British cuisine: Difference between revisions
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The mid-20th century British style of cooking emerged as a response to the depressing [[food rationing]] that persisted for several years after the [[World War II|Second World War]], along with restrictions on foreign currency exchange, making travel difficult. A hunger for exotic cooking was satisfied by writers such as [[Elizabeth David]], who from 1950 produced evocative books whose recipes (mostly French and Mediterranean) were then often impossible to produce in Britain, where even [[olive oil]] could only normally be found in [[dispensing chemist]]s rather than food stores. By the 1960s foreign holidays, and foreign-style restaurants in Britain, further widened the popularity of foreign cuisine. Recent Modern British cuisine has been very much influenced and popularised by [[Celebrity chef|TV chefs]], all also writing books, such as [[Fanny Cradock]], [[Clement Freud]], [[Robert Carrier (chef)|Robert Carrier]], [[Robert Irvine]], [[Keith Floyd]], [[Delia Smith]], [[Gordon Ramsay]], [[Nigella Lawson]], [[Simon Hopkinson]], [[Nigel Slater]] and [[Jamie Oliver]], alongside |
The mid-20th century British style of cooking emerged as a response to the depressing [[food rationing]] that persisted for several years after the [[World War II|Second World War]], along with restrictions on foreign currency exchange, making travel difficult. A hunger for exotic cooking was satisfied by writers such as [[Elizabeth David]], who from 1950 produced evocative books whose recipes (mostly French and Mediterranean) were then often impossible to produce in Britain, where even [[olive oil]] could only normally be found in [[dispensing chemist]]s rather than food stores. By the 1960s foreign holidays, and foreign-style restaurants in Britain, further widened the popularity of foreign cuisine. Recent Modern British cuisine has been very much influenced and popularised by [[Celebrity chef|TV chefs]], all also writing books, such as [[Fanny Cradock]], [[Clement Freud]], [[Robert Carrier (chef)|Robert Carrier]], [[Robert Irvine]], [[Keith Floyd]], [[Delia Smith]], [[Gordon Ramsay]], [[Nigella Lawson]], [[Simon Hopkinson]], [[Nigel Slater]] and [[Jamie Oliver]], alongside ''[[The Food Programme]]'', made by [[BBC Radio 4]]. |
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==Varieties== |
==Varieties== |
Revision as of 15:49, 7 June 2015
British cuisine |
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National cuisines |
Regional cuisines |
Overseas/Fusion cuisine |
People |
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![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/02/Sunday_roast_-_roast_beef_1.jpg/250px-Sunday_roast_-_roast_beef_1.jpg)
British cuisine is the specific set of cooking traditions and practices associated with the United Kingdom. British cuisine has been described as "unfussy dishes made with quality local ingredients, matched with simple sauces to accentuate flavour, rather than disguise it."[1] However, British cuisine has absorbed the cultural influence of those who have settled in Britain, producing many hybrid dishes, such as the Anglo-Indian chicken tikka masala."[2][3]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/Fish_and_chips.jpg/220px-Fish_and_chips.jpg)
Celtic agriculture and animal breeding produced a wide variety of foodstuffs for indigenous Celts and Britons. Anglo-Saxon England developed meat and savoury herb stewing techniques before the practice became common in Europe. The Norman conquest introduced exotic spices into England in the Middle Ages.[4] The British Empire facilitated a knowledge of India's elaborate food tradition of "strong, penetrating spices and herbs".[4] Food rationing policies, put in place by the British government during wartime periods of the 20th century,[5] are said to have been the stimulus for British cuisine's poor international reputation.[4] It has been claimed, contrary to popular belief, that people in southern England eat more garlic per head than the people of northern France.[6]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f9/Tea_and_scones_2.jpg/220px-Tea_and_scones_2.jpg)
British cuisine has traditionally been limited in its international recognition to the full breakfast, fish and chips, and the Christmas dinner.[4] Other British dishes include the Sunday roast, steak and kidney pie, shepherd's pie, and bangers and mash. British cuisine has many regional varieties within the broader categories of English, Scottish and Welsh cuisine. Each have developed their own regional or local dishes, many of which are geographically indicated foods such as Cornish pasties, the Yorkshire pudding, Cumberland Sausage, Arbroath Smokie, and Welsh cakes.
History
Romano-British agriculture, highly fertile soils and advanced animal breeding produced a wide variety of very high quality foodstuffs for indigenous Romano-British people. Anglo-Saxon England developed meat and savoury herb stewing techniques and the Norman conquest reintroduced exotic spices and continental influences back into Great Britain in the Middle Ages[4] as maritime Britain became a major player in the transcontinental spice trade for many centuries after. Following the Protestant Reformation in the 16th and 17th centuries "plain and robust" food remained the mainstay of the British diet, reflecting tastes which are still shared with neighbouring north European countries and traditional North American Cuisine. In the 18th and 19th centuries, as the Colonial British Empire began to be influenced by India's elaborate food tradition of "strong, penetrating spices and herbs", the United Kingdom developed a worldwide reputation[7] for the quality of British beef and pedigree bulls were exported to form the bloodline of major modern beef herds in the New World.[4] Developments in plant breeding produced a multiplicity of fruit and vegetable varieties, with British disease-resistant rootstocks still used globally for fruits such as apples.
