English Food

University of Leipzig

Wintersemester 2000/2001

English Food

by

Alena Friedrich

 16.02.01

Table of Contents

1. INTRODUCTION 3 

2. THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH FOOD 4 
2.1. THE ROMAN ERA 4 
2.2. THE NORMAN / FRENCH ERA 7 
2.3. THE 16TH TO 18TH CENTURY 10 
2.4. THE 19TH CENTURY 13 
2.5. ENGLISH EATING-HABITS TODAY 14 

3. ′TYPICAL′ ASPECTS OF ENGLISH COOKERY 17 
3.1. THE PLAINNESS OF ENGLISH FOOD 17 
3.2. THE ENGLISH PREDILECTION FOR MEAT 19 
3.3. THE ENGLISH PREDILECTION FOR WHITE BREAD 20 

4. THE UNIQUENESS OF ENGLISH COOKERY 20 

5. SUMMARY 21 

6. REFERENCES 22

1. Introduction

English food has always been and still is a topic for discussions. It has often been regarded as inferior to that of many European countries, due to the English "deficiency of creative imagination and lack of discernment" (Burnett, p. 318). Professor John Fuller, Chairman of the National Catering Inquiry, has commented that "the British are not very discriminating. They′ll eat almost anything … they are often numb to taste through politeness. In many cases ′as good as mother′s cooking′ really means ′as bad as mother′s cooking′" (Burnett, p. 318). Paxman shares Fuller′s opinion about the English ignorance towards their food: "There was a reason English food was so awful: the English were not bothered enough about how it tasted to demand it any better" (p.256). In fact the bad taste and the lack of extravagance in English cookery have mostly been criticised. Additionally, it was said that the English treated their food with some kind of ignorance, and that eating for them was nothing else than the satisfaction of a human need. As a matter of fact, it is rather difficult to find reasons for these clichés, since none of the authors I have cited deals with this problem. Therefore, the aim of my essay will not be to answer this question. Only in the second part I am going to touch upon this subject by examining ′typical′ aspects of English food, such as its often mentioned plainness. Yet, it needs to be mentioned that these remarks are mainly based on causal assumptions, as the references are to weak. A much more effective introduction to English cookery will give the first part of this paper which deals with the history of the nation′s diet. I will discuss the main stages of the historical development, namely the Roman and Norman era, the 16th to 18th centuries, the 19th century, and the appearance of the English diet nowadays. Perhaps this part helps to drive away some prejudices concerning the English diet, as it shows that, as Paxman puts it, "English cooking, for the privileged few, at least, could have held its own with any in Europe" (p. 257). At the end of my essay I will try to answer the question if there really is such a thing like a distinct English cuisine which would be characterised by a clear difference to the Scottish or Welsh cuisine. This last passage refers to the topic of Professor Joachim Schwend′s course "Looking into England. The English question" (carried out at the University of Leipzig), which tried to crystallise typical features of England as part of Britain, and Englishness.

2. The history of English food

To describe the history of English cookery I will, in most cases, refer to Anne Wilson’s book Food and drink in Britain. Although the title refers to the British history of food, she speaks about the development of the English diet most of the time, which makes this publication a suitable source for my essay. Apart from Wilson I will also cite some other authors. However, it must be mentioned that these books refer to Wilson’s reports to a great extent and thus do not show many new aspects of the historical development of the English way of cooking.

In the following historical summary of English food I will discuss the eatinghabits of richer people and town dwellers in most cases. These groups experienced the biggest changes within their diet, since they were almost the only ones who could afford and had access to the new foodstuffs which were introduced to England. The poor depended on the same foodstuffs most of the time (e.g. vegetables, fruit, corn, and meat they “produced” on their farms), and their meals were rarely influenced by nutritional innovations. Therefore, their eating-habits are left out for the most part.

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