What's your opinion on the British cuisine, Veeky Forums?

>all countries react the same way to an event

Maybe it's me having been brought up in a middle class family, but the posts I see on here - even from brits - are not what I know as British food.

That's not to say fish and chips and full English breakfasts aren't an important part of our cuisine, it's just that it's not representative of what I'd eat day-to-day and shouldn't be held as the only offerings.

>mediocrity imposed by two bouts of wartime rationing

British Cuisine had a bad reputation well before either of the World Wars. Mrs. Beeton's--a British cookbook from the Victorian period--discusses the poor reputation of British cuisine, and that book was published several decades before even WW1.

Also, rationing makes little sense as an excuse. The French got it even worse than the British did in both wars, yet they maintain an excellent culinary reputation.

> to forget all your country traditional cuisine is a legittimate reaction

>Mrs. Beeton's--a British cookbook from the Victorian period--discusses the poor reputation of British cuisine, and that book was published several decades before even WW1.

the brits themselves had a complex about their own food, but i'm not sure it had quite the globally lambasted reputation as it does now.

>The French got it even worse than the British did in both wars,

lol what

In both wars France was occupied by Germany. England was never occupied in either war.

In WW1 the Brits (and their colonies included) lost roughly a million people (~2% population) whereas the French lost about 1.7 million (4.3%).

In WWII England lost 450K, about 1%. France lost 600K, about 1.5%

So clearly the French got fucked a lot worse than the Brits in both wars.

Every time british food is brought up someone posts this meal. It's like this is the stunning example of british cuisine or something, fucking breakfast. The only difference between that and american breakfast is that we don't have baked beans on the plate. I don't see mushrooms or blood sausages here either, and usually there's pancakes or oatmeal or grits too.

I've had some decent british food like beef wellington but every god damn time it's 'muh breakfast'

but we're talking about rationing.

Their biscuits and gravy ain't like home, but not bad.

Boiled, bland, or covered in vinegar: British cuisine.

>but we're talking about rationing.

My point was simply that the French lost a more resources/people/etc yet still managed to retain a positive reputation for their cuisine.

I don't know the exact metrics by which you could compare the quality of the rationing between the two countries, but it's logical to conclude that the French had pretty shitty rationing--surely just as bad if not worse than the Brits. After all, the French lost more people. Not to mention the Germans were surely diverting a great deal of the foodstuffs grown in France to their own war efforts elsewhere in Europe.

If you have any sources that suggest that France didn't suffer just as bad rationing as the Brits then I would certainly stand corrected, but I don't think that's very likely.

No lie, I'd eat the shit out of that

This picture tries too hard to be British . .. .I'm not so sure it is, the bacon looks wrong for a start. I think the reason a Full English is often posted is because it's a lot more hearty than many other typical breakfasts.

read off a meme-sheet.

The Brits had worse rationing. Being an island also restricted imports and considering the high density of Britain, most at the time only ate what they could grow in their gardens or from their ration books, which wasn't lifted until the mid 1950's.

that's because most cafes and people can't cook a proper one

my dad can make a great one

>The Brits had worse rationing

Source, please.

>My point was simply that the French lost a more resources/people/etc yet still managed to retain a positive reputation for their cuisine.

ok but you're broadening the issue and making a less pertinent counterargument as a result. we're an island and we were never occupied so hitler was hellbent on BTFOing our navy.

well i'm not saying the breakfast looks bad, it's just surprising there aren't more flagship dishes being thrown around. its always the breakfast.

> it's just surprising there aren't more flagship dishes being thrown around

the flagship dish should always and forever be a roast or a pudding or a pie or something, but 'full english' has fucking 'english' in the name so most of us are irrationally proud of it.

To some extent I can agree with this. English pride has always been suppressed for the sake of the Union, to have 'English' in the title is a matter of pride, no matter how shallow that might seem to others.