During the World Wars of the 20th century difficulties of food supply were countered by official measures, which included rationing. The problem was worse in WWII, and the Ministry of Food was established to address the problems (see Rationing in the United Kingdom). Due to the economic problems following the war, rationing continued for some years, and in some aspects was more strict than during wartime. Rationing was not fully lifted until almost a decade after war ended in Europe, so that a whole generation was raised without access to many previously common ingredients. These policies, put in place by the British government during wartime periods of the 20th century,[5] are often blamed for the decline of British cuisine in the 20th century.
In common with many advanced economies, rapid urbanisation and the early industrialisation of food production as well as female emancipation have resulted in a highly modern consumer society with reduced connection to the rural environment and adherence to traditional household roles. Consequently food security has increasingly become a major popular concern.[8] Concerns over the quality and nutritional value of industrialised food production led to the creation of the Soil Association in 1946. Its principles of organic farming are now widely promoted and accepted as an essential element of contemporary food culture by many sections of the UK population, and animal welfare in farming is amongst the most advanced in the world. The last half of the 20th century saw an increase in the availability of a greater range of good quality fresh products and greater willingness by many sections of the British population to vary their diets and select dishes from other cultures such as those of Italy and India.
Modern British cuisine
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a4/Kippers_at_Burton_Bradstock.jpg/220px-Kippers_at_Burton_Bradstock.jpg)
Modern British (or New British) cuisine is a style of British cooking which fully emerged in the late 1970s, and has become increasingly popular. It uses high-quality local ingredients, preparing them in ways which combine traditional British recipes with modern innovations, and has an affinity with the Slow Food movement.
It is not generally a nostalgic movement, although efforts have been made to re-introduce pre-20th-century recipes. Ingredients not native to the islands, particularly herbs and spices, are frequently added to traditional dishes (echoing the highly spiced nature of much British food in the medieval era).
Much of Modern British cooking also draws heavily on influences from Mediterranean cuisines, and more recently, Middle Eastern, South Asian, East Asian and Southeast Asian cuisines. The traditional influence of northern and central European cuisines is significant but fading.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/35/Beef_Wellington_-_Whole.jpg/220px-Beef_Wellington_-_Whole.jpg)
The mid-20th century British style of cooking emerged as a response to the depressing food rationing that persisted for several years after the Second World War, along with restrictions on foreign currency exchange, making travel difficult. A hunger for exotic cooking was satisfied by writers such as Elizabeth David, who from 1950 produced evocative books whose recipes (mostly French and Mediterranean) were then often impossible to produce in Britain, where even olive oil could only normally be found in dispensing chemists rather than food stores. By the 1960s foreign holidays, and foreign-style restaurants in Britain, further widened the popularity of foreign cuisine. Recent Modern British cuisine has been very much influenced and popularised by TV chefs, all also writing books, such as Fanny Cradock, Clement Freud, Robert Carrier, Robert Irvine, Keith Floyd, Delia Smith, Gordon Ramsay, Nigella Lawson, Simon Hopkinson, Nigel Slater and Jamie Oliver, alongside The Food Programme, made by BBC Radio 4.
Varieties
Anglo-Indian cuisine
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b8/Kedgeree.jpg/220px-Kedgeree.jpg)
Some Anglo-Indian dishes derive from traditional British cuisine, such as roast beef, modified by the addition of Indian-style spices, such as cloves and red chillies. Fish and meat are often cooked in curry form with Indian vegetables. Anglo-Indian food often involves use of coconut, yogurt, and almonds. Roasts and curries, rice dishes, and breads all have a distinctive flavour.
English cuisine
English cuisine encompasses the cooking styles, traditions and recipes associated with England. It has distinctive attributes of its own, but also shares much with wider British cuisine, partly through the importation of ingredients and ideas from North America, China, and India during the time of the British Empire and as a result of post-war immigration.
Northern Irish cuisine
The cuisine of Northern Ireland is largely similar to that of the rest of the island of Ireland. In this region, the Ulster Fry is particularly popular.
Scottish cuisine
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/69/Haggis_neeps_and_tatties.jpg/220px-Haggis_neeps_and_tatties.jpg)
Scottish cuisine is the specific set of cooking traditions and practices associated with Scotland. It shares much with English cuisine, but has distinctive attributes and recipes of its own. Traditional Scottish dishes such as haggis and shortbread exist alongside international foodstuffs brought about by migration. Scotland is known for the high quality of its beef, lamb, potatoes, oats, and sea foods. In addition to foodstuffs, Scotland produces a variety of whiskies.
Welsh cuisine
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/40/Cawl_Cymreig.jpg/220px-Cawl_Cymreig.jpg)
Welsh cuisine has influenced, and been influenced by, other British cuisine. Although both beef and dairy cattle are raised widely, especially in Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire, Wales is best known for its sheep, and thus lamb is the meat traditionally associated with Welsh cooking.
