# British food secret revealed....now what? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 16, 2003, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-food-secret-revealed-now-what/155343 "2003-02-16T01:19:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![owlstretchingtime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/958977/32.png) [@owlstretchingtime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owlstretchingtime)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2003, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-food-secret-revealed-now-what/155343/61 "2003-02-18T17:21:48Z")
Wait till they get to hear about bovril (without which association football could not function as a spectator sport - a bit like wagon wheels) ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2003, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-food-secret-revealed-now-what/155343/62 "2003-02-18T17:28:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by carnivorousplant \* > \*\*This isn’t going to get back to that vegemite stuff, is it? \*\* Probably. These threads usually do, although the British equivalent Marmite is advertised by the slogan “you either love it or hate it”, and you can count me in the ‘hate’ category. If a thread ever mentions “British Food” it invariably declines into a festival of squeamishness from people horrified by the idea of eating body parts or blood, and sneering about how all British food is disgusting and badly cooked. British posters invariably play up to it too. It would be silly to overreact to all this – especially to jokes in _Frasier_, which only ever mentions this country with a view to slagging it off – but in case anybody still needs convincing, somebody here ought to point out that there are millions of British people who have _never_ eaten black pudding or any kind of offal. Food eaten in British homes and restaurants covers the same general variety you’d expect to find anywhere else in the western world. Dishes are either fried, roasted, baked, stewed, steamed or grilled as the recipe demands. “Stereotype on toast” may be the dish of the day where you’re posting from, but all joking apart it does more to perpetuate ignorance than to fight it. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2003, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-food-secret-revealed-now-what/155343/63 "2003-02-18T17:38:43Z")
I am eating fried chicken in the Southern USA as we speak. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2003, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-food-secret-revealed-now-what/155343/64 "2003-02-18T19:20:19Z")
We gave up fancy food in favour of ruling the world, not enough time for fluffing up those souffles y’know. Once the Frenchies realised they couldn’t beat us they just took to comfort food with unpronouncable names. The French cooked, the British ruled. Go on, knock our cooking all you 'murricans, but don’t forget what language your recipe books are printed in. ---
**Author:** ![Brynda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Brynda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynda)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-food-secret-revealed-now-what/155343/65 "2003-02-19T00:13:24Z")
I agree with you, **everton**. I haven’t tried black pudding or steak and kidney pie (and don’t intend to), but the British food I have eaten has been quite good. And as previously mentioned, cake with cream is heavenly. Can we talk some more about cake with cream? Please? We finished ours last night and I miss it already. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![hyperjes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/df705f/32.png) [@hyperjes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hyperjes)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-food-secret-revealed-now-what/155343/66 "2003-02-19T01:16:26Z")
I wasn’t aware that bread pudding was up-market. Here in NC, they have it at Golden Corral, which is decidedly NOT up-market. My Grammy used to make awesome bread pudding (yes, with cream.) when I was a kid. We lived in PA, and are Irish, so I guess we picked that up from the Brits. I didn’t think it was a southern thing either. Really, I thougfht EVERYBODY ate bread pudding. It’s yummy!!!😃 It’s funny that you should bring up Marmite. I did a search on Marmite (Google) to find out what it is just a few days ago. It sounds awful. I DID consider buying some, though. d\_redguy likes food that I think is gross, so he might enjoy it. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-food-secret-revealed-now-what/155343/67 "2003-02-19T01:20:30Z")
Try a bagel instead. It looks sort of like a doughnut, that will help. And then, it’s boiled! Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-food-secret-revealed-now-what/155343/68 "2003-02-19T01:46:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by everton \* > \*\*Boiled bread is, of course, a bagel. Enjoy. \*\* 47 posts ago. I wonder why I bother sometimes :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-food-secret-revealed-now-what/155343/69 "2003-02-19T01:50:54Z")
I was being facetious. We had a great time inThe Big One together and all that, but I can never tell when you British guys are amused or really, really teed of. (Where are the damn custom smileys?) ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-food-secret-revealed-now-what/155343/70 "2003-02-19T10:19:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by hyperjes \* > \*\*It’s funny that you should bring up Marmite. I did a search on Marmite (Google) to find out what it is just a few days ago. It sounds awful. I DID consider buying some, though. d\_redguy likes food that I think is gross, so he might enjoy it. \*\* Try it, honestly, you might like it - but _spread it thin_ (preferably on hot buttered toast), otherwise your head will explode. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-food-secret-revealed-now-what/155343/71 "2003-02-19T11:29:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by everton \* > \*\* > If a thread ever mentions “British Food” it invariably declines into a festival of squeamishness from people horrified by the idea of eating body parts or blood, and sneering about how all British food is disgusting and badly cooked. British posters invariably play up to it too. > > It would be silly to overreact to all this \<_snip_\>. \*\* Agreed. So in all seriousness - Black pudding is a thousand times better than a description of its ingredients would suggest. As Germaine Greer pointed out in something I read a few weeks ago, a culture has to be seriously well-off for food before it can afford to throw away a first-class protein source like the entire blood volume of a pig, and once it’s been pudding-ified it neither looks nor smells nor tastes like blood. It has a crumbly texture more like cake than meat, and an anonymous meaty taste with a slightly peppery overtone. I don’t eat it often, but I enjoy it very much when I do. There is simply nothing wrong with steak and kidney pie or steak and kidney pudding. (The latter is a very deep-fill pie made with a pastry in which the fat content is supplied by shredded beef suet, and is cooked either in a cloth or - usually - a covered basin, in boiling water.) Kidney doesn’t have some revolting taste or