Grandma’s English Recipes

The Sunday roast is perhaps the most common feature of English cooking. The Sunday dinner traditionally includes roast potatoes accompanying a roasted joint of meat such as roast beef, lamb , or a roast chicken and assorted vegetables, themselves generally roasted or boiled and served with a thick gravy. Yorkshire pudding and gravy is now often served as an accompaniment to the main course, although it was originally served first as a “filler”. (The practice of serving a roast dinner on a Sunday is related to the elaborate preparation required, and to the housewife’s practice of performing the weekly wash on a Monday, when the cold remains of the roast made an easily-assembled meal).A particularly elaborate roast dinner is eaten at Christmas, with almost every detail rigidly specified by tradition. Since its wide-spread availability after World War II the most popular Christmas roast is turkey, superseding the goose of Dickens’s time. Game meats such as venison which were traditionally the domain of higher classes are occasionally also eaten by those wishing to experiment with a wider choice of foods, due to their promotion by Celebrity Chefs, such as Antony Worrall Thompson, although it is not generally eaten regularly in the average household.

Fish and chipsNotably, England is famous for its fish and chips and has a huge number of restaurants and take-away shops catering to it. It is possibly the most popular and uniquely English dish, and is traditionally served with a side order of mushy peas with salt and vinegar as condiments. The advent of take-away foods during the industrial revolution led to foods such as fish and chips, mushy peas, and steak and kidney pie with mashed potato (pie and mash). These were the staples of the UK take-away business, and indeed of English diets for many years, though ethnic influences, particularly Indian and Chinese, have led to the introduction of ethnic take-away foods.[1] From the 1980s onwards, a new variant on curry, the balti, began to become popular in the West Midlands, and by the mid 1990s was commonplace in Indian restaurants and takeaways over the country. Kebab houses, pizza restaurants and American-style fried chicken restaurants aiming at late night snacking have also become popular in urban areas.

An English cooked breakfastThe full English breakfast (also known as “cooked breakfast” or “fried breakfast”) also remains a culinary classic. Its contents vary, but it normally consists of a combination of bacon, grilled tomatoes, fried bread, black pudding, baked beans, fried mushrooms, sausages, eggs (fried, scrambled or boiled) and other variations on these ingredients and others. Hash browns are sometimes added, though this is not considered traditional. In general, the domestic breakfast is less elaborate, and it would be fair to say that most “full englishes” are bought in cafés. A young child’s breakfast might include “soldiers”, finger-shaped pieces of bread to be dipped in the yolk of a lightly boiled egg.

The English sausage is distinctive, being made of fresh meat and rarely smoked, dried, or strongly flavoured. Post World War II, sausages have tended to contain low-quality meat, fat, and rusk. However, there has been a backlash in recent years, with most butchers and supermarkets now selling premium varieties[2]. Pork and beef are by far the most common bases, although gourmet varieties may contain venison, boar, etc. There are some regional variations, such as the herbal Lincolnshire, and the long, curled Cumberland, but the degree of variation does not stand comparison to Germany [3] or Italy. Sausages form the basis of the quaintly-named dish toad in the hole, where they are combined with batter. A variant of the sausage is the black pudding, strongly associate with Lancashire and a cousin to the French boudin noir, Spanish Morcilla etc. It is made from pig’s blood, in line with the adage that “you can eat every part of a pig except its squeal”. Pig’s trotters, tripe and brawn are also traditional fare in the North.

Pies, originally a way to preserve food, have long been a mainstay of English cooking. Meat pies are generally enclosed with fillings such as chicken and mushroom or steak and kidney (originally steak and oyster). Pork pies are almost always eaten cold, with the Melton Mowbray pork pie being the archetype. Open pies or flans are generally served for desert with fillings of seasonal fruit. Quiches and savoury flans are eaten, but not considered indigenous. The Cornish pasty is a much-loved regional dish, constructed from pastry is folded into a semi-circular purse, like a calzone. Another kind of pie is topped with mashed potato—for instance, shepherd’s pie, with lamb, cottage pie, with beef, or fisherman’s pie. As usual, there is a vast difference in quality between mass produced and hand-made versions. Good quality pies are obtainable from some pubs, traditional pie and mash shops, or specialist bakeries like those in Wigan.

The English can claim to have given the world the word “sandwich”, although the eponymous Earl was not the first to add a filling to bread. A distinctive sandwich filling is Marmite, a dark brown savoury spread made from yeast extract, with a thick sticky texture, a strong, salty taste and high vitamin content. It is often said that “you either love it or hate it”. (Australia’s Vegemite is a similar product). Fishpaste and Gentleman’s Relish could also be considered distinctively British.

