View source for English cuisine/en

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{{short description|Culinary tradition}}
[[File:Tea at the Rittenhouse Hotel.jpg|thumb|262px|Internationally recognised: [[afternoon tea]] in traditional English style in [[Philadelphia]], Pennsylvania]]
{{Cuisine of Britain}}
{{Culture of England}}
'''English cuisine''' encompasses the cooking styles, traditions and recipes associated with [[England]]. It has distinctive attributes of its own, but is also very similar to wider [[British cuisine]], partly historically and partly due to the import of ingredients and ideas from the [[Americas]], China, and India during the time of the [[British Empire]] and as a result of [[World War II|post-war]] [[Immigration to the United Kingdom since 1922|immigration]].

Some traditional meals, such as [[bread]] and cheese, roasted and stewed meats, [[meat pie|meat]] and [[game pie]]s, boiled vegetables and broths, and [[freshwater fish|freshwater]] and [[saltwater fish]] have ancient origins. The 14th-century English cookbook, the ''[[Forme of Cury]]'', contains recipes for these, and dates from the royal court of [[Richard II of England|Richard II]].

English cooking has been influenced by foreign ingredients and cooking styles since the [[Middle Ages]]. [[Curry]] was introduced from the [[Indian subcontinent]] and adapted to English tastes from the eighteenth century with [[Hannah Glasse]]'s recipe for chicken "currey". [[French cuisine]] influenced English recipes throughout the [[Victorian era]]. After the rationing of the [[Second World War]], [[Elizabeth David]]'s 1950 ''[[A Book of Mediterranean Food]]'' had wide influence, bringing [[Italian cuisine]] to English homes. Her success encouraged other cookery writers to describe other styles, including [[Chinese cuisine|Chinese]] and [[Thai cuisine|Thai]] cuisine. England continues to absorb culinary ideas from all over the world.

== History ==

=== Middle Ages ===

{{further|Medieval cuisine}}

[[File:Forme of Cury-MS 7-18v.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Recipes from ''[[The Forme of Cury]]'' for "drepee", parboiled birds with [[almond]]s and fried [[onion]]s, and "mawmenee", a sweet stew of [[capon]] or [[pheasant]] with [[cinnamon]], [[ginger]], [[cloves]], [[date (fruit)|dates]] and [[pine nut]]s, coloured with [[sandalwood]], c. 1390]]

English cooking has developed over many centuries since at least the time of ''[[The Forme of Cury]]'', written in the [[Middle Ages]] around 1390 in the reign of [[Richard II of England|King Richard II]]. The book offers imaginative and sophisticated recipes, with spicy [[sweet and sour]] sauces thickened with bread or quantities of [[almond]]s boiled, peeled, dried and ground, and often served in [[pastry]]. Foods such as [[gingerbread]] are described. It was not at all, emphasises [[Clarissa Dickson Wright]] in her ''[[A History of English Food]]'', a matter of large lumps of [[roast]] meat at every meal as imagined in [[Hollywood films]].

Instead, [[Medieval cuisine|medieval dishes]] often had the texture of a [[purée]], possibly containing small fragments of meat or fish: 48% of the recipes in the Beinecke manuscript are for dishes similar to stews or purées. Such dishes could be broadly of three types: somewhat acidic, with wine, vinegar, and spices in the sauce, thickened with bread; [[sweet and sour]], with sugar and vinegar; and sweet, using then-expensive [[sugar]]. An example of such a sweet purée dish for meat (it could also be made with fish) from the Beinecke manuscript is the rich, [[saffron]]-yellow "[[Mortis (food)|Mortruys]]", thickened with egg:

{{blockquote|Take brawn of [[capon]]s & [[pork]]e, [[boiling#In cooking|sodyn]] & [[purée|groundyn]]; tempyr hit up with milk of [[almond]]es drawn with the broth. Set hit on the [[fire|fyre]]; put to [[sugar|sigure]] & [[saffron|safron]]. When hit boyleth, tak som of thy milk, boylying, fro the fyre & aley hit up with [[yolk]]es of [[egg|eyron]] that hit be ryght chargeaunt; styre hit wel for quelling. Put therto that othyr, & ster hem togedyr, & serve hem forth as mortruys; and strew on poudr of [[ginger|gynger]].}}

Another manuscript, ''[[Utilis Coquinario]]'', mentions dishes such as "pyany", poultry garnished with [[peony|peonies]]; "hyppee", a [[rose hip|rose-hip]] broth;  and birds such as [[cormorant]]s and [[Eurasian woodcock|woodcocks]].

=== Sixteenth century ===

{{See also|Tudor food and drink}}

The [[early modern]] period saw the gradual arrival of printed cookery books, though the first, the printer [[Richard Pynson]]'s 1500 ''[[The Boke of Cokery|Boke of Cokery]]'' was compiled from medieval texts. The next, ''A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye'', was published sometime after 1545. ''The Secretes of the Reverende Maister Alexis of Piermont'' was published in 1558, translated from a French translation of [[Alessio Piemontese]]'s original Italian work on [[confectionery]]. The number of titles expanded rapidly towards the end of the century to include [[Thomas Dawson (cook)|Thomas Dawson]]'s ''[[The Good Huswifes Jewell]]'' in 1585, the ''Book of Cookrye'' by "A. W." in 1591, and John Partridge's ''The Good Hous-wives Handmaide'' in 1594. These books were of two kinds: collections of so-called secrets on confectionery and health remedies, aimed at aristocratic ladies; and advice on cookery and how to manage a household, aimed at women from more ordinary backgrounds, most likely wives of minor aristocrats, clergymen, and professional men.

