How
often do you pass by a pub that advertises "traditional
pub grub" or how often do you use that slogan in your own marketing?
For many this sobriquet will conjure up dishes such as Cottage Pie or Sausage
and Mash or Fish and Chips (and even Chicken Tikka Masala) but I am sure you
won't be surprised to learn that these
islands have an ancient, rich and varied culinary tradition beyond these
examples.
With
the Diamond Jubilee of HM The Queen
and the inevitable celebration of all that is British that will open the London Olympic Games
this summer, pubs have a unique opportunity to be part of the zeitgeist.
As
well as being an opportunity to use local produce and seasonal ingredients you
could add to your pub's USP by adding truly authentic traditional British dishes to your menu … and don’t
forget wine. ale, cider and mead play an important part in the story too so
plenty of opportunities for food
matching. You could even go the full hog, so to speak, and dress up for the
occasion too!
In
this guide I will provide some recipes, food and drink ideas and point you in
the direction of some really useful information on what is "Best of
British". It really could be as simple as ABC - "Authentic British Cuisine". You'll even find deals from local food producers and suppliers.
I
have in mind three ways to exploit what will undoubtedly be a huge resurgence
in interest in our island's rich cultural heritage, but I am sure you will have
your own ideas:
Concept One - "British Food
Through The Ages"
Whether
you were to feature a menu reflecting British cuisine from Anglo-Saxon to Tudor
and Regency to Victorian as a series of theme
nights or add an ABC section to
your standing menu you will find a fabulous heritage of cooking in this
country.
Concept Two - "Lost British Food Rediscovered"
Another
way to present ABC would be to look
at obscure, but toothsome dishes from the past 1,000 years and as for the
majority of that time many foods we take for granted nowadays were
prohibitively expensive for most of the population you'll find plenty of inexpensive and delicious ideas on the web. For instance what about Pease Pudding,
Angels on Horseback or Stargazy Pie?
Concept Three - "Elizabethan Food for the New Elizabethan Era"
Concept Three - "Elizabethan Food for the New Elizabethan Era"
To
tie in with the Golden Jubilee celebrations forget Coronation Chicken (unless
you have a brilliant new twist on it) and bring a little ABC to your customers in the form of an Elizabethan banquet. How about turning your traditional Sunday
Roasts menu over to a Tudor feast on the Sunday of Jubilee weekend?
As
the Anglo Saxon era is probably the earliest recorded time in the history of
food in Britain, I guess the most authentic of British cuisine would
come from that period.
Not
all the foodstuffs will be familiar to you or your customers, and modern tastes
might preclude using some of them, but with the minimum of substitutions you
can still give your customers a flavour of the past.
Later
periods such as the Regency and Victorian era are much closer to us and apart
from the lavish decorations and sheer quantity of food consumed in one sitting
that is a characteristic of these culinary epochs much more will be accessible
to your customers.
Anglo-Saxon Staples
Fruit – figs and grapes, small
apples (crab apples), plums, cherries and sloes
Vegetables & Grains - wheat, rye, oats and
barley, carrots, 'Welsh carrots'; or parsnips, cabbages, burdock and rape, onions
and leeks, wild garlic
Legumes - peas and beans
Herbs and Spices - ginger, cinnamon, fennel,
celeriac, cloves mace and pepper
Honey
Wine & Mead 'apple-wine' (probably a
form of cider) fruit juices including apple, pear and plum, herbal 'teas' and
infusions, beer and ale
Nuts hazelnuts, acorns,
almonds, walnuts
Fish - herring, salmon and
eel, pike, perch and roach, flounder, whiting, plaice, cod and brown trout,
oysters, mussels and cockles
Meat – pork, chicken, duck and
goose, ducks, pigeon, plover, grouse, herons, goose, hare and rabbit, venison,
wild boar, beef and veal, mutton and lamb, goat and kid
Anglo-Saxon Dishes
Small
Bird and Bacon Stew with Walnuts or Hazelnuts; Pan Roasted Venison with
Cherries; Lamb and Apricot Stew; 'Fenkel in Soppes' (Braised Fennel with Ginger);
Nut and Leek Stew; Lozenges or Curd Cheese Pastries … to name but a few.
Useful Websites:
For finding local food and drink suppliers near to your pub why not try Big Barn - simply type in your post code and you'll find a list of local producers in your area, use the code BB1 and receive a 10% discount on selected purchases from their retailers.
The Tudors is a mine of information on all things relating to
the Tudor period including such recipes as Almond Jumballs, Taffatty Tart and
Poor Knight's Pudding. For
your Elizabethan Banquet and a vast
list of dishes. Crow Pie
has a great collection of recipes, a glossary of British cuisine and food,
calendars detailing farmers markets throughout the UK
You'll
even find the World Carrot Museum that will introduce you to the wonderful world of all things of Daucus
Carota (Latin for carrot). Ivan
Day's Historic Food - another great
site with lots of information and he even runs cookery courses.recipes4us - has some more palatable recipes for the less
adventurous amongst you. Rediscover
Devilled Kidneys, Kedgeree, Beef Cobbler, Apple Charlotte and much more at Good British Food
For me the definitive history of English food and a great source for recipes is …
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