best food from Orwell's "In Defense of English Cooking"

It's quite a challop from Orwell putting haggis in there.

What, no mushy peas?

combo my first 2 choices for toad in the hole

The patron for centrist dads defends English 'food', what a surprise.

Everyone should read his books 'Animal Farm' and '1984'

Isn't apple sauce more of an American thing?

you have apple sauce with pork

"Oceanland has always been at war with Eureka", fucking headfuck man

in the absence of BREAD PUDDING (wtf orwell), treacle tart

wat if winton smith greatest fear not rats but bukkake

not centrist: haggis, bramble jelly

(probably don't go together though)

depending which kind of marrow sounds either bland or heston blumenthal: marrow jam

"No! do it to Julia, do it to Julia!!" lol

Americans have applause not apple sauce

Crumpets are a wonderful thing and nothing quite like them, especially texturally, appears to exist anywhere else in the world, so I'm going for that.

stilton, roast potatoes, sausages, horseradish all great

big eyebrow raise at absence of black pudding, Orwell clearly to posh to understand mushy peas

Crumpets are a wonderful thing and nothing quite like them, especially texturally, appears to exist anywhere else in the world, so I'm going for that.

― Matt DC, Thursday, August 31, 2017 9:21 AM (eleven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

someone's not been to the blue nile and tried their injera bread lol

There are no vegetables anywhere in this list (justifiably, the English worked out how to cook vegetables well maybe 10 years ago?)

two unexpected things i learnt from the actual essay: the french do not cook with mint (is this true?) and packets of crisps were already sold in pubs in the 1940s

the "english cuisine is of course terrible" cliche held full sway roughly from the early 1800s to the 1970s, and while you do still encounter it (often from americans, lol), it's false enough now that it's hard to remember that it was once a truism with a very strong and long-lasting element of truth to it (british cookbooks between mrs beeton in the 1840s and elizabeth david in the 1950s are some weird shit let me tell you) (and elizabeth david was all about continental non-UK cuisine)

ppl usually explain this via the industrial revolution (though that's also what caused fish and chips so eh?)

fish and chips shd probably be on this list?

potatoes are on this list and were proven the best vegetable only very recently in a poll on ilxor dot com

all the recipes i can find for marrow jam use a fvckton of ginger, which i guess takes care of the taste (marrow tastes of nothing, it's just ultra-diluted courgette)

until that post i just assumed it was bone marrow for some reason haha

noted paleo diet enthusiast george orwell

he was all about those lean gains

Voted haggis because, even though it's not English, it is the yummiest thing on that list.

Missing, apart from the already mentioned fish & chips and black pudding: Sunday roast! Or at least Yorkshire pudding if we're going ingredient-only. Porridge not really a contender tastewise but it does help a whole lot to regulate the stomach, should get an honourable mention.

In re: the cliché of English food being terrible, I think that while there is no doubt lots of great English meals you guys do have a weird talent for coming up with stuff that would strike most other European nations at least as non-euclidean, i.e. jellied eels, bangers & chips w/ curry sauce.

haggis is really nice yes

love haggis

this list reminded me how much i hate everything about mint sauce

I have found myself in plenty of places around the country * through work and I struggle to find decent restaurants that would serve English food.

One pub in Sheffield so far is all I have.

* not counting London

dude chips w/ curry sauce is the most belgian thing ever

xp hand & flowers my man

i once went to a wedding where the proud essex dad had front-loaded the buffet with his favourite food to honour his beloved daughter's best-ever day, so that table after table groaned with jellied eel piled high

i quite like jellied eel -- and don't see it often -- so i dug in but by the end of the evening nearly no one else had touched it :(

at the risk of stereotyping myself, i think i'm probably gonna have to go haggis on this one

this list reminded me how much i hate everything about mint sauce

otm - mint is the flavour of toothpaste, keep it the fuck away from my food

feeling very attacked right now

Hand & flowers is Michelin star but what I mean is nice places where you could get something good and British for about 15-20 quid no fuss.

Real lack of places.

Lol if Haggis wins

haggis won't win. the american shift will all roll in and vote for stilton or something

BLOOD SAUSAGE

never forget

this thread replicating an argument I had with my son the other day i.e. mint flavour does not belong in food

but I don't consider fresh mint to count so mint sauce and mojitos are fine by me

course, with both of those the alcohol is doing most of the heavy lifting

Missing, apart from the already mentioned fish & chips and black pudding: Sunday roast!

Potatoes roasted under the joint, though. Btw if you didn't vote for that, you've never done it (and you should).

haggis won't win. the american shift will all roll in and vote for stilton or something

stilton is rad tbf

There's alcohol in mint sauce??

can't wait for the us muffins vs uk muffins arguments to kick off

xp

vinegar is just spoiled alcohol innit?

Dublin prawns surely more contentious than Haggis, which has been alleged to have been invented in England

xp yeah I guess, doesn't get you pissed though iirc

I do usually further dilute mint sauce with more vinegar come to think of it.

my fam did that, could make one jar go a year easily

so you don't like mint sauce at all, you just like vinegar with a dash of toothpaste?

next you'll be telling me you only enjoy homeopathic servings of mushy peas

a: you need mint in tabbouli (w/parsley to counteract the spear-carrying element of the mint)
b: a good quick tomato salad is tomatoes and shredded mint leaves in red wine vinaigrette
c: there's an excellent soup, spinach, leek and mint with lamb DUMPLINGS! which i live off in the winter
d: the first book i reached down went to "leaves in liver tea" a bit fast for my liking, but it turns out "liver tea" is a old-fashioned polite way of saying "diuretic": the tea contains no liver it acts on the liver (beneficially) and contains mint leaves, dandelion leaves, rosemary, blessed thistle (broken) and wormwood lol lol lol
e: pliny sez students shd wear a sprig of mint to classes to "exhilarate their minds"
f: after eights so i win the thread

in conclusion mint is good not bad

If you think mint sauce tastes like toothpaste, you have either never eaten mint sauce or never brushed your teeth

unsure why i capitalised DUMPLINGS! in that list however they are very nice

wrong, it's actually both xp

and elizabeth david was all about continental non-UK cuisine

Only her early books: her later work was very much to do with the history of regional British cookery

hahaha the DUMPLINGS! autocorrect abides

TS mint sauce vs mint jelly

e: pliny sez students shd wear a sprig of mint to classes to "exhilarate their minds"

and where are pliny and his students now i ask u

ts ky sauce vs ky jelly

they are under the sod iirc

xp

exactly

WHERE IS YOUR MINT GOD NOW, PLINY

what I mean is nice places where you could get something good and British for about 15-20 quid no fuss.