[[File:The Good Huswifes Jewell Frontispiece 1610.jpg|thumb|left|[[Thomas Dawson (cook)|Thomas Dawson]]'s ''[[The Good Huswifes Jewell]]'' was first published in 1585.]]

English tastes evolved during the sixteenth century in at least three ways. First, recipes emphasise a balance of sweet and sour. Second, [[butter]] becomes an important ingredient in sauces, a trend which continued in later centuries. Third, [[herb]]s, which could be grown locally but had been little used in the Middle Ages, started to replace spices as flavourings. In A. W.'s ''Book of Cookrye'', 35% of the recipes for meat stews and sauces include herbs, most commonly [[thyme]]. On the other hand, 76% of those meat recipes still used the distinctly mediaeval combination of sugar and dried fruit, together or separately. New ingredients were arriving from distant countries, too: ''The Good Huswifes Jewell'' introduced [[sweet potato]]es (from the tropical Americas) alongside familiar medieval recipes.

''[[Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book]]'', compiled in 1604 (and first published in 1986) gives an intimate view of [[Elizabethan era|Elizabethan]] cookery. The book provides recipes for various forms of bread, such as buttered loaves; for apple fritters; preserves and pickles; and a celebration cake for 100 people. New ingredients appear; a recipe for dressing a shoulder of [[mutton]] calls for the use of the newly available [[citrus fruit]]s:

{{blockquote|Take a showlder of [[mutton]] and being halfe Roasted, Cut it in great slices and save the gravie then take [[Claret|Clarret wine]] and [[cinnamon|sinamond]] & sugar with a little [[Cloves]] and [[Mace (spice)|mace]] beatne and the peel of an [[orange (fruit)|oringe]] Cut thin and [[Mincing|minced]] very smale. Put the mutton the gravie and these thinges together and boyle yt between two dishes, wringe the juice of an oringe into yt as yt boyleth, when yt is boyled enough lay the bone of the mutton beinge first Broyled in the dish with it then Cut slices of [[lemon|limonds]] and lay on the mutton and so serve yt in.}}

[[File:Tudor pies on pewter plates at Hampton Court.JPG|thumb|[[Pie]]s have been an important part of English cooking from Tudor times to the present day.]]

[[Pie]]s were important both as food and for show; the [[nursery rhyme]] "[[Sing a Song of Sixpence]]", with its lines "Four and Twenty blackbirds / Baked in a pie. // When the pie was opened, The birds began to sing" refers to the conceit of placing live birds under a pie crust just before serving at a banquet.

=== Seventeenth century ===

[[File:RobertMayTheAccomplishtCookFrontispiece.jpg|thumb|[[Robert May (cook)|Robert May]]'s ''[[The Accomplisht Cook]]'', first published in 1660]]

The bestselling cookery book of the early seventeenth century was [[Gervase Markham]]'s ''The English Huswife'', published in 1615. It appears that his recipes were from the collection of a deceased noblewoman, and therefore dated back to Elizabethan times or earlier. Women were thus becoming both the authors of cookery books and their readers, though only about 10% of women in England were literate by 1640. Markham's recipes are distinctively different from mediaeval ones; three quarters of his sauces for meat and meat pies make use of a combination of sweet and sour, and he advises:

{{blockquote|When a broth is too sweet, to sharpen it with [[verjuice]], when too tart to sweet it with sugar, when flat and wallowish to quicken it with orenge and lemmons, and when too bitter to make it pleasant with hearbes and spices.}}

[[Robert May (cook)|Robert May]]'s ''[[The Accomplisht Cook]]'' was published in 1660 when he was 72 years old. The book included a substantial number of recipes for soups and stews, 38 recipes for [[sturgeon]], and a large number of pies variously containing fish (including sturgeon), meat (including [[battalia pie]]), and sweet fillings.

French influence is evident in [[Hannah Woolley]]'s ''The Cooks Guide'', 1664. Her recipes are designed to enable her non-aristocratic readers to imitate the fashionable French style of cooking with elaborate sauces. She combined the use of "[[Claret]] wine" and [[anchovy|anchovies]] with more traditional cooking ingredients such as sugar, dried fruit, and vinegar.

In 1699, [[John Evelyn]] published [[Acetaria: A Discourse of Sallets|''Acetaria: A Discourse of Sallets'']], considered to be the first book on salads. It explores the philosophical significance of salads, reflecting 17th-century beliefs that spiritual purity could be regained through knowledge of nature. Evelyn and his contemporaries saw [[Adam]]'s wisdom as a model for enlightenment, inspiring early vegetarianism and meticulous gardening.

