Notes - The Cooking of Great Britain

CHAPTER 27 : THE COOKING OF GREAT BRITAIN

British cooking is not known for its sauces or subtleties. It depends on the excellence of raw materials, the seasonal crops and a simple style of preparation that imparts flavour to the food. Fresh fish from the abundance of lakes, rivers and coastal waters are the pride of the country. No household is very far from the source of fish, which means it is always fresh enough to retain its true flavor. The food is always plainly cooked, with not much addition of sauce to a dish would be a negation of natures intent.

The indigenous and characteristic aspects of British cuisine have earned it a niche among the world cuisines. As great meat caters, they have perfected the art of roasting as well as specialties such as steamed puddings, raised pies, potted, jellied and pickled meats and fish as well as an enormous and unique range of breads and cakes.

Unlike the French, the British have no Grande cuisine or customs of elegant highly contrived restaurant eating. Almost everyone royalty and commoner ate the same food, however fancy or plain. The royal kitchens merely drew on a wider variety of foodstuffs and in greater quantities. Britain was a worldwide trader since the 16^th century and could afford to import the best the world had to offer from tea, coffee and rice to exotic spices and fruits and all these found their way into home cooking.

British food is basic and uncomplicated. There are no gastronomic flourishes to upset natural flavours. It is substantial food starting with a traditional breakfast of sausage, bacon, grilled tomatoes and fried egg to afternoon teas of scones and jams, crumpets and cakes. Not for nothing, has British cuisine been affectionately dubbed “nursery food”. Some of the dishes have a schoolboy ring about them - “toad-in-the-hole”, bubble and squeak, spotted dick, bangers and mash.

The British Breakfast

Abroad, the British Breakfast has gained a formidable reputation. The French consider it perfectly barbaric; how could one start a day with a meal that includes fish and to make matters worse, strange grey glue called porridge. The fact is that the English breakfast is the result of a long process of evolution, of the slow amalgamation of foods from places outside Britain. The British consider it their finest meal. The noted novelist Somerset Maugham once observed “the best way to eat well in Britain is to have breakfast three times a day.

The English breakfast owes, in particular much to the Scots. They eat an even more substantial breakfast than the English and the Welsh or the Irish. They consume vast quantities of porridge and considerable amount of bread usually in the form of a breakfast roll called a ‘Bap” and drink prodigious quantities of tea sometimes laced with whisky. Aberdeen was the birthplace of the breakfast sausage, while Dundee is the home of marmalade without which no breakfast is completed. Orange marmalade, as the legend goes, was introduced into Scotland by Mary Queen of Scots in the 16^th Century. Originally, marmalade was made from quinces. The Portuguese name for this fruit is marmello from which marmalade gets its name. The Scots even produce a marmalade flavoured with whisky.

Bacon – is in original, entirely English. Ham, which also often figures on the breakfast table, is the cured leg of the pig; bacon, the cured carcass. Only the English cured the carcass of the pig, usually by salting, while the rest of Europe ate it fresh.

Bacon and ham are cured all over the country, but the ham from York became most famous. Wiltshire ham is also famous especially for the mild and delicately flavored Bradenham. Another specialty is the Seagee ham from Suffolk, treated by immersion in brine and sugar syrup, matured, smoked and then hung for three months to develop its characteristic sheen.

Oatmeal and porridge are also breakfast favourites. In Scotland, porridge is traditionally eaten unsweetened but well salted, and with cold milk. English people eat their porridge with sugar or sometimes golden syrup. The Welsh on the other hand obtain their early morning energy by consuming quantities of Siot, an oatcake soaked in buttermilk and brewis an oatmeal broth. In England, the place of porridge was taken by a concoction called frumenty which some claim to be the oldest known dish in England. With the urbanization that is taking place the British breakfast, which evolved from meat and beer through eggs and bacon, has now been reduced to tea and toast. The next stage would surely be the continental coffee and rolls …… hardly worth getting up for!!!!.

A truly traditional British breakfast would include Baps or some other traditional bread, bacon, sausage and mushrooms, eggs - boiled, fried or scrambled, ham kedgeree, stewed prunes, sautéed kidneys smoked haddock or kippers and of course tea and coffee.

Tea

To the uninitiated taking tea with the British may seem almost on par with the tea ceremonies of the Japanese. For tea is more than simply a drink in Britain. There is indeed ceremony and ritual surrounding the institution of tea. Tea is consumed at almost all hours of the day as a bracing start to the morning, a welcome break in the work at offices or in the factories and a pleasant cup at bedtime. In rural areas, where dinner is eaten at midday the evening meal or supper is called the “ high tea” or “meal tea”. Among the gentry and middle class, tea is a hospitable spread for guests. In the cities where dinner is served late in the evening, tea is a necessary snack. Afternoon tea becomes tea at its most ceremonious, an occasion for entertaining and is essentially a feminine affair.

