National Food and Drink of England

 

1. Full English breakfast

2. Puddings

3. Yorkshire Pudding

4. Other Dishes

5. Tea

 

 

 

Full English breakfast

A full English breakfast, or traditional fry-up, is a traditional breakfast meal in England. Fry-ups are no longer an everyday occurrence in most English households, but they are offered to tourists as traditional fare in hotels, guest houses and cafés, and occupy an important place in the English concept of the morning meal. The ingredients of a fry-up vary according to region and taste. At its heart, the meal consists of bacon and eggs, but to earn the title of a "Full English" a number of other ingredients are expected.

  • toast, fried bread, or bread and butter

  • sausages

  • fried, grilled or tinned tomatoes

  • mushrooms

  • black pudding (A little less popular in contemporary times and in the south, but usually available)

  • baked beans

  • condiments such as ketchup and brown sauce

  • orange juice and usually an abundant supply of tea or coffee

 

Puddings

A pudding is the dessert course of a meal ('pud' is used informally). In Britain, they also use the words 'dessert, 'sweet'' and 'afters': What's for pudding? ... What's for afters? ... What's for dessert?

 

Take care! Not all puddings are sweet puddings, some are eaten during the starter or main course like Yorkshire Pudding and Black Pudding ( or Blood Pudding that is made from dried pigs blood and fat and looks like a black sausage.)


There are hundreds of variations of sweet puddings in England but each pudding begins with the same basic ingredients of milk, sugar, eggs, flour and butter. Many of the puddings involve fresh fruit such as raspberries or strawberries, custard, cream, and cakes. The more traditional and well known home-made puddings are rhubarb crumble, bread and butter pudding, spotted dick and trifle. The traditional accompaniment is custard, known as crème anglaise (English sauce) to the French. The dishes are simple and traditional, with recipes passed on from generation to generation.

 

Favourites include:

Spotted Dick (Also called Spotted Dog): Sponge pudding with sultanas and raisins.
 Trifle - made with layers of sponge cake alternate with custard, jam or fruit and Whipped Cream. Sometimes alcohol-soaked sponge cake is used.

Custard - a thick, rich, sweet mixture made by gently cooking together egg yolks, sugar, milk or cream, and sometimes other flavorings. Most people today use a yellow powder mixed with milk, water and sugar. Custard can be served as a hot sauce, poured over a dessert, or as a cold layer in, for example, a trifle. When it is cold, it 'sets' and becomes firm.

 

 

Yorkshire Pudding

Ingredients: 8 oz. flour; 2 eggs; 1 pint milk; pinch of salt

Method: Sieve the flour and salt into a basin. Make a well in the centre and break the eggs into it; add a little of the milk and mix it in well. When half the milk is in, beat well for 10 minutes, then add the rest of the milk, still beating. The batter should stand for at least 1 hour before it is used. add about a tablespoonful of cold water at the last minute for a really light pudding. Get a little fat really hot before pouring in the batter, then bake in a moderate oven for 30 minutes, raising the heat just enough to brown it at the end.

Yorkshire pudding, made from flour, eggs and milk, is a sort of batter baked in the oven and usually moistened with gravy. It is not usually eaten as a dessert like other puddings but instead as part of the main course or at a starter. The traditional way to eat a Yorkshire pudding is to have a large, flat one filled with gravy and vegetables as a starter of the meal. Then when the meal is over, any unused puddings should be served with jam or ice-cream as a dessert.

 

 

Other Dishes

Toad-in-the-Hole (sausages covered in batter and roasted) Similar to Yorkshire Pudding but with sausages placed in the batter before cooking.

 

 

 

 

Ploughman's Lunch (a piece of cheese, a bit of pickle and pickled onion, and a chunk of bread) This dish is served in Pubs.

 

Shepherds Pie (made with minced lamb and vegetables topped with mashed potato and grated cheese)

Ingredients: 
§  500 grams / 1 lb of leftover roast lamb (or roast beef) 
§  1 tablespoon of tomato sauce (ketchup) 
§  ½ to ¾ cup of leftover gravy (jus roti) or packet-mix gravy 
§  1 tablespoon of freshly chopped parsley 
§  3 to 4 large potatoes 
§  1 tablespoon of butter 
§  salt and pepper

 

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Trim excess fat off the leftover roast and chop very finely by hand or in a food processor. Mix the roast with the tomato sauce and enough gravy to make a thick paste, stir in the chopped parsley, a little salt and pepper and spoon into a pie dish.

Peel the potatoes, chop into quarters and place in a medium saucepan with enough cold water to just cover the potatoes. Add a little salt and bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. When the potatoes are cooked, drain and place back on the heat for a few seconds to let any extra water evaporate from the potatoes. Mash the potatoes with one tablespoon of butter until the potato is very creamy - add a little milk if needed. Add salt to taste.

Spoon or pipe the creamy mashed potato over the minced roast mixture. Sprinkle with grated cheese if desired and bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until the potato is golden and the pie is heated through.

 

 

Tea

Some scholars suggest the tea played a role in British industrial revolution. Afternoon tea possibly became a way to increase the number of hours labourers could work in factories; the stimulants in the tea, accompanied by sugary snacks would give workers energy to finish out the days work. Further, tea helped alleviate some of the consequences of the urbanisation that accompanied the industrial revolution: drinking tea required boiling one's water, thereby killing water-borne diseases like dysentery, cholera, and typhoid.

The British are one of the largest per capita tea consumers in the world - second only to Ireland, with each person consuming on average 2.5 kg per year. Every day Britons drink 165 million cups of the stuff and each year around 144 thousand tons of tea are imported. The popularity of tea dates back to the 19th century when India was part of the British Empire, and British interests controlled tea production in the subcontinent.

Tea in Britain is traditionally brewed in a warmed china teapot, adding one spoonful of tea per person and one for the pot. Most Britons like their tea strong and dark, but with a lot of milk. Years ago, the milk was poured into the cup first, so as not to crack the porcelain.

The traditional way of making tea is:

1. Boil some fresh cold water. (We use an electric kettle to boil water)

2. Put some hot water into the teapot to make it warm.

3. Pour the water away

4. Put one teaspoon of tea-leaves per person, and one extra tea-spoon, into the pot.

5. Pour boiling water onto the tea.

6. Leave for a few minutes.

7. Serve

 

Did you know?

If someone asks you if you would like a cuppa, they are asking if you would like a cup of tea.

If someone says 'let me be mother' or 'shall I be mother', they are offering to pour out the tea from the teapot.

If something is not quite to your taste, it’s probably not your cup of tea.