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Liberally smeared with jam, or marmite. Or treacle, or golden syrup.

Bovril on toast.

Mushy peas.

Cheese. The UK does some excellent cheese and it has had a huge revival in the past 20 years.

Roast. Proper roast. Something like roast rib of beef, with Yorkshire puddings, onion gravy, mash or roast potatoes, plus other veg, mustard, horseradish.

Cornish sardines grilled.

 Overread wrote:



Cornish Pasty (minced meat, assorted veg, wrapped in a pasty wrapper - traditionally served to miners and contained more food with an open top; they'd hold it in the pastry and eat the inside and then throw away the pastry because of the heavy metals and such on their hands. Today its more refined, has an enclosed top of pastry and you eat it all)

MINCED MEAT? IN A PASTY? It’s prime flank steak! Unless you buy a cheap one.

Loads more and all that was mentioned before. As for the whole "people don't really eat that stuff any more" it depends where you are from. Curry has certainly risen to dominance in many areas, esp urban areas. But head out to a pub and most will be serving traditional foods alongside a curry.

This. The food we are all talking about (with the exception of steamed puddings) is every day stuff. Everyone knows about puddings, but most don’t eat them often after leaving school because they are a faff but they work well for cheap mass catering.

Anyone who derides British food has no idea what they are talking about. A lot of it (but not all) is very solid warming food because we live in a cold country, but that doesn’t mean it’s not good.

Why don’t you see much of it? We don’t have large immigrant populations. That is normally where people bring restaurants of other cultures, primarily to feed the people of that culture. The one big one that is different is French, which is to do with the history of food in the west.

Chicken in a Basket, as seen in Life on Mars.

Ploughman's lunch.

Cold chicken. coldtonguecoldhamcoldbeefpickledgherkinssaladfrenchrollscresssandwichespottedmeatgingerbeerlemonadesodawater...'

don't forget Pot Noodle, all the different flavours of evil you could ever want

 Turnip Jedi wrote:
don't forget Pot Noodle, all the different flavours of evil you could ever want

I’ve got two Bombay bad boys in the cupboard right now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_dishes


There is a quite a bit of English food that has become genericised, cheddar is English.

Few foods are attributed to England though, custard (sauce Anglais), English mustard and a thin handful of others.

A number of foods do come from the Uk though, as the wiki link provides, however many if not most are simple foods that rightly come from anywhere. The English breakfast, fish & chips and the Sunday roast are particularly English, but are generic roasted or fried foods are of no special origin, and while they can be attributed as English culture, it cant be said that the English invented them.

Chips may well be English as it involves western cooking methods, but also potato which is a new world vegetable. So the English might well have been the first to cook chips, but whether this is true or not is unclear. Fish and chips is very English and first became a popular dish in England, but battered fried fish may or may not be English, chips likewise and if at least one is not the dish isnt English either.

I’m almost certain that the fish and chips is Jewish in origin. Originally it was served with bread but that was eventually replaced with chips.

From the sources I am reading chips are English, fried fish is unattritable. The first fish and chips shops opened up in 1850 +/- 10 years, and are noted in Dickens. Jewish owners were certainly early adopters, but not exclusive sources of the dish. Multiple origins are noted.

This is not unusual. With more modern culinary phenomena, such as the battered deep fried Mars bar, which is less than 20 years old, several joints are making competing claims to have invented/originated the process.
In any case it is very Scottish, though the underlying Mars bar is not.

My understanding of the fish and chips is that the process of deep-frying battered fish was invented by the Portuguese, and Jewish people from Portugal emigrated to the UK and brought the idea with them.

Note that in Japan, the idea of Tempura (deep-fried battered stuff such as prawns) is known for a fact to have been brought into the country by the Portuguese.

If a dish is as simple as fish and chips you can bet it has no real origin but has been "invented" independently numerous times by numerous people in numerous countries.
Dishes that can really be pinpointed to a certain country or region usually are quite complicated. And even then you can bet someone somewhere in the world once independently invented something just like it, but it is just called by another name.