The people of Britain purchase 475 million pounds of tea a year which amount to 9 cups of tea per head, per day. Tea was introduced to Britain in the 17^th century by the Dutch who imported it from China. In fact it was known as ‘Chinese Tcha’. It was first taken in bowls without milk or sugar. It was regarded a medicine and the first shipment in 1658 arrived as an expensive luxury. When Charles II married Catherine of Braganza in 1662 she introduced the fashion of tea drinking which had long been popular in Portugal. Within 10 years imports had trebled. By the 18^th century tea had become such a popular drink that it has all but ousted beer. Until the 1930’s tea still came only from China, but gradually, imports from India and Sri Lanka also grew. Today, nearly half the tea consumed in Britain comes from India.

A Nation of Meat Eaters

The main Sunday meal served at mid-day frequently is Roast Beef. It is served with its classic accompaniment of Yorkshire Pudding and its attendant of roast potatoes, which is an integral part of the meal. So are the other accompaniments - mustard, horseradish sauce and a sauce boat of rich brown gravy. Green vegetables and perhaps carrots add a splash of colour. In the olden days, beef was expensive and tough and often lacked flavour. Yet these very shortcomings contributed to the character of British Cookery. Spices and sauces were increasingly used to improve the flavour of the meat. Apart from giving the meat a better flavour an equally important function was disguising its taste. Meat was often ‘high’ or ‘tainted’ and often handfuls of pungently flavoured marigold flowers were put into soups and stews.

Those who could afford it used cloves, ginger, saffron and cinnamon. Later, India’s long association with Britain and educated the British palate to more fiery flavours. Into the sauces went turmeric, cumin and cardamom. The East India Company also introduced the chutney to the British. By the 19^th century, refrigeration made it possible to import meat from Argentina, Australia and New Zealand. In the big cities the faster lifestyles have led to the more time-consuming meat dishes like stews and casseroles to disappear from the daily menu. Chops steaks and cutlets are now the more easily prepared cuts and hence more popular. Nearly every family can now afford a joint of meat whether beef, lamb or pork.

The thrifty use of leftovers lead to the creation of homely recipes such as shepherds pie, toad-in-the-hole and froise or fraise (a slice of leftover bacon, batter fried). Other popular stews include Irish Stew, Lancashire Hot Pot, Lobscouse (a mutton and vegetable stew with barley) boiled bacon and cabbage with peas pudding and beef roll.

The British are also great hunters– both furred and feathered. These include deer, rabbit, hare, grouse, partridge, pheasant and ptarmigan. A fair amount of poaching still goes on in the country. It is unlawful to hunt on Sundays and Christmas day but though these laws are obsolete there are strictly enforced closed seasons. The general principle for all game is that they should be properly hung. It should be allowed to age for anything between 3 days and three weeks. The strong flavours of hare and venison demand a sweet adjunct – red currant jelly or the fruity Cumberland sauce.

Game birds, when roasted are often served with crisp bacon, skirlie (oatmeal and chopped onion fried in fat) game chips and cranberry sauce. Wild duck is always served with orange sauce and goose was the traditional Christmas dish, long before the advent of turkey.

FISH

The Americans eat hamburgers, the Germans ‘Sauerkraut’, the Scandinavians open sandwiches and the French – all manner of things in sauces. The English do eat Roast Beef, but only on Sundays. Every other day they eat fish and chips, and with roast beef, it wrestled for supremacy for the national dish of Britain. The fish and chips shops which dot every city, town and village of the country are a legacy of the industrial revolution in the 18^th century factory workers needed quick, cheap and nourishing meals. Shops that specialized in hot pies, potted eels (jellied), sausages and mash and fish and chips grew steadily in demand. The development of deep-sea trawlers, refrigeration and the expansion of the railways meant that fresh fish was readily available throughout the country. Potatoes are already abundant all over the British Isles. The combination came together as naturally as a pair of lovers. Cod, plaice, hake, skate and haddock are all popular traditional fish used for frying. Salt, vinegar, pickled onions and gherkins, ketchup, HP sauce all serve as accompaniments. Fish and chips sold as takeaways are always wrapped in newspaper. A true Britisher feels that without the newspaper, fish and chips do not taste the same.

Every part of the British Isles, from Scotland to Ireland has its own specialty. Scotland is the place for Salmon and Trout. For prawns it’s the Yorkshire coast of the North Sea. But for oysters you have to go to the Channel Islands. Ireland is known for it’s mackerels and the famous Dublin Bay prawns, Sole traditionally comes from the south, namely Dover.

While most of the traditional recipes for fish call for it to be plainly fried and served with a herb, butter and salad, there are some dishes that need longer preparation. Cod head and shoulder is an established favorite along England’s North East Coast. Another popular dish from Cornwall is ‘Stargazey Pie’ which uses Pilchards and Herrings in a puff pastry blanket.