=== Eighteenth century ===

[[File:FourTimesMorning.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Tom King's Coffee House]] in [[William Hogarth]]'s painting ''[[Four Times of the Day]]'', 1738]]

[[John Nott (cook)|John Nott]]'s ''[[The Cooks and Confectioners Dictionary]]'' (1723), still with rather few precedents to go by, chose an alphabetical treatment for its recipes, from [[Ale|Al]] to [[Zest (ingredient)|Zest]]. The book covered everything from soups and salads to meat and fish, as well as pastries of many kinds, confectionery, and the making of beer, cider, and wine. Bills of fare are given for each month of the year.

The second edition of ''[[Primitive Cookery]]'', published in 1767 by an anonymous author, promoted budget-friendly, [[lacto-vegetarian]] dishes, though some recipes included meat.

[[James Woodforde]]'s ''[[Diary of a Country Parson]]'' gives a good idea of the sort of food eaten in England in the eighteenth century by those who were reasonably prosperous. To welcome some neighbours on 8 June 1781, he gave them for dinner:

{{blockquote|a Couple of [[chicken as food|Chicken]] boiled and a [[Beef tongue|Tongue]], a Leg of [[Mutton]] boiled and [[Capers]] and Batter Pudding for the first Course, Second, a couple of Ducks rosted and green Peas, some [[Artichoke]]s, Tarts and [[Blancmange]]. After dinner, Almonds and Raisins, Oranges and Strawberries, Mountain and [[Port Wine]]s. Peas and Strawberries the first gathered this year by me. We spent a very agreeable day.}}

Another country clergyman, [[Gilbert White]], in ''[[The Natural History of Selborne]]'' (1789) recorded the increased consumption of vegetables by ordinary country people in the south of England, to which, he noted, [[potato]]es, from the [[Americas]], had only been added during the reign of [[George III|King George III]]:

{{blockquote|Green-stalls in cities now support multitudes in comfortable state, while gardeners get fortunes. Every decent labourer also has his garden, which is half his support; and common farmers provide plenty of beans, peas, and greens, for their [[wikt:hind#Etymology 3|hinds]] to eat with their bacon.}}

[[Hannah Glasse]]'s ''[[The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy]]'' was the best-selling cookery book for a century from its publication in 1747. It ran to at least 40 editions, and was widely pirated.

=== Nineteenth century ===

[[File:Puddingsbhm.jpg|thumb|upright|How English puddings should look, according to ''[[Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management]]'', 1861]]

English cooking was systematised and made available to the middle classes by a series of popular books, their authors becoming household names. One of the first was [[Maria Rundell|Mrs Rundell]]'s ''[[A New System of Domestic Cookery]]'', 1806; it went through sixty-seven editions by 1844, selling hundreds of thousands of copies in Britain and America. This was followed by [[Eliza Acton]]'s ''[[Modern Cookery for Private Families]]'' 1845, which [[Bee Wilson]] has called "the greatest cookery book in our language", but "modern" only in a nineteenth-century sense.

An example recipe from Acton's ''Modern Cookery for Private Families'' is her "Quince Blanc-Mange (Delicious)":

{{blockquote|Dissolve in a pint of prepared juice of [[quince]]s an [[ounce]] of the best [[isinglass]]; next, add ten ounces of sugar, roughly pounded, and stir these together over a clear fire, from twenty to thirty minutes, or until the juice jellies in falling from the spoon. Remove the scum carefully, and pour the boiling jelly gradually to half a pint of thick cream, stirring them briskly together as they are mixed: they must be stirred until very nearly cold, and then poured into a mould which has been rubbed in every part with the smallest possible quantity of very pure salad oil, or if more convenient, into one that has been dipped into cold water.}}

Acton was supplanted by the most famous English cookery book of the Victorian era, [[Isabella Beeton]]'s ''[[Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management]]'', 1861, which sold nearly two million copies up to 1868. Where Acton's was a book to be read and enjoyed, Beeton's, substantially written in later editions by other hands, was a manual of instructions and recipes, to be looked up as needed. ''Mrs Beeton'' was substantially plagiarised from authors including [[Elizabeth Raffald]] and Acton. The [[Anglo-Italian]] cook [[Charles Elmé Francatelli]] became a celebrity, cooking for a series of aristocrats, London clubs, and royalty including [[Queen Victoria]]. His 1846 book ''[[The Modern Cook]]'' ran through 29 editions by 1896, popularising an elaborate cuisine described throughout with French terminology, and offering bills of fare for up to 300 people.

Three of the major hot drinks popular in England, [[tea]], [[coffee]], and [[chocolate]], originated from outside Europe and were already staple items by Victorian times. [[Catherine of Braganza]] brought the Portuguese habit of tea to England around 1660. Initially, its expense restricted it to wealthy consumers, but the price gradually dropped, until by the 19th century [[British tea culture|its use was widespread]]. Introduced in the 16th century, coffee became popular by the 17th century, especially in the [[coffee house]]s, the first opening in Oxford in 1650. [[Hot chocolate]] was a popular drink by the 17th century, long before it was used as a food. Chocolate bars were developed and marketed by three English [[Quaker]]-founded businesses, [[J. S. Fry & Sons|Joseph Fry's]] (1847), [[Rowntree's]] (1862), and [[Cadbury's]] (1868).

