British cuisine
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Bread
Cheese
Chilli
Potato
Tomato
Curries
Italian cuisine
French cuisine
Industrial-era foods
The Industrial Revolution
that began in Britain in the
18th century is responsible
for the former very poor
reputation of British food.
Unlike the populations of
most other countries, by the
mid 19th century the majority
of the British population were
working in city factories and
living in very poor housing.
The new working classes
had lost contact with the land
and the standard of cooking
declined as a result.
Influence of other countries
Chicken Tikka Masala
A dish with Indian (Bangladeshi)
and Chinese origins
In Great Britain, food was frequently
reduced to "meat and two veg," mostly with
stew and soup. The rationing of most foods
during (and for some years after) World
War II did little to assist the situation,
though it raised the average nutritional
standards of the population to levels never
previously achieved. However post-war
population movements, foreign holidays
and immigration to the UK led to the
increasing absorption of influences from
former colonies (e.g. India) and from
Europe (particularly France and Italy). The
books of Elizabeth David introduced many
new recipes from the Mediterranean.
Italian-American influence is now
ubiquitous and pasta or pizza make a
significant contribution to many diets.
Berni Inns introduced the British public to
prawn coctail and steak, chips and peas,
and Wimpy Bars did the same for the
Hamburger.
Take – Away Food
• Fish And Chips
• Mushy Peas
• Steak And Kidney Pie
Modern British cuisine
Modern British (or New British) cuisine
is a style of British cooking that
emerged in the late 1970s, and has
gained increasing popularity more
recently. It uses mainly high-quality
ingredients local to the British Isles,
preparing them using methods that
combine traditional British recipes with
modern innovations.
Much Modern British cooking also draws
heavily on influences from the cuisines
of the Mediterranean and, more
recently, southeast Asia. The influence
of northern and central European
cuisines is significantly slighter.
The Modern British style of cooking
emerged as a response to the
perceived poor quality of British cuisine
following the II World War, and the
resulting popularity of foreign cuisine in
Britain in decades that followed.
Ulster fry, a variant of British
cooked breakfasts
Vegetarianism
Traditional British Breakfast
• A full English breakfast
with scrambled eggs,
bacon, sausages, black
pudding, mushrooms,
baked beans and hash
browns
• One breakfast
permutation: two eggs,
bacon, sausage, fried
tomatoes, and bubble
and squeak.
Elevenses
In the United Kingdom and
Commonwealth, elevenses is
a snack that is similar to
afternoon tea, but eaten in the
morning. It might consist of
some cake or biscuits with a
cup of tea or coffee. In
Australia, it is called morning
tea (often little lunch or
playlunch in primary school).
The name refers to the time of
day that it is taken: around 11
am. The word "elevenses" is
seen as a little old fashioned,
and few people still refer to
morning tea as such.
Breakfast +Lunch=Brunch
Lunch
British restaurant in
London
Lunch is a meal that is taken in the early
afternoon. The term is short for
"luncheon”. Lunch is a newer word for
what was once called "dinner," a word
nowadays only sometimes used to mean
a noontime meal in the British Isles.
Lunch food varies. In some places, one
eats similar things both at lunch and at
supper - a hot meal, sometimes with
more than one course. In other places,
lunch is the main meal of the day, supper
being a smaller cold meal. Many people
eat lunch while at work or school.
Employers and schools usually provide a
lunch break in the middle of the day,
lasting as much as an hour. Some
workplaces and schools provide
cafeterias where one can get a hot meal.
In some work locations one can easily go
out to eat at a nearby restaurant.
Supper (Dinner)
In the United Kingdom and
Ireland, supper is a small meal
just before bedtime. In these
lands, the understanding of
"supper" is typically a meal taken
in the evening (between 6 p.m.
and midnight) when one's main
meal or "dinner" has been eaten
during the day. Supper is
typically a lighter meal, often
served cold and unlikely to
involve either elaborate
preparation or more than one or
two courses. The term "supper"
is derived from the French
souper, which is still used for this
meal in Canadian French and
sometimes in Belgian French. It
is related to soup, a food often
served at supper.
