Salut/Hi D. Gerasimatos,

le/on Mon, 25 Apr 2005 06:09:39 +0000 (UTC), tu disais/you said:-

>In article >,
>Ian Hoare > wrote:
>>>
>>>Not "food *IN* the UK" but "British food". Do you see the difference?
>>
>>You're surely not suggesting that all food served in these 14 chosen
>>restaurants are from all nationalities except british?

>I am.

Then you're wrong.

> I will also posit that the wine served is also not British.

Most of the wine served will be from outside the UK, certainly. Not that
that that would be relevant to the intrinsic quality of British food OR
English wine.


>What are the facts? My cookbook of traditional British recipes lists
>"Quiche Lorraine" and "Croque Monsieur". I will credit the British for
>recognizing good food when they see it, though.

That's a good reason to criticise your cookbook, not the cuisine.

In fact it is extremely hard to say where one cuisine starts and another
ends.

Creme Brûlée, is commonly believed to be French in fact its first recorded
appearance is in Cambridge in the UK.

Equally, good old American Pizza, Apple Pie, Chowder and Meatloaf owe their
origins to 4 different European countries, although they've all been adopted
by the USA (some might say perverted) and most USAians would say they are
American dishes.

By those criteria, some of the best loved "American" favourites are British
in fact.

I'd never claim that English cuisine is one of the world's top cuisines,
though I would put in on a par with or ahead of several other European
countries. What would be interesting, IMO would be to discuss at what point
a dish becomes legitmately part of a nation's cuisine. For example, "Spag
Bol" is on the menu in many an entirely british household. Not a very good
Spaghetti Bolognese, certainly. Similarly, there are many thai influenced
dishes that are becoming fast favourites.

What I found quite interesting the other day was that the BBC carried out a
survey of the nation's favourite Sunday lunch. (As representative of a meal
that had slightly festive family meal connotations). Roast Beef and
Yorkshire pudding was the clear and unequivocal winner, and I'd certainly
agree that it is very much a defining dish of British cuisine. To the point
that the French equivalent of "Frogs" (Britspeak for French) is "Les
Rosbifs".

I call it a defining dish, because it both demonstrates the strengths of
English cooking (at its best) and its weakness (at its worst).

To make top class roast beef, you must have grass fed beef, not fattened up
on barley, not given a diet of hormones or antibiotics. It should be from an
animal of at least three or four years old that is a beef variety, such as
Aberdeen Angus, Hereford - or Charolais or Limousin. The animal should
ideally be slaughtered near the farm where it lived, to avoid stress
chemicals in its blood. These criteria alone make it extremely hard to find
meat that is good enough to make a roast worthy of the traditions.

The meat should be quartered and then hung at least two weeks, though three
weeks would be better. It should then be butchered in such a way that the
cut to be roast should have both bone and its own covering fat. Sirloin and
Ribs are both classic roasting cuts, and they should both have meat that is
well marbled with fat, if the roast is to be excellent. It's no good
roasting the very lean grilling cuts, or - worse the pot roasting cuts (US
Top round, bottom round, blade steak) as is so often done. The smallest cut
that can be roasted successfully will weigh from 2-3 kg.

Real roasting is done on a spit in front of a bright open fire. I recommend
trying it at least once in your life, as it's an order better than the roast
we all know, which is actually baking. The meat should never be salted
before roasting as this has a tendancy to prevent the meat browning
properly. The meat should be allowed to warm to room temperature after being
seasoned (loads of pepper and dry mustard powder plus thyme).

The meat should be roast in an extremely hot oven (225 or so) for a short
time, from 20 mins to 40 mins per kg depending upon how it's liked, though
over cooked roast beef is an abomination. It is normal to roast beef very
rare at the centre, and carve the outside slices for those who prefer their
meat (over) cooked. After 10-15 mins in the oven, the meat can be removed
briefly, basted and then salted. Basting should be frequent - to imitate the
continual basting of the true rotating open fire spit roast.

English Roast Beef is traditionally served with roast potatoes, yorkshire
pudding, horseradish sauce, gravy and at least two other vegetables
depending upon the season. It is best accompanied by a top class burgundy
from the Dijon end of the Cote de Nuits. Clos St Jacques, or, better, a
Chambertin from a good traditionalist grower. But a 20 year old Hermitage
isn't bad with it either. There is no better meal in the world.

In practice, in the majority of British domestic kitchens, the beef is too
young, factory farmed, underhung, and from an inappropriate (cheaper) cut.
The intrinsic quality that roasting brings out simply isn't there. I might
add, that this is also the case in France, where - so far - I've never found
a single example of roast beef half as good as that served even in the
current dumbed down domestic version.

The situation in the majority of small restaurants is considerably worse.
Most will give up when faced with the difficulty of producing a perfectly
roast cut, perfectly served at the moment the diners require it. They cook
it in advance and flash reheat it at the moment of service. The vegetables
equally will be reheated, and the essential accompanying gravy etc will
themselves be travesties. It is hard to imagine anything much nastier.

But just as one should not judge American food by the glop served as Chowder
in every restaurant chain in the States, so one should not judge English
food by the travesty served in the average corner caff either.

Leaving roasting aside, although it IS the quntessentially british way of
cooking, especially of game birds, there are many other fine traditional
English dishes which stand comparison with anything from Europe.

Steak and ?? Pie and pudding (?? can be kidney, mushrooms or oysters)
Chicken, cottage and shepherd's pies
Baked or boiled Gammon or bacon
Spiced beef (silverside)
Raised pies.
Pigeon pie
Venison casseroles
Jugged Hare.
Oxtail, tomato, peascot, jerusalem and broad bean soups. (and many others)
Finnan haddock, smoked salmon, kedgeree, fish pie. Kipper paste, potted
shrimps, crabs and salmon. Fresh scotch wild salmon poached in cider (US
hard cider).

Some of the world's finest cheeses come from the UK, think of a top class
Stilton or Cheddar (though there are many others).

And when it comes to desserts, even top french chefs have always admitted
England's supremacy.

Apple pie, (and pear pie) Double crust fruit pies, cobblers, crumbles,
steamed and sponge puddings, custards, fools, syllabubs, trifles. There are
dozens of traditional british puddings that are a true delight when well
made.

The problem facing the average visitor to the UK, is not that there is a
fine English cuisine, but to find it. Nearly all traditional English food is
extraordinarily badly adapted to serving in restaurants, and there are very
few restaurants indeed where it is done. What CAN be found, ever
increasingly, are examples of modern english fine cooking, where traditional
dishes or ingredients are recreated in a way that IS capable of being served
well in a modern restaurant. But these restaurants are extremely expensive,
on the whole. Nevertheless the cuisine exists, and competes on equal terms
with anything from anywhere else in the world.

I'm tempted to ask you, Dimitri to list half as many excellent truly
American dishes. (Not counting those originating in the UK).

--
All the Best
Ian Hoare
http://www.souvigne.com
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