Chapters
- 01. Roast Beef
- 02. Fish and Chips
- 03. The Sunday Roast
- 04. The English Breakfast
- 05. English Desserts
There are many English cultural traditions and our dishes that are worth a try. Dive into something that you're not used to.
After reading this article, I bet you will want to try the English gastronomy, at home or at a restaurant.
And try the English menu, written in English!
Roast Beef
This dish involves of joint of roast beef, slow cooked in an oven. This is usually served with a Worcester sauce, slightly spicy with a sweet and sour taste.
Do you know the origin of this famous sauce?
The sauce was invented in 1837 and it was produced in Worcester, England.
Its main ingredient is treacle (a sugar refining residue); it also contains shallots, spices, anchovies and malt vinegar. Like we see in movies, we serve the roast beef with green beans and roast or boiled potatoes.
This dish has been nicknamed the “Sunday Lunch” because traditionally this meal is eaten as a family meal on Sunday afternoon.
Traditionally, the Brits would put the roast beef on to cook before going to Mass and once they returned, it was ready to eat! Learn more about English culture and language with english lessons, including English lessons online.
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Fish and Chips
Fish and chips is a great meal when you’re on the go, it is much better than industrial fast food.
The meal is cooked by frying fish and making homemade chips.
The most important part of this meal is not actually the fish (which must, of course, be soft), but rather, it is the breading on the fish.
To make a proper English homemade breading, you need the following three ingredients:
- 250 ml of quality beer
- 1 cup of flower
- 2 eggs
Now, all that’s left to do batter the fish (cod or plaice) and fry for 3-4 minutes to get a dark golden crust.
This meal should be served with a fresh tartar sauce.
I bet you’re drooling.
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The Sunday Roast
The Sunday Roast is a typical salted dish, served hot, and you will normally find it on pub menus. So, what is a Sunday Roast?
- Roasted cheesy potatoes
- Yorkshire puddings, similar to a fat pancake, they contain eggs, milk, flour and salt and are cooked in the oven
- Assortment of Root and GardenVegetables
- All sorts of pies: vegetable or meat pies
- Meat in a vegetable broth and sometimes with peas
The English Breakfast
The dreamy English breakfast, what is actually in this dish?
- Fried, hard boiled or poached eggs
- Fried bacon
- Baked beans
- Fried Mushrooms
- Grilled sausages
- Black pudding
- Buttered toast with jam
- Grilled tomatoes
- Hash Brows (fried potatoes)
- A hot drink or a fruit juice
The English breakfast is the world’s favourite breakfast and it is famous for its fried food. In fact, the English breakfast allows you to consume one-third of your daily food intake, if not more!
Well, for the vegans and vegetarians out there, this is definitely not your ideal breakfast, but you could opt for a porridge that is made with nourishing oatmeal as well as fresh and dried fruit. Yummy.
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English Desserts
Most of these English deserts are well known to lovers of pastry (we will leave it to you to put American Pie in the category of your choice)! Learn how English accents differ in the UK and US.
Here is a small selection of sweet options.
The Apple Pie
In England, the apple is cooked in its juice on a layer of pastry and is then covered with another layer of pastry.
People love this dessert because the cooked fruit has a similar texture to apple compote, but it is even better as it is covered in a crusty and delicious pastry. At the end of the day, it all depends on your taste buds!
As for the preparation side of things, it is easy, even if you choose to make the pastry at home. Click here to follow a great Apple Pie recipe.
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Jelly
As you must know, jelly hasn't always had a good reputation. The ingredients are simple: gelatin, fruits, and sugar.
As cartoons have often depicted jelly in an unappetising way, children who go on school trips are often panic-stricken when eating it.
But, in reality, English children love it! For the jelly to be more nutritious, you can add milk or pieces of fruit.
Pudding
There are a huge variety of puddings. Most of these cakes contain fruit, and others contain prunes or spices.
I guarantee you; you will always have the required ingredients to make a pudding! This is great for cold evenings when you just want to stay indoors.
Crumble
A mouth-watering dessert, the fruit crumble is an English gastronomy classic. It includes fruit compote covered in sanded dough, which is made from butter, flour and sugar. You can even add chocolate!
The most classic crumbles are either made with apples, pears, apricots or peaches.
If you fancy a bit of excitement in your dessert, then you should try a crumble with mango or raspberry! And even better, the dessert can be served with a tablespoon of fresh cream or custard.
Although, we advise not to get into a carousel immediately after having eaten crumble!
Follow this BBC recipe to make the perfect apple crumble.
Scones
Scones are eaten as a dessert or with a hot drink, a tea for example, if you want to carry on the English theme.
They are small and round sugary cakes served with raspberry jam and cream. Like muffins, over the years scones have been made with chocolate, grapes, and currants.
Salted scones also exist, made with cheese and potatoes. To make basic scones, here is a simple recipe you could make with your eyes shut:
Ingredients:
- 250 grams of flower
- 40 grams of butter or margarine
- 1 and a half tablespoon of sugar
- 150 ml of cow's milk or rice milk
- 1 sachet of yeast
- A pinch of salt
Preparation:
- Mix in the flour, the butter, and the yeast
- Spread out the pastry (no thinner than 2cm)
- Cut out the form of your choice, by using a glass for example
- Place the pieces of pastry on parchment paper
- Cook for 12-15 minutes at 220°
- Time to taste the scones! You can dip the scones into a hot drink, or in cold milk. You can also cut them in two to spread them with jam
As we have seen, the English gastronomy includes big classical dishes: the roast beef, crumble and Fish and Chips.
These traditional dishes have integrated rather well into eating habits worldwide! Grab your cooking utensils and start cooking in the most spoken language worldwide: English! Learn how English evolved as a language over the years.
Discover the most famous English quotes used throughout the world. Or try learning English through the wonderful language of Shakespeare.
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