Whenever I see some recipe with tomato or potato and people in the comments are trying to convince everyone it’s a dish from their country I can’t help but be a bit amused. It’s often Indians unsurprisingly, and I say that because 1/8th of the world’s population and most spices are from India.
And on the flipside, it’s almost impressive how England has stuck with their guns culinary-wise. I mean, just play a round of Scrandle for those mushy peas.British food is great. Chicken tikka, pizza, Chinese, lasagne… The list goes on.
In all seriousness, there’s some great British food and people get too territorial about what constitutes as what food belongs to whom.
Definitely - foods like British / Scottish / Irish / Ulster fry, pork pies, bangers & mash, fish & chips, Sunday roast (carved meat, roast potatoes, yorkshire puds), shepherd’s pie, beef wellington to name a few. Plenty of deserts too. And ingredients like worcester sauce, English mustard, marmite etc.
A Sunday roast / carvery is basically what Americans get when they order prime rib. The cut of meat is slightly different due to different classifications but for all intents and purposes it’s a Sunday rib roast. For some bizarre reason in the US it’s regarded as fine dining with a price 4x as much as it would be for a better Sunday roast meal / carvery in a British pub. Over two decades ago I went to dine in a Lawry’s Prime Rib in Chicago - big mistake - massively overpriced for what it was.
Out of the food you mentioned only Beef Wellington and English Breakfast/Ulster Fry/ are uniquely British.
Everything else is either not a dish (fried sausage and potatoes definitely is not a dish you philistine :P) or not distinct enough.
Pork pies, fish and chips, roast, shepherds pie - it is eaten in Britain, but is not unique to them, as was historically eaten across the whole Europe (I mean it is fish and chips, it didn’t need “inventing”).
I think we need these smaller distinctions to have a meaningful conversation about food. If not, French crepes would be too similar to Norwegian pancakes, pizza and quiche could be the same if you ignore the yeast and tomato sauce, and if you really want to stretch it you could group Japanese ramen and Polish pasta soup together. In some ways I want to agree with you, for good ideas usually pop up multiple times and places, but I am too fond of traveling and tasting different food traditions to give in.
Saying Kimchi and Saurkraut are the same thing is heresy in some parts. Salt water, cabbage, spices, time. Same damn thing the way I cook.
I am not a chef.
Chef here. I have at least 100 recipes for various types of pancakes the world over.
Never underestimate an Americans willingness to take their single racist heirloom joke and run it into the Martians trench thinking it’s a fact.
Fair.
Polish rosół is much more similar to French consomme than to ramen though. The stretch to ramen would be rather significant.
Yes all those other things are distinctly British. Britain didn’t function in a vacuum and I’m sure there are influences to everything. But if you eat a British pork pie you absolutely know what it is. Same for fish and chips. Same for all those things.
Since we’re comparing to Italy where do you think tomatoes came from? Do you think pasta wasn’t independently invented in many places? Do you think olive oil, or bread, ragus, salted pork etc weren’t also done elsewhere?
And if you were to say, for example, that pasta with tomato sauce is an Italian dish, I’d argue it’s not, as pasta was eaten across the whole Europe, and likely first added tomato happened in Britain.
Bolognese sauce with pasta on the other hand would definitely be Italian dish. Do you see the distinction?
Fish and Chips is Jewish food, and became popular in Britain in the Victorian era with the coincidence of a large wave of Dutch Jews arriving in the country and the development of a rail network sufficient to deliver fresh fish anywhere in the country.
Like I said, Britain didn’t function in a vacuum. Fish and chips is still a uniquely British thing however.
But it isn’t. Its portuguese.
England had to utilize military force to control India to get the spices, to make the blandest food on the planet.
What’s that old saying?
British women and British food made British sailors the best in the world.
Never tried English mustard or fresh horseradish sauce then?
French mustard is better.
Dijon is nice, but not as strong as English
They sold the spices to other nations for major profit to enrich themselves. They never intended to eat said spices.
That’s what the Portuguese and the Dutch did. By the time the British finally defeated the Dutch in… like… the seventh war, the spice trade was no longer the most profitable. It was then the Atlantic Triangle… or whatever it was called.