=== Twentieth century ===

[[File:English Coronation Chicken.jpg|thumb|[[Coronation chicken]] (1953) made with [[mayonnaise]], [[Raisin|sultanas]], and [[curry powder]] ]]

After the First World War, many new food products became available to the typical household, with branded foods advertised for their convenience. Kitchen servants with time to make custards and puddings were replaced with instant foods in jars, or powders that the housewife could quickly mix. [[Breakfast cereal#20th century|American-style dry cereals]] began to challenge the porridge and bacon and eggs of the middle classes, and the bread and margarine of the poor. While wartime shipping shortages had sharply narrowed choice, the 1920s saw many new kinds of fruit imported from around the world, along with better quality, packaging, and hygiene, aided by refrigerators and [[Reefer ship|refrigerated ships]]. Authors in the 1930s such as [[Victoria Ponsonby, Baroness Sysonby|Lady Sysonby]] drew on recipes from a wide range of countries.

[[File:WWII Food Rationing.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Issuing a family's weekly [[Rationing in the United Kingdom|rations]] of bacon, [[margarine]], butter, sugar, tea, and [[lard]] in 1943]]

[[Rationing in the United Kingdom|Rationing was introduced in 1940]] to cope with the shortages caused by the wartime blockade. Foods such as bananas and chocolate became hard to find, while unfamiliar items such as [[dried egg]], [[Instant mashed potatoes|dried potato]], [[whale meat]], [[Centropomus|snook]] (a South African fish), and the tinned pork product [[Spam (food)|Spam]] appeared in the national diet. Since butter, sugar, eggs and flour were all rationed, English dishes such as pies and cakes became hard to make from traditional recipes. Instead, foods such as carrots were used in many different dishes, their natural sugars providing sweetness in novel dishes like carrot [[fudge]]. The diet was less than enjoyable, but paradoxically, rationing meant that overall the population was healthier than ever before, and perhaps ever since. The [[Ministry of Food (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Food]] employed home economists such as [[Marguerite Patten]] to demonstrate how to cook economically. After the war, Patten became one of the first television cooks, and sold 17 million copies of her 170 books.

[[File:Ratatouille.jpg|thumb|[[Elizabeth David]]'s 1950 ''[[A Book of Mediterranean Food]]'' changed English cooking with dishes such as [[ratatouille]].]]

[[Elizabeth David]] profoundly changed English cooking with her 1950 ''[[A Book of Mediterranean Food]]''. Written at a time of scarcity, her book began with "perhaps the most evocative and inspirational passage in the history of British cookery writing":

{{blockquote|The cooking of the Mediterranean shores, endowed with all the natural resources, the colour and flavour of the South, is a blend of tradition and brilliant improvisation. The Latin genius flashes from the kitchen pans. It is honest cooking too; none of the sham Grand Cuisine of the International Palace Hotel}}

All five of David's early books remained in print half a century later, and her reputation among cookery writers such as [[Nigel Slater]] and [[Clarissa Dickson Wright]] was of enormous influence. The historian of food [[Panikos Panayi]] suggests that this is because David consciously brought foreign cooking styles into the English kitchen; she did this with fine writing, and with practical experience of living and cooking in the countries which she wrote about. She deliberately destroyed the myths of restaurant cuisine, instead describing the home cooking of Mediterranean countries. Her books paved the way for other cookery writers to use foreign recipes. Post-David [[celebrity chef]]s, often ephemeral, included [[Philip Harben]], [[Fanny Cradock]], [[Graham Kerr]] ("the galloping gourmet"), and [[Robert Carrier (chef)|Robert Carrier]].

== English dishes ==

{{Main|List of English dishes}}

In 1953, Britain's first celebrity chef, Philip Harben, published ''Traditional Dishes of Britain''. Its chapter titles simply listed "the [[stereotype|stereotypical]] stalwarts of the British diet", from [[Cornish pasty]], [[Crumpet]], and [[Yorkshire pudding]] to [[shortbread]], [[Lancashire hotpot]], [[steak and kidney pudding]], [[jellied eels]], [[clotted cream]] and [[fish and chips]]. Panayi noted that Harben began with contradictions and unsupported claims, naming Britain's supposed reputation for the worst food in the world, but claiming that the country's cooks were technically unmatched and that the repertoire of national dishes was the largest of any country's.

The sociologist Bob Ashley observed in 2004 that while people in Britain might agree that the core national diet consisted of items such as the full English breakfast, roast beef with all the trimmings, tea with scones, and fish and chips, few had ever eaten the canonical English breakfast, lunch and dinner in any single day, and many probably never ate any item from the list at all regularly. In any case, Ashley noted, the national diet changes with time, and cookery books routinely include dishes of foreign origin. He remarked that a [[National Trust]] café, whose manager claimed "We're not allowed to do foreign food&nbsp;... I can't do lasagne or anything like that", in fact served [[curry]], because "seemingly curry is English". Anglo-Indian cuisine has indeed been part of the national diet since the eighteenth century.

