Fry Up in England

[Ukulele Ike]

This question popped into my head as I was reading fierra's response in the Munchies thread.

I've come across the term "fry up" in a LOT of British novels, and places like VIZ magazine and whatnot.

If I was to come over to your flat in London, and we were to drink quite a lot of Large Gins and Pints of Bitter, and you were to say "I'm jolly peckish...how about a nice fry-up?" And I were to say "Uhhhhh...okay...."

Why exactly would you be serving me?

[Kat]

I'm not English, but this may help:

This site: gavin the sheep (http://www.neilforrester.com/gavin/friends.html) says: "My chosen cafe food is a Full English Fry-up... eggs, bacon, fried slice, black pudding, toast, beans, chips, tomato, mushrooms, hash brown, sausages, bubble and squeak, + a cup of tea in a pint jug"


This site: page 13 (http://www.imagomundi.freeserve.co.uk/page13.html) backs it up with: "At the mere thought we can almost smell the savory aroma of bacon, eggs, black-pudding, mushrooms and all the unhealthy favourites that go to make up the good old English fry-up."

[Bear_Nenno]

IOW, "Breakfast"

[Profane]

Kat has it right. Mmmmm, now I'm hungry.

[Kat]

The only thing we need to know now is...what the heck is "black-pudding"? "Fried slice" and "bubble and squeak", too, for that matter.

[dtilque]

Originally posted by Kat
"My chosen cafe food is a Full English Fry-up... eggs, bacon, fried slice, black pudding, toast, beans, chips, tomato, mushrooms, hash brown, sausages, bubble and squeak, + a cup of tea in a pint jug"

What, no spam?

[casdave]

Fried slice - slice of bread that has been fired, often done in bacon fat for flavour.

Bubble and squeak - named after the noise it makes when you cook it, it is a mixture of whatever stuff you might have left over in the fridge such as bacon, bit of chopped onion and whatever you fancy all mixed into some mashed potatoe and the whole lot is fried up often into flat cakes until brown - preferably in bacon fat to give it more flavour.

Couple of other items that might be included, polony a type of sliced sausage cooked in slices, haslet a type of meat loaf made from the cheapest stuff the butcher has knocking about.Tomatoes are pretty much essential and most would think that baked beans are too.

Bet the cholestoral count is going up just thinking about a full English fry-up.

[hawthorne]

Kat: black pudding is a type of sausage made from pig's blood. Well, you asked. In my view it is best served sliced thinly and cooked to the consistency of a casino chip.

picmr

[Primaflora]

From Jane Grigson's _English Food_

"Black puddings have to be chosen carefully. Many manufacturers put far too much barley and oatmeal with the blood and pork fat, which makes them stodgy by comparision, say, with the delicious black puddings of France. To my way of thinking, the inside should remain soft and spicy when cooked: it should never be dry or hard"

Hmm I think I would rather eat it than think about it.

[Primaflora]

Oh god on the next page there is a recipe for Faggots and Peas and even leaving aside the obvious jokes ;) it sounds disgusting............

[ricepad]

Good lord...that menu sounds like the full employment plan for cardiologists everywhere...

[Crusoe]

That's the whole point of fry-ups. Something horrifically greasy and bad for your heart. Great hangover food! Most people don't have 'em often.

[London_Calling]

Got to agree with mattk, going down the road on a Saturday morning to the greasy spoon is truly a wonderful hangover cure.

IMHO, tomatoes (Toe-Ma-toes) have to be grilled, you should have 2 slices as well as a fried slice and the bacon (most places outside the States) is actually worth having.

I don't think the American diner is that different, NYC hash browns, saw-see-Gis, scrambled egg, etc, seem to do approximately the same trick. I vaguely recall frequenting a lovely little gaff on E 7th opposite the park. Smashing waitress.

The biggest dilemma is whether it's Daddies or OK (brown) sauce :)

ricepad I believe Scotland is the heart disease capital of the world - last reports mentioned a trend to deep fry chocolate encased ice cream. They obviously don't want to lose their pre-eminence.


And it's Friday :)

[TwistofFate]

mmmm.... fattening

until you have had a deep fried mars bar, you havent lived.


The Irish Breakfast differs slightly inasmuch as we dont have a fried slice, mushrooms, chips, or Bubble and Squeak.

BTW, pudding is the food of the Gods.
Normally, when a fry-up is necessary, you're in such a state that you dont care what you're eating.

[London_Calling]

John Of course, you're right. It's deep fried mars bars, not ice cream - I'm not that stupid, no really.

Trying to imagine what the US must make of 'Vis' - still very fond of the Fat Slags shagging Prince Charles.

[TheMadHun]

ricepad I believe Scotland is the heart disease capital of the world - last reports mentioned a trend to deep fry chocolate encased ice cream. They obviously don't want to lose their pre-eminence.


Aye, when it comes to being unhealthy fat bastards we can beat the lot of you (except the planet-sized people you see at Disneyland.)

Here's tae us! Wha's like us? Gey few an they're aw deid (from heart disease I presume).

