British cuisine

English cuisine

English cuisine encompasses the cooking styles, traditions and recipes associated with England. It has distinctive attributes of its own, but also shares much with wider British cuisine, partly through the importation of ingredients and ideas from North America, China, and India during the time of the British Empire and as a result of post-war immigration. Traditional meals have ancient origins, such as bread and cheese, roasted and stewed meats, meat and game pies, boiled vegetables and broths, and freshwater and saltwater fish. The 14th-century English cookbook, the Forme of Cury, contains recipes for these, and dates from the royal court of Richard II.
The Sunday roast is a very common traditional meal of English cuisine. The Sunday dinner traditionally includes roast potatoes accompanying a roasted joint of meat such as roast beef, lamb, and assorted vegetables; themselves generally roasted or boiled and served with gravy. Yorkshire pudding and gravy is now often served as an accompaniment to the main course, although it was originally served first as filler.
Fish and chips: It is possibly the most popular and identifiable English dish, and is traditionally served with a side order of mushy peas with salt and vinegar as condiments. The full English breakfast (also known as "cooked breakfast" or "fried breakfast"). It normally consists of a combination of bacon, grilled tomatoes, fried bread, black pudding, baked beans, fried mushrooms, sausages, and eggs (fried, scrambled or boiled). Hash browns are sometimes added, traditionally.

Pies, have long been a very traditional food of English cooking, Pies were originally a way to preserve food. It is simply a pastry with some filling, it could be meat, fish, vegetables or even sweet filling. Meat pies are generally enclosed with fillings such as chicken and mushroom or steak and kidney (originally steak and oyster). Open pies or flans are generally served for dessert with fillings of seasonal fruit. The Cornish pasty is a much-loved regional dish, constructed from pastry is folded into a semi-circular purse. The origins of the pasty are largely unknown. It is generally accepted that the pasty originated from Cornwall. The pasty was originally made as lunch ('croust' or 'crib' in the Cornish language) for Cornish tin miners who were unable to return to the surface to eat, covered in dirt from head to foot, they could hold the pasty by the folded crust and eat the rest without touching it, and then throwing away the dirty pastry crust. Another kind of pie is topped with mashed potato-for instance, shepherd's pie, with lamb, cottage pie, with beef, or fisherman's pie.

England can claim to have given the world the word "sandwich", although Earl was not the first to add a filling to bread. This creation came into existence through long nights at the gaming table.

Traditional afternoon tea consists of a selection of sandwiches, scones served with clotted cream and preserves. Cakes and pastries are also served. Tea grown in India or Ceylon is poured from silver tea pots into delicate bone china cups.

Famous English foods: Sunday roast, Meat pie, English Breakfast, Fish and chips.

Scottish cuisine

Scottish cuisine is the specific set of cooking traditions, practices and cuisines associated with Scotland. It has distinctive attributes and recipes of its own, but shares much with wider British and European cuisine as a result of local and foreign influences, both ancient and modern. Traditional Scottish dishes exist alongside international foodstuffs brought about by migration.
Scotland's natural larder of game, dairy products, fish, fruit, and vegetables is the chief factor in traditional Scots cooking, with a high reliance on simplicity and a lack of spices from abroad, as these were historically rare and expensive.
Scotland has a temperate climate and abundance of game species, and relied on the oceans and rivers to provide them with plentiful fish. Oats quickly become the staple source of food once agriculture had arrived. Pasta, cereals, bread are major part of the cuisine. They are often accompanied by fruits and vegetables. Apart from meat and fish, cheese, yoghurts and milk find place in the traditional food of Scotland. You will find fish, dairy products, fruits, vegetables, pork meat, lamb and beacon as the basic ingredients in many Scottish dishes.

Popular Dishes

Haggis is one of the most popular dishes in Scotland. Prepared from the lungs, liver and heart of sheep or calf, the dish is generally minced with oatmeal, seasoned with pepper and onion and boiled like a large sausage. The dish was also popular in British, until 18th century.
Another popular Scottish dish is oatcakes, made of barley and oat-flour biscuit. The cakes are baked on a griddle and served with cheese. A recipe well-known in the East coast of Scotland is Arbroath Smokie, a wood-smoked Haddock fish.
Scotch broth is very famous soup from Scotland and known world wide mainly made from meat and vegetables is considered very healthy, many common dishes are rich in fat.

Scotland is very well known for its excellent quality, rich and tasty red meat - beef - is generally prepared from the "Aberdeen-Angus" breed of cattle. Scottish people prepare a number of desserts and sweets also, to satisfy their sweet tooth. One such popular recipe is the Black Bun - a rich fruit cake prepared with raisins, brown sugar currants, and finely-chopped peel and chopped almonds. A host of traditional Scottish puddings, like Cranachan, Cream Crowdie, Girdle Scones and Clootie Dumpling, further add sweetness to the cuisine. Jams, jellies and all kinds of preserves are inevitable for the Scots. Summer fruits such as raspberries, strawberries and blackberries are also quite popular in Scotland.