Some English dishes are relatively new and can be dated to the century, and sometimes to the year, of their introduction. Thus [[piccalilli]] was introduced from India in the 18th century, as recorded by [[Hannah Glasse]] who gave a recipe for it in 1758. Conversely, dishes and sauces still considered foreign, such as fish in sweet and sour sauce, have been in English recipe books since the Middle Ages. Other dishes took their present form only gradually, as with the so-called "[[Full breakfast|full English breakfast]]". Breakfasts of this kind are indeed described in later editions of "[[Mrs Beeton]]", but as one of many variations. Thus her list of "Family Breakfasts for a Week in Winter" has for Wednesday something that looks fairly modern: "bread, muffins, butter, brawn, grilled bacon, boiled eggs"; but on other days less modern-looking breakfasts include mince, mutton cutlets, grilled kidneys, baked fresh herrings, and hash of cold game or poultry, while suggestions for "Family Breakfasts for a Week in Summer" included sardine toast, cold tongue, kedgeree and rissoles, and "Guests' Breakfast (Autumn)" included cold pheasant, game pie, and pressed beef.

<gallery mode="packed" heights="130" caption="Familiar English dishes, with dates"
File:Fish_and_Chips_in_2024_by_Robbie_Conceptuel.png|[[Fish and chips]], from c. 1870
File:Melton Mowbray Pork Pie.png|A [[Melton Mowbray pork pie]], by 1780s
File:Bangers and mash 1.jpg|"Bangers and mash": [[sausage]]s, from Roman times and mashed [[potato]] (1588–1593)
File:Piccalilli.jpg|[[Piccalilli]], a [[pickling|pickle]] derived from Indian cooking by 1758
File:Sandwich9200280.jpg|English [[sandwich]]es, by 1762
File:Full English with Hash Browns.jpg|[[Full breakfast|Full English breakfast]] (19th century) with sausage, [[bacon]], beans and tomatoes (from the Americas, by 18th century) and eggs
File:Devonshire tea.jpg|[[Cream tea]]: [[tea]] (c. 1660),  [[scones]] (Scots, 16th century), [[clotted cream]], [[raspberry jam]] (11th century)
File:Sunday roast - roast beef 1.jpg|[[Sunday roast]]: [[roast beef]] (by 18th century), roast potatoes, vegetables and [[Yorkshire pudding]] (1747)
File:Steak and Kidney Pudding.jpg|[[Steak and kidney pudding]] (1861)
File:Cornish Pasty (cropped).jpeg|[[Pasty]]<br/>(13th century)
File:Spotted Dick Wikimeet London 2005.jpg|[[List of British desserts|Dessert]]: [[Spotted dick]] (19th century) with [[custard]] (Roman, and medieval)
File:99 ice cream 2.jpg|[[Ice cream cone]] (1846)
</gallery>

== Influences ==

[[File:Simpson's Grand Divan Tavern, 4 August 1921.jpg|left|thumb|A menu of Simpson's Grand Divan Tavern, London, 1921 showing foreign influences such as hors d'oeuvre,  chicken Marengo and Spanish olives ]]

English cookery has demonstrably been open to influences from abroad from as early as the thirteenth century, and in the case of a few foods like sausages from Roman times. The Countess of Leicester, daughter of [[John of England|King John]] purchased large amounts of [[cinnamon]], while [[Edward I of England|King Edward I]] ordered large quantities of spices such as pepper and [[ginger]], as well as of what was then an expensive imported luxury, sugar. Dickson Wright refutes the popular idea that spices were used to disguise bad meat, pointing out that this would have been as [[Foodborne illness|fatal then as it would be today]]. She suggests instead that spices were used to hide the taste of salt, which was used to preserve food in the absence of refrigeration.

Cradock asserted: "The English have never had a cuisine. Even [[Yorkshire pudding]] comes from [[Burgundy]]." However, a recipe for "a dripping pudding" was published in the 1737 book ''The Whole Duty of a Woman''.  Nicola Humble observed that in ''Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management'', there are about the same number of recipes from India as from Wales, Scotland and Ireland together. Panayi created controversy by asserting, with evidence, that [[fish and chips]] had foreign origins: the fried fish from Jewish cooking and the potato chips from France; the dish only came to signify national identity from about 1930. French cuisine powerfully influenced English cooking throughout the nineteenth century, and French celebrity chefs such as the Roux brothers and Raymond Blanc continued to do so in twenty-first-century England.

=== The role of Empire ===

{{further|Curry}}

[[File:To make a Currey the India Way - Hannah Glasse 1748.jpg|thumb|upright=1.8|Receipt ''To make a Currey the India Way'' from ''[[The Art of Cookery]]'' by [[Hannah Glasse]], 1748]]

Curry was created by the arrival of the British in India in the seventeenth century, beginning as bowls of spicy sauce used, [[Lizzie Collingham]] writes, to add "bite to the rather bland flavours of boiled and roasted meats."The 1748 edition of Hannah Glasse's ''The Art of Cookery'' contains what Dickson Wright calls a "famous recipe" which describes how "To make a currey the Indian way"; it flavours chicken with onions fried in butter, the chicken being fried with [[turmeric]], ginger and ground pepper, and stewed in its own stock with cream and lemon juice. Dickson Wright comments that she was "a bit sceptical" of this recipe, as it had few of the expected [[spice]]s, but was "pleasantly surprised by the result" which had "a very good and interesting flavour".