Real lack of places.

This is the thing - the quality of casual food in France and Italy is just so much better than it is here. You can go to a French inn largely frequented by lorry drivers and the food will be great. A lot of places serving what might be described as 'British' food in that price bracket are just lazy.

There's loads of good stuff in London and other big cities obviously and a lot of country/village pubs still bother. It's medium-sized towns and cities where you really see the problem, like why is the food in Oxford so shit?

so the only foods that clear BG's bar are (i) nectar and (ii) ambrosia

the latter reminds me that THIS is not in the only-the-english list:

https://www.englishteastore.com/media/catalog/product/cache/6/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/F/P/FPUD_AMB_CRCE_-00_Ambrosia-Creamed-Rice-Pudding-15oz-425g.jpg

dude chips w/ curry sauce is the most belgian thing ever

I have never heard of this but the Belgians are culturally English according to that one Jonathan Meades doc so the point stands.

the roast is the quintessential english meal & all the best, truly decadent 3-types-of-stuffing&all-the-sauces, christmas-dinner-level roasts I've had have been home cooked.

I'm voting sausages though. I've had some great sausages around europe but my favourites have been in england

never cared for any of the desserts though, they're just for old people

a *lot* of lunchtime lifting in small towns is done by eg highish-quality chains like pret or else supermarket packaged snacks*, which maybe cuts into the share that good casual caffs and restaurants wd need to stay solvent?

*to be eaten back at yr desk so you look as if yr working thru lunch?

so the only foods that clear BG's bar are (i) nectar and (ii) ambrosia

also haggis

this has probably actually been written, but a social history of sugar in the british diet wd be interesting: before colonies were established in the west indies (and slaves imported) most sugar in these sialdns came from sugarbeets, with honey pitching in the sweetener dept… i read once that UK consumption of cane sugar (which is what the plantations provide) went up by 600 times over the relevant timespan (like 1700-1800, i forget exactly), WHICH IS A LOT

the bulk of our puddings and cakes and jams and jellies and conserves presumably date from this rise -- not just the tendency to use sugar to preserve, but to treat staples others used largely as savouries (like rice and tapioca and sago and lol yes old stale bread) as the stodge in highly sweetened desserts

apologies for all the questions marks, i am starting to post like stevolende

DUMPLINGS!!

I want to vote cox's orange puppies because of how comprehensively wrong the entire rest of the world gets apples. The overarching focus on sweetness and appearance over taste is execrable. I think of almost all the things in the list the thing that is hardest to get a good example of outside of the UK is a decent apple.

I'm not even sure the cox is the best apple but it is a fine example. Even more infuriating is that the rest of the world doesn't value cooking apples at all.

but what about all those American pies?

cooking apples often now quite hard to track down *inside* the UK also imo: the apple is going the way of the rubbery and tasteless mass-grown tomato :( :( :(

I haven't had a good shop-bought tomato in years except for the premium brand "we actually taste of something" varieties

That is a sad development. I did track down some good cookers in Pennsylvania - eating apples make for shit pies and American apple pie is generally not good. For a superlative in American pies it has to be cherry, pumpkin or pecan.

i thought i didn't much like tomatoes until i ate them on the amalfi coast (darling) and they were so extraordinary it kinda ruined forevermore the pale imitation-of-an-imitation tomatoes we get here in the uk

in general food -- including supermarket food -- has actually improved immeasurably during my lifetime at all levels but the need for unblemished supermarket produce has come at a high price

(i still gag thinking abt the food we were served at the school when i was 8-12, tho i think it was a weird outlier enabled by a headmaster w/no clinical sense of taste or smell)

(the cook was called mr bell, an unendingly angry red-head scot: our schoolboy theory was that he was an escaped criminal who secured his job with threats of extreme physical violence towards the staff and governers)

#notallscotsmen he posted quickly

an anglo-greek friend insists it's impossible to have truly great souvlaki in the uk due to the poor tomatoes. I could stand to appreciate apples more. I like a good apple compote with salad, bit of pomegranate... not v trad english though

there was a VERY HIGH incidence of large-ball tapioca for pudding: as consequence i cannot look a bubble-tea in the eye to this day

Best tomatoes I've bought in London have been from the Turkish grocers in Harringay. Cooking apples come from my parents' garden, fortunately.

haggis won't win. the american shift will all roll in and vote for stilton or something

check

goddammit

i'd be interested to know how many ilxors have tried haggis tbh

see I've had things purporting to be haggis but let's be real

anyway I like it in principle

you used to be able to buy very good quasi-haggis at hackney M&S: plastic boiling skin tho, not a actual real sheep's stomach :(

Had haggis, neeps & tatties in a pub in Glasgow once but I'm skeptical that it was "real" haggis, it wasn't in any kind of casing and looked more like mince. Probably something like Brain's faggots vs "real" faggots, which tbh I haven't eaten either (call myself a midlander?)

i avoided haggis for a long time cuz the ingredients sound pretty foul but it really is delicious - rich and spicy and warming

Brain's faggots don't taste half as good now as they did when I was a kid, I'm guessing there's less offal in them

this really is turning into blood sausage: the thread but i'm cool with it tbh

I will state for the record that I still enjoy a mouthful of faggots

You don't eat the haggis casing, it's usually served in a heap or, if you're somewhere posh, a kind of quenelle. The only time I really see haggis in England is around Burns Night (end of January) but a lot of my scottish acquaintances will have it for a quick midweek dinner, sometimes from a TIN. It microwaves pretty well.

i support u xp

madchen didn't u once happen on gizzards in a tin or did i dream that :(

yes i am upping the blood sausage ante here

i have eaten locust and scorpion and so shall you yea

i occasionally enjoy this innovative fusion cuisine

http://www.cosmospizzas.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/pizza-haggis.jpg

a friend of mine gave us chicken gizzards one time, wasn't a big fan tbh but her refusing to tell us what they were didn't help

this was in France tho so

xxp well if it's an authentic haggis pizza how can you go wrong?

there just doesn't look like there'd be much good eatin' on a gizzard

xp i'm v much about authentic culinary experiences, as u know

authentic gizzard pizza aka gizza

bizarro gizzara

Morrison's Gizzard King Pizza

i'd accept pizzaro gizzarda, no more no less

Am sceptical that haggis is really a British food at all tbh:

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSkx2jK5XMDRFTF9Kg1e1d8PmItvWd1IaCpx28Ztb1WuXqnrG6y2A

PS veggie haggis is very tasty too

haggis pakora is also bizarro gazzara-endorsed fusion cuisine, thx for the reminder ward

Mark S, your memory is impressive. Gizzards in a tin are to be found in every French supermarket, but I can't in all honesty recommend them. Gizza pizza would be a step even beyond that for me.

out of the british-is-blandest pan and into dr. strongo's neuvo cuisine

"cooking apples often now quite hard to track down *inside* the UK also imo: the apple is going the way of the rubbery and tasteless mass-grown tomato"

sad! i live in apple country. so many great varieties. and great local baking options.