[plnnr]

This thread proves, yet again, that the Brits will never be known for their culinary accomplishments. As my dear old Dad said after visiting Great Britain: "The food isn't bad if you like warm, gray, tasteless, mushy stuff."

Now, back to my plate of steaming haggis (no wonder they had to invent Scotch).

[TwistofFate]

I dont know if they'd get Roger Melly either

[London_Calling]

He's on the telly !!







("Does she like it sir, does she ?")

[Ukulele Ike]

Thank you, guys! MUCH more appealing than what I'd imagined...(bits and pieces of last Sunday's joint and Yorkshire pudding, perhaps the remains of the breakfast kedgeree, all tossed into a skillet sizzling with lard). Sort of a British variant on Hash as it is Slung in the U.S.

re: VIZ. Oh, I don't know...seems to me that things like "Johnny Fartpants" and "Finbarr Saunders" and "Student Grant" are pretty darn universal in their appeal.

[TwistofFate]

True about StudentGrant et al. but Roger Melly is a Pisstake on british television hosts. People like Terry Wogan, Noel Edmonds, extremely personalityless hosts...

[Trion]

Whoa! Did I read that right? A deep fried Mars Bar?

[Crusoe]

Trion -- it's a trend in Scotland that started a few years back (early '90s?). IIRC it was a fish & chip shop in Falkirk that sparked it, but when I was at uni in Edinburgh all of the chippies would deep-fry any chocolate bar or piece of fruit for a surcharge. I never felt tempted to try it.

TheMadHun -- the one thing I miss most of all about Edinburgh is the "saltandsauce" on the chips. Can you buy that stuff or is it a closely-guarded chip-shop-owner secret? (For the unitiated it's a mixture vaguely resembling brown sauce and vinegar).

[cher3]

Nobody in the US even blinked at the deep-fried ice cream, London_Calling. It's a standard dessert at franchise-type Mexican restaurants around here.

[TwistofFate]

Yup, deep fried Mars Bar. so many calories Elvis would be proud.

Mars Bar. Coated in Batter. dropped in a vat of boiling oil.
Eaten quickly.

[fierra]

Originally posted by Ukulele Ike
This question popped into my head as I was reading fierra's response in the Munchies thread.

I've come across the term "fry up" in a LOT of British novels, and places like VIZ magazine and whatnot.

If I was to come over to your flat in London, and we were to drink quite a lot of Large Gins and Pints of Bitter, and you were to say "I'm jolly peckish...how about a nice fry-up?" And I were to say "Uhhhhh...okay...."

Why exactly would you be serving me?

I saw the thread title & thought - Oops, why do I get the feeling that's my fault!

Fame at last.

I don't like hash browns & it has to be HP Sauce, not OK...
Tinned tomatoes are acceptable instead of grilled (esp if you grind black pepper in it and simmer...ummm). Tinned spaghetti is allowable, eggs should be fried for maximum cholesterol, but no one would shoot you if you scrambled them...but not poached or boiled for some reason... & you can get something called white pudding too, but I forget what that is. Most plates are too small for official fry-ups, but that's ok as it is an art form to get them all cooked at the right time anyway! Much trickier than roast dinners. I believe traditional bubble & squeak has to include cabbage & potatoes.
Primaflora - they taste gorgeous (ignoring the recipe of course...) the main brand in England used to be called Brain's Faggots which was even worse as a recipe idea (fortunately totally unrelated!).

Why is it always miles from dinner time when anyone talks about food?

I've heard of the mars bar thing, but it sounds revolting - has anyone tried one?

Fi.

[TwistofFate]

I've tried one, and It tasted nice, but I was drunk, so I cant be sure.


Of course, another british delecacy is Cheezypeas.

If you like cheese, and you like peas, then you'll love cheezypeas!!!!

mmmm.....cheezypeas.....

[Crusoe]

Nah, I prefer squeezycheezypeas...


Scorchio!

[TwistofFate]

squeezycheezypeas, in original and now Strawberry flavour!!



you aint seen me, right?

[Crusoe]

Me, with my reputation, in the girls' dorm?

[tennents]

The mars bars are brilliant, but the chip shop in england where i found them would also do the same to snickers and twix bars. Also in scotland they had deep fried pizza at some chip shops

[casdave]

Deep fried Mars bar, I'm open minded but if someone were to say "put these babies heads in breadcrumbs and fry them" I'd say

Oi! No! take your babies heads and leave!!

[Trion]

I'll admit to being somewhat impressed by the idea of a deep fried candy bar. Whoever came up with that one was surely an innovator. I'd probably try it as I'll try anything once. But I'd want some defibulators nearby, just in case.

[Fretful Porpentine]

OK, so I'm an ignorant 'merkin ... but I have to ask. If you deep-fry a Mars bar, why doesn't it cease to be a Mars bar and become a puddle of liquid chocolate mixed with oil?

[Soul Brother Number Two]

cuz the oil's nice and hot, see, and the coating forms this barrier against the oil getting in there and screwin everything up. this is why expertly fried food can seem relatively greaseless hong kong style chinese restaurants, and vietnamese restaurants that pride themselves on their imperial rolls understand this concept. burp.