>ok but you're broadening the issue

That wasn't my intention, sorry. I could not find any discrete facts about the exact nature of French rationing, other than generic descriptions of how horrible it was and photos of ration books. Without hard data to compare one vs. the other it seems logical to examine which country got "hit harder" than the other and draw conclusions from that. As I mentioned before, if you have hard evidence about French rations so we can compare them to the British then I will be happy to stand corrected.

>Island. blockade, etc
You think occupied France was open to allied shipping or something? At least England maintained its own domestic production, whereas the Germans outright took a full 80% of food production from France and sent it to the front lines (The Taste of War: World War Two and the Battle for Food by Collingham) Not to mention the destruction of the war and fuel shortages greatly reduced farming efficiency.

Again, if you have any hard data on this I'd love to see it. But--and please don't take this the wrong way--I think you don't have any hard data and are just repeating what you happen to believe.

I see our glorious mods allow the bi-daily anti-British threads.

What a shit board this is.

> At least England maintained its own domestic production, whereas the Germans outright took a full 80% of food production from France and sent it to the front lines

that sounds significant prima facie but it could actually pale in comparison to how britain was hit seeing as a naval blockade could eliminate near 100% of some of our imported staples. i'll admit i don't have 'hard data' but let's be fair here, not many people do, and i'm just repeating what i believe is a commonly accepted aspect of modern british history.

>At least England maintained its own domestic production
I don't think you realise the population of Britain to France in terms of pop/Km2 . .. The spices Britain had enjoyed since the Middle Ages, where simply unavailable and Britain survived on subsistence food.

And we're off to a great start.

If I were a weaker man I would just report this shitpost, you're lucky that I'm better than that.

Because these threads are never about what's good, just who has the most professionally shot pictures, it's the same as food threads on /int/ and as that meal is essentially a meme with foreigners, it has the most professional images.

>I think you don't have any hard data and are just repeating what you happen to believe.

The irony of this post is amusing.

Irisher here.

I'll list a few of my favourites:

>Leek and black pepper sausages
Probably the greatest sausage ever, along with the standard Thuringer Bratwurst.
I don't include salami or chorizo in this as they're more cured meats than anything. Also delicious, of course.
>Scottish shortbread
Greatest biscuit ever. Also, these with chocolate chips in them are just too wonderful. Addictive.
>Crumpets
>Fish & Chips
With salt and malt vinegar on the chips and tartare sauce, you're in heaven.
>Puddings
Lovely heavy chocolate puds
>Yorkshire puddings
>Cornish pasties
I make these myself as they're hard to find where I live
>Beetroot and goat's cheese
I had it for the first time on a trip to Scotland. Blew me away. Maybe not specifically British, but it was amazing.
>Mince pies
>Shepard's pie
Had so much of this as a child that I went off it, but now have come back to it. Lovely creamy mash with not too much gelatinousness to the gravy is what I prefer.
>Best biscuits in the world
>Some of the best chocolate bars
Dairy Milk's various stuff, Boost etc.
>Tunnock's tea cakes
Dear god
>Scones
Add clotted cream and I will clot my pants
>Fucking tikka masala
Heaven
>Black and white pudding
Personally, I prefer white, but both are great
>Scotch egg
Looks bad, seems bad, but is great
>Cakes and tarts

And then, of course, glorious ale.

...

Modern British cuisine is GOAT. You can get as good a meal in London these days as you can in Paris, Tokyo, or New York

The problem is British home cooking and the attitudes of most of the smaller, cheaper, more provincial places. We don't have the same respect for quality and freshness as other countries do. Why? I don't know. Plebs are revolting.

The full English is much better than American style breakfasts. It's almost the same thing with more included.

that's syrup you fucking faggot

It's gravy you yank retard. You realise gravy isn't supposed to look like jizz right?

>BAKED BEANS
>BLOOD sausage
>Mushrooms and tomatoes
That's not breakfast. That's shit you find at the bottom of your fridge thrown onto a plate.

That's all IN ADDITION to eggs, bacon, toast, etc. You're free to dislike vegetables if that's your thing, but I don't think they're an unreasonable addition to a plate full of meat.