Northern European countries generally have a tradition of salting, smoking, pickling and otherwise preserving foods. Britons make kippers, ham, bacon and a wide variety of pickled vegetables. Scottish smoked fish—salmon and Arbroath smokies—are particularly prized. Smoked cheese is uncommon. Meats other than pork are generally not cured. Whereas bacon is treated as a flavouring in some cuisines, it is consumed in hearty quantities in England. The “three breakfasts a day” principle can be implemented by eating bacon sandwiches, often referred to as “bacon sarnies” or “bacon butties”, at any time of the day or night. Pickles and preserves are given a twist by the influence of the British Empire. Thus, the repertoire includes chutney as well as Branston or “brown” pickle, piccalilli, pickled onions and gherkins. The Asian influence is also present in condiments such as tomato sauce (originally ketjap), worcester sauce and “brown” sauce (such as HP). Because Britain is a beer-drinking nation, malt vinegar is commonly used. English mustard, associated with Colman’s of Norwich, is strongly-flavoured and bright yellow.

Pickles often accompany a selection of sliced, cold cooked meats, or “cold collation”. This dish can claim to have some international influence, since it is known in French as an “assiette Anglaise”

It is believed by some that the English “drop everything” for a teatime meal in the mid-afternoon. This is no longer the case in the workplace, and is rarer in the home. A formal teatime meal is now often an accompaniment to tourism, particularly in Devon and neighbouring counties, where comestibles may include scones with jam and butter or clotted cream. There are also butterfly cakes, simple small sponge cakes which can be iced or eaten plain. Nationwide, assorted biscuits and sandwiches are eaten. Generally, however, the teatime meal has been replaced by snacking, or simply ignored.

Tea itself, usually served with milk, is consumed throughout the day and is sometimes drunk with meals. In recent years herbal teas and speciality teas have also become popular. Coffee is perhaps a little less common than in continental Europe, but is still drunk by many in both its instant and percolated forms, often with milk (but rarely with cream). Italian coffee preparations such as espresso and cappuccino and modern American variants such as the Frappuccino are increasingly popular, but generally purchased in restaurants or from specialist coffee shops rather than made in the home. Sugar is often added to individual cups of tea or coffee, though never to the pot.

Milk deserves special mention. For much of the 20th century Britain had a system whereby milk was delivered to the doorstep in reusable glass bottles in the mornings, usually by special vehicles called “milk floats”. This service continues in some areas, though it has increasingly been replaced by supermarket shopping. Many Britons consider their milk superior to the heat-treated variety found in some other countries.

Cheese is generally hard, made from cows’ milk, and lacking in strong pungency. Cheddar cheese, which is notoriously made anywhere but Cheddar, is by far the most common type, with many variations. Tangy Cheshire, salty Caerphilly, Sage Derby, Red Leicester, creamy Double Gloucester and sweet Wensleydale are some traditional regional varieties. Cheddar and the rich, blue-veined Stilton have both been called the king of English cheeses. Cornish Yarg is a successful modern variety. Sheep and goat cheeses are made chiefly by craft producers. Continental cheeses such as Brie are sometimes imitated.

In more formal contexts wine can be served with meals, though for semi-formal and informal meals bitter (beer) or cider may also be drunk. Although the British brewing tradition can be compared to the Belgian and German ones, the same cannot be said of its beer cookery. Beef pie, with the beef cooked in Guinness or some other beer is almost the only such dish in the repertoire. Rabbit may also be stewed in cider.

Kedgeree, a popular breakfast dish in the Victorian eraIn the Victorian era, during the British Raj, Britain first started borrowing Indian dishes, creating Anglo-Indian cuisine, some of which is still eaten today although many once-popular Anglo-Indian dishes such as kedgeree have largely faded from the scene.

At home, the British have many original home-made desserts such as rhubarb crumble, bread and butter pudding, trifle and spotted dick. The traditional accompaniment is custard, known as crème anglaise (English sauce or English Cream) to the French. The dishes are simple and traditional, with recipes passed on from generation to generation. There is also the dried fruit based Christmas pudding, and the almond flavoured bakewell pudding.

Another formal British culinary tradition rarely observed today is the consumption of a savoury course, such as Welsh rarebit, toward the conclusion of a meal. This now though may be eaten as a snack or a light lunch or supper. Most main meals today end with a sweet dessert, although cheese and biscuits may be consumed as an alternative or as an addition. In Yorkshire, fruit cake is often served with Wensleydale cheese. For formal meals, coffee is a usual culminatory drink.