< Up Britain / Food / Products

Types of British food

     
Sections: Introduction
  Dairy products
  Cereals
  Meat, fish and game
  Vegetables and salads
  Herbs and condiments
  Puddings and fruits
  Sweets and snacks
  Cooking ingredients
  Links
   
Related pages: Teatime
A guide to British pubs: Britain/Food/Pubs
  Go back to main Food page: Britain/Food

INTRODUCTION

See how many of the foods shown on this page you can try while you are in the UK.
When you are travelling, visit the local shops and try their specialities.

There are many interesting places to visit if you are interested in British food and drink,
for example: farms, cheese producers, sweet factories, beer or cider manufacturers,
whisky distilleries. Contact the Tourist Authority in the region which you want to visit
and ask them about what is available (for contact details, see: Travel/UK).

You can taste fresh local products by visiting farmers markets: these are run by local
producers who are selling directly. To find the locations and times of these markets, see:
http://www.farmersmarkets.net/visit.

If you are not in the UK and you want to try these foods or give them to someone as a
present, you can order many of them from companies which provide goods to British
people living abroad.

DAIRY PRODUCTS

Cheese

Cheddar Stilton Red Leicester Oatcake

Types of British cheese include: Caerphilly; Cheddar (see picture); Double Gloucester;
Red Leicester (see picture); Stilton (see picture); Wensleydale.
For more details on British cheeses see the British Cheese Board site:
http://www.britishcheese.com/.
Cheese is often eaten on a cream cracker or an oatcake (see picture).

CEREALS

Weetabix Porridge

Types of British breakfast cereal include: Porridge, Weetabix

MEAT, FISH & GAME

Pork pie Scotch egg Haggis Steak pie

Smoked Cumberland
Cornish pasty Scampi
salmon sausage

Meat/fish dishes

Bangers and mash (sausages and mashed potato); Beans-on-toast (baked beans); Black
pudding; Bread and butter pudding; Bubble and squeak; Cheese-on-toast; Cornish pasty;
Cottage pie; Fish and chips; Fish fingers; Fishcakes; Fisherman's pie; Fish in cheese
sauce; Haggis; Homity pie (a vegetarian pie, made mainly from potato, onion, cheese and
pastry); Jellied eels; Kipper (smoked herring); Lancashire hotpot; Liver and onions;
Mince; Oxtail soup; Pork pie (see picture); Quiche; Sausage - perhaps the most famous
British type is the Cumberland sausage (see picture); Sausage roll; Scampi (see picture);
Scotch egg (see picture); Shepherd's pie; Smoked salmon (see picture); Spam; Steak and
kidney pie/steak and mushroom pie/steak pie (see picture); Steak and kidney pudding;
Stew and dumplings; Toad-in-the-hole; Welsh rarebit

Meat

Popular types of meat are:

Beef (cow): corned beef; steak; mince
Lamb (sheep): lamb chop
Pork (pig): pork chop; ham; gammon; bacon
Popular types of poultry (birds) are: Chicken; Duck; Turkey
Types of game which are eaten include: Deer (venison); Goose; Hare; Partridge;
Pheasant; Rabbit
Most restaurants provide vegetarian meals.

Fish

Popular types of fish include: Cod; Cod roe; Dover sole; Haddock; Halibut; Herring;
Mussels / cockles / oysters; Plaice; Prawns; Salmon; Sardines / pilchards; Tuna; Trout

VEGETABLES & SALADS

Salad

Celery; Coleslaw; Cress (watercress); Cucumber; Tomato

Vegetables

Swede Parsnip Leek King Edward potato

Asparagus; Baked beans - tinned soya beans in tomato sauce, very popular in Britain;
Broccoli; Bubble and squeak; Carrots; Cabbage; Corn (American English: maize); corn-
on-the-cob; Courgettes (American English: zucchini); Cauliflower; Leeks (see picture);
Mushrooms; Onions (see picture); Parsnips (see picture); Pasta; Peas (or mushy peas);
Rice; Spinach; Sprouts (often known as Brussels sprouts or Brussel sprouts); Swede
(American English: rutabaga; see picture); Turnips; Yorkshire pudding

