BRITISH FOOD

Libuše Rolečková
F 090398

12th August, 2010

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Rolečková Libuše, F090398 Koučování v MMU – Reaálie 1: British Food and Drinks page 2 /13
CONTENT:

1. Introduction
Traditional British cuisine, its background and international reputation
2. Meals and times when served
Breakfast, Full English breakfast
Morning tea (elevenses)
Brunch (bruncheon)
Lunch (luncheon)
Dinner
Desert
Afternoon tea
High tea
Supper
3. Typical British Dishes
Fish and Chips
Sunday Roast
Yorkshire pudding
Sausages
Sandwiches
Pies
Scones, biscuits and cakes, trifle
Christmas pudding
4. Bibliography

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1. Introduction
Traditional English or British cuisine is believed to be dull and tasteless. That is the opinion of many
foreigners. But in fact it is what the other cuisines are - like for example traditional Czech cuisine –
based on ingredients that can be grown domestically. These ingredients are cereals, potatoes,
vegetables, legumes, beef, poultry, mutton or lamb, pork, freshwater fish and sea food at the seaside
parts of Britain.

The British cuisine is also shaped by the climate and the island geography. British wet climate is
ideal for growing the rich grass which is required for dairying and so Britain is also well known as a
dairy country. Milk, butter, cheese and cream are used more in the traditional English cuisine (as well
as in Irish and Scottish one) than in some other countries. Thanks to its rich grass they can quite
easily and successfully breed cows and sheep and so the beef, mutton and lamb are the most
typical meats in the British cuisine.

So why people think that British food is not tasty? It may be that they simply do not knot what British
food is. This may be because there are not many British restaurants in other parts of the world or if
they have already been to the United Kingdom they just haven't tasted good home cooking or the
food in high quality restaurants.

“English cuisine may suffer from a relatively poor international reputation when compared to that of
French or Italian cuisine. However, for many English, this perception seems to be outdated: the poor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.

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 chefs who seek to raising the standard of food understanding in the UK.

In 2005 six hundred food critics writing for (British) Restaurant magazine named fourteen 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.” 1

2. Meals and times when served

1
Spiritus temporis, http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/english-cuisine/reputation-abroad.html, 2005

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Breakfast
The first meal of the day in the morning is breakfast is usually eaten within an hour or two after
a person wakes up in the morning (between 7:00 and 9:00). It usually consists of toast, butter and
jam or marmalade, be a bowl of cereals or porridge, orange juice and tea with milk or coffee.

Full English breakfast

Full English breakfast is also known as a Traditional English breakfast or Fry-up or simply coked
breakfast. You may be offered a cooked breakfast every day if you stay in a hotel, but this is not
normal life. Most British people only eat these foods occasionally, perhaps once a week at weekends
and vacations. Breakfast may begin with orange juice, cereals, stewed or fresh fruits but the heart of
the Full breakfast is bacon and eggs both scrambled or fried or poached. They are variously
accompanied by sausages, grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, toast and marmalade. A Full English
breakfast may also have black pudding, baked beans and fried bread. A cup of tea is a popular and
traditional drink with breakfast, though coffee is also served as well as orange juice.

Elevenses
Many people have a tea-break at about 11:00 in the morning which may be called “Elevenses” or
„Morning Tea“. It is usually not more than a cup of coffee and biscuits.

Brunch

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Brunch is a late-morning meal, a combination of breakfast and lunch. The term is a portmanteau of
BReakfast and LUNCH(eon). Brunch is traditionally served just on Sundays. It is also often served
after a morning event or prior to an afternoon one, such as a wedding or sporting event. Brunch
meals are prepared by restaurants and hotels for special occasions, such as weddings, Valentine's
or Mother’s Day. Such brunches are often serve-yourself buffets, but menu-ordered meals may be
available instead of, or with, the buffet. The meal usually involves standard breakfast foods such as
eggs, sausages, bacon, ham, fruits, pastries, pancakes. However, it can include almost any other
type of food served throughout the day. Buffets may have quiche, large roasts of meat or poultry,
cold seafood like shrimp and smoked fish, salads, soups, vegetable dishes, many types of
breadstuffs, and desserts of all sorts.

Lunch
(Sometimes called more formally luncheon)
It is eaten around the mid-day, usually between 12:00 and 2 p.m. Many children at school and adults
at work will have a 'packed lunch'. This typically consists of a sandwich, a packet of crisps, a piece of
fruit and a drink. The 'packed lunch' is kept in a plastic container.
Many people have a sandwich for lunch or a simple meal such as cheese and biscuits or soup and
bread. It is also traditional for people to go to a pub with some friends for a pub lunch and a drink.

