties, including barley, malted barley, rye, malted rye, wheat, and corn...
production in modern England re-started in Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
in late 2006, and the first resulting single malt whisky was made available to the public in November 2009. This was the first English single malt in over 100 years. It was produced at St George's Distillery by the English Whisky Company. Previously Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
and Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
were centres of English whisky production.
Mixed drinks
Mixed drink
A mixed drink is a beverage in which two or more ingredients are mixed. Some mixed drinks are alcoholic beverages that contain liquor; others are non-alcoholic.-Types:Some popular types of mixed drinks are:...
known as punch
Punch (drink)
Punch is the term for a wide assortment of drinks, both non-alcoholic and alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice. The drink was introduced from India to England in the early seventeenth century; from there its use spread to other countries...
. It is typically made of water, fruit,fruit juice and spirits and served in a large bowl. Pimms is a company which has been selling ready-mixed drinks for well over a century. Pimm's associated with the British summertime and events such as Wimbledon
The Championships, Wimbledon
The Championships, Wimbledon, or simply Wimbledon , is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, considered by many to be the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London since 1877. It is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, the other three Majors...
, the Henley Royal Regatta
Henley Royal Regatta
Henley Royal Regatta is a rowing event held every year on the River Thames by the town of Henley-on-Thames, England. The Royal Regatta is sometimes referred to as Henley Regatta, its original name pre-dating Royal patronage...
, and the Glyndebourne
Glyndebourne
Glyndebourne is a country house, thought to be about six hundred years old, located near Lewes in East Sussex, England. It is also the site of an opera house which, with the exception of its closing during the Second World War, for a few immediate post-war years, and in 1993 during the...
opera festival. It is often used as the basis of further mixtures including fruit, lemonade, etc.
Mixed drinks can also be based on beer (Lamb's wool) and cider (wassail
Wassail
The word Wassail refers to several related traditions; first and foremost wassailing is an ancient southern English tradition that is performed with the intention of ensuring a good crop of cider apples for the next year's harvest...
).
Indian and Anglo-Indian cuisine
Indian cuisine
Indian cuisine consists of thousands of regional cuisines which date back thousands of years. The dishes of India are characterised by the extensive use of various Indian spices, herbs, vegetables and fruit. Indian cuisine is also known for the widespread practice of vegetarianism in Indian society...
is the most popular alternative to traditional cooking in Britain, followed by Chinese
Chinese cuisine
Chinese cuisine is any of several styles originating in the regions of China, some of which have become highly popular in other parts of the world – from Asia to the Americas, Australia, Western Europe and Southern Africa...
and Italian cuisine
Italian cuisine
Italian cuisine has developed through centuries of social and political changes, with roots as far back as the 4th century BCE. Italian cuisine in itself takes heavy influences, including Etruscan, ancient Greek, ancient Roman, Byzantine, Jewish and Arab cuisines...
food. The chicken tikka masala is now considered one of Britain's most popular dishes.
Indian food was served in coffee houses from 1809, and cooked at home from a similar date as Mrs Beeton
Mrs Beeton
Isabella Mary Beeton , universally known as Mrs Beeton, was the English author of Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, and is one of the most famous cookery writers.-Background:...
's cookbook attests. There was a sharp increase in the number of curry houses in the 1940s and again in the 1970s.
In the Victorian era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
, during the British Raj
British Raj
British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...
, Britain first started borrowing Indian dishes, creating Anglo-Indian cuisine
Anglo-Indian cuisine
Anglo-Indian cuisine is the often distinct cuisine of the Anglo-Indian community in both Britain and India, as well as in America and Australia....
. Kedgeree
Kedgeree
Kedgeree is a dish consisting of cooked, flaked fish , boiled rice, parsley, hard-boiled eggs, curry powder, butter or cream and occasionally sultanas.Kedgeree is thought to have originated with an Indian rice-and-bean or rice-and-lentil dish Khichri, traced back to 1340 or...
and Mulligatawny soup are traditional Anglo-Indian dishes. The word curry, meaning 'gravy', has been used since the medieval period.
Anglo-Indian fusion food continued to develop with chicken tikka masala
Chicken Tikka Masala
Chicken tikka masala is a curry dish of roasted chicken chunks in a spicy sauce. The sauce is usually creamy, spiced and orange-coloured...
in the 1960s and Balti
Balti (food)
A Balti is a British-style type of curry cooked and served up in a thin, pressed steel wok-like pan. It is served in many restaurants in the United Kingdom...
in the 1980s, although some claim the latter has roots in the subcontinent.
