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, largely due to the importation of ingredients and ideas from places such as North America, China, and India during the time of the British Empire and as a result of post-war immigration. In the Early Modern Period the food of England was historically characterized by its simplicity of approach and a reliance on the high quality of natural produce. It is possible the effects of this can still be seen in traditional cuisine. Traditional meals have ancient origins, such as bread and cheese, roasted and stewed meats, meat and game pies, boiled vegetables and broths, and freshwater and saltwater fish. The 14th-century English cookbook, the Forme of Cury, contains recipes for these, and dates from the royal court of Richard II. In the second half of the 18th century Rev. Gilbert White, in The Natural History of Selborne made note of the increased consumption of vegetables by ordinary country people in the south of England, to which, he noted, potatoes had only been added during the reign of George III: "Green-stalls in cities now support multitudes in comfortable state, while gardeners get fortunes. Every decent labourer also has his garden, which is half his support; and common farmers provide plenty of beans, peas, and greens, for their hinds to eat with their bacon."
Other meals, such as fish and chips, which were once urban street food eaten from newspaper with salt and malt vinegar, and pies and sausages with mashed potatoes, onions, and gravy, are now matched in popularity by curries from India and Bangladesh, and stir-fries based on Chinese and Thai cuisine. Italian cuisine and French cuisine are also now widely adapted. Britain was also quick to adopt the innovation offast food from the United States, and continues to absorb culinary ideas from all over the world while at the same time rediscovering its roots in sustainable rural agriculture.
Foods and ingredients
Bread
There is a wide variety of traditional breads in Great Britain, often baked in a rectangular tin. Round loaves are also produced, such as the North East England speciality called a stottie cake. A cottage loaf is made of two balls of dough, one on top of the other, to form a figure-of-eight shape. A cob is a small round loaf. There are many variations on bread rolls, such as baps, barms, breadcakes and so on. The Chorleywood process for mass-producing bread was developed in England in the 1960s before spreading worldwide. Mass produced sliced white bread brands such as Wonderloaf and Mother's Pride have been criticized on grounds of poor nutritional value and taste of the loaves produced.[2] Brown bread is seen as healthier by many, with popular brands including Allinson and Hovis. Artisanal baking has also seen a resurgence since the 1970s.
Rye bread is mostly eaten in the form of Scandinavian-style crisp bread, such as that produced by Ryvita in Birmingham. Malt loaf is a dark, heavy and sweet bread. The popularity of Indian cuisine in Britain means that Indian breads such as naan are made and eaten there. Continental varieties, such as baguettes (also known as "French sticks") and focaccia are also made. The consumption of bagels is no longer restricted to the Jewish community.
Cheese.
English cheese is generally hard, and made from cows' milk. Cheddar cheese, originally made in the village of Cheddar, is by far the most common type, with many variations. Tangy Cheshire, salty Caerphilly, Sage Derby, Lancashire Cheese, 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. The name 'Cheddar cheese' has become widely used internationally, and does not currently have a protected designation of origin (PDO) under European Union law. However West Country farmhouse Cheddar has been awarded a PDO. To meet this standard the cheese must be made in the traditional manner using local ingredients in one of the four designated counties of South West England: Somerset, Devon, Dorset, or Cornwall.
Sheep and goat cheeses are made chiefly by craft producers. Cottage cheese is a generic soft cheese style, originally home made, but now bought ready made. An Indian relative of cottage cheese, paneer is readily available, as is philadelphia cream cheese. Soft processed cheeses, such as dairylea triangles are made as a sandwich filling. Continental styles such as Brie and Camembert are sometimes also manufactured.
Popular cheese-based dishes include macaroni and cheese and cauliflower cheese.
Fish and seafood.
Although a wide variety of fish are caught in British waters, the English tend to mainly eat only a few species. Cod, haddock, plaice, huss, and skate are the fish-and-chip shop favourites. (The unadventurous approach and the tendency to eat fish battered were mocked by Keith Floyd with the phrase "unidentified frying objects"). A few other species, such as coley and pollock are found in the anonymous form of bread crumbed fishcakes and fish fingers. Pilchards (large sardines), feature in the Cornish speciality, Stargazy Pie. Otherwise, a typical fish pie consists of white fish and prawns topped with mashed potato. Whitebait, the young of a number of species, are traditionally eaten fried as a starter. Sardines, pilchards and mackerel are often seen in tinned from, as are imported species such as tuna and anchovies. Sea bass, lobster, scallops and monkfish are among the expensive and highly-esteemed species that may be found on fine dining menus. Salmon, haddock, mackerel or herring may be smoked, the last in the form of kippers, buckling or bloaters. Herring may also be served pickled as rollmops. Salmon and trout are the most popular freshwater fish. Eels were once baked into pies and served with a herb sauce or "liquor" at pie and mash shops in urban working-class areas, but the dish and the shops are now both near extinction. Popular non-English fish dishes include Scottish cullen skink soup, Spanish paella, French fish soup, Thai fishcakes, moules frites and various Asian prawn dishes.
A kipper is a whole herring that has been split from tail to head, gutted, salted or pickled, and cold smoked. They are often eaten for breakfast.
Many seaside towns have shellfish stalls located at the beach, harbour, or seafront. Traditionally these sell snack-sized pots of cockles, mussels, jellied eels, shell-on or peeled prawns, crab meat, whelks, winkles (small and large sea snails) and oysters. The shellfish are served cold and the customer adds condiments — salt, pepper, lemon juice, malt vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, cocktail sauce or tabasco — to taste. Many stalls make their own chilli vinegar by infusing chillis in malt vinegar. In recent years, surimi and Mediterranean squid and octopus preparations have been added to the menu. Mobile shellfish stalls sometimes set up near inland pubs, particularly in London's East End.
Oysters, once a mainstay of the poor, were baked in a savoury pudding with beef. As they became more expensive, they were replaced with kidneys to form the traditional dish steak and kidney pudding. Oyster bars are now an up market variation on the seafood stall. Whitstable in Kent is noted as a source of good quality oysters. Crab is traditionally eaten cold in salads or sandwiches. Cromerin Norfolk is a famous exporter of crab. More cambe in Lancashire is renowned for its potted shrimps.
