Ploughman's lunch
Encyclopedia
Snack
A snack is a small portion of food eaten between meals. The food might be snack food—items like potato chips or baby carrots—but could also simply be a smaller amount of any food item.-Snacks and health:...
or meal
Meal
A meal is an instance of eating, specifically one that takes place at a specific time and includes specific, prepared food.Meals occur primarily at homes, restaurants, and cafeterias, but may occur anywhere. Regular meals occur on a daily basis, typically several times a day...
originating in the United Kingdom
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...
, served in pubs, sometimes eaten in a sandwich form, composed of 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....
(usually a thick piece of Cheddar
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....
, Stilton or other local cheese); often cooked 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:...
slices, pickle
Relish
A relish is a cooked, pickled, or chopped vegetable or fruit food item which is typically used as a condiment.In North America, relish commonly alludes to sweet pickle relish-like sauce that often condiments hot dogs, hamburgers and other types of fast food.-Description and ingredients:The item...
(e.g., Branston pickle, called "relish" outside the UK), apple
Apple
The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family . It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits, and the most widely known of the many members of genus Malus that are used by humans. Apple grow on small, deciduous trees that blossom in the spring...
s, 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, salad leaves, 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...
(especially crusty bread, which may be a chunk from a loaf or a cob); and butter
Butter
Butter is a dairy product made by churning fresh or fermented cream or milk. It is generally used as a spread and a condiment, as well as in cooking applications, such as baking, sauce making, and pan frying...
. Other common additions are grapes, celery
Celery
Apium graveolens is a plant species in the family Apiaceae commonly known as celery or celeriac , depending on whether the petioles or roots are eaten: celery refers to the former and celeriac to the latter. Apium graveolens grows to 1 m tall...
and carrot
Carrot
The carrot is a root vegetable, usually orange in colour, though purple, red, white, and yellow varieties exist. It has a crisp texture when fresh...
, pâté
Pâté
Pâté is a mixture of ground meat and fat minced into a spreadable paste. Common additions include vegetables, herbs, spices, and either wine or cognac, armagnac or brandy...
, diced hard boiled egg or beetroot, or in modern versions, crisps
Potato chip
Potato chips are thin slices of potato that are deep fried...
. It is usually served with beer.
The origins of the ploughman's lunch dates back to the 1960s, when the Milk Marketing Board promoted the meal nationally to boost sales of cheese, and is a product of this campaign. A comparable meal, popular prior to World War II, was also known as 'ploughboy's lunch'.
It is a common menu item in English pubs, where it is served with a pint of beer. It is considered a cultural icon
Cultural icon
A cultural icon can be a symbol, logo, picture, name, face, person, building or other image that is readily recognized and generally represents an object or concept with great cultural significance to a wide cultural group...
of England
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...
. The familiarity of the ploughman's lunch has led catering companies to describe a 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...
containing Cheddar cheese, pickle and salad as a "ploughman's sandwich".
Origins and etymology
The Oxford English DictionaryOxford English Dictionary
The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...
(OED) dates this phrase back to at least 1837, in the book Memoirs of the life of Sir Walter Scott by John G. Lockhart
John Gibson Lockhart
John Gibson Lockhart , was a Scottish writer and editor. He is best known as the author of the definitive "Life" of Sir Walter Scott...
, but this stray early use may have meant merely the sum of its parts, "a lunch for a ploughman". Until recently, the OED's next citation was only from 1970, indicating a long period of time when the expression was virtually unknown.
Lexicographer
Lexicography
Lexicography is divided into two related disciplines:*Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries....
Edwin Radford in To Coin a Phrase (1974) attributes the current usage to Richard Trehane, chairman of the English Country Cheese Council. Nigel Rees
Nigel Rees
Nigel Rees is an English author and presenter, best known for devising and hosting the Radio 4 long running panel game Quote.....
also concluded current usage to be 1970s marketing.
