British Сuisine (Британская кухня)

        Информационно-исследовательский проект “British Cuisine”

          Автор: Анна Нарыжных, школа № 490, Санкт-Петербург

          Руководитель: Семенюта Г.В., учитель английского

       Contents

1.Introduction

1.1 Cookery Survey ………………………………………………………………………………..4

2.  The Aims of the Project …………………………………………………………………..5

2. British Food

2.1 Why Does British Cuisine have an Unfortunate Reputation? …………….5

  2.2 New trends in the development of British cuisine……………………………7

 2.3 What Is Peculiar about the British Food? …………………………………………9

2.4 Usual Meals ……………………………………………………………………………………..109

2.5 British Staples …………………………………………………………………………………11

2.6 Sauces …………………………………………………………………………………………… 15

2.7 Puddings, Cakes and Pies ………………………………………………………………… 16

2.8 Beverages …………………………………………………………………………………………23

2.9 British and Russian Cooking Traditions ……………………………………………..25

3. Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………………….26

4. Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………….29

Appendix 1: Cookery Survey

Appendix 2: Shepherd’s Pie

Appendix 3:  Paradise Pudding

Appendix 4: Christmas Cake

Introduction

1.1 Cookery Survey

    In Europe there is a popular joke:

“Paradise is where cooks are French, mechanics are German, policemen are

British, lovers are Italians, and it is all organized by the Swiss.

Hell is where cooks are British, policemen are German, and lovers are Swiss,

mechanics are French, and it is all organized by Italians”.

    The two features of life in England that possibly give visitors their worst

impressions are the English weather and English cooking. British cuisine

has an unfortunate reputation. But it would be unfair to say that all English

 food is bad.

    At the first stage of my project a cookery survey was conducted. 56 people of different ages (teachers and students) were asked a set of 7 questions to find out what they know about British cuisine and if British dishes are popular in Russia. The result of the survey you can see on the table. Firstly, the conducted survey showed that the interviewed people of all aged do not know much about English food. Most of the interviewed people (about 80 percent) named pudding and tea as the most popular English desserts and drinks. (Appendix1)

    Secondly, almost nobody has tried traditional British dishes or cooked them. Very few people have British cookery books or recipes at home.

    Finally, only names of traditional dishes are known in Russia, but Russian housewives do not know what their ingredients are and how to cook them.

    To sum up, English food is not popular in Russia as well as in other countries.

     In my opinion the results of the survey might have been expected. There have been several outside significant influences on British cuisine recently. They came from Mediterranean countries, Arabic countries and Asian countries such as China, Japan and India. Having been abroad and tried different kinds of food there, Russian housewives started cooking them at home. Remarkable cookery books containing recipes from different countries have been published, but among them there are no British ones. There are a lot of Japanese, Chinese, Italian and French restaurants in Russian cities and towns. But you can find few English restaurants.

     The information about British cookery traditions is received from short magazine articles and radio and TV programmes.

      The other reason for low popularity of British cuisine is that English food is often considered as tasteless and boring.

       However, it would be unfair to say that all English food is not tasty and cooked without imagination. Moreover, traditional British deserts are delicious, it often takes a lot of time to cook them though.

        I think traditional British dishes deserve to take their place on the Russian diet. They are certainly worth cooking.

 1.2   The aims of the project

 The aims of the report are

• to study the most popular British dishes, especially puddings, and ways of their cooking;
• to study eating habits of the British;
• to research modern trends in the development of British cuisine;
• to compare British and Russian cuisines;
• to recommend the tastiest British dishes for cooking at home to make our diet healthier and more various.

2. British Food

2.1 Why does British cuisine have an unfortunate reputation?

      A strange thing about Britain that the tourist may notice is that most good    restaurants there are run and stuffed by foreigners. English cuisine is not as famous as French, Italian or Chinese ones. English food has often been described as tasteless.   English cuisine has always been laughed at by its European neighbours as bland, greasy and overcooked. One of the traditional grouses about English food is the way that vegetables are cooked. The only way that many British housewives knew to cook vegetables was to boil them. Some visitors to Britain think that Britain and good food are two things which are not usually associated. Most of them seem agree that the food is terrible. Why? One reason could be that that British people’s tastes are different from people from other European and American people. But the most common complaint is not that British food has a strange, unpleasant taste, but that it has very little taste at all.  The vegetables are usually overcooked. It is all too bland.

   Foreigners criticize English food. They say that it is unimaginative, boring,

tasteless, it is chips with everything and vegetables are totally overcooked.

But the British argue that their basic ingredients, when fresh are so full of flavour that they have not had to invent sauces and complex recipes to disguise their natural taste. Nothing can compare with fresh peas or new potatoes just boiled (not overboiled) and served with butter. Why drown spring lamb in cream or yoghurt and spices, when with just one or two herbs it is absolutely delicious?

   Another explanation may be that visitors to Britain do not get the opportunity to sample home cooking. They ‘eat out” a lot, usually in rather cheap restaurants and cafes. These places are definitely not where to find good British food. Typical British cooking involves a lot of roasting and does not suit the larger scale production or quick preparation which is required in such cheap places. Food, according to British, should be eaten hot, which is difficult to arrange when feeding large numbers of people.

A visitor if invited to an English home might well enjoy steak, and kidney pudding or pie, saddle of mutton with red- jelly, all sorts of smoked fish, especially kippers, to mention but a few.

