Today we’re going to talk about what we can learn about food and dining from England, not so much Scotland or Wales – they’re also part of the UK, but I’m going to chat about those at a different time. England is quite fascinating. I always think of the Famous Five books by Enid Blyton, and picture the children riding on their bicycles through the fields, having a picnic in the sunshine, and enjoying the outdoors. Their picnic would have been packed by their cook at home, and they would have things like meat pie, fruit cake, and ginger pop, or they would eat at an old farmhouse where they were staying, and the kitchen table would be piled with goodness from the farm. They would have raw milk from the cows, clotted cream, a ham, meat pie again, made by the farmer’s wife, wonderful fruit tarts, and many other wonderful things that they enjoyed so much.
Something that England is famous for is the English pub. This pub is not just a place for drinking alcohol like it is in other countries, and children go there too. It’s a place for hearty food and close community. One of the most popular dishes is fish and chips. There’s also steak and ale pie, and something called ploughman’s lunch. To make the steak and ale pie, beef is cooked in beef stock with ale, which is a kind of beer, added to that, and also with gravy. It’s a classic British dish, and a popular pub food. The ploughman’s lunch is a cold meal with cheese, pickles, and sometimes a little bit of salad or fruit with it, and some crusty bread or baguette to bring it all together.
In England, there’s some fancy names for meals. They certainly don’t have all of these in the same day, and they don’t always use these names anymore, but these are the correct names. There’s breakfast, or if it’s in the middle of the morning, then it’s brunch. There’s luncheon, then afternoon tea, and sometimes high tea, which is later than afternoon tea. Then there’s dinner or supper, which could be quite late in the evening if there had been a tea or a high tea. Often in a day they would have either breakfast and lunch or brunch, and then they would have an afternoon tea or a high tea, and then a lighter dinner or supper for their meals.
A typical English breakfast consists of eggs, bacon, often sausage, some fried bread, mushrooms, baked beans in tomato sauce, and often some orange juice. It’s a really big, nourishing meal, and I think this is a good thing to learn from the British. Instead of starting your day with a little pastry like the French, it’s good to fuel your body, nourish your body, get in all the good stuff, and then be ready to do whatever you need to do that morning, and not get hungry again until lunchtime.
Obviously, you don’t want to overdo the amount of food you eat at breakfast, so perhaps use only some of the above. For example, I like to make scrambled eggs with some mushrooms or zucchini with it. Instead of having bacon, you could do sausage. Instead of having all the different things together with the bread, you could just have the vegetables and the bacon. There are lots of options, but it’s great to see the full English breakfast. There’s always a great hit at hotels. You can get it from room service, and it’s something that a lot of people around the world enjoy from the British.
During the winter, often people will eat porridge, which is like oatmeal. It could be cooked oats, or cooked wheat called tasty wheat. There are a number of options which are classified as porridge.
The British have a real art when it comes to afternoon tea and high tea, and a lot of hotels actually have taken this on. They are good at serving high tea with the most elegant small cakes and sandwiches that you can find. I think an afternoon tea or a high tea is such a fun way for families to have some time together, maybe on the weekend. You can also do it when visitors come. To have a birthday tea is always such fun! At tea time, obviously there will be tea, all the different kinds, drawn for just the right amount of time. Green tea you draw for 60 seconds, and herbal tea for longer – they have it down to a fine art.
They balance the small sandwiches, like a smoked salmon sandwich or a cucumber sandwich, with British scones, which are the round ones, and they have tiny little cakes with icing or frosting, a bit like the French Petit Four. It’s often served in a beautiful environment with an elegant place setting, and it’s a good time to relax and enjoy some time together. Another thing they like to serve is the Victoria sponge cake, which is a sponge with no icing or frosting, and it’s sprinkled maybe with a little bit of icing sugar. It’s a very delicate sponge cake. High tea is a time to relax and enjoy delicacies.
The British brunch is also fascinating. It’s sort of a combination of breakfast and lunch. There may be some cooked elements to the breakfast, and there would also be granola or muesli. There would be different kinds of fruit yogurt, fruit platters, and perhaps some cold meats. It’s kind of like a hotel breakfast as well – the hotels have taken it on. It’s done at about 11am. You’d have no breakfast, and not really any lunch either, but a lovely big brunch. This is also often a social occasion; a party, a tea with guests, something that you enjoy together. It would have fancy table settings, and would often be eaten outdoors. A brunch is a lovely idea.
British food can be both rich and hearty, or just simple quality food. There are the rich and hearty meat stews, and the roast beef with Yorkshire puddings and gravy, which is a firm favorite. Yorkshire puddings are made from dough, and they’re put into a very hot oven, so they puff up, and then you serve those with the beef and the gravy, alongside roast potatoes and roast carrots. That’s a classic British meal.
And then on the simple comfort food side, there’s bangers and mash, and, as I mentioned before, the meat pies and beans on toast. Bangers and mash consists of sausages and mashed potatoes. An interesting breakfast is called Bubble and Squeak, where you take any leftovers of meat and vegetables from the night before, you put them in the pan, and then you pour whisked egg over them. It’s almost like a frittata, where you just add everything that you have, including the potatoes, and then you add the egg. That’s a great way to use up leftovers, not wasting any food, but making it into a delicious meal.