Dinner
Dinner is the main meal of the day, regardless of whether it's at lunchtime or in the evening. Dinner
also refers to the evening meal as a formal meal or just the evening meal. Originally, it referred to the
first meal of the day, eaten about noon, and is still occasionally used in this fashion if it refers to a
large or main meal.
A simple dinner typically consists of meat, fish, poultry or other proteins, served with one or two
vegetables and/or with a grain or cereal product - especially bread, but potatoes, rice and pasta are
also common. Any or all of these components may be served with a hot or cold gravy or sauce.
More elaborate dinners have several courses, for example starting with an appetizer or soup, and
ending with dessert or pudding. The traditional meal is rarely eaten nowadays, apart from on
Sundays. A recent survey found that most people in Britain eat curry! Rice or pasta dishes are now
favoured as the “British Dinner”. But vegetables grown in England, like potatoes, carrots, peas,
cabbages and onions, are still very popular.

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 Shepherd's pie Roast beef, roast potatoes, Fish and chips
green beans and gravy

Dessert
Dessert is typically eaten after dinner as a treat. It may be considered a course within a meal or
a meal itself. Cakes, pastries, fresh fruit, and ice cream are examples of common dessert food.
Other typical British desserts are sweet pies (apple pie, pumpkin pie, cheesecake…), trifle (custard,
sponge and fruit served with whipped cream), brownies, shortbreads…

Apple pie Fruit crumble Trifle Cheescake

and custard

Afternoon tea
Afternoon Tea is a light mid-afternoon meal typically taken between 3 pm and 5 pm. consisting of
light fare such as small sandwiches, individual cakes and scones with tea. Changes in social
customs and working hours mean that most Britons only take afternoon tea on special or formal
occasions, if at all. Many Britons will never have taken afternoon tea, as the tradition is somewhat
out-dated and largely reserved for aristocrats. Traditionally, loose tea is brewed in a teapot and
served in teacups with milk and sugar. This is accompanied by sandwiches (customarily cucumber,
egg and cress, fish paste, ham, and smoked salmon), scones (with clotted cream and jam) and
usually cakes and pastries (such as Battenberg, fruit cake or Victoria sponge). In everyday life, many
British take much simpler refreshment consisting of tea and biscuits.

Cucumber sandwiches Scones Afternoon tea

High tea

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High tea (also known as meat tea is an early evening meal, typically eaten between 5pm and 6pm.
It would substitute for both afternoon tea and the evening meal. It is now largely replaced by a later
evening meal. High tea would usually consist of cold meats, eggs or fish, cakes and sandwiches. In
a family, it tends to be less formal and is an informal snack (featuring sandwiches, biscuits, pastry,
fruit and the like) or else it is the main evening meal.

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.

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3. Traditional or typical English meals and dishes

Sunday Roast Dinner

Sunday lunch time is a typical time to eat the traditional Sunday Roast. Traditionally it consists of
roast meat, (cooked in the oven for about two hours), two different kinds of vegetables (carrot, green peas,
broccoli, Brussels sprouts, green beans) and potatoes with a Yorkshire pudding. The most common
joints are beef, lamb or pork; chicken is also popular

Yorkshire pudding
Yorkshire pudding is a dish that originated in Yorkshire, and has attained wide popularity in Britain. It
is traditionally served with Sunday Roast Dinner and in some parts of Britain also as a separate
course prior to the main meat dish.
Yorkshire pudding is cooked by pouring a thin batter made from flour, butter, milk and seasoning into
a preheated greased baking tin containing very hot fat or oil and baking at very high heat until it has
risen and browned. It is then served in slices or quarters, depending on the size of the tray in which it
was cooked. In recent years, it has become more popular to cook Yorkshire pudding in batches in
bun tins (baked in muffin trays), making individual mini puddings.

Gravy
Gravy is also commonly eaten with pork, chicken, lamb, turkey, beef, meatloaf, Yorkshire pudding,
and stuffing and sandwiches. It is also common with traditional Sunday Roast. Gravy is a sauce
made often from the juices that run naturally from meat or vegetables during cooking. The gravy may
be further coloured and flavoured with gravy salt (a simple mix of salt and caramel food colouring) or
gravy browning (gravy salt dissolved in water) or ready-made cubes and powders can be used as a
substitute for natural meat or vegetable extracts. Canned gravies are also available.

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Fish and Chips
Fish and chips is a popular take-away food which originated in the United Kingdom. It consists
of deep-fried fish (traditionally cod, haddock or flounder) in batter or breadcrumbs with deep-fried
chipped (slab-cut) potatoes. In the United Kingdom, fish and chips became a cheap food popular
among the working classes with the rapid development of trawl fishing in the North Sea in the second
half of the nineteenth century. In UK, salt and vinegar is traditionally sprinkled over fish and chips at
the time it is served (malt vinegar or onion vinegar).
“Fish 'n' chips one of the most popular take-away meals, originated 1858, they were first actually
mentioned in Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities published in 1859 described as "Husky chips of potatoes,
fried with some reluctant drops of oil" . The first Fish and chip shop (or chippy) was opened in London
in 1860 by a Jewish proprietor by the name of Joseph Malin. However, the Chippy’s popularity was
increased when Samuel Isaacs opened his shop in 1986 serving fish & chips, bread & butter and tea
for nine pence and its popularity ensured a rapid expansion of the chain. The dish popularity grew
more as it was one of the few foods in the UK not rationed in WWII. Fish and chips consists of deep-
fried fish usually cod, haddock or flounder in batter or breadcrumbs with deep-fried chips and are
served with a portion of mushy peas, Gross!” 2