The process of adapting Indian cooking continued for centuries. Anglo-Indian recipes could completely ignore Indian rules of diet, for example by using pork or beef. Some dishes, such as "liver curry, with bacon" were simply ordinary recipes spiced up with ingredients such as curry powder. In other cases like [[kedgeree]], Indian dishes were adapted to British tastes; ''[[Khichdi|khichari]]'' was originally a simple dish of lentils and rice. Curry was accepted in almost all [[Victorian era]] cookery books, such as [[Eliza Acton]]'s ''[[Modern Cookery for Private Families]]'' (1845): she offered recipes for curried [[sweetbreads]] and curried [[macaroni]], merging Indian and European foods into standard English cooking. By 1895, curry was included in ''Dainty Dishes for Slender Incomes'', aimed at the poorer classes.

Foreign influence was by no means limited to specific dishes. James Walvin, in his book ''Fruits of Empire'', argues that potatoes, sugar (entirely imported until around 1900 and the growing of [[sugar beet]]), [[tea]], and [[coffee]] as well as increasing quantities of spices were "Fruits of [[British Empire|Empire]]" that became established in Britain between 1660 and 1800, so that by the nineteenth century "their exotic origins had been lost in the mists of time"

=== Indian and Anglo-Indian cuisine ===

{{Main|Indian cuisine|Anglo-Indian cuisine}}

[[File:Kedgeree.jpg|thumb|left|[[Kedgeree]], 1790, became a popular breakfast dish in the 19th century.]]

During the [[British Raj]], Britain first started borrowing Indian dishes, creating Anglo-Indian cuisine, with dishes such as [[kedgeree]] (1790) and [[Mulligatawny soup]] (1791).  Indian food was served in coffee houses from 1809, and cooked at home from a similar date as cookbooks of the time attest. The [[Veeraswamy]] restaurant in [[Regent Street]], London, was opened in 1926, at first serving Anglo-Indian food, and is the oldest surviving Indian restaurant in Britain. There was a sharp increase in the number of curry houses in the 1940s, and again in the 1970s.
[[File:Taj Mahal - Chicken Tikka Massala.jpg|thumb|[[Chicken tikka masala]], 1970s, adapted from the Indian [[chicken tikka]] and now widely considered "a true British national dish."]]
The post-colonial Anglo-Indian dish [[chicken tikka masala]] was apparently invented in [[Glasgow]] in the early 1970s, while [[Balti (food)|balti cuisine]] was introduced to Britain in 1977 in [[Birmingham]]. In 2003, there were roughly 9,000 restaurants serving Indian cuisine in Britain. The majority of Indian restaurants in Britain are run by entrepreneurs of Bangladeshi (often [[Sylhetis]]) and Pakistani origin. According to [[United Kingdom|Britain's]] [[Food Standards Agency]], the Indian food industry in the United Kingdom was worth £3.2 billion in 2003, accounting for two-thirds of all eating out, and serving about 2.5 million British customers every week.

Indian restaurants typically allow the diner to combine base ingredients — chicken, prawns or "meat" (lamb or mutton) — with curry sauces — from the mild [[korma]] to the scorching [[phall]] — without regard to the authenticity of the combination. The reference point for flavour and spice heat is the [[Madras curry]] sauce (the name represents the area of India where restaurateurs obtained their spices, rather than an actual dish). Other sauces are sometimes variations on a basic curry sauce: for instance, [[vindaloo]] is often rendered as a fiery dish of lamb or chicken in a Madras sauce with extra [[chili powder|chilli]], rather than the [[Luso-Indian]] dish of [[pork]] marinated in [[wine vinegar]] and [[garlic]], based on a Goan [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] dish ''[[carne de vinha d'alhos]]''.

Indian restaurants and their cuisine in Britain gradually improved from the stereotypical flock wallpaper and standardised menus. One of the pioneers was the [[Bombay Brasserie]], which opened in Gloucester Road, London, in 1982, serving the kind of food actually eaten in India. Vegetarian Indian restaurants opened in the 1980s in the Drummond Street area of Euston, London. In 1990 [[Chutney Mary]] followed in Chelsea. In 2001, two Indian restaurants in London, [[Tamarind (restaurant)|Tamarind]] (opened 1995) and [[Zaika]] (opened 1999) gained [[Michelin star]]s for the quality of their cooking.

[[Indian cuisine]] is the most popular alternative to traditional cooking in Britain, followed by [[Chinese cuisine|Chinese]] and [[Italian cuisine|Italian]] food. By 2015, chicken tikka masala was one of Britain's most popular dishes.

=== Southeast and East Asian cuisines ===

[[File:China Court Restaurant. - geograph.org.uk - 707948.jpg|thumb|An English [[Chinatown]], here in [[Birmingham]] ]]

Southeast and East Asian cuisines have become widely available across England. [[British Chinese cuisine|Chinese cuisine]] became established in England by the 1970s, with large cities often having a Chinatown district; the one in London's [[Soho]] developed between the two world wars, following an informal area in [[Limehouse]]. Deriving from [[Cantonese cuisine]], the food served by Chinese restaurants has been adapted to suit English taste. From around 1980 onwards, [[Asian cuisine#Southeast Asia|Southeast Asian cuisines]], especially [[Thai cuisine|Thai]] and [[Vietnamese cuisine|Vietnamese]], began to gain popularity in England.