texture - quite the reverse. Again, it has a rather different texture to actual “meat” - agreeing that by that we mean muscle tissue - in that it has no “grain” structure to it; but then, the mouth-feel of pork, lamb, beef and chicken are already quite different one from another, and learning to accommodate another one is no big deal. Offal in general has fantastic nutritional value - liver was one of the first successful remedies for anaemia, because it’s chock-full of iron - and the taste isn’t that hard to acquire. Mind you, it helps if it’s cooked right. Lamb’s liver is delicately flavoured and soft, and responds well to being gently fried until it’s just done. Ox liver is much richer tasting and coarser, and should be casseroled with plenty of stock, onions, maybe a carrot or two, and a little bacon doesn’t hurt. Pig’s liver is intermediate on both counts and can be served either way. Marmite? Weird stuff on the face of it, and as the other Brit posters have said, opinion’s divided on it even over here. I was brought up on the stuff and I’ve never lost the taste. The important thing is not to pile it on. The instruction “Spread thinly” on the jar is to be taken seriously. It goes well on white bread and butter, and better on hot buttered toast. It adds a certain kick to melted cheese on toast too - smear a little on the toast before adding the cheese and grilling. Again, it’s a tremendous vitamin source, especially the B group. Having said all that, a lot of what I eat is red meat, chicken, fish, cheese, bread, curry, chilli, pasta, and so on, and much the same goes for most of the people I know. Even my in-depth knowledge of trifle doesn’t get pressed into service many times a year 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-food-secret-revealed-now-what/155343/72 "2003-02-19T12:51:27Z")
Given that liver is found on the menu in the US (usually ox, whereas in the UK it is more commonly lamb or pig), I really don’t understand why kidney should be regarded as such a revolting prospect. Not yet mentioned by anyone, but it used to be fairly common in the UK to get a pork chop with a slice of kidney attached. I’d heard that is no longer legal for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![owlstretchingtime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/958977/32.png) [@owlstretchingtime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owlstretchingtime)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-food-secret-revealed-now-what/155343/73 "2003-02-19T13:01:15Z")
The best place to eat offal, and other “odd” british foods is at St John in Farringdon (next to Smithfield meat market) here is their menu (and I would heartily recommend the place) [http://www.stjohnrestaurant.co.uk/menus.htm](http://www.stjohnrestaurant.co.uk/menus.htm) enjoy. ---
**Author:** ![Pergau](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7c8e57/32.png) [@Pergau](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pergau)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-food-secret-revealed-now-what/155343/74 "2003-02-19T13:48:33Z")
Nice post Malacandra. I have to put in a vote for Offal. Black pudding, sausages, Haggis kidneys liver, hearts and tounge are all fantastic, if properly cooked. Tripe, I just can’t take. I know that’s a long way from the OP, but don’t forget that traditional cooking methods vary according to the region and climater etc. That’s why the Chinese stir fry and the Northern Europeans boil. ---
**Author:** ![athene1765](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@athene1765](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/athene1765)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-food-secret-revealed-now-what/155343/75 "2003-02-19T20:56:33Z")
Bread pudding, both low and high. You can find it in the cheapest buffets and in some of the very nicest restaurants anywhere, esp. those specializing in Southern or Cajun food (yes, Cajuns are Southern, but the two cooking styles are miles apart). Bad bread pudding is yechh. Good bread pudding is yum, with cinnamon and maybe raisins. ---
**Author:** ![scablet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@scablet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scablet)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-food-secret-revealed-now-what/155343/76 "2003-02-19T23:50:31Z")
Menudo (insert barfy face) has become quite popular among non-Mexicans here in Southern California. I don’t quite understand the appeal though; it smells like hell when it’s being prepared. ---
**Author:** ![Brynda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Brynda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynda)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2003, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-food-secret-revealed-now-what/155343/77 "2003-02-20T00:09:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by amarone \* > \*\*Given that liver is found on the menu in the US (usually ox, whereas in the UK it is more commonly lamb or pig), I really don’t understand why kidney should be regarded as such a revolting prospect. > > Not yet mentioned by anyone, but it used to be fairly common in the UK to get a pork chop with a slice of kidney attached. I’d heard that is no longer legal for some reason. \*\* Actually, the liver I have seen on US menus is beef liver. You mention pig and lamb, but not beef liver. Is it uncommon in the UK? ---
**Author:** ![ion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f1d935/32.png) [@ion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ion)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2003, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-food-secret-revealed-now-what/155343/78 "2003-02-20T01:20:29Z")
\*\*carnivorousplant[b/] I feel I have to fill in with some information on this _blood sausage_ and _boiled bread_ you mention. Mentioned together like that I feel instinctively that you are poking around in the Swedish cuisine. For the blood-dish we don’t bother about the nice paraphrase “black” pudding - wee call it **“blood pudding”**. It tastes like gingerbread and is often served with lingonberryjam (another typical Swedish product it seems). And then the intriguing boiled bread: I think I would compare it to your doughnuts, or maybe rather the fried dough. The Swedish version tends to be more nutritious though. It’s a kind of bread made of coarse rye, and the liquid ingredient is blood (I guess Swedes are just too miserly to let any go to waste). It is boiled and best served with pork and a white sauce. We call it **palt**. ---
**Author:** ![ion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f1d935/32.png) [@ion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ion)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2003, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-food-secret-revealed-now-what/155343/79 "2003-02-20T01:24:23Z")
Oh that did not look good. Well, I’m new. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2003, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-food-secret-revealed-now-what/155343/80 "2003-02-20T01:32:09Z")
Oye. Oh, welcome to the Board! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-food-secret-revealed-now-what/155343.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-food-secret-revealed-now-what/155343.md?page=5)