Pigs testicles fried up for breakfast ... really ... my step-grandfather used to eat them. Fething idiot

Don't forget most simpler foods likely were "invented" many times over. Even ignoring the fact that the world was a bigger place and the trade and travel of ideas took far longer in the past; youv'e also got the fact that fashions and resources change.

A meal might be popular for generations and then fall out of favour and be forgotten only to reappear later.

 Iron_Captain wrote:
If a dish is as simple as fish and chips you can bet it has no real origin but has been "invented" independently numerous times by numerous people in numerous countries.
Dishes that can really be pinpointed to a certain country or region usually are quite complicated. And even then you can bet someone somewhere in the world once independently invented something just like it, but it is just called by another name.

Yes, that's true. It's like convergent evolution. However it doesn't follow that the Fish and Chips came to Britain from several different sources simultaneously. Like Tempura in Japan, which is well documented to have been introduced by the Portuguese.

But the real question is, did these other countries eating their fried fish and chips do so with little 2-pronged wooden forks?

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
But the real question is, did these other countries eating their fried fish and chips do so with little 2-pronged wooden forks?

More to the point, is it wrapped in yesterday's newspaper>?

I can't remember the last time I got a fish supper in newspaper ...

They had to stop using newspaper when I was a kid as the print constituted a H&S violation. Ever since mine have always been served in a plain white food grade paper.

 War Drone wrote:
Pigs testicles fried up for breakfast ... really ... my step-grandfather used to eat them. Fething idiot

"Mountain oysters" are a delicacy in much of Europe. Testicles are prime meat, they just don't imagine to be appetising.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Kilkrazy wrote:

 Iron_Captain wrote:
If a dish is as simple as fish and chips you can bet it has no real origin but has been "invented" independently numerous times by numerous people in numerous countries.
Dishes that can really be pinpointed to a certain country or region usually are quite complicated. And even then you can bet someone somewhere in the world once independently invented something just like it, but it is just called by another name.

Yes, that's true. It's like convergent evolution. However it doesn't follow that the Fish and Chips came to Britain from several different sources simultaneously. Like Tempura in Japan, which is well documented to have been introduced by the Portuguese.

Batter fried fish maybe, but chips are likely domestic to the UK. Chipping and deep frying potatoes is a 'cuisine' that was exported to mainland Europe, the French made fine cuisine of them for a short while, but it became increasingly noted as a common dish.

 Orlanth wrote:

 Kilkrazy wrote:

 Iron_Captain wrote:
If a dish is as simple as fish and chips you can bet it has no real origin but has been "invented" independently numerous times by numerous people in numerous countries.
Dishes that can really be pinpointed to a certain country or region usually are quite complicated. And even then you can bet someone somewhere in the world once independently invented something just like it, but it is just called by another name.

Yes, that's true. It's like convergent evolution. However it doesn't follow that the Fish and Chips came to Britain from several different sources simultaneously. Like Tempura in Japan, which is well documented to have been introduced by the Portuguese.

Batter fried fish maybe, but chips are likely domestic to the UK. Chipping and deep frying potatoes is a 'cuisine' that was exported to mainland Europe, the French made fine cuisine of them for a short while, but it became increasingly noted as a common dish.

The Belgians claim they were deep frying pieces of potato before anyone else. 'Frites' are pretty much their national dish. The French claim they invented it. So do the Spanish, who actually have a very good claim since they were by far the first in Europe to import and adopt potatoes and frying stuff has always been popular in Mediterranean cuisine. Basically, all of Western Europe claims to have invented chips. Notably, in both the Belgian and Spanish version, the dish appeared as an accompaniment to fish. So there is definitely something about chips that caused people to associate them with fish.
A claim that chips are domestic to the UK would be very hard to proof I guess (the first mention of chips in the UK only dates to 1859). England definitely seems to have been the origin of selling them in 'fast food' shops though. And certainly the fish and chips combination is way more popular in the UK than in any other place. Finding a good fish and chips here in the Netherlands is like hell. I have actually started frying my own fish out of desperation.