"i'd be interested to know how many ilxors have tried haggis tbh"

i don't think i've ever seen one in real life. the pictures are so frightening in a cronenbergian way but i imagine they taste fine.

i voted for short-bread because american and because yum.

Ah now shortbread, that shouldn't be on here

whit

Scottish innit

Orwell was writing at a time when it was ok to describe any part of the British Empire as "English".

if you were a git.

i'm sure someone will be along in a minute to shortbreadsplain that actually it was invented in luxembourg or some shit

nah I already checked Wikipedia or I would have done that already :D

my man

recipe for shortbread was actually included in the advanced knowledge cache aliens gave to the old kingdom egyptians

my man

erich von ramekin

idk about the mint but boiling new potatoes is the only way to do em so i am with georgie on that much

Charlottes of the Gods

Brain's faggots don't taste half as good now as they did when I was a kid, I'm guessing there's less offal in them

Yeah I had a somewhat similar experience, I still like them but something not quite right.

Nothing like when I bought some Findus Crispy Pancakes on a nostalgic whim a few years ago, they were almost inedible (the cheese ones were actually inedible, but the beef ones were gross but I managed to eat them).

yeah I made that mistake a while ago, maybe you have to deep fry them

erich von ramekin

― mark s, Thursday, 31 August 2017 13:49 (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Charlottes of the Gods

― a hulking and impenetrable dump (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 31 August 2017 13:52 (thirty-eight seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is my jam

bread fucking sauce

boughten bread sauce is always terrible -- home-made bread sauce made by me is amazing

(same applies to red cabbage)

(in both cases the secret ingredient is cloves)

lol i love the packet bread sauce and every xmas my mum makes a homemade one but always buys two/three packets of bread sauce and gets me to make it for myself. i know normally we're supposed to prefer the homemade thing over the packet but to me the packet bread sauce is what we had when i was a kid - it is the taste of christmas.

dublin prawns obv the winner here tho many things on the list are good. for new potatoes in the english way i'm assuming he means boiled and a bit of butter/parsley/salt? one of the nicest things.

That moreorless applies to everything in the list, and it's a point he makes in the essay, iirc (haven't read it for about 25 yrs) - the best English food is homemade rather than bought and is found in homes rather than in restaurants. Still largely true in most parts of the country, I'd say - average pub/restaurant/carvery Sunday roast will be disappointing.

the sunday roast at the pub thing is a fucking shitshow - i don't get it at all

homemade > restaurant is true in every culture, surely?

as the thread's unregenerate mint stan i shd step up and note that the english way of new potatoes is with mint not parsley

i love parsley, not a huge mint man

mint potatoes, for when you just can't do without that 'carb-loading right after a mouthful of polos' feeling

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Postgate

^^^trying to find a piece in the LRB on the Good Food Guide which had some very excellent horrible descriptions but may have misremembered where I read it: wikipedia biography of raymond postgate gives an quick idea of the overall story… the point was that eating out in the 1920s 30s 40s was (unless you were very lucky) just unremittingly terriblem, borderline uneatable, unless you paid a LOT of money (and dicey even then)… now on the whole the worst you get (unless very unlucky) is ordinary, general standards have shifted upwards unimagineably since the 50s and 60s

worth noting: the work to improve practical professional cooking was done from the left in this country (cf also CAMRA, which was at root a commie project)

also his son was oliver postgate of bagpuss fame

mint potatoes are bloody awful

they are correct and good

new potatoes are actually best eaten cold the next day

challops like a fucking firehose itt

this is england, where we eat what we want

I can see how it's theoretically possible for new potatoes to be nice, but I just associate them with disgusting school dinners/canteen food and undercooked/green/mouldy potatoes so would never choose to eat them if there was any other option available.

what i'm hearing here is that we need an 'ILX DECIDES THE BEST POTATO' poll

too hard, for example

good chips > good roasties

but mediocre roasties are way > than mediocre chips

what i'm hearing here is that we need a multi-stage, forensically detailed 'ILX DECIDES THE BEST POTATO' poll

yes we can do this

it's a feel bad topic for me because even tho potatoes are basically my favourite food and i celebrate them in all forms, as a vegetarian i can't claim full expertise due to necessarily limited experience of roasters

aw dude :(

I cook my roasties in olive oil more often than not and it works great

the key is parboiling first

yeah and shaking the pot to scuff them after the boil. you defo don't need animal fat to make great roast potatoes.

in my greengrocing days we had a prolonged quest trying to find the ideal potato for a fussy michelin star-toting chef. for weeks we brought him many varieties which were pooh-poohed but he was finally satisfied with yukon gold

saves us all having our own opinions

new potatoes are delicious served with green beans and shovels of butter

i am v happy with non-animal fat roast potatoes of course but most ppl are gonna say that animal fat ones are better

i mean, chips as well, but here we enter greyer territory in my personal approach to vegetarianism

Want to try that, thanks.
I voted for dark plum cake which I've never had, but sounds fab!
Good to know English cooking got better in the 70s; why then?
new potatoes in the English way Oh wtf does this mean? Sounds like something O'Brien would show to Winston.

i am holding off my various bids for worst potato on this thread as i don't wish to obscure the work the gizzard pizza has been doing

(they were all served at the school mentioned above: they were beyond belief)

"Want to try"parboiled potatoes in olive oil, I meant.

the great kathmandu in didsbury seems to roast potatoes in a marmite-coloured chilli sludge and they are incredible

what is a potato

can't believe i have never thought to combine potatoes and marmite. seems so obvious.

