British Cuisine

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lauke

Assistant Cook
Joined
Apr 19, 2015
Messages
4
Location
Abbots Langley
Hi Guys,

I was wandering if there's any good book on british cuisine (even if for my understanding the British Cuisine is not that special).

Can you suggest something?

Thank you!
 
Hi Guys,

I was wandering if there's any good book on british cuisine (even if for my understanding the British Cuisine is not that special).

Can you suggest something?

Thank you!
Well, as you can imagine, there is a vast array of good books of British cuisine. It may depend on the style of cooking you seek, i.e. simple, plain/traditional food or more at the specialised/fine dining end? Do you have any favourite UK cooks?
 
British cuisine is no more boring than is Mexican, or African, or Asian, or any other country. But, you have to look beyond the Hollywood movies, and what is fed to you by popular myths. Being a city by an ocean, there is a rich diversity of fine seafood, good veggies, beef, pork, chickens, etc. Now some of the names given to British recipes are, well, strange by American views. I mean, would you name a delicious (so I'm told), cylindrical pudding that has various fruits and nuts in it - Spotted Dick? How about the combination of sausage and mashed potatoes, aka Bangers and Mash?

Our friends across the big pond enjoy a wonderful variety of cakes, tarts, trifles, Cornish Pasties, puddings, stews, pies, and anything else you could probably think of. Check out this site - Jamie's Great Britain Recipes | Jamie Oliver Recipes

A 10 second Google search with Great British Cookbooks gave me a host of cookbook offerings, many by well known chefs.

I don't think you will have any trouble finding British Cookbooks with mouth-watering recipes. One of these days, I'm going to make a raspberry fool, another delicious looking recipe that we owe to the Brits.

Now Canadian Cuisine, that's a different story.:LOL:

Sorry, your food is great as well. I just couldn't resist poking a little fun at my Northern DC pals.:mrgreen:

Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
Well, as you can imagine, there is a vast array of good books of British cuisine. It may depend on the style of cooking you seek, i.e. simple, plain/traditional food or more at the specialised/fine dining end? Do you have any favourite UK cooks?

I'm not British, i'm Italian, i've been living here since one year now. But since i like to cook i'd like to understand even the cuisine of this country by experimenting something over than go around the country. So for answer to your question... no nothing special, except some "salad pie" that i think they are a british speciality.

By the way... the people here usually discourage me to cook british... that's where my question come from.
 
I'm not British, i'm Italian, i've been living here since one year now. But since i like to cook i'd like to understand even the cuisine of this country by experimenting something over than go around the country. So for answer to your question... no nothing special, except some "salad pie" that i think they are a british speciality.

By the way... the people here usually discourage me to cook british... that's where my question come from.

Don't listen to the naysayers. If you want to cook, then cook. No matter what country holds your interest at the moment. :angel:
 
I guess in some countries e.g. France springs to mind (or maybe it's just some people?), British cooking never quite survived its insipid past reputation with some. We have moved on from the reputation of such lacklustre meals as boiled beef and carrots.
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I guess in some countries e.g. France springs to mind (or maybe it's just some people?), British cooking never quite survived its insipid past reputation with some. We have moved on from the reputation of such lacklustre meals as boiled beef and carrots.
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We have many American chefs and cooks that are now shouting from the rooftops how British cuisine has improved 10 fold over the years. I think their previous bad reputation came from American soldiers returning after WWII. And that wasn't really fair. After all the UK was on rationing long after the war was over. :angel:
 
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But i mean... except the recipes that one could find on the web (BBC or whatever) is there any book that explain the basic of the british cuisine?
 
I'm not British, i'm Italian, ... the people here usually discourage me to cook british.
I don't blame them - I'd take Italian cuisine over any other cuisine anytime!!

There are a number of old (politically incorrect) jokes about heaven and hell that end with "Hell is Where The British are the chefs".

I've done some traveling in Europe, and I noted the lack of availability of a lot of food items in some countries, particularly some fruits and vegetables. I haven't been to the UK, but I suspect that the historic lack of availability of a variety of foods contributes to the stereotype. We're certainly spoiled here in the US, where we have almost every kind of food readily available year round. Except lamb, which is very expensive as compared to beef and pork.
 
I don't blame them - I'd take Italian cuisine over any other cuisine anytime!!

There are a number of old (politically incorrect) jokes about heaven and hell that end with "Hell is Where The British are the chefs".

I've done some traveling in Europe, and I noted the lack of availability of a lot of food items in some countries, particularly some fruits and vegetables. I haven't been to the UK, but I suspect that the historic lack of availability of a variety of foods contributes to the stereotype. We're certainly spoiled here in the US, where we have almost every kind of food readily available year round. Except lamb, which is very expensive as compared to beef and pork.

When I graduated from high school, my mom gave me a trip to Europe - 15 countries in 30 days and England was last. The food was definitely not as good as the Danish, Dutch, German, Swiss, Italian, French, Austrian, etc., we had first. And warm beer... omg and not in a good way.

Maybe it's improved in the last 30 years.
 
Today, isn't British food a result of influences from the colonial days? With a tremendous leaning toward Indian cuisine?
 
Check out Keith Floyd episodes on Youtube.
He did quite a few in and around Britain.
Very informative.
 
It's my understanding that Delia Smith is one of the more renowned British cookbook authors on the topic. You might want to try one of her books or blogs for a start.
 
When I graduated from high school, my mom gave me a trip to Europe - 15 countries in 30 days and England was last. The food was definitely not as good as the Danish, Dutch, German, Swiss, Italian, French, Austrian, etc., we had first. And warm beer... omg and not in a good way.

Maybe it's improved in the last 30 years.
There is no maybe about it GG, YES it has! Remarkably so!!! Chilled beer is the norm and food standards have come on in leaps and bounds. 30 years ago is a VERY long time ago isn't it??
 
There is no maybe about it GG, YES it has! Remarkably so!!! Chilled beer is the norm and food standards have come on in leaps and bounds. 30 years ago is a VERY long time ago isn't it??
I wonder if that period was an aberration. Some of the stuff we really enjoy in British and Irish pubs nowadays is traditional food, like shepherd's pie, bangers and mash, steak and kidney pie, fish and chips, etc.

I seem to remember that we used to use a lot of canned or overcooked vegis on this side of the pond in that era. I'll bet those traditional dishes taste better with fresh ingredients and that is part of the reason that they taste better now.
 
The entire social dynamic of British food was molded having to fight off the Germans in two world wars.
You can't blame them for having their focus on 'other things' during that period.
The French of course surrendered and half of France became German allies within days of being attacked in both wars. Maybe their 'focus' was French sauces.
I always winch when I see a 'white' tablecloth in a French restaurant.
 
It's just not my favorite cuisine. I like highly seasoned foods and that's not a characteristic of traditional British food of any era, as far as I can tell. Modern tastes for curry, fresh vegetables and herbs that don't grow in that climate, etc., are not part of traditional British cooking, which is what I thought the OP was referring to.
 
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