No you fucking cum guzzler
if you look at the way the biscuits are 'smothered' that's clearly a sugar based syrup

god you're an insufferable cunt

We were willing to sacrifice our food traditions for the sake of Europe, we were so bankrupt and dirt poor after the war that people couldn't afford to buy proper ingredients and rationing that started in 1940 actually continued until 1954.

Those 14 years created an entire generation of people who grew up not learning how to cook proper meals with their families, with traditional cuisine being scattered to the winds.

As the country trudged on it took decades for people to take an interest in food again, with the inventions of processed foods the lack of need ro reconnect with culinary traditions only became more intrenched.

This view was held until most would say Keith Floyd in 1984 started presenting his cooking show Floyd on Fish where he enthused viewers on taking an interest in cooking.

Since then interest has resurged for cooking although the cuisine we make is no longer British, the fact is we lost most of our culinary heritage so we adopt dishes from around the world and adapt them to our tastes.

Some words to describe British cuisine would be: hearty, warming, wholesome, comfy and delicious.

Unlike a lot of other cuisines it doesn't use spices as a handicap where everything needs to be so full of spice you lose the subtly from the base ingredients so much that they can really be replaced by anything.

Some people say that fish and chips is the national dish but to me the dish that defines British food is the roast dinner. Even an average cook can make a tasty, filling roast dinner, but someone who really knows what they're doing will make a roast dinner transcend all other roasts.

>roasted beef perfectly pink and seasoned with salt and pepper
>roast potatoes so crunchy on the outside yet fluffy and light on the inside
>a variety of seasonal veg to keep things interesting and different through the year
>a homemade gravy not too thick, not too watery
>a couple of light puffy Yorkshire puddings
>and to finish off a small pot of freshly made horseradish sauce

Other great British meals include
>Cottage/shepherds pie
>Various stews, such as the steak and ale stew
>A fuck load of savory pies and other pastries
>Fish and chips
>Beef wellington
>Full English breakfast
>Afternoon tea
>Bangers and mash
>Macaroni cheese (yes, it is of British origin)

Then there's all the puddings and cakes like the victoria sponge, crumble (similar to a cobbler for you americans) and sticky toffee pudding. Not the mention the variety of cheeses beyond the fabled cheddar.

Gravy needs to be a bit thiqqer desu.

Why have vegetables with your meat when you could have waffles and syrup with it instead?

Tips for roast dinner.

Let your meat rest and pay attention to the cooking times.

Par boil your potatoes for 5-10 mins and shake them up in the pan to create extra texture that will make even crispier potatoes (allow time to dry by leaving uncovered before putting into oil)

When you out your potatoes on to boil put your roasting tin with oil in the oven so potatoes go straight into hot oil.

Steam rather than boil your veg if possible, unless it is a root vegetable that needs roasting.

When your meat is finished and is resting put the roasting tin on the hob and scrape the meat bits off with a wood spoon. If you want to you can roast a whole garlic bulb drizzled in olive oil in the tray for 1 hour.

For beef and lamb add half a glass of red wine (plonk will do) and let the alcohol cook off, throw in flour (and with beef maybe a tablespoon of tomato puree) cook through for a few minutes and then pass through a seive into a saucepan. Add a small amount of browning for colour if needed.

For chicken gravy don't add red wine but go through the same technique as above using "chicken" gravy browning if needed.

Make your Yorkshire pudding batter the day before. Always spoon it into hot oil in the tray.

Eat with friends and family.

no, it's gravy. the image was clearly made by someone intending to lampoon the concept of biscuits and gravy as interpreted by brits. that is a classic british gravy consistency.

>Fucking tikka masala
>British cuisine

And you make fun of America for not having its own culture

it's not like india particularly wants to claim it

>focuses on the 1/18 that takes influence from another cultures cuisine

Someone's bitter.