The ones I make and eat are bangers and mash on yorkshire pudding, fish and chips, and beef wellington.

Scallops are domestic to the UK. They are slices of potato dipped in batter, then deep fried.

Brussel Sprout stew...

 Kilkrazy wrote:
Scallops are domestic to the UK. They are slices of potato dipped in batter, then deep fried.

I don't know. That is a really simple dish. I have had draniki and pakora that were made in the exact same way. Potato pancakes in a myriad varieties are an extremely common dish across most of Eastern Europe and Asia. I don't think there is any potato dish that is unique to any country. Except maybe Belarus. Belorussians have a special connection with potatoes. They have millions of potato recipes. They eat nothing else. Even their president is a potato farmer.
Talking about it, I really wish they sold something like draniki at the local snack stop.

Also, I have kinda gone mad. I haven't been able to discover any truly unique food. At least not for Britain, the Netherlands or Russia. My belief in what I once thought were unique dishes is shattered. The only people in Europe with unique food seem to be those damn Italians with their pasta.
That said, even if the ingredients and individual dishes aren't unique, the 'cuisine', the ensemble of traditionally prepared dishes as a whole is pretty unique for each country, and even for different regions within countries. So while Russia may have a traditional dish that is almost exactly like Shepherd's pie, while the French have something that is exactly like Yorkshire pudding and the Spanish have their own haggis, French, Spanish and Russian cuisines overall are very different from one another and from the British one. And the British cuisine certainly is a very distinct one.
Also, I have so many new food ideas now.


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 Whirlwind wrote:
Brussel Sprout stew...

Ew. Don't say such dirty things.

How about this for British cuisine …

Nadiya Hussain, the Bangladeshi-British winner of The Great British Bake Off in 2015, has included in her recent cookbook a recipe for fish finger lasagne.

One that I've not heard of from outside Scotland is the pizza crunch - a cheese and tomato pizza, covered in batter and hen deep-fried. Or the hamburger supper. Again, the hamburger is battered, much to the shock of an English colleague.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
As for sprouts, apparently half the population has a gene that lets them detect the bitter flavour chemicals … and the other half are horrendous degenerate mutants.

Shallow fried, Smoked Salmon flakes with scrambled eggs

Milk poached haddock/cod with mash or new potatoes

Roast Pheasant basted in wine/Whiskey and bramble jam

and my personal favorite, which I literally cannot stop eating until I can't afford it any more,

Orange Sponge Cake w/ Drambuie & crystallized ginger filling

The good food in Scotland is for rich people, sadly. It's exactly as unhealthy as that for the plebs, but going for sugar instead of fat. Part of that is, as I understand it, linked to when during the act of union the colonial sugar & tobacco plantations shipped more through Scotland than further south thanks to the ease of access to the Clyde. The corresponding rise in income at around the same time meant that sugar preserved fruits were viable as a luxury, and there was enough variety to make some truly spectacular tooth destroyers, as well as the boiled sweets for everyone else.

If you ever get the chance, do see the traditional copper pan production museums

Britain is a land blessed with rain (stay with me), and it's precisely that green lushness that gives British food its richness. Beef and honey were the food the country was most famous for in medieval to Renaissance times, and I'd say that fresh meat, fish and other seafood cooked simply in their own juices (not to mention stews) are the hallmark of British cuisine. "Les Rosbifs" as a name for the English dates back a lot longer than you think.

Hard to see when so much is shipped abroad - I remember being so disappointed on a trip to Orkney, the beautiful beef and lobsters and scallops and herring were all packed up, chilled and sent to the continent while the locals lived off the same supermarket crap as everyone else.

And puddings too. Steamed puddings... mmmm.

Haggis, blood (black) pudding, brawn, tripe - as someone else said, it's poverty food. Oatmeal for horses and the Scots, I believe Dr Johnson mentioned...

Smoked fish and the many uses thereof.

Stuff we regard as "continental" has just been lost - read the list of Henry VIII's designated meals (yes, we had laws on who could eat what, as well as what everyone could wear) and you find blackbirds on the menu. Of course, custard tart was there too, IIRC!