Home-cooked curries by ethnically English people are often based on ready made curry powder
Curry powder
Curry powder is a mixture of spices of widely varying composition based on South Asian cuisine. Curry powder, and the contemporary English use of the word curry are Western inventions and do not reflect any specific Indian food, though a similar mixture of spices used in north India is called...
s sauces or pastes, with only a minority grinding and mixing their own spice masala
Masala
Masala or massala is a term used in South Asian cuisines to mostly describe a mixture of spices. A masala can either be a combination of dried spices, or a paste made from a mixture of spices and other ingredients—often garlic, ginger, onions and chilli paste...
s. The highly successful Patak's
Patak's
Patak's is a brand of curry pastes and spices now owned by Associated British Foods.The company supplies 75% of British curry houses with sauces and mixed spices, and sells ready meals to all the major UK supermarkets and other major retailers throughout Europe and North America...
brand defines the taste of curry for many. Curries are sometimes home-cooked to use up leftovers.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Food Standards Agency
Food Standards Agency
The Food Standards Agency is a non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for protecting public health in relation to food throughout the United Kingdom and is led by a board appointed to act in the public interest...
, the Indian food industry in the United Kingdom is worth £3.2 billion, accounts for two-thirds of all eating out, and serves about 2.5 million British customers every week. Pat Chapman
Pat Chapman
Patrick Lawrence Chapman is an English food writer, broadcaster and author, best known for founding The Curry Club.-Early days:Chapman was born in London during the Blitz...
's Curry Club has a membership of several thousand.
Indian restaurants typically allow the diner to combine a number of base ingredients — chicken, prawns or "meat" (lamb or mutton) — with a number of curry sauces — from the mild korma
Korma
Korma is a dish originating in South Asia or Central Asia which can be made with yoghurt, cream, nut and seed pastes or coconut milk; it is usually considered a type of curry...
to the scorching phall
Phall
Phall is a British Asian Indian curry dish, which originated in Indian restaurants in the UK, and is not to be confused with the char-grilled, gravyless, finger food phall from Bangalore...
— without regard to the authenticity of the combination. The reference point for flavour and spice heat is the Madras curry sauce (the name represents the area of India where restauranteurs obtained their spices rather than an actual dish). Other sauces are either prepared from scratch, or are variations on a basic curry sauce: for instance, vindaloo
Vindaloo
Vindaloo is an Indian curry dish from the region of Goa. It is popular globally in its Anglo-Indian form as a staple of curry house menus, often renowned as a particularly spicy dish, though it is not necessarily always the hottest available. The name Vindaloo is derived from the Portuguese dish...
is often rendered as lamb in a Madras sauce with extra chilli, rather than the original pork
Pork
Pork is the culinary name for meat from the domestic pig , which is eaten in many countries. It is one of the most commonly consumed meats worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BC....
marinated in wine vinegar and garlic
Garlic
Allium sativum, commonly known as garlic, is a species in the onion genus, Allium. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, and rakkyo. Dating back over 6,000 years, garlic is native to central Asia, and has long been a staple in the Mediterranean region, as well as a frequent...
.
In addition to curries. all restaurants offer "dry" tandoori and tikka
Tikka (food)
Tikka is a type of Indian and Pakistani food.-Food:The word that is pronounced in Hindi and Urdu refers to a piece of meat, such as a cutlet, and the popular dish chicken tikka is made of chicken cutlets in a marinade. A westernised version, chicken tikka masala, a curry, is a widely popular...
dishes of marinated meat or fish cooked in a special oven, and biriani dishes, where the meat and rice are mixzed together. Samosa
Samosa
A samosa is a stuffed, deep fried,snack that is very popular in the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, Central Asia and Southwest Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, the Mediterranean, the Horn of Africa, North Africa and South Africa...
s, Bhajis
Pakora
Pakora is a fried snack found across South Asia. Pakoras are created by taking one or two ingredients such as onion, eggplant, potato, spinach, plantain, cauliflower, tomato, chilli, or occasionally bread or chicken and dipping them in a batter of gram flour and then deep-frying them...
and small kebab
Kebab
Kebab is a wide variety of meat dishes originating in Middle East and later on adopted by the Middle East, and Asia Minor, and now found worldwide. In English, kebab with no qualification generally refers more specifically to shish kebab served on the skewer...
s are served as starters, or can be eaten by themselves as snacks.
