Британская кухня (страноведение)

Traditional British Food

Fish and Chips

• The perfect comfort dish on a cold day, a typical fish and chip dinner will consist of a large piece of white fish (usually cod or haddock) coated in batter and deep-fried to crispy perfection.  Traditionally, in the UK, the fish is served with chunky chips, never with fries.

Shepherd’s Pie

• When is a pie not really a pie?

Shepherd’s Pie is a hearty meal containing a bottom layer of meat – usually minced or diced lamb – cooked with onions and other vegetables in a rich gravy. It’s then topped with a thick layer of mashed potato and baked.

Steak and Kidney Pie / Pudding

• Steak and Kidney Pie  (or Steak and Kidney Pudding) is one of those typical British dishes that you just have to try!

The filling is composed of diced steak combined with chopped onion and kidney, usually from a pig or lamb. This mixture is cooked with brown gravy, then encased in pastry and baked. Or – in the case of steak and kidney pudding – steamed for several hours in a suet pastry. Occasionally mushrooms are added, along with some type of ale.

Haggis, Neeps & Tatties

• Haggis  is the national dish of Scotland and is traditionally served with mashed root vegetables –  neeps  (turnips) and  tatties  (potatoes). With a texture of a highly seasoned, crumbly sausage, haggis was traditionally made of a mixture of sheep offal (heart, liver, and lungs), minced with oats, onion, suet, salt and spices, then boiled in a sheep’s stomach.

Bangers and Mash

• It is a hearty meal and comes covered in a rich onion gravy, with vegetables on the side. Traditionally a dish for the working classes, you can find gourmet versions made with specialty sausages and a mash made with other root vegetables like carrot or swede.
• While the ‘mash’ part of the dish simply refers to mashed potatoes, the term ‘bangers’ might be a bit more elusive.
• A banger is actually a British sausage. It doesn’t refer to any regional specialty but is a blanket term applied to all sausages produced in the UK.

Yorkshire Pudding

• Yorkshire Pudding  is one of those traditional British foods that is not what foreigners expect it to be. It has nothing to do with sweet custard that the rest of the world calls ‘pudding’. Yorkshire pudding is a sort of savory pastry, made from a batter of eggs, flour, and water or milk. It’s usually served as a side dish.

These days, Yorkshire puddings are served alongside a Sunday roast (see further below), but that’s not how they started. Originally they were given as an appetizer, covered with gravy, in order to take the edge off the appetite of the diner whose main meal was too small to be satisfying!

When Yorkshire puddings were first served on the Sunday roast it would be to accompany the beef. These days, they tend to be included no matter what meat is cooked.

  Sunday Roast

• The  Sunday Roast  is a long-standing British institution and, to this day, one of the UK’s favorite meals. It is sometimes referred to as the ‘Sunday joint’ in reference to the roasted joint of meat that lies at the heart of the meal. In addition to the meat, it also contains roasted potatoes, stuffing, vegetables (typically cauliflower cheese, peas, and Brussels sprouts), and Yorkshire puddings.

This feast of a meal is then smothered in a rich gravy made from the juices of the meat, along with a sauce to accompany the specific meat used. Horseradish sauce accompanies beef, mustard goes for pork, mint sauce with lamb, and cranberry sauce with chicken.

Full English Breakfast

• A ‘full English’ is also known as a fry-up because of the method used to cook the ingredients. It usually consists of bacon slices (called rashers), sausages, eggs (fried, poached, or scrambled), mushrooms, baked beans, fried or grilled tomatoes, black pudding, and fried bread. As if all of this isn’t enough to fill you up, it also comes with a side serving of hot buttered toast and a cup of British tea!

Black Pudding

• Black pudding  is a kind of sausage and deserves a separate mention among the most typical dishes in the UK. It’s a central part of the full English breakfast, particularly in the north of England where it is most popular.

Unlike other sausages, however, this one is made with blood combined with a filler like oatmeal, and cooked long enough for it to congeal. It is one of those dishes that some people like and others refuse to try. But it is actually quite a healthy alternative to regular sausages and tastes a lot better than it sounds!

Cullen Skink

Its name may sound unappealing but  Cullen Skink  is a very delicious Scottish fish soup. It’s made from a mixture of smoked haddock, potatoes, and onions, along with milk or cream.

Toad in the Hole

• Many of Britain’s favorite dishes fall into the category of ‘comfort food’ – probably thanks to the country’s damp and chilly climate.  Toad in the Hole  is no exception!

Thankfully this oddly-named dish doesn’t actually contain any toads. It’s a batter pudding containing meat, originally steak, offal, or pigeon. The batter is the same recipe as that used for Yorkshire puddings (see above). However, with Toad in the Hole, the meat is baked inside the batter, which then rises and envelops it.

  Cornish Pasty

• The more humble variety of the dish is now enjoyed all across the UK. Pasty consists of a filling (traditionally beef, potato, onion, and swede) sealed and cooked together in a pastry ‘packet’, which is crimped together into a thick crust at one edge.

This made it easy for workers to hold their meal in their hands as they toiled. It was particularly favored by miners, whose very dirty hands may have contaminated any other meal.

Irish Stew

• There are two major components of the dish – meat and potatoes. Originally the meat would have been mutton, which was widely available at that time. Indeed, the peasants – who relied on their sheep for milk and wool – kept them well into their old age, by which time the meat had to be stewed to be edible!

Potatoes first arrived in Ireland in the 16th century and went on to play a very significant part in the diet of the working classes. To this day, Irish dishes tend to revolve around a central ingredient of potatoes. Irish Stew is no exception, with purists saying that nothing more than meat and onions should be added.

Bubble and Squeak

• Bubble and Squeak  is named after the ‘bubbling’ and ‘squeaking’ noises of its ingredients cooking together. It is made from chopped vegetables (usually, cabbage) combined with mashed potato, then formed into patties and fried in lard or butter until golden.

Scotch Egg

• The  Scotch egg  is a rather strange creation, much loved right across the UK. It consists of a hard-boiled egg, wrapped in sausagemeat, covered in breadcrumbs, then baked or deep-fried until golden and crispy.

It is served cold and is a huge picnic favorite. If you take a glance at the food spread out on almost any British picnic blanket, chances are the Scotch egg will have pride of place!

Marmite

• Marmite is a very strongly flavored spread made from concentrated brewer’s yeast. And though it was first made in the UK, it was actually invented by a German scientist. The Marmite Food Company was subsequently founded in 1902 in Burton-upon-Trent in England, an area with many breweries and plenty of the raw ingredients needed to make it.

Jam Roly-Poly

• Jam roly-poly  is a popular dessert and a modern British classic! It was traditionally served after school lunch throughout the later part of the 20th century.
• Its ingredients are simple: a dough made from suet is spread liberally with jam, rolled up like a Swiss roll, then steamed or baked. Jam roly-poly is served topped with plenty of steaming custard, which – along with the jam – provides the sweetness. The dough contains no sugar at all.

Christmas Pudding

• Christmas Pudding  is served after almost every traditional British Christmas dinner. It’s a rich and luxurious mixture of dried fruit, peel, breadcrumbs, and alcohol with dark sugars and sweet spices.

English Tea with Milk

• The British are famous across the world for their love of a ‘cup of tea’. Unlike in many other countries, however,  British tea is served with milk .