Gizzard pizza might be good depending on what cheese. Chicken gizzards are like chicken livers, but chewier. Even supermarket tomatoes taste better if I don't refrig.

roast sweet potato wedges with marmite are also delicious

no fish pie and no full breakfast fuck this list

what is a potato

a miserable little pile of secrets iirc

refrige

Good to know English cooking got better in the 70s; why then?

in the early stages (50s/60s) a mix of cultural pressure from the likes of raymond postgate (see above) and elizabeth david (ditto), cheap availability of much better produce flown in from round the world (also via entering the european community), to service higher-end supermarkets from america on the safeway model (this sounds counter-intuitive but i think it's an element)

also -- tho i don't know so much abt this -- changes in how home economics (usually called domestic science) in the uk was taught, and a huge improvement in catering courses at polytechnics etc

latterly i think good and v popular TV shows that promoted it as kind of fun (starting with the galloping gourmet and keith floyd)

taste's very strange!

i'm v much enjoying mark s' lessons in the history of british gastronomy itt

now back to making castlevania jokes about potatoes

was the "full english breakfast" actually established as such -- in its canonic modern form -- in 1945? all the sites i'm looking at have a ton of blather abt "grand british tradition" but then they're very coy abt when it actually coalesced into the selection we'd recognise… 19th century fancy breakfast for posh people was more of a buffet sideboard of dishes inc.cold cuts from the night before, which did routinely include many of the GBT classics (but not necessarily at every breakfast, it wd vary w/kedgeree, kidneys etc)

(baked beans were an expensive delicacy for the first few decades -- you got them at fortnum and masons in the 1890s -- though the ministry of food had declared them an "essential" by the 1940s)

I think package holidays to Europe also changed British tastes: first mouthfuls of pasta, moussaka, paella etc made people want to attempt recreations at home. And it became a Middle Class Thing to serve foreign muck at your dinner parties together with a bottle of plonk encased in straw.

taste's very strange!

thanks for reminding me of this: http://gawker.com/this-probably-made-up-reddit-story-about-a-potato-is-in-1696895697

actually mrs beeton's list of options (1861) does cover much of FEB/GBT territory (bacon, sausage, eggs -- though interestingly not fried eggs -- toast butter and marmalade), but it also provides for a lot of fish options (mackerel, whiting, herrings, dried haddock), plus mutton chops and rump-steak, and kidneys (plus the cold cuts and cold pies, which she lists first)

you'd only get *all* these as choices in a hotel i'm guessing, and you only piled them all onto one dish if you were attempting an all-you-can-eat bet

oh wait, oeuf au plat is fried eggs, so they are in there

<3 I've found my thread

mint mint mint mint mint mint mint mint mint mint mint mint
sauce not jelly obv

can't choose between crumpets and roasties

when did Brits start using oil to fry food? I was wondering this the other day. Like, have they always used things like vegetable oil? is olive oil a relatively new thing for the UK? or did they use animal fats and butter for most cooking?

love mint jelly. like LocalGarda with his bread sauce, it was part of my upbringing

until the 60s you'd mostly fry stuff in blocks of lard (which is animal-based cooking fat)

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o9LWUU1Etvk/TxkJyaCgKjI/AAAAAAAACO0/GbJGSBw7aR4/s1600/Trex.jpg

my wife loves to talk about her granny frying chips in lard in their designated chip pan.

more i look at this list, i wonder if all my favorites are modern inventions --
pasties? pork pies? steak & kidney pies? sausage rolls?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisco

^^^a solid block ("shortening") until the 60s, when they started marketing a bottled version

My People Were Fair and Had Lard in Their Hair... But Now They're Content to Use Oil and not Cows

olive oil traded in the med in all of recorded history, but i doubt it was in widespread use in britain before the 70s (also you can't really use to it cook things that need get very hot as it turns bitter)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olive_oil#History_and_trade

I know an (Italian owned) old skool chippie in Ayrshire which fries the chips in olive oil, which is quite the achievement because olive oil doesn't get as hot as your trad Brit frying fats.

from memory i associate vegetable oil with shopping in supermarkets in the 70s rather than eg cornershops or grocers, and feel that's it when arrived and began selling in the UK in largeish amounts with e.g. safeway in the mid-60s (bcz they could keep the prices a bit via economies of scale)

lol len deighton in his "action cook book" (1965) says of olive oil "it is expensive and not easy to find (ask the best wine-merchant you know for details)" -- he then mentions all the other oils (sunflower, peanut etc) , so they clearly were available and not quite as pricey, but in his table of burning temperatures he is careful also to list beef suet and lard also

also

my parents remind me at least once a year that in their youth they cld only buy olive oil in tiny bottles from the chemists

all the pastry biz ian mentions was around before the 50s, perhaps excluded by orwell on the basis that it's more snack/lunch type baking than Proper Cooking?

However sausage rolls in the modern sense of meat surrounded by rolled pastry, appear to have been conceived at the beginning of the 19th century in France. From the beginning, use was made of flaky pastry, which in turn originated with the Hungarian croissant of the late 17th century. Early versions of the roll with pork as a filler proved popular in London during the Napoleonic Wars and it became identified as an English foodstuff.

The Times first mentions the food item in 1864 when William Johnstone, "wholesale pork pie manufacturer and sausage roll maker", was fined £15 (2015: £1,300), under the Nuisances Removal Act (Amendment) Act 1863 , for having on his premises a large quantity of meat unsound, unwholesome and unfit for food.[5] In 1894, a theft case provided further insights into the Victorian sausage roll production whereby the accused apprentice was taught to soak brown bread in red ochre, salt, and pepper to give the appearance of beef sausage for the filling.[6]

english foodstuff = developed by the hungarians and the french, we switched out the meat and swapped in red-dyed brown bread, brexit naow

i don't think i've ever seen one in real life. the pictures are so frightening in a cronenbergian way but i imagine they taste fine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmyYxmSPyMI

Haggis is Greek! Good to know. Also, Lamb Lung was always my favorite member of Sonic Youth.

"The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has long objected to one of the key ingredients in haggis – sheep's lung. No food for human consumption, whether made locally in the USA or imported from overseas, can contain sheep's lung"

object away, more for us

1:17 is where the good stuff starts

Haggis is Greek

The Greek poet Homer mentioned a kind of blood sausage in the Odyssey

brb need to activate the stuffing horn

erryone had blood sausages... certainly not unique to the english.

what is the origin of the scotch egg?

They were created by Fortnum & Mason of Piccadilly in 1738.

where on earth could i get a good scotch egg around here? nowhere.

Yorkies/crumpets/roasties = food of the gods.

Agree with people upthread that if you think mint sauce tastes like polos then you've had some seriously fucked up mint sauce (and/or polo mints).

Scotch Eggs are repulsive, the very idea of them makes me shudder, gilded balls of stinking corruption.

thanks scott i guess i could have googled that myself.
next time some new yorker guy is coming to play music in greenfield you should ask for a scotch egg from meyers of keswick.. they good.

http://www.foodsofengland.co.uk/mintcustard.htm

^^^i tracked it down

This is the thing - the quality of casual food in France and Italy is just so much better than it is here. You can go to a French inn largely frequented by lorry drivers and the food will be great.