What do you think tea is made of?
Leaves.
Come back
Curry is practically the national dish in the UK now and a few variants were even invented there
Don’t worry, it’s not a trad misogynist belief that women belong in the kitchen. It’s just a widdle bit of cute racism.
I think you mean bigotry not racism.
Why do americans refuse to recognise the genetic distinctiveness of true thoughoughbred Europeans. I can assure you those guys from the next village over are indeed monsterous fishmen, and our Earl Jeremy Flaxwheet the sixth was right to kidnap and employ all their hideous children in his mills.
I don’t know. We stopped using leeches to treat injuries?
We also stopped using cocaine as a cold and flu remedy, which I think was a huge mistake
True, Trump didn’t stop using it and his rectum is as non functional as a newborns.
But seriously i had a roast at an English friends house, have you guys ever heard of slow cooking? Braising? Grilling? Marinating? Just throwing a roast in boiling water or in the oven for an hour isnt gonna cut it
I was gonna say hey, that’s what I do and mine turns out fine, then googled to see what braising means and apparently that’s what I do with my roasts.
Do you mean the brits just… Straight up boil roasts, fully submerged and without browning firat?
No, we don’t. Op is talking out of his arse. Or he’s the last surviving member of a platoon that landed at Normandy, talking of his experience of wartime rations.
[Source: proud anglo]
The closest thing my family do is boiled ham:
Thigh of a pig is stuck on a low boil for ages, lid on pot. Maybe bayleaf, black papper, rosemary, thyme, salt etc… but very much lightly seasoned compared to italian food. The ham comes out with a soft texture, cut it into slices and serve with potatoes, butter, green veg, english mustard, relish, pickle etc… It’s less flavourful than a porkchop but:
- You are serving it with powerful flavours anyway
- The ham flavour is now all in the water, adding split peas and herbs makes a large quantity of excellent soup which you can heat and eat at your convienence. Finish friday with ham and lunch thoughout the weekend is set.
- There is usually ham left over, and this will be cooked again into something like a ommlette, pie or stirfry.
we would not call it a “roast” though, that’s reserved for roasts.
No.
Their friend just can’t cook
You’re welcome to come over and try it, but I can’t help you if you end up in the village stocks.
I’m confused with your words. If you are boiling something you can’t be roasting it.
The comment I replied to stated that in their experience brits just throw a roast in water and boil it. Which I agree is not a roast.
Maybe I’m missing something.
Is “a roast” a type/style of meat?
Well the cuts of meat that are often used for making an oven roast, can also be called roasts sometimes I guess. You can go to the store and buy a product called “oven roast” and… boil it instead of roasting it. I just don’t know why one would do that.
Not sure but my ex used to serve salt beef boiled with carrots potatoes and cabbage all boiled in one pot. It was fine but also very plain and not very flavourful
Sounds like eighteenth century peasant food.
are you describing like a goulash?
Curry is the greatest dish of English cuisine.
The best German dishes are Döner, Spaghetti and Lasagne.
France favorite dish is couscous
Favourite? Hmm, maybe? We have many delicious local dishes, which maybe other regions don’t know about. Whereas couscous is more widely spread because Maghreb immigrants are everywhere.
Yup, but somehow couscous is the top 4 🤷
Fuckin schnitzel doesn’t matter or anything!?
Well Schnitzel is in the top 10. But only the one from Vienna
Schnitzel don’t hold a sausage to a good Bratwurst though!
Sure it does, but the Japanese perfected it.
Somehow I completely believe that, and schnitzel and Sapporo sounds really good
Tonkatsu is amazing.
While I’ve never had the privilege of doing so in-country, it seems straightforward to make and would absolutely pair with Japanese beer*: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katsudon
* - Also something the Japanese refined from the Germans.
But käsespätzle…
Nah, Germany has the best sausage.
199398500A is the only one popular abroad tbh
TIL about the Volkswagen sausage.
More popular than bratwurst? I guess maybe that could be true somewhere, but I’ve never heard of that VW sausage before, and I’ve had bratwurst many, many times outside of Germany.
