Paella in
Spain, spaghetti in Italy and Feta cheese in Greece, every nation has its
traditional cuisine and none more so than England. English cooking has many
distinct attributes but also shares the wider concept of British cuisine, which
is largely due to the importation of ingredients and recipes from North America
and India during the British Empire.
From eating fish
and chips out of newspaper laced in salt and malt vinegar, which was
traditionally seen as street urban food, to sausages and mash potato, there are
certain types of food that are wholly synonymous with the unique lands of
England.
Take a look
at three of the most traditional English foods
Sunday lunch
The smell of
the beef being slowly cooked in the oven as Mum prepares the deliciously thick
gravy and gets Aunt Bessie’s roast potatoes and Yorkshire pudding cooking
alongside the beef is an association England has been proud of for many years.
Our love for
the Sunday lunch can be traced back centuries as the English have been
well-known beef eaters since the 15th century. In 1698 the French
author Henri Misson stayed in London and wrote, “It is common practice, even
among People of Good Substance, to have a huge piece of roast beef on Sundays,
of which they stuff until they can swallow no more, and eat the rest cold.”
Today, roast
dinners aren’t solely confined to weekends though and with a little help from
Aunt Bessie’s, the midweek roast is now a popular tradition. The latest
advertisement from this well recognised brand shows nosy neighbours Margaret
and Mabel striving for the perfect roast tatties – with Aunt Bessie’s goose fat
basted variety proving a success once again.
With these
great ingredients featuring alongside an extensive selection of vegetables,
Yorkshire pudding options and other roast dinner favourites, Aunt Bessie’s have
helped us Brits get the most out of our dinners everyday of the week.
Fish and chips
Similar to
the good old Sunday roast, fish and chips are also a stark symbol of England
and its unique cuisine. Fish and chips became a staple part of the working
class Englishman’s diet as a result of the rapid development of trawl fishing
in the North Sea during the second half of the 1800s. Today fish and chips are
as popular as ever and the industry employs a whopping 80,000 people across the
UK.
Bangers and mash
You can
travel the world but you will be hard pushed to find sausages quite as tasty as
those found in England. Bangers and mash typically comprises of Cumberland
sausages, light and creamy mashed potato, served with onion gravy.
Alongside pie
and mash and jellied eels, bangers and mash became an iconic part of England’s
cuisine for the working class in the North in the nineteenth century.