For all that this is not true of England, I've certainly not found that France is much better at this level of expenditure tbh.

Look. Dublin prawns. I won't even.

Scotch eggs are magnificent. The crowning contribution of the scotch.

lamb with mint sauce is the only use for mint sauce that i can think of. in the states. kinda fuddy duddy. or that's how i think of it. like a 70s thing.

lamb w mint sauce is definitely something my grandma would serve.

Yorkies/crumpets/roasties = food of the gods.

Yes, I voted crumpets but this is the trifecta.

Crumpets with Marmite, strong cheddar + fried plantain are just phenomenal.

tbh I dunno if English people use mint sauce for anything but lamb, I haven't anyway.

Scotch eggs suck. I thought maybe that was just a school dinners/crap supermarket thing, but my friend had a 40th birthday party a few weeks ago at a pub and they had "fancy" scotch eggs on the buffet table so I thought I'd give them another go, but no, still gross.

i didn't like tesco scotch eggs but i felt like i ought to try 'em.

mint sauce w/lamb first mentioned in 1743 by the great hannah glasse

https://superchef.us/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/hannahgasse_475x225.png

hannah^^^ scorns yr anecdotal anachronisms, scott

I always load my Yorkshire Puddings with chopped onions, that is important for me.

Gonna have to make them, which is a fun waste of an afternoon.

challopsed onion more like

anyway from now on i am going to refer to scotch eggs either as "narcissus meatballs" or as "gilded balls of stinking corruption" -- a rose by any other name bcz they are delicious

(I voted Dublin prawns which are langoustines which are the main ingredient in decent scampi from the good chippy, so there).

Mint is poached in cream and then added to cooked peas to make... MUSHY PEAS!

(I voted Dublin prawns which are langoustines which are the main ingredient in decent scampi from the good chippy, so there).

Mint is poached in cream and then added to cooked peas to make... MUSHY PEAS!

never had mushy peas with cream in them

yes pea and mint is totally a thing, tho i associated it more with home-made pea soup than mushy peas (which arrive in a can after a process akin to the haggis machine with its stuffing horn iirc)

mushy peas are probably the apex of english food for me.

i get dried peas and heat them up and serve them with far too much malt vinegar and salt and pepper

you would think there would be more fish on that list. there should be a separate fish list. poached fish! i really want fish and chips now...

although for fishy fish dishes i'd probably rather travel to italy...or spain...or greece...or portugal...or sweden...

I only do cream in the mushy peas if I'm making industrial quantities, otherwise it's a couple of handfuls of heated freezer peas, a big pinch of mint, a knob of salted butter and quite a bit of white pepper, all blitzed.

there should be a poll thread for the best food that looks like baby vomit. mushy peas might win that.

I like that old WW2 story about the Whitehouse valet opening (Animal Farm hero) Molotov's suitcase and being surprised to see a chunk of black Russian bread, some large roll of sausage and a pistol being concealed, by the extremely paranoid guest.

there should be a poll thread for the best food that looks like baby vomit. mushy peas might win that.

― scott seward, Thursday, 31 August 2017 17:57 (eleven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

spinnakers clam chowder is the correct answer to this

its hard to screw up applesauce

Scotch eggs should be a magnificent invention but I've only ever had crap ones that taste of sawdust. Even from Waitrose!

the sainsburys taste the difference ones are good - tho i prefer hot scotch eggs.

i get a pack of quorn 'picnic eggs' every time i am back. i also make my dad stop at newport pagnall services so i can get a 99p cheese and onion sandwich. i'm kind of a foodie.

jeez get a load of mr fuckin zagat over here

One of the delights of the awaken of British cookery of the last 30 years has been the black pudding scotch egg

also m&s did a nice black pudding sausage roll for a while

The best people to judge of English cooking would be the English, since they are the ones who are eating it. That is why I will refrain from voting in this poll. Have at it, you limeys!

you would think there would be more fish on that list

There's a quote from Will Self back in his restaurant reviewing days along the lines of "although nowhere in England is much more than an hour's drive from the sea, it's easier in most places to buy hard drugs than fresh fish".

I only do cream in the mushy peas if I'm making industrial quantities, otherwise it's a couple of handfuls of heated freezer peas, a big pinch of mint, a knob of salted butter and quite a bit of white pepper, all blitzed

Sounds delicious, but not mushy peas.

The emergence of the hot pub scotch egg over the last few years has been a glorious thing.

I find the idea of something with a hard-boiled egg in it that isn't for immediate consumption, completely disgusting. I used to work with someone who used to eat these foul stinking egg mayo sandwiches, that had been sat sweating away in a van all morning. Just visualising a scotch egg makes me seriously gag.

re mr self's observation: tbh if i want to know where to purchase hard drugs i would first ask a (former) junkie but if i want to know where to purchase fresh fish, i would ask a (former) junkie last

here are the fishmongers in leicestershire, for example: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/search/leicestershire+fishmonger/@52.615389,-1.8390637,9z

if you want to know where to purchase putrifying sharkmeat, ask an icelander

man now i want some pickled herring and schnapps

it seems like Will is one to never let the actual facts get in the way of a bad (me so dark ex-junkie) self-serving quip.

the thread of the pee shark

evolution gave us a shark made of pee that survives the icy depths of the arctic and eats bears, and we found a way to eat it

— um jammer trans g (@joffeorama) August 30, 2017

^^^centrist orwell runs, a mile, even bourdain couldn't even

(least fresh fish: it's 500 yrs old, it looks like mitch mconnell, it's made of pee, icelanders left it in a hole to rot)

https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/31/16235156/pee-shark-toxic-urea-greenland-twitter

pee story denied

I've been fascinated by Greenland Sharks since they appeared in one of my all-time favourite video games, Endless Ocean 2

non-denial denial in the view of this pee shark truther

If those are the places in Leicestershire where you can buy fresh fish then TBF to the Selfer it would be hard to find fresh fish in "most places" in Leicestershire.

it's true that you only find it in the shops that sell it

the pee shark also sometimes has glowing copepods eating its eyes in exchange for attracting more prey with their light

— um jammer trans g (@joffeorama) August 30, 2017

this is the future corbyn wants for the uk

WAKE UP PISS SHARKS

it's true that you only find it in the shops that sell it

Well if we're doing pedantry I insist it's not true that you can only find it in shops that sell it, but it is mostly true that you can only buy it in shops that sell it.