Sausage and potato are a great addition to your breakfast weekly menu plan, and they’re easy. They’re good for the last minute, with you just having to cook up some sausages in the pan and bake some potatoes.
Also to mention, the British afternoon tea can sometimes be seen as a mid-afternoon meal, or even an event, and not just a snack. This is like a food ritual that breaks up the day, and gives you a moment of relaxation and indulgence. Something like tea with scones, cream, and jam is a distinct British tradition. Because of afternoon tea, supper would be had later, like at 8 or even 9pm, because you wouldn’t be as hungry earlier than that. It would often be a lighter meal, like some soup with bread, or fruit salad with cream, nothing too heavy.
Britain is also well known for its elegant cuisine and fancy restaurants. Chefs like Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver are very well known worldwide, and they’re good at teaching people how to cook from home, from scratch. They’re also good at having fancy restaurants with amazing British cuisine.
Christmas dinner in England is also a wonderful thing. Often they would have roast meat like lamb or beef, or sometimes roast turkey with roast potatoes, and sometimes Yorkshire puddings. It would be a very rich meal with gravy and lots of sides. The Christmas pudding is one of the things we sing about – figgy pudding, or a date and fruit Christmas pudding with brandy. It’s often a little light, as a fun thing for the meal, and sometimes there are little coins pushed into it to find while you’re eating it as a treat. Sometimes there are little silver charms instead. I remember as a child getting little horse and rainbow charms in my Christmas pudding.
So, British food is often hearty, designed to provide comfort and nourishment – pies, stews, roasts, fish and chips – those are satisfying, and they sustain you, especially in the colder months. Meals are often a communal experience. A family Sunday roast is a common thing, and as I’ve mentioned, there’s afternoon tea or the pub lunch. British dining revolves around sharing food and spending time together.
For a typical British lunch, many children at school or adults at work will take a packed lunch. That’ll usually be a sandwich, a packet of crisps, a fruit, and a drink. Sandwiches are known as butty or sarnie in some parts of the UK. Some people like prawn and mayonnaise, tuna mayonnaise, or ham and pickle sandwiches.
A traditional British dinner would be meat and veg with gravy – the juices from the roast meat. The vegetables may be brussels sprouts, carrots, potatoes, or green beans. There’s usually some form of potatoes with the meal.
Just for fun, here’s some comments by people who were experiencing British cuisine for the first time. This is on a website called vice.com:
“I still don’t understand the purpose of gravy.”
“You have so many pies, but they all just taste the same. You put meat in a lot of pastries,” somebody else said.
“So much cheddar cheese on everything,” said one lady.
“It’s normal to have crisps in the morning,” said one man. Crisps would be like potato chips, and the chips that go with fish are often soggy and long potato chips.
Somebody from India said: “I’m trying British food, and the general lack of spice has always repulsed me.” I guess they’re not very spicy in their food.
“Yorkshire puddings are very strange,” somebody said.
“Salad dressings should not be cream,” somebody else mentioned. They have very creamy salad dressings.
Another well known British dish is cottage pie or shepherd’s pie. Cottage pie would be made with ground beef and shepherd’s pie ground lamb or minced lamb. It’s a savoury pie with vegetables, lamb, and gravy mixed, and then a layer of mashed potatoes on the top.
I’m sure you’ve heard of Cornish Pasty, which is a pastry filled with a mixture of meat pieces or shredded beef, with potatoes or turnips, peas, chopped carrots, some onions. Then it’s baked until the pastry is golden. That’s from the Cornwall region.
Then there’s Scotch egg. Have you heard of a Scotch egg? A hard boiled egg is wrapped in sausage meat, and then breaded and deep fried or baked. It’s great for picnics. Welsh rarebit is a melted cheese sauce with mustard in it, which is served over toasted bread. This is a very unusual treat. The Cumberland sausage is a coiled sausage seasoned with herbs and spices – that comes from Cumbria in the north of England.
The British also have some amazing desserts. Sticky toffee pudding is one of the best. It’s like a sponge cake made with dates, and then it’s covered in a rich toffee sauce, and served with ice cream. There’s the Eton Mess, which is a simple dessert made by crushing meringue and adding whipped cream and fresh strawberries on top. That’s traditionally associated with Eton College, and it’s a really amazingly delicious one. The Bakewell Tart is shortcrust pastry filled with raspberry jam and frangipane, which is an almond flavoured filling, and topped with flaked almonds. If you want to try one of these, I recommend the Eton Mess, because you can just buy the meringues, break them up, add the strawberries and cream, and there you go. The British are good at simple desserts too, like fresh raspberries with whipped cream. It’s another Famous Five dessert.
So, I hope you enjoyed thinking about British cuisine a little bit. Perhaps you know it well, or perhaps it’s new to you. Something I’ve mentioned before are British crunchies. They are more like oatcakes than you would imagine. They usually have oats, coconut, and flour and then some form of syrup and butter, and it’s all mixed and then baked. Those are really fun to try as well.
When thinking about British cuisine, it’s inspiring to think of hearty food from scratch that nourishes your family, and to try things that are going to help you to sit down together, enjoy a long, slow meal, and be well nourished.
