British cuisine
British cuisine has its roots in the cooking traditions of the indigenous Celts, however it has been significantly influenced and shaped by subsequent waves of conquest, notably that of the Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, and the Normans; waves of migration, notably immigrants from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Jamaica and the wider Caribbean, China, Italy, South Africa, and Eastern Europe, primarily Poland; and exposure to increasingly globalised trade and connections to the Anglosphere, particularly the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.Traditional British cuisine has been characterised as coarse, hearty dishes relying on high quality seasonal local ingredients, paired with simple sauces to accentuate their flavour.According to Julius Caesar, Celtic Britons domesticated cattle, which were symbols of status and wealth, sheep and goats for their meat and milk; and, to a lesser extent, pigs for ham.Caesar notes that Celts also domesticated geese, chickens, and hares, but it is unclear whether they were kept for food or for religious rituals due to the association with Celtic deities.[5] In 43 AD, the Roman Empire invaded and began its conquest of Britain, eventually encompassing all of modern-day England, Wales, and parts of southern Scotland.The Roman conquest brought a culinary renaissance to the island, importing many foodstuffs which were hitherto unknown to Celtic Britons, including fruits such as figs, medlars, grapes, pears, cherries, plums, damsons, mulberries, dates, olives, vegetable marrows, and cucumbers; vegetables such as carrots, celery, asparagus, endives, turnips, cabbages, leeks, radishes, onions, shallots, and artichokes; nuts, seeds, and pulses such as sweet chestnuts, lentils, peas, pine nuts, almonds, walnuts, and sesame; and herbs and spices such as garlic, basil, parsley, borage, chervil, thyme, common sage, sweet marjoram, summer savory, black pepper, ginger, cinnamon, rosemary, mint, coriander, chives, dill, and fennel.[6][7][8] Produced foods such as sausages were also imported,[9][10] along with new animals, including rabbits,[11] pheasants, peacocks, guinea fowl, and possibly fallow deer.[27] The recipes it describes are diverse and sophisticated, with a wide variety of ingredients such as capon, pheasant, almonds, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, dates, pine nuts, saffron, and sugar.The dawn of the Tudor dynasty following the Wars of the Roses coincided with the European discovery of the New World, the initiation of the Columbian exchange, and globalisation of trade, which opened up Britain to a range of new foodstuffs not seen since the Roman conquest.[44] The growth of the global spice trade, now dominated by rapidly expanding European empires, led to the re-proliferation of black pepper, nutmeg, cloves, mace, and cinnamon in British cookery.[53][54] Nobles ate costlier or more unusual varieties of meat, such as swans, lamb and mutton, veal, beef, heron, pheasant, partridge, quail, peafowl, geese, boar, and venison.[70] The alcoholic beverage rum, produced from molasses throughout the Caribbean and North America, came to be associated with the British Royal Navy at this time, when they captured the valuable sugar-producing island of Jamaica in 1655.[73] Dishes that would become staples of British cuisine well into the 21st century were first mentioned in Glasse's book, such as Yorkshire pudding,[74] burgers (called "Hamburgh sausage"),[75] the addition of jelly into trifle,[76] and piccalilli.[82][83][84] Tavern-style foods which became culinary classics developed during this time, notably Welsh rarebit, consisting of toasted bread topped with a sauce made of cheese, ale, and mustard.[90] Poorer households attempting to extend the longevity of their meat stores made them into savoury batter puddings, giving rise to the classic dish Toad in the hole.[97][98][99][100] Chutney, a type of preserved relish developed in India, gained huge popularity in Britain, particularly with the working class who desired ever more exotic flavours in their diet.[102] Adapting earlier recipes of Portuguese quince paste, the Scots invented the modern form of marmalade; an easily spreadable fruit preserve made from bitter orange.[103] Eccles cakes, a small flaky pastry filled with currants, emerged in the late 18th century, which still retains some popularity today particularly in Manchester and Lancashire.[115][116] This tied into the growth of the middle class in Victorian Britain as wealth poured in from all over the Empire, and industrialisation spread into food production which cheapened ingredients, allowing more people to purchase goods previously reserved only for the very wealthy.Middle class women, in lieu of being able to afford servants and private cooks, began to make more elaborate dishes to impress guests at dinner parties.As the 19th century progressed, many establishments underwent lavish refurbishment to compete with gin palaces, and to distinguish themselves from one another, further solidifying alcohol consumption as an integral part of British culture.The latter half of the First World War saw voluntary rationing, which limited the average citizen to a daily 1,680 calorie-ration of butter or margarine, sugar, tea, jam, bacon, and meat.[167] After the war ended, rationing was kept in place, partially to help feed people in European areas whose economies had been virtually destroyed by the fighting, but also because resources were unavailable to expand food production and imports.[198] A poll by YouGov in 2016 found that the most popular Indian dish in Britain was the korma (selected by 18% of respondents), followed by chicken tikka masala, jalfrezi, madras, rogan josh, biryani, balti, bhuna, dupiaza, and vindaloo.[202] British rule over Hong Kong and the New Territories became an integral part of international shipping routes, and many European companies enlisted Southern Chinese men as sailors, who in turn resettled in Britain.[226] Toward the end of the century in the 1980s and 1990s, with greater public access to radio and television, the phenomenon reached new heights when gaining a Michelin star increased the profile and reputation of chefs.[240] Debora Robertson, writing in The Daily Telegraph, argues that all aspects of British cuisine has undergone a culinary revolution, shedding the spectres of wartime rationing and post-war food scarcity, and its standards now rivals that of France.[264] Historically, limited availability of ingredients and low levels of immigration resulted in restricted variety and relative isolation from wider international culinary influences.[266] Traditional Scottish dishes include bannocks, brose, cullen skink, Dundee cake, haggis, marmalade, porridge, and Scotch broth.Welsh cuisine in the Middle Ages was limited in range; Gerald of Wales, chaplain to Henry II, wrote after an 1188 tour that "The whole population lives almost entirely on oats and the produce of their herds, milk, cheese and butter.
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