English diners usually accompany their meals with basmati rice, bread being sometimes ordered in addition, and eat with spoon
Spoon
A spoon is a utensil consisting of a small shallow bowl, oval or round, at the end of a handle. A type of cutlery , especially as part of a place setting, it is used primarily for serving. Spoons are also used in food preparation to measure, mix, stir and toss ingredients...
and fork
Fork
As a piece of cutlery or kitchenware, a fork is a tool consisting of a handle with several narrow tines on one end. The fork, as an eating utensil, has been a feature primarily of the West, whereas in East Asia chopsticks have been more prevalent...
. India's well-developed vegetarian cuisine is sketchily represented outside specialist restaurants.
In recent years, some Indian restaurants have started aiming higher than the norm for ethnic food, two of them garnering Michelin stars in the process.
Other ethnic cuisine
Chinese food is well established in England, with large cities often having a Chinatown district. Predominantly derived from Cantonese cuisineCantonese cuisine
Cantonese cuisine comes from Guangdong Province in southern China and is one of 8 superdivisions of Chinese cuisine. Its prominence outside China is due to the great numbers of early emigrants from Guangdong. Cantonese chefs are highly sought after throughout the country...
, it may be so adapted to Western tastes that Chinese customers may be offered an entirely separate menu. Spare ribs in OK sauce
OK Sauce
-Early history:It was first made in a factory called the Chelsea Works in London.In 1928 production was transferred to a purpose built factory at 265 Merton Road , Southfields in the London Borough of Wandsworth. The company's official title was George mason & Co Ltd...
is an example of crossover cuisine. Other East Asian cuisines,such as Thai, Indonesian and Vietnamese are catching up in popularity.
Italian cuisine
Italian cuisine
Italian cuisine has developed through centuries of social and political changes, with roots as far back as the 4th century BCE. Italian cuisine in itself takes heavy influences, including Etruscan, ancient Greek, ancient Roman, Byzantine, Jewish and Arab cuisines...
is the most popular form of mediterranean food, vying with Chinese and Indian food as the most popular ethnic food. Greek and Spanish
Spanish cuisine
Spanish cuisine consists of a variety of dishes, which stem from differences in geography, culture and climate. It is heavily influenced by seafood available from the waters that surround the country, and reflects the country's deep maritime roots...
restaurants are well established. Turkish
Turkish cuisine
Turkish cuisine is largely the heritage of Ottoman cuisine, which can be described as a fusion and refinement of Central Asian, Middle Eastern and Balkan cuisines. Turkish cuisine has in turn influenced those and other neighbouring cuisines, including that of western Europe...
tends to be associated with the take-away sector in particular late night kebab shops. Whilst Middle Eastern cooking in particular Lebanese has grown in popularity from its traditional enclaves in London.
Apart from beefburgers and hotdogs
Hot dog
A hot dog is a sausage served in a sliced bun. It is very often garnished with mustard, ketchup, onions, mayonnaise, relish and/or sauerkraut.-History:...
, food from the Americas tends to be represented by Mexican
Mexican cuisine
Mexican cuisine, a style of food that originates in Mexico, is known for its varied flavors, colourful decoration and variety of spices and ingredients, most of which are native to the country. The cuisine of Mexico has evolved through thousands of years of blending indigenous cultures, with later...
or Tex-mex cuisine
Tex-Mex cuisine
"Tex-Mex" is a term used to describe a regional American cuisine that blends food products available in the United States and the culinary creations of Mexican-Americans influenced by the cuisines of Mexico. The cuisine has spread from border states such as Texas and those in the Southwestern...
, although there a few Creole and South American
Latin American cuisine
Latin American Cuisine refers to typical foods, beverages, and cooking styles common to many of the countries and cultures in Latin America...
restaurants.
Caribbean
Caribbean cuisine
Caribbean cuisine is a fusion of African, Amerindian, British, Spanish, French, Dutch, Indian, and Chinese cuisine. These traditions were brought from the many homelands of this region's population...
and Jewish cuisine
Jewish cuisine
Jewish Cuisine is a collection of the different cooking traditions of the Jewish people worldwide. It is a diverse cuisine that has evolved over many centuries, shaped by Jewish dietary laws and Jewish Festival and Sabbath traditions...
can usually only be found where there is a concentration of the community in question.
In England French cuisine
French cuisine
French cuisine is a style of food preparation originating from France that has developed from centuries of social change. In the Middle Ages, Guillaume Tirel , a court chef, authored Le Viandier, one of the earliest recipe collections of Medieval France...
stands somewhat apart from other generally less expensive cuisine, although there are some inexpensive French bistros.
