8247/6 BFF Schools Guide

British foods raise some intriguing Normans and medieval productivity, and many of questions about our past.Why are we a period our special native foods nation of curry lovers, with a taste for dwindled.There is, piquant pickles next to plainly cooked A more refined native cuisine took root after the however, a reversal of this meats? What made us eat fish and chips? Normans introduced new ingredients and techniques. trend as people shop at Returning Crusaders helped promote exotic flavours farmers’ markets, farm And what on earth is Marmite all about? such as rose-water (still familiar in Turkish Delight), shops, specialists and local The bedrock of our food is the land and sea. Rainfall and almonds and sugar. Expensive spices were kept under shops, looking for fresh, a mild, island climate provide lush pastures for feeding lock-and-key and put into special dishes that come seasonal ingredients and cattle and sheep; our coastline (nobody is more than 75 down to us in such festive foods as Christmas pudding produce such as native miles from the sea) delivers plenty of fish; our copious and mince pies. British meat breeds. fuel has long enabled us to bake and roast; our fields of As well as exploring the cuisines of other cultures, chefs barley and northern climate mean we mostly produce The sixteenth to and home-cooks are now rediscovering recipes from the beer rather than wine. But this, of course, is only part of eighteenth centuries past, to find traditional ways of using native ingredients. the story: our culture has been stirred up by the After losing touch with the land and its produce, we are influence of many cultures over many centuries. After the Reformation, the British Isles were now going back to our roots. increasingly set apart from the courtly, Catholic cuisines Romans of the continent. At the same time, improved methods Hattie Ellis is the author of Eating England: why we eat of farming brought better ingredients. Both factors what we eat (Mitchell Beazley) and Sweetness and Light: The four hundred encouraged a simpler style of cooking which relied on the mysterious history of the honey bee (Sceptre) years of Roman the flavours of good produce. Meat took pride of place occupation brought over the fish associated with Catholic fast days, and Here are just a few of Britain’s famous foods: Blue Cheshire the first of many such dishes as roast beef increasingly became a symbol cheese, Game Casserole, Upside Down Cake, Poached Pears, foreign influences to of national pride. Many imported foods were highly Roast Pork, Somerset Brie, Double Gloucester, Cornish Blue, our shores. Orchards, prized, as well: when the Great Fire of London swept Blue Vinny, Cotswold Lamb, Blackberry & Apple Pie,Wild vineyards, herbs and through London in 1666, the diarist Samuel Pepys took Mushrooms, Potted Shrimps, Beef Wellington, Fish Pie, Steak their beloved spice, the trouble to bury his hunk of Italian Parmesan for and Kidney Pie, Bramley Apples, Cox’s Apples, Ginger Bread, mustard, were safe-keeping. Northumberland Gouda, Grouse,Venison, Swaledale Cheese, Wensleydale, Pigeon Pie, Steamed Mussels,Wild Duck, Steak A potted history of Diane, Artichokes, Black Pudding, Lancashire Hot Pot, British food introduced; cheese-making thrived, pheasants and rabbits Gloucestershire Old Spot, Corn on the Cob, Fish & Chips, became part of the countryside and geese and guinea Nineteenth Raspberry Ice Cream, Bread and Butter Pudding, Parsnips, fowl part of the farmyard. century Savoy Cabbage, Elderflower Cordial, Goose, Brussel Sprouts, Saltmarsh Lamb, Heather-fed Lamb, Gammon, Pork Pies, Anglo-Saxons Industrialisation wrought Sausages, Marrows, Rhubarb & Custard, Cumbrian Air Dried great changes on our diet. Ham, Leeks, Shortcake, Mackerel, Haddock, Prawns, Stilton, The Anglo-Saxons had a fund of sophisticated herbal lore Fish and chips combined Sea Bass,Trout,Turbot... and such plants as watercress and camomile began to be the fried potatoes of the regarded as especially healthy.The peasant staples were industrial northern towns bread and a dish known as pottage, a thick soup made of and cities with the fried fish peas, beans or cereals, rather like today’s porridge.Wild of Jewish traders in London. pigs had been domesticated by the tenth century and Marmite was invented in the nineteenth century as a economically fed on household scraps and woodland handy way to use up the yeast that was a by-product forage.They provided a source of meat for people for of the brewing industry.The British Empire continued many centuries.Their meat was salted and to make exotic tastes part of our national palate. preserved to last through the Queen Victoria had a curry made daily in case of year in such forms as sausages visitors from India, and that British stalwart, and bacon. Worcestershire sauce, was first made in 1835, based on Wild foods a recipe brought back from India, whilst Mrs Beeton were includes mango chutney and chilli vinegar in her Book valued with of Household Management. blackberries and raspberries Twentieth century being added to bread to make an Today, we have both more choice, and less.The early version of deprivations of two world wars and 14 years of summer pudding. rationing left us with a food policy geared towards 12.

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