Cuisines of overseas territories
- Gibraltarian cuisine
- Cayman Islands Cuisine
- British Virgin Islands Cuisine
- Bermudian cuisine
- Falkland Islands Cuisine
- Anguillan cuisine
- Cuisine of Saint Helena
Dates of introduction of various foodstuffs and methods to Britain
Prehistory (before 43 AD)
Roman era (43 to 410)
Sub-Roman period to the discovery of the New World (410 to 1492)
1492 to 1914
After 1914
- sugar beet: 1914-1918
- sliced bread: 1930[18]
See also
- Cuisine of the Thirteen Colonies
- Culture of the United Kingdom
- List of British breads
- List of British desserts
- List of United Kingdom food and drink products with protected status
- List of English dishes
- Northern Irish cuisine
- Rationing in the United Kingdom
References
- ^ UKTV. "British cuisine". uktv.co.uk. Retrieved 23 May 2008.
- ^ "Robin Cook's chicken tikka masala speech". London: The Guardian. 25 February 2002. Retrieved 19 April 2001.
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(help) - ^ BBC E-Cyclopedia (20 April 2001). "Chicken tikka masala: Spice and easy does it". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 28 September 2007.
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- ^ a b c d e f Spencer, Colin (2003). British Food: An Extraordinary Thousand Years of History. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-13110-0.
- ^ a b Ina Zweiniger-Bargielowska Austerity in Britain: Rationing, Controls and Consumption, 1939-1955, Oxford Up (2002) ISBN 978-0-19-925102-5. For general background, see David Kynaston Austerity Britain, 1945-1951, Bloomsbury (2007) ISBN 978-0-7475-7985-4.
- ^ The Independent: British garlic eaters nose ahead of France
- ^ "Great British Kitchen". Great British Kitchen. Retrieved 3 June 2010.
- ^ see Steel, C. (2008) Hungry City: how food shapes our lives Random House ISBN 978-0-7011-8037-9
- ^ a b c d ""Bread in Antiquity", Bakers' Federation website". Bakersfederation.org.uk. Retrieved 3 June 2010.[dead link]
- ^ "Diet and Romano-British Society " Archaeozoology". Archaeozoo.wordpress.com. 28 November 2007. Retrieved 3 June 2010.
- ^ "Unearthing the ancestral rabbit", British Archaeology, Issue 86, January/February 2006 [1]
- ^ a b ""Cooking by country: England", recipes4us.co.uk, Feb 2005". Recipes4us.co.uk. Retrieved 3 June 2010.
- ^ Romano-British - food facts - History cookbook - Cookit!
- ^ "Chives", Steenbergs Organic Pepper & Spice[dead link]
- ^ ""Coriander", The Best Possible Taste". Thebestpossibletaste.co.uk. Retrieved 3 June 2010.
- ^ "Grieve, M. "Mints", ''botanical.com - A Modern Herbal''". Botanical.com. Retrieved 3 June 2010.
- ^ Hovis Fact File (PDF)
- ^ a b c d ""Food History Timeline", BBC/Open University". Web.archive.org. 18 November 2004. Archived from the original on 18 November 2004. Retrieved 3 June 2010.
- ^ Lee, J. R. "Philippine Sugar and Environment", Trade Environment Database (TED) Case Studies, 1997 [2]
- ^ "Stolarczyk, J. "Carrot History Part Two - A.D. 200 to date"". Web.archive.org. 3 March 2005. Archived from the original on 3 March 2005. Retrieved 3 June 2010.
- ^ "Turkey Club UK". Turkeyclub.org.uk. Retrieved 3 June 2010.
- ^ "DeWitt, D. "Pepper Profile: Cayenne", ''fiery-foods.com''". Fiery-foods.com. Retrieved 3 June 2010.
- ^ "Properties and Uses: Parsley", Herbs and Aromas[dead link]
- ^ a b "Fruits Lemon to Quince", The Foody UK & Ireland
- ^ "Coleman, D. "horseradish", ''Herb & Spice Dictionary''". Deancoleman.com. Retrieved 3 June 2010.
- ^ "Dunlop, F. "Tea", ''BBC Food''". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 3 June 2010.
- ^ Forbes, K. A. "Bermuda's Flora"[dead link]
- ^ ""Coffee in Europe", The Roast & Post Coffee Company". Realcoffee.co.uk. Retrieved 3 June 2010.
- ^ The History of Ice Cream canalmuseum.org.uk.
- ^ "Vitamin C — Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts", Your Produce Man, April 2005 [3]
- ^ Cox, S. "I Say Tomayto, You Say Tomahto...", landscapeimagery.com, 2000 [4]
- ^ "National Rhubarb Collection", RHS Online, 2006[dead link]
- ^ ""Marmite", Unilever brand page". Unilever.co.uk. Retrieved 3 June 2010.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/df/Wikibooks-logo-en-noslogan.svg/40px-Wikibooks-logo-en-noslogan.svg.png)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- www.greatbritishkitchen.co.uk
- Food Stories - Explore a century of revolutionary change in UK food culture on the British Library's Food Stories website
- Guide to British Food and Drink
- 'Great British Grub' - Article in CondeNast Traveller India by Lalit Sultan Farzdan
- George Orwell's spirited essay In Defence of English Cooking