Ploughman's lunch
A ploughman's lunch (often just called a ploughman's) is a cold snack or meal originating in the United Kingdom, served in pubs, sometimes eaten in a sandwich form, composed of cheese (usually a thick piece of Cheddar, Stilton or other local cheese); often cooked ham slices, pickle (e.g., Branston pickle, called "relish" outside the UK), apples, pickled onions, salad leaves, bread (especially crusty bread, which may be a chunk from a loaf or a cob); and butter.[1] Other common additions are grapes[citation needed], celery and carrot, pâté, diced hard boiled egg or beetroot, or in modern versions, crisps. It is usually served with beer.
The origins of the ploughman's lunch dates back to the 1960s, when the Milk Marketing Board promoted the meal nationally to boost sales of cheese, and is a product of this campaign. A comparable meal, popular prior to World War II, was also known as 'ploughboy's lunch'.
It is a common menu item in English pubs, where it is served with a pint of beer. It is considered a cultural icon of England.[2] The familiarity of the ploughman's lunch has led catering companies to describe a sandwich containing Cheddar cheese, pickle and salad as a "ploughman's sandwich".[citation needed]
Origins and etymology
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) dates this phrase back to at least 1837, in the book Memoirs of the life of Sir Walter Scott by John G. Lockhart,[3] but this stray early use may have meant merely the sum of its parts, "a lunch for a ploughman". Until recently, the OED's next citation was only from 1970, indicating a long period of time when the expression was virtually unknown.
Lexicographer Edwin Radford in To Coin a Phrase (1974) attributes the current usage to Richard Trehane, chairman of the English Country Cheese Council.[citation needed] Nigel Rees also concluded current usage to be 1970s marketing.[dubious – discuss]
In 2005, research by Victoria Coren and others for the Wordhunt project[4] in conjunction with the first series of Balderdash and Piffle on the BBC (first broadcast at the beginning of 2006[5]) traced the origin of the phrase to 1960. The documentary evidence was minutes of meetings of the English Country Cheese Council, and contemporaneous advertising matter. The BBC concluded that "the Ploughman's Lunch was invented as a marketing ploy to sell British cheese in pubs".[6]
It has since been traced back slightly further. An edition of a magazine published by the Brewers' Society called A Monthly Bulletin from July 1956 describes activities of the Cheese Bureau, which it says "exists for the admirable purpose of popularising cheese and, as a corollary, the public house lunch of bread, beer, cheese and pickle. This traditional combination was broken by rationing; the Cheese Bureau hopes, by demonstrating the natural affinity of the two parties, to effect a remarriage".[7] This implies that a "traditional combination" of bread, beer, cheese and pickle was popular before rationing in the United Kingdom (which followed World War II), albeit without the butter. Author Adrian Bell at the time said: "There's a pub quite close to where I live where ... all you need say is, 'Ploughboy's Lunch, Harry, please'. And in a matter of minutes a tray is handed across the counter to you on which is a good square hunk of bread, a lump of butter and a wedge of cheese, and pickled onions, along with your pint of beer".[7]
Only one year later, in June 1957, another edition of the same publication referred to a ploughman's lunch using exactly that name, and said that it consisted of "cottage bread, cheese, lettuce, hard-boiled eggs, cold sausages and, of course, beer".[7]
The Glasgow newspaper The Bulletin from 15 April 1958[8] and The Times from 29 April 1958 refer to a ploughman's lunch consisting of bread, cheese and pickle.[9]
The 1983 film The Ploughman's Lunch, from a screenplay by Ian McEwan, has a subtext that is "the way countries and people re-write their own history to suit the needs of the present".[10] The title is a reference to the way the supposed traditional meal was apparently used as way to get people to eat meals in pubs.[7]
References
- ^ "In Search of the Ploughman's Lunch". h2g2 (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) - an unconventional guide to Life, The Universe and Everything. United Kingdom: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). 10 November 2005. Retrieved 29 April 2009.
The ploughman's is a simple meal consisting of the traditional ingredients of cheese, bread, butter and pickles. Every pub chef will have his or her own version of what constitutes a ploughman's and there are many variations, some better than others.
- ^ "Ploughman's Lunch". Icon Nominations. Brighton BN1 1DA, United Kingdom: Icons Online. Retrieved 29 April 2009.
Accompanied by a good old English pint, there is no doubt that this is classic pub fare. ...a Ploughman's Lunch is a treat in the fields, in a country pub or as a DIY lunch at home.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: location (link) - ^ "ploughman". OED Online, second edition 1989. Oxford OX2 6DP, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. 1989. Retrieved 29 April 2009.
[1837 J. G. LOCKHART Mem. Life W. Scott IV. v. 161 The surprised poet swung forth to join them, with an extemporized sandwich, that looked like a ploughman's luncheon, in his hand.]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: location (link) - ^ "ploughman's lunch, Series One Wordhunt list". BBC Balderdash & Piffle. Oxford OX2 6DP, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. 2006. Retrieved 29 April 2009.
Wanted: printed evidence before 1970
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help)CS1 maint: location (link) - ^ "Series One". BBC Balderdash & Piffle. Oxford OX2 6DP, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. Retrieved 29 April 2009.
The BBC's six-part TV series, Balderdash & Piffle, was broadcast in the UK weekly on BBC2 from Monday 2 January to Monday 6 February 2006, with a follow-up programme on 16 April.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: location (link) - ^ "Balderdash & Piffle viewers get BBC programme of their own as nation goes word crazy". Press Releases. United Kingdom: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). 20 January 2006. Retrieved 29 April 2009.
Ploughman's Lunch: The OED had no evidence for this before 1970. With help from Wordhunters, this has now been pushed back to 1960, when documents uncovered at the National Archive from the Milk Marketing Board reveal that the Ploughman's Lunch was invented as a marketing ploy to sell British cheese in pubs.
- ^ a b c d zythophile (16 July 2007). "The ploughman's lunch — guilty or innocent?". WordPress.com. Retrieved 29 April 2009.
Ploughman's Lunch. Traditional English fare. ... In fact it's the invention of an advertising campaign they ran in the early sixties to encourage people to eat in pubs. A completely successful fabrication of the past, the Ploughman's Lunch was.
- ^ "The Minister Who Slept On Slag Heaps". The Bulletin. 15 April 1958.
It was called a ploghman's lunch and consisted of a chunk of break, butter, cheese and pickles.
- ^ "ploughman (draft revision)". OED Online. Oxford OX2 6DP, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. 2006. Retrieved 29 April 2009.
[1958 Times 29 Apr. (Beer in Britain Suppl.) p. xiv/2 In a certain inn to-day you have only to say, 'Ploughboy's Lunch, please,' and for a shilling there is bread and cheese and pickled onions to go with your pint, and make a meal seasoned with gossip, and not solitary amid a multitude.]
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help)CS1 maint: location (link) - ^ Brown, Simon. "Ploughman's Lunch, The". BFI Screenonline. London W1T 1LN, United Kingdom: British Film Institute. Retrieved 29 April 2009.
The subtext of the film is the way countries and people re-write their own history to suit the needs of the present.
{{cite web}}: More than one of|author=and|last=specified (help)CS1 maint: location (link)
Further reading
- Why Do We Say ...?, Nigel Rees, 1987, ISBN 0-7137-1944-3.
External links