My two jars of anchovette arrived yesterday. It’s much more mild than I expected. Had some on toast last night, and as part of my breakfast burrito this morning.
Both based on material by Terry Nation, who also created the Daleks (or was that Davros?).
Nation was an impressive sci-fi writer, but he never really understood the difference between a galaxy and a solar system.
Little custard tarts. You’re welcome.
Also, “Gentlemen’s Relish” is a paste made of anchovies and butter. It’s rather nice when spread very thinly on toast.
Late to the thread but most of my favourites have been mentioned.
I’ll add my vote to The Brokenwood Mysteries - not just because I’m a kiwi bigging up a local production, but I really enjoy it.
More shows with australian/nz flavour - rom-coms 800 Words, and Doctor, Doctor.
Less rom-com, and more road trip - Upright with Tim Minchin and an old upright piano.
Back to UK shows, I love Richard Osman’s House of Games - a half hour of silly word games with an eclectic bunch of UK performers, presenters (radio and tv) and comedians, hosted by Richard Osman.
Started Grace and Whitstable Pearl recently. 2 new shows, I think. Both are very good so far, IMO. WP reminds me of Vera in tone, but the episodes are about half as long.
The “traditional” ploughman’s is a slab of cheddar cheese, a thick slice of fresh bread, Branston pickle and possibly an apple,
Of course, it’s highly unlikely that any ploughman went to work with that in his snap box. It was invented by an executive in a brewery (Whitbreads) with a chain of pubs looking for s simple snack that could be served up by the licensees.
I had a ploughman’s in the only pub in Belstone, and it came with brie.
Scott and Bailey. Love this show. We were watching an old show last night (explaining Agatha Christie’s disappearance as her solving an old murder – just o.k.), and one of the main actors was so familiar to us. After a minute or two I realized it was the boss on Scott and Bailey – not Jill, Jill’s boss.
I caught that too. I had to do an Internet search to figure out where I knew her from.
Just put Cracker on the playlist. Anyone familiar with it?
I was avoiding it because I once watched the American version, which was horrible.
It’s largely disappeared in the UK (actually it was England, never seen one in Scotland). I remember it being a feature of smaller pubs with local home cooked food in the 80s. The wonderful Bree Louise just by London Euston station (gone now due to HS2) reminded me how wonderful they cut be with freshly baked bread still hot, wonderful cheddar, excellent pickle. But I struggle to think of anywhere I’ve seen since which has had one.
Now in the UK it’s gone “pub chain food”, burger, wings, pie, fish and chips, lasagne, chilli con carne, all variation and unusual items have disappeared (rarely pizza, burritos, tacos and a whole bunch of other things anymore, seen them over the years they don’t appear to sell to that crowd).
So a ploughman is a rarity, and a good one like hens teeth.
It should be crusty bread (baguette style), cheddar, ham or another cheese (like brie, for a vegans), branston style pickle, tomatoes, pickled onions, lettuce sometimes.
I can’t imagine there’s any authenticity to it, like the farmers used to eat this. But still, it’s nice and it’s english and that combination is a rarity…
Brie for Vegetarians I mean, missed edit window.
Why not? Bread and cheese were cheap and easily available, especially in country areas. They were staple foods of the poor, and could be carried around easily.
Naturally they would add pickles, or mustard, or onions, or anything else they had for extra taste.
According to the wiki:
As late as the 1870s, farmworkers in Devon were said to eat “bread and hard cheese at 2d. a pound, with cider very washy and sour” for their midday meal.
An account of an old miner In the Lake District in the 1930s:
Old Slater Bob drank his beer, but he would have none of the food the expedition had brought with them. Bread and cheese was what he had and bread and cheese was what he liked. “I’ve quarried and mined for fifty years on a bit of cheese to my dinner and I don’t fancy nowt else.”
Fond memories of a young Robbie Coltrane and Emma Thompson. I’d be interested to see how it might appeal now.
I think you’re thinking of Tutti Frutti, which I caught a bit of last year and was still funny.
Cracker is a different beast altogether, but it was excellent. Coltrane is magnificent as Fitz, the psychologist finding a new role for himself as a police consultant, the supporting cast is really strong and the stories are gripping. The best is the Hillsborough inspired story with Robert Carlyle as Albie. It can be pretty dark with unpleasant killers doing unpleasant things to people, so be advised.
Oops yes, senior moment there. Yes, both were great (in my memory at least).
Another series that gripped me at the time: This Life. Recently re-run, but I haven’t yet caught up with the recordings on my PVR.
Bread and cheese is a cheese sandwich. Not a ploughman’s lunch.
You really don’t know the English very well.
There was a offshoot to that series called Your Cheatin’ heart, without Coltrane, indeed, not sure if any of the cast from Tutti Frutti made it to that.
But yes, Cracker is great, and is pretty much the original UK behavioural science crime series. Robert Carlyle made his name as a skinhead in one series of it, pre Trainspotting. If you’ve not heard of it and like Brit stuff, it’s one really worth hunting down.
What makes you so sure? Asserting something doesn’t make it true.
In 1801 Arthur Young described in General View of the Agriculture of Hertfordshire the food given to Hertfordshire harvest workers as:
… at six o’clock bread, cheese and ale; at nine a hot breakfast; between eleven and twelve, bread and cheese; they dine at half past one, and have beef or mutton, and plumb-pudding; at four in the afternoon they have cheese and ale again … and at night they have a hot supper in the farmhouse.
Sandwiches were well known in 1801, but the writer doesn’t say ‘sandwiches’, he says ‘bread and cheese’.
Detailed discussion here:
If you reply, I’d appreciate a reasoned argument and cites, rather than assertions and snide remarks.
It’s quite simple. The type of bread you speak of is typically untraditional in the UK, more of the french baguette format. Also very inconvenient in format too: your hands are dirty, you don’t want to faff about with separated pieces of bread and cheese after hours in the dirt. You want something to eat with a wrapper and be done.
Versus the most English of all foodstuffs: a cheese sandwich. Much easier to eat on the move.
But I’m out on this one, I’m not interested in arguing any more on a theoretical history, it’s been waaaaay off topic for quite a while now.
Like a pasty.
A Ploughman’s is definitely something I’d want to eat sitting down at a table.