Mark Thorson wrote:

>> The same can be said of much of Europe. Just look at the staples of
>> European cooking and see how many of them came from the Americas.
>
> An important distinction being whether the line
> is drawn on ingredients that were originally from
> elsewhere but are produced domestically now vs.
> ingredients that have always been produced
> domestically. Of course, if it's the latter,
> how far back does "always" mean? Prehistoric
> times? Roman times? Europeans did not always
> have wheat. Heck, if you go back far enough,
> they haven't always had any farmed food.

Perhaps it can include all foods that were available when it became
Britain. Like most of the rest of the world, it is a country that has
seen a lot of population changes as people invaded/ moved in from a
variety of western European regions. As they came they brought their
various foods with them. There were Picts, Gaels, Celts, Romans, Danes,
Anglo Saxons, French etc. Each has made significant contributions.

Britain became a major world power in the 1500s as it sent out explorers
privateers and its navy to colonize and empire that spanned the globe,
and there is every reason to include the products that came to Britain
from its empire.