[Kat]

Originally posted by picmr
Kat: black pudding is a type of sausage made from pig's blood.[QUOTE]
And people eat this? Eww. Why? No, don't answer that.

[QUOTE]Well, you asked.
Yes, I did. Well, it's not the worst thing I've ever found out on this board.

[Drain Bead]

My guess, Fretful, is that the batter-dipped Mars bar is frozen before putting it in the oil. I used to have a recipe for deep-fried chocolate truffles (I am SO not making this up) and that's how you made them. They were, in the opinion of everyone who tried them, wonderful.

This thread reminds me of a conversation I had with OpalCat a week ago. I was bored at work and checking out the SOAR recipe archives, when I came across their section for British food. It's really, really funny to send the recipe for Black Pudding to a vegetarian without telling her what it is. As nasty as I thought it sounded (any food which has an ingredient list that reads like a paragraph from Carrie is NOT something I want to ingest), I'm sure she thought it was much worse.

SOAR, amazingly, also has one Eskimo recipe. It involved cutting the flippers off of something (I can only assume some kind of seal) and soaking them in blubber for a couple of weeks. I still can't figure out if that was a joke.

[tomas]

Deep-fried snickers bars have been making the rounds at the various county fairs in the States for a couple of years now. I haven't tried one, but people say they are the epitome of junk food decadence!!

[yabob]

The German variant of this type of sausage, is more straight-forwardly called "blutwurst", or "blood sausage".

If you find the "blood sausage" disgusting, what about kidneys? I've never cared to get past the smell to try steak and kidney pie, and as for the classically British idea of kidneys for breakfast ...

Recipes for kidney supposedly begin "place in a pan of water and boil the piss out of them" ... I think there was some American general commenting on the Battle of Britain - "Any people who can eat boiled piss-sacks for breakfast will never be conquered". Probably paraphrased if I have it right at all. Anybody know the correct attribution?

Supposedly the Scottish "deep fried pizza" thing started when frozen pizzas were imported into the country, and lacking any context concerning what to do with them, people bunged them into the deep fat fryer, already established as an important tool in Scottish cookery. It IS true that pizza was introduced into the cultural mainstream in many places much more recently than people realize (most of Middle America was introduced to it post-WW II, though there were pizzarias in NYC in the early part of the 20th century).

BTW, I have an entertaining reference for "weird and disgusting foods" in general. I will corroborate the general opinion of lutefisk and retsina, but some of the
other things on here are quite tasty:

http://www.andreas.com/ray/food.html

[carnivorousplant]

I am reminded of an Engliah mystery novel. I cannot remember the title, author or protagonists. The side kick, a policeman, always thinks that he is ill and takes medicine. Anyway, the detective and policeman visit a woman who invites them to "have a fryup!"
AS they leave the policeman says to the detective, "Sir, did you see the lard in the pan? Tiny feet!"

[astro]

Originally posted by TheMadHun

ricepad I believe Scotland is the heart disease capital of the world - last reports mentioned a trend to deep fry chocolate encased ice cream. They obviously don't want to lose their pre-eminence.


Aye, when it comes to being unhealthy fat bastards we can beat the lot of you (except the planet-sized people you see at Disneyland.)

Here's tae us! Wha's like us? Gey few an they're aw deid (from heart disease I presume).

Just for you MadHun - see link below

http://www.ezy.net/~cpeek/ebay/scotcrap.wav

[casdave]

Black pud may sound pretty ugh to many but if you eat sausages remember what the skins are made from.Little parcels of mystery indeed.

Carnivorous Plant
Them darned meeces!!

[carnivorousplant]

Originally posted by casdave

Carnivorous Plant
Them darned meeces!!

Say what?

[casdave]

Tiny feet marks in the lard - made by mice.

That is what the book was meaning.

The lard was left in the frying pan overnight and the mice scuttled all over it.

[carnivorousplant]

Originally posted by casdave
Tiny feet marks in the lard - made by mice.
That is what the book was meaning.


Duh. Thanks.

[Ukulele Ike]

Hey! I'm an American, and I may be in a very tiny minority, but I LIKE kidneys!

Generally one soaks them in a mixture of ice water and vinegar before cooking to get rid of the..er...piss taste.

I wouldn't sit down to a heaping PLATE of kidneys, mind you. But they're great in conjunction with simpler flavors, like plain beefsteak...that's why a steak AND kidney pie is good.

There are a number of Argentinean steak joints in New York City. The house special is invariably a Mixed Grill of two kinds of steak (rib and skirt), beef sausage, blood sausage, sweetbreads, and kidneys. You alternate bites of the different things.

[casdave]

:confused:

Do you mean duh thanks - I should have got that, how obvious

or

Duh thanks - Even I knew that, you are insulting my intelligence.

[carnivorousplant]

Originally posted by casdave
:confused:
Do you mean duh thanks - I should have got that, how obvious
or
Duh thanks - Even I knew that, you are insulting my intelligence.

I meant duh, I was dumb not to realize that you were refering to my post. I knew it was rodents of some sort.
Do any of you United Kingdom people remember the title?
Thanks