Traditional British food is making a comeback

Meats

 Traditional British food has often taken a bit of a hammering; being labelled as dull and bland, it has been a source of amusement for our European counterparts for hundreds of years. But now the British, or “rostbifs” as the French love to call us, are staging a comeback. The demand for traditional British recipes is higher than ever - but with our cuisine influenced by so many cultures what really is Traditional British food?

 Pies - Puddings - Pasties

Meat pies have been a staple of the British menu for hundreds of years.

Coming in all shapes and sizes, they are still sold in butchers shops but are also available in many restaurants and pubs across Britain.

The pie was a favourite in Victorian times, with travelling pie salesman selling there wares from baskets carried above their heads; they also sold the pies in taverns and were extremely popular at horse race meetings.

 Several references to these pie merchants can still be found today with Simple Simon buying one for a penny in his nursery rhyme, and of course Blackadder’s favourite fill was a slap up meal in Mrs Miggins pie shop.

In more recent times, and especially in the east end of London the pie was served up to hundreds of cockneys every day in pie and mash shops.

The pie was mainly filled with mutton and onions and was served with mash potato and a parsley sauce called liquor; interestingly enough these pie and mash shops also served hot and cold eels and a handful can still be found feeding the east end today.

Puddings are similar to pies in that they are filled with many of the same ingredients, but rather than having an outer case of pastry they are made from a suet mixture and then steamed. Suet is fat from around the kidneys and liver of animals; cows are the most common source of suet in the UK. The suet gives a soft consistency in contrast to the crumply crispness of shortcrust pastry.

Pasties are another stuffed savory that has been consumed in Britain through the ages. Where the pasty originated from no one can be exactly sure, but it is widely believed to hail from Cornwall where Cornish tin miners would take the snack with them down the mines for lunch. The tale would have you believe that as the miners were not able to return to the surface at lunch and being covered in dust they would hold the pasty by the thick crust, eat the rest and discard the piece of dirty pastry.

Pasties have a much thicker pastry case than most pies and are designed to keep the filling hot for a long time (eight to ten hours) and would help the miners stay warm in the dark, cold mines.

Today all over Britain there are outlets selling pasties with each one claiming to have the most authentic and original recipe. No one is one hundred percent clear on what the original recipe is broadly agreed that the main ingredients are beef, onions, turnip and potato.

The first recorded mention of the pasty was in a 16th century document found by a researcher in Devon - this find sparked a bitter dispute between the two counties, each claiming ownership of the savory snack. The Cornish argue that the pasty has roots in its society for several hundreds of years, yet the earliest known recipe dates back to 1746 and is locked away in the Cornwall Records Office in Truro.

Haggis is a dish made primarily from sheep’s pluck. The pluck is the heart, liver and lungs of the animal, which is minced together with onions, oatmeal, suet and spices. Stock is then added and the whole mixture is stuffed into the animal’s stomach to be boiled for around three hours.

Although the haggis may not be the most attractive of foods to look at it does have a delicious and utterly unique flavor, with even the Larousse Gastronomique lauding its “excellent nutty texture and delicious savory flavor”

The famous Scottish poet Robert Burns immortalized the dish in his poem ‘Address to a Haggis’ in 1787. The haggis is always served alongside mashed neaps and tattles (swede and potatoes) and a dram of Scotch whisky.

Controversially the first recorded recipe for haggis is thought to be in a cookbook called liber cure cocorum which dates back to the 1440’s - not from Scotland but Lancashire in North West England.

Black pudding often called blood pudding due to the fact that its main ingredient is blood. The blood together with fillers such as suet, oatmeal, bread and bits of meat are cooked until thick enough to congeal and set once cooled. Blood from pigs and cattle is most commonly used but sometimes sheep, goats and even horse blood is used to make black pudding.

Black pudding is often served in Britain as part of a traditional English breakfast, and likewise in Ireland where it is accompanied by its close relative white pudding.
No country claims to be the first to make black pudding but areas famed for making particularly good puddings are Bury in England, Isle of Lewis in Scotland and Clonakilty in southern Ireland.

All of these traditional British foods are widely available today and we have traditional British recipes that incorporate all of them.