Mushroom cream
Dessert
Bangers and mash
Bangers and Mash is a British
colloquial name for sausages
(bangers) served alongside mashed
potato, very often with gravy being
poured over both. The sausages
may be one of a variety of flavours
such as pork, pork and apple,
tomato, beef, Lincolnshire or
Cumberland. The full meal will
usually include a vegetable (e.g.
peas, brussels sprouts). The gravy
may be flavoured with the
appropriate meat stock, or may be
an onion gravy. It is a very popular
winter dish, and can range in quality
from the very cheapest sausages
and instant mash, or with high
quality sausages and carefullymade mashed potatoes and gravy.
Black pudding
Blood sausage or black pudding or blood
pudding is a sausage made by cooking
down the blood of an animal with meat, fat
or filler until it is thick enough to congeal
when cooled.
In Great Britain, Ireland and Atlantic
Canada, blood sausage is called black
pudding. The pudding was invented in
Stornoway, Isle of Lewis. The ingredients
include pig's blood, suet, bread, barley and
oatmeal. Black pudding is usually served
as part of a traditional full English
breakfast.
Black blood pudding for breakfast: served with
square sausage, baked beans, fried bread and
mushrooms
Bubble and squeak
Bubble and squeak (sometimes
just called bubble) is a traditional
British dish made with the shallowfried leftover vegetables from a
roast dinner. The chief ingredients
are potato and cabbage, but carrots,
peas, brussels sprouts, and other
vegetables can be added. It is
traditionally served with cold meat
from the Sunday roast, and pickles.
Traditionally the meat was added to
the bubble and squeak itself,
although nowadays the vegetarian
version is more common. The cold
chopped vegetables (and cold
chopped meat if used) are fried in a
pan together with mashed potato
until the mixture is well-cooked and
brown on the sides. The name is a
description of the action and sound
made during the cooking process.
Pasty
A pasty is a type of pie,
originally from Cornwall,
United Kingdom. It is a baked
un-sweetened pastry case
traditionally filled with diced
meat and vegetables. The
ingredients are uncooked
before being placed in the
unbaked pastry case. Pasties
with traditional ingredients are
specifically named Cornish
pasties. Traditionally, pasties
have a semicircular shape,
achieved by folding a circular
pastry sheet over the filling.
One edge is crimped to form a
seal.
Haggis
Haggis is a traditional Scottish
dish. Although there are many
recipes, it is normally made
with the following ingredients:
sheep's 'pluck' (heart, liver, and
lungs), minced with onion,
oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt,
mixed with stock, and
traditionally boiled in the
animal's stomach for
approximately an hour. It
somewhat resembles other
stuffed intestines (otherwise
known as sausages) of which it
is among the largest types.
There are also meat-free
recipes specifically for
vegetarians which supposedly
taste similar to the meat-based
recipes.
uncooked small haggis
content of a haggis
Hash
Hash is a mixture of beef
(often leftovers of corned beef
or roast beef), onions,
potatoes, and spices that are
mashed together into a coarse,
chunky paste and then cooked
either alone, or with other
ingredients.
In the United Kingdom it is
eaten for lunch or dinner and,
in certain parts, celebration of
Ash Wednesday involves the
ritual serving and eating of
hash.
Fish and chips
Fish and chips or fish 'n chips
(in Scotland: a fish supper) is a
popular take-away food,
consisting of deep-fried fish in
batter with deep-fried potatoes.
For decades fish and chips
dominated the take-away food
sector in the United Kingdom.
Traditional frying uses dripping
(beef fat), however vegetable-oil
now predominates. A minority of
vendors in the north of England
and Scotland still use dripping as
it imparts a different flavour to the
dish, but has the drawback of
making it unsuitable for
vegetarians.
Pork Pie
Pork pie is a traditional British
food. It consists of pork and
pork jelly in a hot water crust
pastry and is normally eaten
cold.
A gala pie is a pork pie with a
hard-boiled egg inside.
Pork pie, often shortened to
porky, is also the Cockney
Rhyming Slang for lie.
