British cuisine

Overview¶

British food has a reputation for plainness that it has not always deserved. Medieval and Tudor English cooking was heavily spiced (see medieval-spice-cookery and spices-in-britain), and that taste never fully disappeared: it survives in Christmas pudding, mince pies, hot cross buns, gingerbread, potted shrimps and Worcestershire sauce. Britain's imperial and trading history, particularly through the spice trade and the East India Company, also brought chutneys, curry powder and kedgeree into its kitchens long before post-war migration from South Asia, the Caribbean, Hong Kong and elsewhere changed the national diet again.

In savoury cooking, the classic British approach pairs plainly roasted or boiled meats with a sharp condiment: mint sauce with lamb, horseradish with beef, apple and sage with pork, English mustard with ham and sausages.

The core palette¶

• Herbs: mint (spearmint, above all for lamb, new potatoes and peas), sage (with onion in stuffing), thyme, parsley (in parsley sauce for ham and fish), bay, rosemary, chives, and foraged wild garlic in spring.
• Pungent condiments: English mustard — made from brown and white seed, hotter than Dijon — and horseradish.
• Pepper: black and white, the latter in pale soups and sauces.
• Warm spices for baking: mixed spice (typically cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, ginger and coriander), ground ginger in parkin and gingerbread, and caraway in seed cake.
• mace: the classic seasoning of potted meats and shrimps.
• saffron: Cornish saffron buns and cake, a remnant of a time when saffron was grown in England — Saffron Walden in Essex is named after it.
• juniper in gin, and in some game dishes.

Regional differences¶

• Scotland: haggis seasoned with plenty of pepper, nutmeg and mace or allspice; clootie dumpling with mixed spice; smoked fish.
• Wales: lamb with rosemary and thyme, cawl, bara brith (spiced tea bread), and Welsh cakes with nutmeg or mixed spice.
• Northern England: parkin (oat and ginger cake) in Yorkshire and Lancashire, Eccles cakes, black pudding, pickled onions and red cabbage with pickling spice, and Cumberland sausage, seasoned heavily with pepper.
• The south-west: Cornish saffron buns, pasties seasoned with plenty of pepper.
• Northern Ireland: soda breads, Ulster fry, and colcannon-like potato dishes with spring onion.
• British Asian cooking: dishes such as chicken tikka masala (with disputed origins, claimed by restaurants in Glasgow and elsewhere) and the balti (associated with Birmingham) are British creations drawing on South Asian cooking, and are now as much a part of the national food as roast beef. See indian-cuisine.

Key techniques¶

• Roasting and sauces: roasts are served with gravy and a herb or spice sauce — mint sauce, bread sauce (milk infused with onion studded with cloves, bay and nutmeg), apple sauce or horseradish.
• Pickling and chutney-making: vegetables and fruit preserved in vinegar with pickling spice — mustard seed, coriander, allspice, cloves, bay and dried chilli. Piccalilli adds turmeric and mustard.
• Spiced baking: fruit cakes, puddings and buns that often improve with keeping.
• Potting: cooked meat or shrimps sealed under clarified butter seasoned with mace and cayenne.

Landmark dishes¶

Roast beef with Yorkshire pudding and horseradish, roast lamb with mint sauce, pork with sage and onion stuffing, Cumberland sausage, haggis, kedgeree, potted shrimps, Lancashire hotpot, shepherd's pie, fish and chips with mushy peas and mint, Christmas pudding and mince pies, hot cross buns, parkin, Cornish saffron buns, bara brith, piccalilli, and mulled wine.

Stocking the cupboard¶

1. English mustard powder and a jar of prepared mustard
2. Black peppercorns
3. Mixed spice
4. Ground ginger and whole nutmeg
5. mace and cloves
6. Dried sage, thyme and bay leaves
7. Fresh mint and parsley (mint is easy to grow — in a pot, as it spreads)
8. horseradish (fresh root or a good jarred sauce) and pickling spice