Traditional English foods

We are going to talk about culture today.

We are going to present some of the most common and popular foods in England.Probably you have heard about most of them, but some might be unknown to a lot of people that is visiting England.

Here they are:

Fish and chips: fish and chips are usually eaten on Fridays. They are sold in the fish and chip restaurants and stands. Usually they are eaten with salt and vinegar (malt vinegar) and peas. Their origins are not exactly clear, but some stories saying that it could have been originated either in Lancanshire or in London in the 19th (around the 1830s). Nowadays it is considered as a national dish.

Yorkshire pudding: They are usually eaten on Sundays sreved with roast food. They are traditionaly baked on the oven made from batter. It contains milk, eggs and flour As its name points out it has started to be cooked in the north of England in the 18th century. In this case pudding doenst mean anything sweet, if not that pudding refering to batter.  They are usually served with beef or any other type of meat and gravy.

Toad-in-the-hole: Probably you haven´t heard about it as much as fish and chips, but it is a traditional English dish. It consists on sausages and batter baked on the oven. This dish appeared in the 18th century as well and the origin of its name it is unclear. This recipe appears in the Book of the Household Management by Mrs.Beeton. This book dates back from the 20th century and in it we can find many traditional English recipes. In this case batter became to be very popular since people started to have access to wheat flour, which allowed them to make many recipes using batter. On the other hand, meat was very expensive at the time and they needed to make meals using the ingredients that were affordable for them.

Cheddar cheese:  Cheddar cheese is probably one of the most famous in UK together with Red Leicester cheese. It is originally from the South West of England, in the county of Somerset having the name from the village where it was orinigated, Cheddar. It has been produced since the 12th century and it is widely known in many countries all over the world.

Shepperds Pie: (meat pie, cottage pie)  It is made of mince mixed with some vegetables as carrots or peas and onions in a gravy sauce, and adding mashed potatoes on the top and sometimes grated cheese. This pie appeared in the 18th, when potatoes started to be introduced as edible vegetables. People started to make a lot of recipes with potatoes, especially meat pies. It is still a very popular dish in UK and in Ireland, being cooked regularly and served with vegetables on the side. The term shepperds pie refers to lamb meat, as lamb meat was used traditionally to make this pie, so that it took its name Shepperds pie, being the shepperd the one that takes care of the sheep. Nonetheless, nowadays the meat used to make this pie is usually beef. It can be also named cottage pie or meat pie.

Scotch eggs: They are really one of the classics of the British cusine and they were created by they were created by Fortnum & Mason (the department store) of Piccadilly in 1738 (London). It was a snack invented for travelling, since it was easy to carry. A Scotch egg consists of a hard-boiled egg wrapped in sausage meat, coated in bread crumbs and baked or deep-fried. It is said that they could be inspired by an Indian dish called nargisi kofta. They are usually bring on picnics and they are sold in the supermarkets. To make perfect scotch eggs might not be easy, and many say that the supermarket versions are really different from the baked ones.

Crumpets: a crumpet is a thick, flat, savoury cake with a soft, porous texture, made from a yeast mixture cooked on a griddle and eaten toasted and with butter. They are circular and usually served with tea. They are mostly consumed in the UK and they can be considered as a type of bread, that it looks like English muffin bread, the difference is basically that crumpets have a porous texture, with some types of small holes on the surface. To bake them, you´ll need to buy a crumpet ring or an english muffin ring, since it is that how they can take that perfect rounded shape. They are made with yeast, eggs, flour and baking powder. They are an English traditional treat since before the Victorian times. They may be topped with butter, jam, poached egg, clotted cream or ham.

Traditonal crumpets with butter and jam

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Cornish pasties: Pasties are one of the most traditional English foods, and they have been baked in England since the 13 century filled with different types of meats, vegetables or fish. But it wasn´t until the 17th century that the famous Cornish pasties appeared as a traditional dish, after they were adopted by the farmers and miners of Cornwall as one of their main food. The cornish pasties provided the workers a good and sustainable meal. Cornish pasties are usually filled with beef, potatoes onions and a swede together with a rich gravy. However, the fillings can be as varied as one can imagine. The meats used for them have to be minced or chopped. Cornish pasties are considered to be one of the most popular dishes in Cornwall and they are served all around the country. The earliest references to Cornish pasties appear in Chaucer´s Canterbury Tales.Cornish pasties are usually sold nowadays in what it is called as  "Pasty shop".