India only wants things after England has spent billions of pounds and decades civilizing it, then it's time to get out limey!

tikka masala is one of the most overtly civilised things i've ever seen

Hence why the English took it back with them. It sure as fuck wouldn't actually exist without them, it's completly an invention of Western English trying to reproduce the flavors of India with spices and local ingredients

I sort of agree with your comment about the War years and the rationing, Britons concentrated on subsistence food rather than good cuisine.

I was born in the mid 1960's and I recall my mother watching Fanny Cradock and Graham Kerr (the Galloping Gourmet) And I think a lot of Brits became inspired by this. In the early '70's I was eating Fondue, Spag Bol, Risottos and Curries. I think the change was happening before Keith Floyd.

Although the British have modified other dishes from around the world, there is currently a resurgence of going back to the roots, making traditional English dishes. For example: Snails, they where eaten in Britain before the Romans arrived and (especially in the West Country) were usually stewed in a seasoned, cider based stock (as opposed to the French Garlic and Butter) - Jugged Hare and various game are also making a come-back, along with various offal dishes. Not to mention the rich British heritage of it's pie and pudding culture.

>it's completly an invention of Western English trying to reproduce the flavors of India with spices and local ingredients
WRONG!

Tikka masala was a British invention, to add a spicy gravy to a dry dish (Chicken Tikka) .. it's not a reproduction of anything.

>English
It's a Scottish dish you colossal cunt.

It's not Scottish.

Although the Scots would like to claim it was . .. .it was Birmingham . . . .sorry Hamish.

Your retardation and lack of culinary knowledge are off the scale today my friend.

it's an invention that took place in britain and was made by brits of indian heritage. however it clearly 'comes from' india in a large way.

brits, and various other colonial nations, have a large role to play in the development of indian restaurant cuisine. the restaurants in which these dishes were developed would not have existed without them. however the techniques developed within these restaurants date back at least as early as the mughal era

>and was made by brits of indian heritage
NO
It was made at the request of a Grumpy Englishman who wanted gravy on their tikka.

even if that's true it doesn't contradict what i said.

>It was made at the request of a Grumpy Englishman
by an Indian.

I suppose many workers were involved in building parts for the Apollo missions . . . . .are you saying that Mexicans made the moon landings?

no, but a german did.

Britbong here. Youre right, cooking is overlooked here and most people dont care enough to put any effort in. We have plenty of good resteraunts but international food is way more popular.

One much negelected british dish thing is the PLOUGHMANS LUNCH.
Seriously. People forget, a good ploughmans is second to none. A board of great local cheese, some crackers or local bread, butter, some good quality cold meats, perhaps a pork pie, some apple, tomatos, occasionally boiled egg, usually apple and maybe some grapes, and of course, some pickle. Lots of little bits of good brit shit.

Oh, forgot to add some local ale or cider...

This 2bh.

When a clappyfat says gravy, they don't actually mean gravy, they mean a bechamel sauce.

They are just too stupid to call it by the correct name.

The american white gravy isn't just bechamel; it usually has pork sausage meat in it. It's also technically a gravy because it's supposed to be made from the pan drippings of whatever you cooked, not just starting with butter or oil like you would for bechamel.

And we amerifats have plenty of other kinds of gravy as well. Sawmill/country gravy isn't the only one.

Like every other countries, some stuff is good and other stuff is something I could only stomach if I'd only grown up with it.

>take bechamel
>make it better
>give it a less douchy name
>french fags butthurt

You deserve all of the hate that is thrown at you.

And I bet you couldn't name, let alone have tasted, these mysterious awful things.

America is a cancer upon the Earth.

>>that sounds significant prima facie but it could actually pale in comparison to how britain was hit seeing as a naval blockade

France was not receiving any Allied food support either. Did you forget that the Nazis build costal fortifications all around France? They're still there to this day. Britain was receiving a great deal of support from the US and Canada via shipping convoys; France received none of that.

>>i'm just repeating what i believe is a commonly accepted aspect of modern british history.