International reputation
English cuisine may suffer from a relatively poor international reputation when compared to that of Italian cuisineItalian cuisine
Italian cuisine has developed through centuries of social and political changes, with roots as far back as the 4th century BCE. Italian cuisine in itself takes heavy influences, including Etruscan, ancient Greek, ancient Roman, Byzantine, Jewish and Arab cuisines...
or French cuisine
French cuisine
French cuisine is a style of food preparation originating from France that has developed from centuries of social change. In the Middle Ages, Guillaume Tirel , a court chef, authored Le Viandier, one of the earliest recipe collections of Medieval France...
. However, for many English people this perception seems outdated, for the poor reputation of industrially produced urban food in the twentieth century did not ever really represent the quality of food cooked in the home. Traditional English food, with its emphasis on 'meat-and-two-veg' falls squarely into the north European tradition extending from Northern Germany to the Low Countries and Scandinavia, albeit with a French influence.
During the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
and Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
, English cuisine enjoyed an excellent reputation; its decline can be traced back to the move away from the land and increasing urbanisation of the populace during the Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
. During this process Britain became a net importer of food. British food also suffered heavily from effects of rationing
Rationing in the United Kingdom during and after World War II
Rationing in the United Kingdom refers to rationing introduced by the government of the United Kingdom several times during the 20th century, mostly during and immediately after war....
during two World Wars (food rationing finally ended in 1954), followed by the increasing trend toward industrialised mass production of food. However, in Britain today there is a renewed fascination with the culture of food popularly led by celebrity chef
Celebrity chef
A celebrity chef is a kitchen chef who has become famous and well known. Today celebrity chefs often become celebrities by presenting cookery advice and demonstrations via mass media, especially television. Historically, celebrity chefs have included Antoine Carême and Martino da Como.-External...
s who seek to raise the standard of food understanding in the UK.
In 2005, 600 food critics writing for (British) Restaurant
Restaurant (magazine)
Restaurant is a British magazine aimed at chefs, restaurant proprietors and other catering professionals that concentrates on the fine dining end of the industry. It produces an annual list of what it considers to be the best 50 restaurants, based on the votes of 600 "chefs, restaurateurs, critics...
magazine named 14 British restaurants among the 50 best restaurants in the world with the number one spot going to The Fat Duck
The Fat Duck
The Fat Duck is a restaurant run by chef Heston Blumenthal in Bray, Berkshire, England. The restaurant is known for its menu of unusual dishes, created following the principles of molecular gastronomy examples include: "snail porridge", "sardine on toast sorbet", "bacon and egg ice cream", and...
in Bray, Berkshire
Bray, Berkshire
Bray, sometimes known as Bray on Thames, is a village and civil parish in the English county of Berkshire. It stands on the banks of the River Thames, just south-east of Maidenhead. It is famous as the village mentioned in the song The Vicar of Bray...
and its chef Heston Blumenthal
Heston Blumenthal
Heston Marc Blumenthal OBE is an English chef and owner of The Fat Duck, a three-Michelin-starred restaurant in Bray, Berkshire voted Best Restaurant in the UK by The Good Food Guide 2007 and 2009, and voted best restaurant in the world by Restaurant magazine in 2005...
. In particular, the global reach of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
has elevated it to the status of a leading centre of international cuisine. Meanwhile the heavy promotion of gastronomy
Gastronomy
Gastronomy is the art or science of food eating. Also, it can be defined as the study of food and culture, with a particular focus on gourmet cuisine...
as a post-industrial economic solution has led to a proliferation of very fine quality producers across the country.
Vegetarianism
Since the end of World War II when their numbers were around 100,000, increasing numbers of the British population have adopted vegetarianismVegetarianism
Vegetarianism encompasses the practice of following plant-based diets , with or without the inclusion of dairy products or eggs, and with the exclusion of meat...
, especially since the BSE
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy , commonly known as mad-cow disease, is a fatal neurodegenerative disease in cattle that causes a spongy degeneration in the brain and spinal cord. BSE has a long incubation period, about 30 months to 8 years, usually affecting adult cattle at a peak age onset of...
crisis of the 1990s. it was estimated that there were between 3 and 4 million vegetarians in the UK, one of the highest percentages in the Western world, and around 7 million people claim to eat no red meat
Red meat
Red meat in traditional culinary terminology is meat which is red when raw and not white when cooked. In the nutritional sciences, red meat includes all mammal meat. Red meat includes the meat of most adult mammals and some fowl ....
. The majority of restaurants will have at least one vegetarian meal on the menu.