[My point was that most of the towns and villages in Leicestershire don't have a fishmonger, going by your map.]

I'd also argue that supermarkets have only raised their fish game in the last 5 years or so

most of the villages in Leicestershire don't have most kinds of shops, if any: this is what driving to town is for

self is probably correct that some of these villages do form the centre of the local drugs trade: just 50 yards from mum and dad's house in the very country a barn-full of heroin and hash was raided during operation bumblebee, but you couldn't just walk up to the barn and purchase a gramme or three

love that farm-to-bloodstream heroin, it's so in right now

too soon imo

Remember the old days when u could go straight to the barn and buy it by the gram

Europe changed all that of course

It's all sneakily state-subsidised Schengen skag these days. Our proud British horse farms have had to become horse farms.

I don't suppose I would find it easy to find hard drugs in most places, because happily that is not a skill I've ever acquired. But I do believe in most towns there'll be someone selling them, but not someone selling fresh fish which I think is the point?

enough smack talk

Remember the old days when u could go straight to the barn and buy it by the gram

Ounce

junkies: less bounce by the ounce

yes i am challenging the claim that "easy to buy something" in the country means "easy to buy it on your own doorstep" -- it wasn't "hard to buy shoes" in my village, bcz driving a few miles to get some things is very unthinkingly normal in rural areas

(it would take me a minimum hours round journey from where i'm meant to be working today to buy a pret sandwich -- nevertheless the pret sandwich is "easy to buy", if mildly annoying, wake up pret, a land borough in turmoil is crying out for a hero jambon beurre *loses thread*)

no jambon on the English cooking thread

I've just realised "Devonshire cream" probly means clotted cream in which case it is a real contender if these things were in contention

real talk: does clotted cream go on top of or underneath the jam on a scone

me: butter, jam, cream

let the arguments commence

"Easier" was the word used? Which doesn't necessarily mean "easy" but might mean "available in the next small town rather than having to drive far further to the next big town".

NV is right that many smallish towns (I'm thinking of places like Axminster or Ottery St Mary, places I know fairly well) will these days have a supermarket with some kind of fresh fish available, where 10 or 15 years ago there'd have been nowhere that sold the stuff.

xp Devonshire Cream contains multitudes, and is surely not just the clotted.

the us contingent are not gonna believe that 'ottery st mary' is a real place and not some kind of arcane slur

me: butter, jam, cream

butter and cream is a fuckin' baller move imo

xp That's not necessairly an either/or, as anyone from Fenny Bridges will tell you.

ok i think we're more or less in the same place bar some delicious micro-pedantry abt comparative adjectives but i'm still calling bullshit on the idea that you can actually lay yr hands on skag in any village in the UK w/o someone driving somewhere, even in leicestershire

for real cream you need to go to cornwall obviously

devonshire cream would have been my second choice

also, cream first then jam. anything else is naked insanity

i'm still calling bullshit on the idea that you can actually lay yr hands on skag in any village in the UK w/o someone driving somewhere

everywhere's within walking distance if you've got the time tbf

also, cream first then jam. anything else is naked insanity

there it is

the bad opinion

it's just so impractical and wrong-headed

jam spreads, cream dollops, ffs

I've never heard Devonians gaf about the order of jam and cream, which may be because it's obvious to us or may be that the Devon / Cornwall divide in this matter is spun up to be sold upcountry. Choose whatever order you like and manoeuvre the j&c accordingly, is what I say.

On the other hand, I have heard a Devon shopkeeper berate a tourist for calling the Devonshire pasties he was selling "Cornish pasties".

The idea of cream before jam is making me quite irate

Lot of rockism ITT all of a sudden.

rock cakeism shurely?

the pee shark will rescue us

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DIdNrZbWAAEv8bV.jpg

Close relative to the rock(ist) salmon I think?

jam spreads, cream dollops, ffs

^^^ otm truth bomb THIS etc

I'm Devonian but 100% go for the Cornish method.

man I haven't had a rock cake in years

obviously the jam goes on before the cream, as NV has explained

what the fuck is this place

jam spreads, cream dollops, ffs

clotted cream spreads

let's do this thus

clotted cream is viscous, jam less so

were the jam to be applied first then application of cream would cause the jam to scooch out from underneath it and go all over your CLOTHES

cream however holds to the scone in thick delicious forbearance

therefore you can spread jam atop the cream without fear. for after all, jam spreads

the only way to apply cream post-preserve and not ruin your CLOTHES is to lightly dollop it on top, but this doesn't guarantee good coverage or consistency of the CREAM LAYER

also how are you going to get it off the knife and onto the scone? that's right by RUBBING the knife on the scone. but this might cause JAM to go everywhere oh god I can't argue this anymore I'm in crazytown

or yeah are you all using the wrong type of cream

I'm in crazytown

you said it, bud

I don't think Parkin ever really took off outside of Yorkshire. I don't even feel that fond of it, but will still bake batches of it occasionally. I think I only make it to atone for the times when I was working near my sister's house, and she would sometimes drop me off a bag of way too many Parkin squares, wrapped in kitchen roll. And soon as she was gone I'd toss the job lot in the bin!

my aunt lives in germany but whenever she comes back to scotland she makes massive trays of tablet that everyone in the family is forced to accept and then discreetly bin as soon as possible afterwards

Because it is the world's worst tablet or because you are all utter heathens?

little of both tbh

a little bit of tablet every now and again is fine but wtf am i gonna do with like a solid kilo of the stuff

imagospreading itt

especially when a couple of mouthfuls contains enough sugar to make you feel like you're speeding off your tits xp

Tablet always looks like it requires more robust teeth than I've got in my gummy gob.