Potatoes (slang: spuds)

Boiled potatoes; Chips (American English: fries); Jacket potato (American English:
baked potato); Hash browns; Mashed potato (also known as mash); Rings; Roast potatoes
You can find out more about potatoes from the British Potato Council:
http://www.potato.org.uk/

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HERBS & CONDIMENTS

Herbs

Dill; Mint; Parsley; Rosemary; Sage; Thyme

Condiments

HP sauce Worcester sauce Malt vinegar Mango chutney

Mint sauce Branston pickle English mustard

Apple sauce; Branston pickle (see picture); Bread sauce; Brown sauce; Chutney (see
picture); Cranberry sauce; English mustard (see picture); Gravy; Horseradish sauce; HP
sauce (see picture); Mint sauce (see picture); Pepper; Redcurrant jelly; Salad cream; Salt;
Tomato ketchup; Vinegar (see picature) - many people like to add malt vinegar to the fish
from a fish and chip shop; Worcester(shire) sauce (see picture)

PUDDINGS & FRUIT

Puddings

Apple pie and custard Bread and butter pudding Christmas pudding

Trifle Rice pudding

Apple pie (see picture); Banana custard; Blancmange; Bread and butter pudding (see
picture); Cheesecake; Christmas pudding (see picture); Fool; Flip; Fruit salad; Ice cream;
Jelly and ice cream; Lemon meringue pie; Mousse; Pancake (Shrove Tuesday - pancake
day); Plum pudding; Rhubarb crumble; Rice cremola; Rice pudding with strawberry jam
(see picture); Roly-poly; Roulade; Semolina; Spotted dick; Steamed syrup sponge
pudding; Strawberries and cream; Summer pudding; Tapioca; Treacle tart; Trifle (see
picture); Yoghurt

Types of cream: Clotted cream; Double cream; Single cream; Sour cream; Whipped
cream

Fruit

Blackberries Strawberry Rhubarb Redcurrants Gooseberries

Popular fruits include:

Apple - the most famous British apple is Cox's Orange Pippin (known as Cox's) -
Bramley is the most popular apple for cooking; Apricot; Banana; Blackberry (bramble in
north England / Scotland; see picture); Blackcurrant; Cherry; Gooseberry (see picture);
Lemon; Orange; Pear; Raspberry; Redcurrant (see picture); Rhubarb (see picture);
Strawberry (see picture); Victoria plum

If you are interested in fruit, you may wish to visit the National Fruit Collections at
Brogdale in Faversham, Kent. Website: http://www.brogdale.org.uk/
Location map

SWEETS & SNACKS

Mars Bar Flake

Wispa Twix

KitKat Toffee Crisp

Maltesers Dolly mixtures Fudge

 Snowball Liquorice sticks

Sweets (American English: candy, candies)

After Eight mints; Dolly mixtures (see picture); Flake (see picture); Fruit pastilles; Fudge
(see picture); Humbug; Kendal mint cake; KitKat (see picture); Liquorice (see picture);
Maltesers (see picture); Mars bar (see picture); Murray mints; Peppermint creams; Rock;
Smarties; Snowball (see picture); Toffee; Toffee Crisp (see picture); Twix (see picture);
Wispa (see picture)

Crisps Twiglets

Snacks
Crisps (American English: potato chips) - ready salted, salt and vinegar, cheese and onion
(see picture), prawn cocktail; Peanuts - dry roasted, ready salted; Pork scratchings;
Twiglets (see picture)

COOKING INGREDIENTS

Self-raising flour Caster sugar Golden syrup

Flour - plain or self-raising; Golden syrup; Stock cubes; Sugar - caster, demerara, icing;
Vanilla essence