=== European cuisines ===

[[Italian cuisine]] is the most popular [[Mediterranean cuisine]] in England. In its current form, inspired by [[Elizabeth David]], its rise began after 1945. There were some Italian restaurants before World War II, but they mostly served a generalised haute cuisine. Soon after the war, Italian coffee bars appeared, the first places to trade on their Italian identity; they soon started to sell simple and cheap Italian food such as [[minestrone]] soup, [[spaghetti]] and [[pizza]]. From the early 1960s, the slightly more elegant [[trattoria]] restaurants offered "Italian specialities" such as [[Lasagna|lasagne]] verdi al forno (baked lasagne, coloured with spinach). Other Mediterranean influences include [[Greek cuisine|Greek]] [[moussaka]], [[feta]] and [[taramasalata]], [[Turkish cuisine|Turkish]] [[doner kebab|doner]] and [[shish kebab|shish]] kebabs, and [[Middle Eastern cuisine|Middle Eastern]] [[hummus]].

[[French cuisine]] in England is largely restricted to expensive restaurants, although there are some inexpensive French [[Bistro|bistros]].
For many years, English writers including [[Hannah Glasse]] in the 18th century and Andrew Kirwan in the 19th century were ambivalent about French cooking. However, restaurants serving French [[haute cuisine]] developed for the upper and middle classes in England from the 1830s and [[Auguste Escoffier#Escoffier, César Ritz and the Savoy|Escoffier]] was recruited by the [[Savoy Hotel]] in 1890. [[Marcel Boulestin]]'s 1923 ''Simple French Cooking for English Homes'' did much to popularise French dishes.

== Food establishments ==

=== Cafes and tea shops ===

[[File:Cornish cream tea 2.jpg|thumb|[[Cream tea]], comprising [[tea]] taken with [[scone]]s, [[clotted cream]] and [[jam]], in [[Boscastle]]]]

The English cafe is a small, inexpensive eating place. A working men's cafe serves mainly fried or grilled food, such as [[Egg (food)|fried eggs]], [[bacon]], [[bangers and mash]]‚ [[black pudding]], [[bubble and squeak]], [[hamburger|burgers]], [[sausage]]s, [[Edible mushroom|mushrooms]] and [[French fries|chips]]. These may be accompanied by [[baked beans]], cooked [[tomato]]es, and [[fried bread]]. These are referred to as "breakfast" even if they are available all day. Traditional cafes have declined with the rise of [[fast food|fast-food]] chains, but remain numerous all over the UK.

A [[Tea in the United Kingdom#Tearoom|tea shop]] is a small restaurant that serves soft drinks and light meals, often in a sedate atmosphere. Customers may eat a [[cream tea]] in Cornish or Devonshire style, served from a [[porcelain|china]] set, and a [[scone (bread)|scone]] with [[jam]] and [[clotted cream]].

=== Fish and chip shops ===

[[Fish and chips]] is a hot dish consisting of [[Batter (cooking)|battered]] fish, commonly [[Atlantic cod]] or [[haddock]], and [[French fries|chips]]. It is a common [[take-away food]].

[[Western Sephardim|Western Sephardic Jews]] settling in England from the 16th century would have prepared fried fish like ''[[pescado frito]]'', coated in [[flour]] and fried in oil. Chips appeared in the Victorian era; [[Charles Dickens|Dickens]]'s 1859 ''[[A Tale of Two Cities]]'' mentions "husky chips of potatoes, fried with some reluctant drops of oil". Panayi states that fish and chip shops in the 1920s were often run by Jews or Italians. Despite this, the new dish was popularly attributed to France; ''[[The Times]]'' recorded that "potatoes chipped and fried in the French manner were introduced in Lancashire with great success about 1871." The ''Fish Trades Gazette'' of 29 July 1922 stated that "Later there was introduced into this country the frying and purveying of chip potatoes from France&nbsp;... which had made the fried fish trade what it is today."

=== Pub food ===

[[File:Pub grub.jpg|thumb|Pub grub – a [[pie]], along with a [[beer|pint]]]]

The public house, or [[pub]], is a famous English institution. In the mid-20th century, pubs were drinking establishments with little emphasis on the serving of food, other than "[[snack food|bar snacks]]", such as [[pork scratchings]], [[pickled egg]]s, salted [[Potato chips|crisps]], and [[peanut]]s, which helped to increase beer sales. If a pub served meals these were usually basic cold dishes such as a [[ploughman's lunch]], invented in the 1950s.

In the 1950s some British pubs started to offer "a pie and a pint", with hot individual [[steak and ale pie]]s made on the premises by the landlord or his wife. In the 1960s this was developed into the then-fashionable "chicken in a basket", a portion of roast chicken with chips, served on a napkin, in a wicker basket, by the Mill pub at [[Withington, Gloucestershire|Withington]]. Quality dropped but variety increased with the introduction of [[microwave oven]]s and [[freezer]] food. "Pub grub" expanded to include British food items such as [[steak and kidney pudding]], [[shepherd's pie]], [[fish and chips]], [[bangers and mash]], [[Sunday roast]], and [[Pasty|pasties]]. The [[gastropub]] movement of the 21st century, on the other hand, has sought to serve restaurant-quality food, cooked to order from fresh ingredients, in a pub setting; one pub, [[The Hand & Flowers]] in [[Marlow, Buckinghamshire|Marlow]] has been awarded two [[Michelin Guide#Stars|Michelin stars]], and several have one star.