Jacket Potatoes
Jacket Potato is a potato baked with its skin. When well cooked, it has a fluffy interior, but a crispy
skin. Jacket Potatoes are usually served with different fillings: Tuna Mayonnaise, Cheese and Bacon,
Prawns with Seafood Sauce, Brie and Red Onion, Chilli and Cheese, Cheese and Coleslaw, etc.
Sometimes a salad is served as a side dish.

Sandwiches
The first written usage of the English word appeared in Edward Gibbon's journal, in longhand,
referring to "bits of cold meat" as a “Sandwich”. It was named after John Montagu, 4th Earl of
Sandwich, an 18th-century English aristocrat, although he was neither the inventor nor sustainer of

2
My Fellow Europeans, http://www.mhchs.org.uk/gideon/Website/England.html, 1992

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the food. It is said that he ordered his valet to bring him meat tucked between two pieces of bread,
and because Montagu also happened to be the Fourth Earl of Sandwich, others began to order "the
same as Sandwich!“.3
It is said that Lord Sandwich was fond of this form of food because it allowed him to continue playing
cards, while eating without getting his cards greasy from eating meat with his bare hands. 4
You can get a wide variety of sandwiches throughout Great Britain. These are some of the typical
English sandwiches: A bacon sandwich is a form of sandwich made from cooked bacon between two
slices of bread, usually buttered. Often some form of sauce, such as tomato ketchup or brown sauce,
is included. Bacon sandwiches are an all-day favourite throughout the United Kingdom.
The traditional cucumber sandwich is composed of paper-thin slices of cucumber placed between
two thin slices of crustless, lightly buttered white bread. A tuna fish sandwich is usually made with
canned tuna mixed with mayonnaise and vegetables, such as chopped celery, pickle, onion, or black
olives. A salmon sandwich can be combined with the cool crunchy slices of cucumber.

Bangers
Bangers are a type of sausage common to the UK. They may sometimes be called British Bangers,
but this is somewhat inaccurate, since the Irish as well as the English enjoy bangers. Bangers are
often an essential part of pub food, as they are quick to prepare. They’re also a frequently prepared
part of dishes made in homes.
Bangers get their name from the sausage’s predilection toward bursting or “banging” open during
high frying temperatures. In fact, to avoid losing some of the sausage, bangers may be boiled first,
and sliced lengthwise prior to frying or grilling.

3
What's Cooking America, Sandwiches, History of Sandwiches. February 2, 2007
4
ibid

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Scones
Scones first showing up in 1513, are small cakes that originate in Scotland, they are made of wheat,
barley/oatmeal. Originally they were made round and flat, and were baked on a griddle and were
made with unleavened oats. Since the invention of baking powder they were baked in ovens and
became much thicker, and had fillings usually consisting of jam and clotted cream

Christmas Dinner
Christmas dinner is usually eaten in the afternoon on Christmas Day (25 th December). The dinner
usually consists of roast turkey (or other types of poultry such as chicken, goose, duck, or pheasant);
mashed potatoes; roast potatoes; vegetables (usually boiled or steamed), particularly Brussels
sprouts; stuffing; cranberry sauce; with dessert of Christmas pudding (or plum pudding) and brandy
butter. A common tradition in the United Kingdom is to use the turkey's wishbone. Two people pull
opposite ends of the wishbone until it breaks, with the person holding the larger fragment of the bone
making a wish.

Christmas pudding
Christmas pudding is the dessert traditionally served on Christmas Day. It has its origins in England,
and is sometimes known as plum pudding, though this can also refer to other kinds of boiled pudding
involving a lot of dried fruit. Christmas pudding is a steamed pudding, heavy with dried fruit and nuts,
and usually made with suet. It is very dark in appearance - effectively black - as a result of the dark
sugars and black treacle in most recipes, and its long cooking time. The mixture can be moistened
with the juice of citrus fruits, brandy and other alcohol.

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4. Bibliography
1) Spiritus temporis, http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/english-cuisine/reputation-abroad.html, 2005
2) My Fellow Europeans, http://www.mhchs.org.uk/gideon/Website/England.html, 1992
3) What's Cooking America, http://whatscookingamerica.net/, History of Sandwiches, 2007
4) UK Students Life, http://www.ukstudentlife.com/Britain/Food/Meals.htm, 2002-2009

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