English food writers and chefs: a selection
Examples of English cuisine
For more complete lists, see the British section of the List of recipes. For traditional foods with Protected Geographical StatusProtected Geographical Status
Protected Geographical Status is a legal framework defined in European Union law to protect the names of regional foods. Protected Designation of Origin , Protected Geographical Indication and Traditional Speciality Guaranteed are distinct regimes of geographical indications within the framework...
under European law, see List of United Kingdom food and drink products with protected status.
Savoury dishes
Sweet dishes
Other specialities
Meals
breakfastBreakfast
Breakfast is the first meal taken after rising from a night's sleep, most often eaten in the early morning before undertaking the day's work...
, elevenses
Elevenses
In the United Kingdom, Ireland and some Commonwealth realms, elevenses is a snack that is similar to afternoon tea, but eaten in the morning. It is generally less savoury than brunch, and might consist of some cake or biscuits with a cup of coffee or tea. The name refers to the time of day that it...
, brunch
Brunch
Brunch is a meal eaten between breakfast and lunch. The word is a portmanteau of breakfast and lunch.-Origin of the word:The 1896 supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary cites Punch magazine which wrote that the term was coined in Britain in 1895 to describe a Sunday meal for "Saturday-night...
, lunch, dinner, supper
Supper
Supper is the name for the evening meal in some dialects of English - ordinarily the last meal of the day. Originally, in the Middle Ages, it referred to the lighter meal following dinner, where until the 18th century dinner was invariably eaten as the midday meal.The term is derived from the...
, dessert
Dessert
In cultures around the world, dessert is a course that typically comes at the end of a meal, usually consisting of sweet food. The word comes from the French language as dessert and this from Old French desservir, "to clear the table" and "to serve." Common Western desserts include cakes, biscuits,...
, tea
Tea (meal)
Tea can refer to any of several different meals or mealtimes, depending on a country's customs and its history of drinking tea. However, in those countries where the term's use is common, the influences are generally those of the former British Empire...
Dates of introduction of various foodstuffs and methods to Britain
See Dates of introduction of various foodstuffs and methods to BritainSee also
- British cuisineBritish cuisineEnglish cuisine encompasses the cooking styles, traditions and recipes associated with England. It has distinctive attributes of its own, but also shares much with wider British cuisine, largely due to the importation of ingredients and ideas from places such as North America, China, and India...
- Welsh cuisineWelsh cuisineWelsh cuisine is the cuisine of Wales. It has influenced, and been influenced by, other British cuisine. Beef and dairy cattle are raised widely. Sheep farming is extensive in the country and lamb is the meat traditionally associated with Welsh cooking, particularly in dishes such as roast lamb...
- Irish cuisineIrish cuisineIrish cuisine is a style of cooking originating from Ireland or developed by Irish people. It evolved from centuries of social and political change. The cuisine takes its influence from the crops grown and animals farmed in its temperate climate. The introduction of the potato in the second half of...
- Gibraltarian cuisineGibraltarian cuisineGibraltarian cuisine is the result of a long relationship between the Andalucian Spaniards and the British, as well as the many foreigners who made Gibraltar their home over the past three centuries. The culinary influences include those from Malta, Genoa, Portugal, Andalusia and Britain...
- Anglo-Indian cuisineAnglo-Indian cuisineAnglo-Indian cuisine is the often distinct cuisine of the Anglo-Indian community in both Britain and India, as well as in America and Australia....
- Scottish cuisineScottish cuisineScottish cuisine is the specific set of cooking traditions and practices associated with Scotland. It has distinctive attributes and recipes of its own, but shares much with wider European cuisine as a result of foreign and local influences both ancient and modern...
- Cornish cuisine
Further reading
- Ayrton, Elisabeth (1974) The Cookery of England: being a collection of recipes for traditional dishes of all kinds from the fifteenth century to the present day, with notes on their social and culinary background. London: Andre Deutsch
- Ayrton, Elisabeth (1980) English Provincial Cooking. London: Mitchell Beazley
- Grigson, JaneJane GrigsonJane Grigson was a notable English cookery writer.-Life and writings:...
(1974) English Food. London: Macmillan (With illustrations by Gillian Zeiner; an anthology of English and Welsh recipes of all periods chosen by Jane Grigson, for which she was voted Cookery Writer of the Year. A revised and enlarged edition was published in 1979 (ISBN 0 33326866 0), and later editions were issued by Ebury Press with a foreword by Sophie Grigson)
External links
- Wikibooks: Cookbook: Cuisine of the United Kingdom
- George Orwell: A Nice Cup of Tea
- British Library Food Stories, a century of revolutionary change in UK food culture
- List of Michelin starred restaurants in the UK