CHEESE

Cheshire – the oldest and in many ways the most distinctive of the detectable variety of English cheeses. It is mellow with a hint of sharpness, firm but slightly crumbly, it has for years been one of the prime cheeses of England. It is the cheese of the rich and the poor, the kind and the peasant, the sailor and the soldier. Other great cheeses include Cheddar and Stilton and such lesser breeds as Wensleydale, Caerphilly and Gloucester. There was a time when nearly every farm and cottage in England made cheeses including many that attained the noble stature called ‘Blue’. Cheddar once called ‘Somerset Cheese’ was first made in the farms around ‘Wells’ and in the villages in Somerset’s Mendip hills. They are still produced in the region between the months of May and September. There is also a great deal of imported cheddar for the ‘cheddaring process’ by which the cheese is made is now adopted in many countries where surplus milk is available. Stilton was named after the tiny village of Stilton in Huntingdonshire, once a principal coaching stop for travelers on the Great North Road between London and York. Of all the Blue Cheeses, the finest is Stilton. It stands besides Roquefort, Bleu de Bresse, Gorgonzola and Cheshire as the worlds greatest. It is white cheese, tinted with yellow and richly marbled with greenish blue. The crust is dark and wrinkled and the flavour subtly mellow. Wheels of Stilton weigh around 14 lbs and are covered by a crust peculiar to each manufacturer.

No two manufacturers crusts are ever the same. Stilton should always be cut into wedges from the top and although a common practice in restaurants should never be scooped out with a spoon. Scooping is not the only barbarous practice followed with Stilton. To counteract dryness some people pour port into the scooped out portion making an otherwise perfect cheese soggy, purple hued and horrible. Port with it and not in it should be the rule. a good burgundy also goes well with Stilton as does crackers bread and at times even a slice of apple; other popular cheeses include Blue Vinny from Dorset, Derby from Derbyshire, Caerphilly, a soft unripened cheese from Wales, Leicester, a bright startlingly orange cheese made in Melton Mowbray although not one of the finest cheeses available, its colour comes in handy while cooking and gives a touch of extravagance to cheese sauces and dishes such as Welsh Rarebit. Lancashire also produces a notable cheese called ‘Leigh toaster’ and can be spread like butter on toast ( hence the name). Many cheeses have changed in character over the years. Double Gloucester for example, a hard but buttery cheese was once very much like Chershire. While it is still a noteworthy cheese, nobody compares it to Gloucester. Scotland’s principal contribution to cheese lovers is Dunlop, a milder version of cheddar. It is said to be of Irish origin. Ireland produces a cheese called ‘Blanney’ in Country Cork, described by some as a make believe Swiss.

The nine most popular of all British cheeses include Leicester, Derby, Stilton, Cheddar, Wensleydale, Cheshire, Gloucester and Double Gloucester from England and Caerphilly from Wales. Many cheeses such as the Daventry, Lincoln, Oxford, and York are long forgotten. But of the cheeses that remain, the three greatest Cheddar, Cheshire and Stilton are here to stay.

THE BRITISH PUDDING

Each country in Britain has produced a wealth of puddings, large and small, hot and cold, all of them delicious. Rich golden ones, topped with jam and cream, tender beef and kidney ones steamed for hours. Puddings from country villages like those in Bedfordshire, where farmers wives created a sausage like object called a clanger containing meat and chopped vegetables at one end and jam and fruit at other.

The men working in the fields could thus carry their entire lunch in one piece. A Christmas specialty is the flaming Plum Pudding while Yorkshire pudding is the traditional accompaniment to Roast Beef.

There is such a variety of puddings that there is even confusion about the term. To many the ‘pudding’ is applied to any sweet, filling heavy one. There is also a pudding for everyone, for the traveler there is the railway pudding or omnibus pudding a white suet pudding and dotted with raisins (resembling a Dalmatian) is known as spotted dog or spotted dick. There is also a military pudding for soldiers, admirals, pudding served on board and cabinet pudding for VIP ministers.

In virtually every home in Britain you will find a deep bowl with a thick rim that is called a pudding basin. Although most puddings are steamed or boiled, many others are baked. Apricot pudding is a mixture of baking and steaming; a cross between a pie and a pudding.

Almost as popular as puddings are pies. A pie is usually a deep dish lined with pastry crust. A fruit pie would have a little sugar added to the dough. Tradition demands meat pies to be decorated with pastry strips while fruit pies are left plain. In this way you can tell if a pie is sweet or savoury. A tart may look like a pie but it is always a sweet dish made with fruit and jam. Tarts range from small jam-filled hollows of pastry (tartlettes) to large plate-sized pastry cases. Tarts are usually left uncovered by pastry. But hard and fast rules cannot be applied. Some tarts are covered. Some pies are not. As a general rule, if the dish is shallow, call it a tart, if it is deep call it a pie. ‘Hand raised’ pies such as game pies, pork pies, etc. are made with hot water pastry that can be worked like potters clay and shaped by hand into the box like casing that encloses the meat filling. These raised pies were called ‘coffyns’ in the middle ages. These are cooked for hours in a slow oven and then topped off with a rich aspic jelly after being taken out from the oven. Thyme, sage, majoram are used for flavouring and so were spices. Until quite recent times, meat pies were sold all over Britain by traveling piemen (Remember, Simple Simon??). Meat pies are now factory produced and eaten by thousands all over Britain.

Vernon Coelho

IHM Mumbai

2009-2010