Shepherd's pie
Shepherd's pie is a traditional British
dish that consists of a bottom layer of
minced (ground) lamb in gravy covered
with mashed potato and (often) a layer of
cheese. It is a favorite dish of
institutional cooks keen on feeding large
groups of people. The mince is
traditionally lamb although many people
prefer to make it with minced (ground)
beef. A shepherd's pie made with beef is
properly called a cottage pie. A similar
dish made with fish instead of meat is
called a fisherman's pie. The mince layer
is made by frying the meat in oil with
finely chopped onions (and sometimes
also with garlic, chopped carrots, peas or
baked beans, and herbs such as
rosemary or oregano). It is then
simmered in stock and redcurrant jelly
(not jam, they're different things). Once
this is done, the mash layer can be
added, and the entire pie is baked in the
oven until ready.
Toad in the hole
• Toad in the hole is a
traditional British dish. It
consists of sausages in
Yorkshire pudding mix,
usually served with
vegetables and gravy.
• Strong regional dialect
has resulted in the dish
being locally called
"Tow'd in't th'ow" in some
areas. Badly made toad
in the hole is sometimes
described as "frog in a
bog".
Yorkshire pudding
Yorkshire pudding is an English savoury
dish similar to a popover made from batter. It
is most often served with roast beef, but may
be eaten with sausages or other dishes, or
on its own. Gravy is considered an essential
accompaniment by many. It may have
originated in Yorkshire, but is popular across
the whole country.
Yorkshire pudding is cooked by pouring
batter into a greased baking tin, and baking
at a very high heat until it has risen.
Traditionally, it is cooked in a large tin
underneath a roasting joint of meat, in order
to catch the juices that drip down, and then
cut appropriately, although individual round
puddings (baked in bun trays) are
increasingly prevalent. Yorkshire pudding
may also be made in the same pan as the
meat, after the meat has been cooked and
moved to a serving platter, which also takes
advantage of the meat's juices that are left
behind.
Sunday roast consisting of roast
beef, roast potatoes, vegetables
and Yorkshire pudding
Bread &Butter Pudding
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Bread and butter pudding is a
traditional dessert popular in
British cuisine. It is essentially a
baked form of French toast.
It is made by layering slices of
buttered bread scattered with
raisins in an oven dish into which
an egg and milk mixture
(sometimes with vanilla or other
spices added) is poured. It is then
baked in an oven and served.
Some people may serve it with
custard, but often the pudding
under the crust is runny enough to
enjoy without sauce.
Bread and Butter Pudding, with raisins
replaced by banana
Pastries
Pastry is the name given to various
kinds of dough made from ingredients
such as flour, butter and eggs, that are
rolled out thinly and used as the base
for baked goods. Common pastry
dishes include pies, tarts, and quiches.
A good pastry is light and airy, easily
broken in the mouth (what is called
'short' eating), but firm enough to
support the weight of the filling. The
dough must be well mixed, but care
must be taken not to overmix the
pastry, which results in long gluten
strands and toughens the pastry. Thus
the manufacture of good pastry is
something of a fine art. As pastry must
be baked to be edible, and pie fillings
often do not need extra baking.
Tea
At first tea was sold in the coffee houses of
London. By 1750, tea had become the
principal drink in Britain, yet at that time a
pound of the cheapest tea cost about onethird of a skilled worker's weekly wage! Tea
was jealously guarded by the lady of the
house, and kept in special containers called
tea-caddies, often with a lock, and carefully
doled out by the teaspoon.
Afternoon tea is a British institution. Whether
spending a day at home or out and in town or
countryside, most British people enjoy their
afternoon 'cuppa'.
As for the drink itself, tea is traditionally brewed in a china teapot, adding
one spoonful of tea per person and one for the pot. Great importance is
attached to the use of freshly boiled water which is then poured onto the
leaves and the tea is left to 'brew' for a few minutes. Although hundreds of
different teas are available, the strong English Breakfast blend is one of the
favourites, with added milk, and a little sugar for those with a sweet tooth.
High Tea is a more substantial evening meal, popular in northern England
and Scotland.
Alcoholic drinks
Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_food
http://elt.britcoun.org.pl/elt/o_index.htm
http://www.britainexpress.com/History/tea-inbritain.htm
Renata Rychlewska
Katarzyna Gorzym
Mikołaj Dec