I seem to recall reading that British cooking never really recovered from rationing after WWII. On the other hand, sea greens like laver (seaweed) bread and samphire always stayed with us in coastal regions.

Also, eating fish and chips with wooden forks, rather than scalded fingers, is simply effete southern nonsense...

chaos0xomega wrote:
I recently had this discussion with a friend of mine whos from England (and travels back and forth regularly and is somewhat involved in the restaurant industry back there). In response to some of the dishes listed here (bangers and mash/fish and chips, etc.) he basically said, and I quote "Nobody back home eats that gak anymore, our national cuisine at this point is really indian food - curries, tikka masala and vindaloo especially."

Sounds like your pal is a bit pretentious I'm afraid. Oh, we eat Indian food, for sure, but the idea "nobody eats" fish & ships, sausages, pies, stews, fry ups etc anymore or that any of it is widely considered "gak" is just laughable. Like, our version of Subway is Greggs, a place that sells literally just pies, sausage rolls, more pies, pasties, and about fifty different kinds of sweet pastries(seriously, a lot of us were laughing for weeks when you guys went nutso over that whole "cronut" thing because as far as we could tell they're basically just Yum Yums which are practically a staple dish in some parts of the UK), with an occasional sandwich for the "I'm on a diet" types. Steak pies(and steak bakes), mince pies(cow mince - nobody would stretch to calling the stuff they use "beef" - not the sweet christmas ones with candied fruit in), scotch pies, pork pies, hell, macaroni cheese pies(though the monstrous scumbags have discontinued those).

 AndrewGPaul wrote:
How about this for British cuisine …

Nadiya Hussain, the Bangladeshi-British winner of The Great British Bake Off in 2015, has included in her recent cookbook a recipe for fish finger lasagne.

One that I've not heard of from outside Scotland is the pizza crunch - a cheese and tomato pizza, covered in batter and hen deep-fried. Or the hamburger supper. Again, the hamburger is battered, much to the shock of an English colleague.

Pfff, what kind of fancy-pants chippies are you going to that batter their fried pizzas? Just chuck em right from the freezer into the frier and then lather them in chippie sauce.

TBH the notion that Scotland is "the sick man of Europe" is probably fairly earned

 Momotaro wrote:


Stuff we regard as "continental" has just been lost - read the list of Henry VIII's designated meals (yes, we had laws on who could eat what, as well as what everyone could wear) and you find blackbirds on the menu. Of course, custard tart was there too, IIRC!

I seem to recall reading that British cooking never really recovered from rationing after WWII. On the other hand, sea greens like laver (seaweed) bread and samphire always stayed with us in coastal regions.

I believe that its still the law that only the Queen may eat Swan (and that all swans are owned by the crown - or that might be all swans in a certain area?)


And yes you raise a good point regarding WW1 and 2. WW2 certainly bred several generations brought up on tinned spam and other war-time foods and recipes. People forget that war time food shortage and rationing didn't go away with the end of the war. My father is nearing his 70s and can still remember ration books from his childhood;' whilst my mothers collection of old cookery books have a vast contrast to a lot of the modern offerings in terms of what ingredients were possible. It wasn't just post-war shortage but also that the UK used food as a major exporting product after the war to start paying off the vast war debts that had built up. It's probably the reason today that we've wound up in the crazy situation where we produce food to export and import the same food because its cheaper for our own market that way (which when you pause and think that sheep from the other side of the world is cheaper to buy and eat than sheep made locally it kind of makes the mind boggle at the world).

Of course in contrast fewer people home cook today and even if they cook there's still a lot of pre-made components on the market. In the past making custard, gravy and all were done with raw ingredients not custard powder or Bisto*. Which is not to say that people don't cook, indeed it seems to be having a bit of a revival at present, but that there is far less cooking (esp from raw ingredients) than there was in the past.


*although these days I find the cheap alternative products better. I think Bisto have taken their cornfour out of things because it seems to take a huge amount to actually thicken; and one just cannot serve watery gravy!