In 2005, research by Victoria Coren
Victoria Coren
Victoria Elizabeth Coren is a British writer, presenter and champion poker player. Coren writes weekly columns for The Observer and The Guardian newspapers and hosts the BBC Four television quiz show Only Connect....
and others for the Wordhunt
Wordhunt
Wordhunt was a national appeal run by the Oxford English Dictionary, looking for earlier evidence of the use of 50 words and phrases in the English language. New evidence found by members of the public in response to the appeal appears in the Oxford English Dictionary...
project in conjunction with the first series of Balderdash and Piffle
Balderdash and Piffle
Balderdash and Piffle was a British television programme made by Takeaway Media for the BBC. Presented by Victoria Coren, it was a companion to the Oxford English Dictionary's Wordhunt, in which the writers of the dictionary asked the public for help in finding the origins and first known citations...
on the BBC (first broadcast at the beginning of 2006) traced the origin of the phrase to 1960. The documentary evidence was minutes of meetings of the English Country Cheese Council, and contemporaneous advertising matter. The BBC concluded that "the Ploughman's Lunch was invented as a marketing ploy to sell British cheese in pubs".
It has since been traced back slightly further. An edition of a magazine published by the Brewers' Society called A Monthly Bulletin from July 1956 describes activities of the Cheese Bureau, which it says "exists for the admirable purpose of popularising cheese and, as a corollary, the public house lunch of bread, beer, cheese and pickle. This traditional combination was broken by rationing; the Cheese Bureau hopes, by demonstrating the natural affinity of the two parties, to effect a remarriage". This implies that a "traditional combination" of bread, beer, cheese and pickle was popular before rationing in the United Kingdom (which followed World War II
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...
), albeit without the butter. Author Adrian Bell
Adrian Bell
Adrian Bell was an English journalist and farmer, who was the first compiler of The Times crossword.-Life:The son of a newspaper editor, he was born in London and educated at Uppingham School in Rutland...
at the time said: "There's a pub quite close to where I live where ... all you need say is, 'Ploughboy's Lunch, Harry, please'. And in a matter of minutes a tray is handed across the counter to you on which is a good square hunk of bread, a lump of butter and a wedge of cheese, and pickled onions, along with your pint of beer".
Only one year later, in June 1957, another edition of the same publication referred to a ploughman's lunch using exactly that name, and said that it consisted of "cottage bread, cheese, lettuce, hard-boiled eggs, cold sausages and, of course, beer".
The Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
newspaper The Bulletin from 15 April 1958 and The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
from 29 April 1958 refer to a ploughman's lunch consisting of bread, cheese and pickle.
The 1983 film The Ploughman's Lunch
The Ploughman's Lunch
The Ploughman's Lunch is a 1983 film written by Ian McEwan and directed by Richard Eyre which featuring Jonathan Pryce, Tim Curry and Rosemary Harris.The film looks at the media world in Margaret Thatcher's Britain during the time of the Falklands War...
, from a screenplay by Ian McEwan
Ian McEwan
Ian Russell McEwan CBE, FRSA, FRSL is a British novelist and screenwriter, and one of Britain's most highly regarded writers. In 2008, The Times named him among their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945"....
, has a subtext that is "the way countries and people re-write their own history to suit the needs of the present". The title is a reference to the way the supposed traditional meal was apparently used as way to get people to eat meals in pubs.
In popular culture
In Series 9 of the new format of British motorjournalism show Top Gear the three presenters spend the better part of an agricultural challenge arguing over the contents of a ploughman's. Jeremy ClarksonJeremy Clarkson
Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson is an English broadcaster, journalist and writer who specialises in motoring. He is best known for his role on the BBC TV show Top Gear along with co-presenters Richard Hammond and James May...
demanded stale, day-old bread. James May
James May
James Daniel May is an English television presenter, journalist and writer. He is best known for his role as co-presenter of the award-winning motoring programme Top Gear alongside Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond....
and Richard Hammond
Richard Hammond
Richard Mark Hammond is an English broadcaster, writer, and journalist most noted for co-hosting car programme Top Gear with Jeremy Clarkson and James May, as well as presenting Brainiac: Science Abuse on Sky 1.-Early life:...
argued over the proper cheese for the sandwich, with May objecting to the use of any "poncy" cheeses, and Hammond vociferously defending the working-class origins of Stilton. After being elected to procure lunch for his two comrades, Hammond's pro-Stilton stance appeared to have been verified by a convenience store clerk in nearby Ashwell
Ashwell, Hertfordshire
Ashwell is a village and civil parish situated about four miles north of Baldock in Hertfordshire.It has a wealth of architecture spanning several centuries. The dates almost entirely from the 14th century and is renowned for its ornate church tower which stands at , and is crowned by an...
.
Further reading
- Why Do We Say ...?, Nigel ReesNigel ReesNigel Rees is an English author and presenter, best known for devising and hosting the Radio 4 long running panel game Quote.....
, 1987, ISBN 0-7137-1944-3.