Sweet pickle - ideal with the simplicity of crusty bread and cheese; though that introduces the Ploughman's Lunch authenticity issue.

all of which reminds me: where the hell is tiffin here? heartattack of the gods. and is it even british?

tiffin is telegu

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/contamination-alert-scots-tablet-after-11089371

Ach! What do you accidental contamination, this is the traditional recipe yer soft bastahs!

correct telegu spelling of tiffin iirc: కాల భోజనం

I'm talking about this tiffin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiffin_(confectionery)

wait is that just what you've all been referring to as 'tablet'

if so, #teamtablet

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablet_(confectionery)

they're different, tegelu for tablet = టాబ్లెట్

tablet looks like some toothsome if hazardous cross between jaggery and kendal mint cake (which i like)

tiffin (scottish version) is amazing though, especially homemade, and you should all be eating more of it

wah wah my knife oh noes
clotted cream atop jam is a far superior taste and textural experience. I will not let this go.

there it is

the good opinion

tablet is just crumbly fudge y?

yeah, kind of a grainy, brittle fudge - condensed milk, regular milk, butter, and a catastrophic, heart-stopping amount of sugar

the appropriate amount of crumbliness in fudge is a hotly-contested issue tho

er, tablet rather

it's generally not as teeth-breakingly mineral-form as kendal mintcake IME

also lacks mint, to the return to the true subject of this thread

and of course it's all the better for it

with you there

Kendall mint cake would literally be the last thing I ate unless I thought I was about to die

new thoughts on the failure of scott's expedition to the pole

let's face it, if your next supply dump contained 3 stone of Kendall mint cake and a few Husky steaks you wouldn't rush back to it

pony not husky -- the norwegians ate their dogs and triumphed -- but yr point perhaps stands (except in france)

supply dump

aptly-named in that case for sure

anyway since the Great Horsemeat Scandal of '13 we're all pony-eaters now

pony steaks makes all the difference, I think we can definitely narrow it down to the mint cake

had an excellent pasta with lemon and mint yesterday btw

toothpasta

i am pro mint but the joke was necessary there

I actually tried the jam/cream experiment (using scones) a few weeks ago in a posh tea room and it does taste much better with the cream on first.

Also if haggis is in here then cranachan deserves its place as well. As does Eton mess which is far too Tory for Orwell but no one ever claimed Tories don't have some of the best food.

how can a post so right follow a post so rong

I am allergic to mint, and it is *really* annoying. The artificial flavouring (eg in mint choc chip ice-cream) is no problem, but my toothpaste and lebanese food choices are quite restricted.

Alex James claims all the worlds best food comes from the CursedWorlds.

The last time I used mint was in a Chicken Biryani, so as well as pleasing yr dentist it is a diverse little fucker, tbf.

I forgot to add Alex James from ILM favourites Blur.

maybe we metropolitan poshos prefer cream first because it feels more opulent to treat cream as if it were a mere dairy spread rather than the crown jewel of the piece

this was informative:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2014/jun/12/how-to-eat-cream-tea-scones-jam

i think i would have to go to whole foods to even buy clotted cream. i'm not in a hurry...

That article has surely managed to piss everyone off in some way

that article is violence

that article is nothing but lies and idiocy

When I was a nipper there was an old fashioned dairy in Honiton which sold an ice cream cone thusly:
1. take one cone (nondescript mass-produced, the cone really is a delivery device here)
2. big scoop of clotted cream ice cream, pressed down on the top to be slightly concave
3. slightly smaller scoop of clotted cream on the top

Quite properly, I wasn't allowed one of these very often, but OMG it was good.

wait, do they have brown bread in a can in england? just wondering. one of the more fanciful phenomenas of my new england youth. meant to accompany your B&M baked beans and cut up hot dogs obviously.

https://www.vermontcountrystore.com/ccstore/v1/images/?source=/file/v5001168238188991354/products/H2657.main.png&height=700&width=450&outputFormat=JPEG&quality=0.8&outputFormat=JPEG&quality=0.8

looks a bit like soreen

I'm beggin of you please don't take my can

Even out here in the Real Cursed World there is old diary farm up the road that sells its ice own posh cream. I can't stand the fucking place tbh. But they do have some cute goats you can pet.

lol bm bread

we sure don't have that, wtf is it? just like regular made-from-flour bread-type bread in a can? not everything needs to be canned, americans

lol i wz abt to post my solomonic #galacticbrane solution to the jam-cream wars but i am a tiny baby compared THAT

it looks even more appetizing when you see it in all its glory:

http://www.lolwot.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/10-bizarre-foods-you-can-get-in-cans-6.jpg

jesus god scott what the fuck

"Brown Bread? You'll wish you were."

is it sweet? it looks like gingerbead (nasty canned gingerbread)

it looks like malt loaf, as nxd said

i wouldn't eat beans on soreen tho

i mean i probably would, but i wouldn't go out of my way to prepare it

probably

I can remember seeing instant croissant mix in a collapsible tin once. But nothing like that.

you know what might be pretty good is a bacon/soreen sandwich now that i think about it xp

it just tastes brown. which is why people cover it with baked beans. you would never eat it unless you grew up eating it. i can't say that i've eaten it much. my mom liked to bake.

x-post

the idea that anyone who is not stockpiling for some apocalyptic event would ever choose to buy canned bread over literally any other alternative is mindboggling

you could make lengthwise slices of soreen, maybe toast it a little?

we're on the same wavelength here for sure - crisp bacon, lots of butter

feel like if i read an aleister crowley biography or something that's where i would expect to encounter beans on malt loaf. beans on malt loaf with a glass of sherry for dinner every single day. bacon does somehow seem more reasonable.

toasted tho, is that a thing?? it seems like it should be but i've never heard of it. maybe it gets fucked up if you toast it.

Pretty sure it's impossible to cut a lengthwise slice of Soreen without reducing the length by 75% from squishing.

baked beans are too sweet to add to something that's already sweet, you need some salt to cut through - bacon's the ideal candidate imo xxp

toasted soreen is lovely

a really sharp knife and a patient, gentle sawing action i reckon you'd squish it less than the traditional crosswise slice

bear with me a minute here...

what about bacon and avocado?

Pretty sure it's impossible to cut a lengthwise slice of Soreen without reducing the length by 75% from squishing.

then i guess we're just gonna have to do this elvis-style and slice an opening down the middle and then stuff bacon in

subsequent battering and deep-frying of the whole deal could bear further investigation, i feel

sharp knife and gentle sawing makes sense but that has never ever worked. there should be a big money science prize for figuring out how to cut malt loaf without compressing it into a solid lump.

i dunno if the texture of avocado would work in this context tbh

those wire bread slicers you get in proper bakeries would do a job on Soreen maybe

I'm just lolling at recalling eating squashed soreen out of a lunch bag. it sure the hell springs back to size does that shit!

maybe a teacake is a more reasonable place to start w/ savoury experiments.

https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/07/6e/46/59/driftwood-coffee-shop.jpg

should've known

is that a fried egg or a wedge of camembert?

it's brie, a pound of it by the looks

marmite (if you like it) or bovril (ditto) are also really good with soreen or with gingerbread, esp. if you use unsalted butter

it's probably Brie and looks like some sort of jam at the bottom i think

xp yeah

i would def smash that bacon brie teacake

it's award winning, apparently

i am gonna try marmite and malt loaf but i've got to admit to being dubious

i prefer bovril tbh

why would salted vs unsalted butter make a difference when you are putting marmite on it? is this a recommendation for marmite consumption in general?

yes

but especially on on soreen or gingerbread (and even more so with bovril)

interesting. can't imagine it would make a huge difference after the marmite enters the fray.

yr on yr own with bovril tho

my gran always used unsalted butter: she made chicken sandwiches for picnics using soft baps, unsalted butter, and cold chicken that had been salted and peppered -- this too is really good, better than plain old salted butter and unsalted chicken

omg at that canned bread
btw Tim have sent you a webmail

Now contemplating bunny chow made with Soreen. That's Friday 4.51pm for you.

seems like a natural fit really

Have replied!