Yes, I realize it's commonly belived, but as my earlier example from Mrs. Beeton's made clear, it's also wrong. The reputation pre-dated even WW1 by several decades. So clearly the "commonly held belief" is in fact incorrect, and thus I'd like to find out what the actual reason was/is.

>>I don't think you realise the population of Britain to France
I do. That's why I quoted their wartime deaths as a % of the population, and France suffered much higher relative losses.

>>spices
it's a war user. Nobody is worried about spices during a war. Everyone except for a negligible few super-rich were living on subsistence diets. Even the Americans had rationing despite their massive production capacity and the fact that there wasn't any appreciable fighting on American soil.

I already admitted that I don't know the hard facts to back up the answer. But at least I have some numbers to back up my theory, thus I am confident in believing it until I am proven wrong. Mrs. Beeton's seems to disprove the "Brit food is bad because of war rationing", so the only logical conclusion is that it was caused by something else but has been misattributed to the wars.

This is mostly correct, although I have seen many versions, particularly in the Midwest, of country gravy which do not start with pan drippings. A lot of restaurants don't use drippings for obvious reasons (gravy isn't made to order in most restaurants). So these versions basically are white sauce with sausage.

>Yes, I realize it's commonly belived, but as my earlier example from Mrs. Beeton's made clear, it's also wrong.

you're talking about the wrong 'commonly accepted aspect'. i'm not saying britain didn't have an impaired culinary reputation pre-ww2, i'm just saying it could have been significantly exacerbated by rationing. what i think is 'commonly accepted' is that we had especially stringent rationing as a nation.

this whole issue clearly requires a more complex analysis because without knowing exactly what we subsisted on in terms of export vs import and how hard that stuff was hit during the war we could make a lot of drastic proclamations.

>what i think is 'commonly accepted' is that we had especially stringent rationing as a nation.

It's certainly true that Britain did suffer through rationing. But for what reason(s) do you think it was worse that what France suffered?

I would think that France would have had an even worse situation given:
-they received zero allied convoy shipments whereas Britain had many. The US built over 2700 "liberty ships" for the sole purpose of shipping cargo to England. How many did occupied France get? Zero.
-they were occupied by the Nazis who diverted a full 80% of their domestic production to Germany; Britain was never occupied and retained control of their own production.
-they suffered much greater infrastructure damage due to being occupied
-they suffered a higher % losses of people able to work the fields, etc.

The evidence seems to suggest that if we don't have clear data on French rations to compare to the British that it would be silly to assume that the British rationing program was worse than the French.

What exactly are this one brand of sausage that every cafe and school in the UK serves?

I really like them but they're obviously cheap as shit.

Most likely something like this:

brake.co.uk/products/meat-poultry-frozen/frozen-processed-meat/sausages/cocktailschipolatas12s/f5147-brakes-sausage-twelves

The only good dishes are bar food. Bangers and Mash, Fish and Chips etc.

They do have the worst food but at least beer isn't too expensive at the pub.

The other guy already called you out on your shitposting.

Look up the populations, population density and landmass.

In summation, kill yourself.

I hope your mother breaks her back.

i like earl grey tea and scones

She is a saint

Forgot to mention a full english breakfast as being pretty good. But they ought to ditch the tea and get some coffee to go with it.

we need directly comparable data to really make this conversation go places. we need to know what we ate before compared to what we ate during and after. i'm looing into it but making any specific assumptions would be misguided at this point so i won't pretend to have a rebuttal right now

Kill yourself.

You have a license for that knife, m8?

Americans province once again to be the worst posters around.

I'm from Oslo and I wasn't that impressed by British cooking. The French, Italians, and even some Germans made better food.

I went to Norway and the food wasn't fit for a dog.

Scandinavian food is just terrible.

Why so many types of gravy?

I agree, but I think it's weird the British haven't noticed that theirs is fairly bad as well. I'd never serve a foreigner our food. Maybe a pizza.

Good god you're as bad as the Swedes.