== Vegetarianism ==

Modern Western [[vegetarianism]] was founded in the United Kingdom in 1847 with the world's first [[Vegetarian Society]]. It has increased markedly since the end of [[World War II]], when there were around 100,000 vegetarians in the country. By 2003 there were between 3 and 4 million vegetarians in the UK, one of the highest percentages in the Western world, while around 7 million people claim to eat no [[red meat]]. By 2015, 11 of 22 restaurant chains studied by the [[Vegan Society]] had at least one vegan main course on their menu, though only 6 of these explicitly labelled them as vegan dishes. Top-end vegetarian restaurants remain relatively few, though they are increasing rapidly: there were some 20 in Britain in 2007, rising to 30 in 2010.

== Quality ==

[[File:William Hogarth - O the Roast Beef of Old England ('The Gate of Calais') - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|left|[[William Hogarth]]'s ''O the Roast Beef of Old England (The Gate of Calais)'', 1748]]

English cuisine in the twentieth century suffered from a poor international reputation. Keith Arscott of Chawton House Library comments that "at one time people didn't think the English knew how to cook and yet these [eighteenth and nineteenth century] female writers were at the forefront of modern-day cooking." English food was popularly supposed to be bland, but English cuisine has made extensive use of spices since the Middle Ages; introduced curry to Europe; and makes use of strong flavourings such as English mustard. It was similarly reputed to be dull, like roast beef: but that dish was highly prized both in Britain and abroad, and few people could afford it; the "Roast Beef of Old England" lauded by [[William Hogarth]] in his 1748 painting celebrated the high quality of English cattle, which the French at the "Gate of [[Calais]]" (the other name of his painting) could only look at with envy. The years of wartime shortages and rationing certainly did impair the variety and flavour of English food during the twentieth century, but the nation's cooking recovered from this with increasing prosperity and the availability of new ingredients from soon after the Second World War.

[[File:Nitro-Scrambled Egg and Bacon Ice Cream.jpg|thumb|[[Bacon ice cream#Heston Blumenthal|Scrambled Egg and Bacon Ice Cream]], as served at [[The Fat Duck]] restaurant]]

In 2005, 600 food critics writing for the British ''[[Restaurant (magazine)|Restaurant]]'' magazine named 14 British restaurants among the 50 best restaurants in the world, the number one being [[The Fat Duck]] in [[Bray, Berkshire]], led by its chef [[Heston Blumenthal]]. The quality of [[London]]'s best restaurants has made the city a leading centre of international cuisine.

Meanwhile, the [[list of United Kingdom food and drink products with protected status]] (PDO) under [[Law of the European Union|European Union law]] has increased rapidly, with 59 items including [[Cornish sardine]]s, Yorkshire [[Wensleydale cheese]] and Yorkshire forced [[rhubarb]], Fenland celery, West Country lamb and beef and traditional [[Cumberland sausage]] listed as registered in 2015, and a further 13 including Birmingham [[Balti (food)|Balti]] listed as applied for. By 2016 there were 12 [[List of English cheeses|cheeses from England]] with PDO status.

== See also ==

* [[Leeds University Library's Cookery Collection]]
* [[List of English cheeses]] – over 700 varieties of cheese are produced in England

== Further reading ==

* Ayrton, Elisabeth (1974) ''The Cookery of England: being a collection of recipes for traditional dishes of all kinds from the fifteenth century to the present day, with notes on their social and culinary background''. [[André Deutsch]].
* Ayrton, Elisabeth (1980) ''English Provincial Cooking''. [[Mitchell Beazley]].
* Drummond, Jack C.; Wilbraham, Anne (1994 [1939]) ''The Englishman's Food: Five Centuries of British Diet''. [[Pimlico (publishing imprint)|Pimlico]]. {{ISBN|978-0-712-65025-0}}.
* Fitzpatrick, Joan (2013) ''Food in Shakespeare: early modern dietaries and the plays'' [[Ashgate Publishing|Ashgate]].
* Foy, Karen. (2014) ''Life in the Victorian Kitchen: Culinary Secrets and Servants' Stories''. [[Pen and Sword Books|Pen and Sword]].
* [[Jane Grigson|Grigson, Jane]] (1974) ''English Food''. [[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]].
* {{cite book |last=Hartley |first=Dorothy |author-link=Dorothy Hartley |orig-date=1954 (Macdonald) |title=Food in England: A complete guide to the food that makes us who we are |title-link=Food in England |year=2009 |publisher=Piatkus |isbn=978-0-7499-4215-1 |ref=none}}
* Woolgar, C. M. (2016) ''The Culture of Food in England, 1200–1500''. [[Yale University Press]].

== External links ==

* [http://wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook:Cuisine_of_the_United_Kingdom Wikibooks: Cookbook: Cuisine of the United Kingdom]
* [http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/foodstories/index.html British Library Food Stories] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210410231056/http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/foodstories/index.html |date=10 April 2021 }}, a century of revolutionary change in UK food culture
* [https://www.foodsofengland.info/ Foods of England] Database of still used and 'lost' English dishes

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{{Agriculture in the United Kingdom}}
{{European topic|| cuisine|UK_only=no}}
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