I’m just kidding. Everyone who took German instead of Russian in school knows about bratwurst at least. But very few places around me serve it. VW Currywurst is more famous among car guys, but it’s because of the meme status rather than how good it is or isn’t.
However grilled sausage is super popular here and it’s not too different from bratwurst I guess. We’re very fond of grilling here, personally I usually spend all 3 days of summer on grilling and alcohol.
Nah, the Spanish and Italians have way better sausages.
Eh what? Not the same kind of sausages I think. Spain and Italy have the dry meat type and Germany has the uncooked type. Very different culinary experiences. I tend to agree with you though.
I don’t like fennel.
In Japan they consider curry a European dish, so you’re not really wrong.
That’s cos the British took curry to japan and the japanese adapted a local curry sauce from it. Katsu is a japanisation of “cut” - as in cut chicken.
What about doner kebab and garlic sauce?
That’s German! /s
“Everybody get the fuck out of my way and don’t touch anything”
-Me, in the kitchen
-Me, in the kitchen
correction:
-Me, in MY kitchen
I tell people to “get out of my kitchen” all the time. I keep it neat, I keep it functional, don’t leave your dirty dish there you heathen, get out!
Guest cooks are welcome, at which point I will get out of their way too, but when I’m head chef, I’m the LAW.
-Me, in OUR kitchen
Seriously, you don’t enjoy cooking with a partner or family member or anything?
I actually really enjoy it. Apparently for my friends it’s like real life Overcooked levels of screaming.
Oh I definitely enjoy cooking in the presence of a partner or family member
I glare at them until they leave.
If the other person knows to work with you, sure. But cooking with people is about as difficult as teaming up with rando online, haha !
I have several thousands of millions of food intolerances, so I love that British simplicity
The food, the weather and the women created a seafaring nation.
Italians assume they eat good but in fact they eat a lot of shit like anyone else
Yeah, no, Italians can’t make breakfast for shit.
Coffee and a cake does not breakfast make.
English breakfast might be considered an acceptable meal if it wasn’t served at the time of day it is.
I mean you can have it for brunch…
I mean even scrambled eggs is too much for any Italian hotel or breakfast restaurant I’ve been to. Like literally as if they made it mediocre on purpose.
I always found it random that a full English breakfast includes tomatoes
Huh? It’s a passable breakfast, I don’t really see it being much of a lunch or dinner. Okay MAYBE lunch.
Eggs: okay admitting this is a breakfast staple. Sausage and/or beans: instant lunch or dinner category.
But there’s literally breakfast sausages here in the US and like half of all breakfast sandwiches are sausage egg and cheese?
Trying to categorize food is basically impossible.
Trying to categorize food is basically impossible.
Especially since breakfast for dinner is fucking awesome
I hate Italian breakfast. My stomach doesn’t fare well with coffee, sugar, or wheat. I skip breakfast when I’m there.
That’s better than my Israeli coworker. Coffee and cigarette.
I’m italian, but I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t want me in your kitchen
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A strong boundary and a great punchline 😄 That’s love, culture, and humor all working together.
Yeah, I get this sentiment. I don’t particularly like cooking, but I like cooking a lot more than what my partner prepares.
The absolute best breakfast in the world is square sausage and potato scones.
Nope. Biscuits and gravy is the very best breakfast. A pair of fresh handmade biscuits hot out of the oven and smothered in a white gravy with bits of spicy pork sausages and loads of black pepper for bite. A meal fit to fight whatever the day throws at you. Although fried chicken and waffles is a fine substitute. And smoked ribs, brisket, or pork butt cooked low and slow and infused with hours of hardwood smoke might be perfection itself. If you have the desire, your patience will be rewarded with meats that are unrivaled in this world.
But, like everything else in this world, cuisines are built upon whatever scraps of food that were handy and flavored with whatever seasonings that could be bought or scrounged. Local cuisines died when the first trader brought home something new to eat. It’s all just a mish-mash of ideas and methods now. And good food is as easy to find as bad food is.
That gravy is gross but you do you. They actually sound similar at a high level. Fry your sausage and then cook the potato scones in the sausage grease.
But this post was about British foods.