What sort of savage puts jam on under the brie?

i can see chilli jam working tbh

as well as or instead of brown sauce?

xp But the brie goes on first obv.

oh god, instead of

devonshire brown sauce teas

Fuck you're all making me hungry

Disappointed Orwell didn't include fried eggs on marmite toast

Perfect hangover breakfast.

Meanwhile in Yorkshire....

https://metrouk2.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/ad_220255869.jpg?w=620&h=413&crop=1

http://metro.co.uk/2016/09/23/the-yorkshire-pudding-burger-is-here-to-take-comfort-food-to-another-level-6146982/

First thought: wrong on all counts.
Second thought: hold that thought...

Beverley you say? hmmmmm

It is your duty nv to go partake and report back.

i've never been comfortable dining out on my own but research is research

am i wrong to feel that a yorkshire pudding divorced from some species of gravy (or equivalent) threatens to be a dry shrivelled husk of a thing?

you've got to think there's no way you're picking up a yorkshire pudding burger with your hands tho

brb inventing the deconstructed yorkshire pudding burger

put the burger inside the yorkshire pudding, pile chips on top, fill with gravy

hamburger in the hole

we're back to "wrap meal in batter, deep fry it"

burger with red sauce and gravy for some reason reminds me of the beef and tomato pot noodle. do they still make that one? abominable.

I don't know if I get the flower/egg/milk ratio wrong, but Yorkshire puddings do shrivel at room temp. and start to look quite unattractive, as opposed to delicious when smothered in gravy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4oAdIcQN4k

At first when he invoked P Stewart as a Yorkshire rep in the daft preamble i was groaning. But by jove, he had earned my respect by the end of that vid.

NV on some UK mirror-image of quincie's bad-trip assignment seems right tbh

hey guys I saw SOURDOUGH CRUMPETS in M&S today

i've had those! they're... okay

fucksake
http://i1.chroniclelive.co.uk/incoming/article13563507.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/JS129419837.jpg
http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/whats-on/food-drink-news/rub-smokehouse-yorkshire-pudding-pizza-13563470

"This is a Yorkshire Pudding Chicago Pot Pizza with a rich Italian Sausage and Tomato base, lining the bowl as you bake with tonnes of cheese the question is when it hits the menu? Do you want a traditional bread base or the giant Yorkie?#"

(Do not click if you hate terrible websites)

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Bh4xhP8LTSQ/maxresdefault.jpg

we are in hell

of course we all know the correct way to besmirch the noble tradition of yorkshires is in a multi-tier construction that aims at a sort of gravy fondue

I had some sort of not-really-fancy deconstructed breakfast thing while on vacation a few years back that was five little potatoes, smaller even than new potatoes typically are, served in a hot casserole dish with a blood sausage on the side

literally just a handful of little potatoes and a blood sausage. it was delicious! and semi-british. the purple potato should have been my favorite, but I think the little yukon gold one was the winner

Yukon Gold fingerlings are A+++

I used to get a bag of mixed fingerlings, throw a dozen or so in a bread pan after rubbing in olive oil and kosher salt, and bake them all together that way, this really belongs on the best vegetable poll thread

that's a good characterization

five little potatoes, smaller even than new potatoes typically are, served in a hot casserole dish with a blood sausage on the side

this is on the dinner/bar menu of at least two fancy Spanish-fusion restaurants in San Francisco. (I have only been to two of these restaurants, but it was on the menu of both of them)

lol it was in SF

So british

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Voted Yorkshire pudding

Crumpets came close but it had to be the roasties

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

these are good, defensible results imo

Roasties was robbed

imagosplaining on-point -- and to think we once mainly committed cultural imperialism on others

called it

oh, as you said haha

stilton's great! tho not in my top 5 blue cheeses tbf

i like it too but it didn't win bcz i voted for it

(i didn't vote, polls are bad and you should feel bad)

the phrase "top 5 blues cheese" reminds me there was a soft blue cheese invented by yuppie marketing men in the 80s -- forget name, it began with L i think -- which my dad luuuuurved, we were all v sad for him when it went off the market bcz no one else did

lymeswold!!

^^^top brainstormed name there

(it was basically mild cambozola except none more brexit) (dad was not brexit, probably)

i remember Lymeswold, pretty sure it became some sort of Private Eye meme at some point

I Remember Lymeswold is the title of my forthcoming bodice-ripper set in 18th century Bridlington btw

a young orphaned herring gutter is forced to choose between local smuggler and ruffian Blue Vinnie and the mysterious Italian shipwreck survivor Giuseppe Cambozola

I agree that the best food we can hope for from the English is some moldy cheese

lol america sonning europe on cheese

ts: head vs string

God I love bread sauce

since moving to canada i don't think i've ever had a good roast potato. you never get nice crispy ones, i think they don't bother with the parboiling or something

It's not like they'd be short on duck and goose fat, so what gives?

My idea of good roast potatoes prep is to boil them from cold for 3 mins from when the water starts bubbling, rough them up good in a colander with some flour. Then they are ready for roasting. It so easy!

boil them from cold for 3 mins from when the water starts bubbling

bit puzzled at the "from cold" combined with the "from when the water starts bubbling" here? what's the thing that's cold -- the raw potatoes?

the water!

Like there is a difference than if you just throw them straight into boiling water for 3 mins, which would make poorer roast potatoes, quite possibly.

"in defense of (bad) English posting (and cooking)"

so how is the water cold if it is also bubbling? do you use sparkling water?

(i think i am being dense but i can't work out how)

Put potatoes in cold salted water, bring to rolling boil, then 3 minutes later you drain. Just like making a three-minute boiled egg!

thanks, Suzy!

You just xp'ed me where I had described "rolling boil" as a "lively boil" then deleted it, thankfully!

lol ok i do understand it now and i was totally being dense, for some reason the two "froms" formulation just threw me

(i think i might still be quite tired post-op) (also argumentative)