    While the British are conservative about ingredients, they are no longer conservative about the way they are cooked and served. The country’s supermarkets shelves are full of the spices and sauces needed for cooking dishes from all over the world.

    Traditional British food, with its emphasis on puddings, pies, cakes, meat fish and fried food no longer forms a main part of most people’s diet because of the trend towards lighter, more easily prepared food. Traditional methods of preserving meat and fish, such as salting and smoking, are no necessary. Food such as kippers (smoked herrings), salt pork, beef   and bacon are eaten les frequently than before. Nevertheless many traditional dishes survive, especially those associated with special occasions.

   Nowadays British food is influenced by European and Asian cuisines. One of the reasons that English cooking is changing and improving is that so many people have been spending their holidays abroad and have learned to appreciate unfamiliar dishes.

  2.2 New Trends in the Development of British Cuisine

   In recent years there has been an increase in the consumption of convenience and unhealthy junk foods. But the interest in healthy, natural or “organic” food is increasing.

 A lot of people eat convenience food in the evenings. Convenient food is already cooked. It should be heated up in the microwave before eating.

    Going to a restaurant is still comparatively rare event for most British people.

Regular restaurant-going is confined mostly to the richest section of society. In the more expensive restaurants all the dishes have non-English names, most commonly French.

     Because people do it rarely, when they go out for a meal in the evening, they want to be served something they do not eat. Towns and cities have restaurants representing cuisine from all over the world.

    Unfortunately good English food is difficult to find. Restaurants serving British food tend to be either very expensive or found in luxury hotels. Only 2 percent of expensive restaurants in London serve British food. There are many more Italian, Chinese, French and Indian restaurants.

    Eating places which serve British food and not expensive are used only for more every day purposes. Apart from pubs, there are two types, both ones are comparatively cheap. One is used during the day, most typically by manual workers. They are described as a “workman’s café (pronounced “caff”). It offers mostly fried food of the ”English breakfast” type and for this reason is sometimes jokingly called a “greasy spoon”. Many of them are transport cafes at the sides of main roads.

     The other type is the fish and-chip shop, used in the evening for “take-away” meals. Again, the fish is fried.

   Fast food outlets are now more common in Britain than they are in most other countries.

    British pub (short for “public house”) is unique. The pub is the only indoor place where the average person can comfortably meet others and get into a long conversation with them. You can get there wine, coffee and some hot food. You can eat good British meal without spending a lot of money by going to a pub.

 However, many traditional English dishes as good as anything you can get anywhere.

2.3 What Is Peculiar about the British Food Nowadays?

  A special feature of British is the high quality of the ingredients and simplicity of the way they are used. Meat is roasted or boiled, fish is usually poached or fried.

   Potatoes are very popular, they are eaten in a variety of ways. The second common vegetable is cabbage.

    British cuisine can boast numerous recipes of buns, rolls, pies, cakes, puddings. Pudding is the most famous produce of Britain’s kitchen and a unique English dish.

   A special place in the life of British is occupied by tea. Strictly speaking, tea is often not meal at all, it is a suitable occasion for a social intercourse.

    Britain has excellent traditional food: lamb from Wales, shellfish and fresh salmon from Northern Ireland, fresh or smoked fish from Scotland, cheeses from England and Wales.

   Today the best British food is surprisingly regional. In Scotland oats grow better than wheat, local dishes use oatmeal rather than wheat flour. Scottish traditional dish, porridge, using oats, is eaten only with a pinch of salt.

   In Wales oatmeal is the main cereal. In Scotland and Wales scones, oatcakes and pancakes are traditionally cooked.

    England is famous for hard cheeses whose names derive from the dairy farming areas, such as Cheddar, Cheshire, Leicester, Derby, etc. Some of them are still produced in local farms.

    The pork, veal, ham and egg pies are associated with Midland England. Cornwall is known for meat pies. Steak and kidney pies and puddings can be found everywhere. But black pudding, made from pig’s blood, is speciality of North England. Sausages, depending on where they are made, are different in flavour.

2.4 Usual Meals

   The usual meals peculiar for Britain are breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner, in simpler homes they are breakfast, dinner, tea or supper.

 Breakfast is generally a bigger meal than people have on the Continent, though some English people prefer a continental breakfast of rolls and butter and coffee.

The usual English breakfast is porridge, cereals with milk, bacon and eggs, butter, jam or marmalade toasts and tea or coffee. For a change one can have a boiled egg, ham or fish. Generalizations are dangerous, but nowadays breakfast is usually a packeted “cereal”, for example cornflakes, and/or roast and marmalade.

“Elevenses” is a cup of tea or coffee and some biscuits at around eleven o’clock.

 Lunch is usually eaten about one o`clock. Any shops which close for lunch close from one to two. People usually go to a cafe or restaurant. But at home they have cold meat, potatoes, salad and pickles with pudding or fruit to follow. Sometimes they may have a chop, steak and chips, followed by biscuits and cheese.

  Afternoon tea first became popular with the upper and middle classes and it is now a national institution. It is a sociable sort of thing. The afternoon tea consist of small sandwiches, bread, butter and jam, scones, sponge cakes, biscuits, crumpets.

   High tea is the main meals in Scotland and the north of England. The English tea is a mixture of savoury and sweet food, with tea to drink. The savoury element can consist of sliced ham, sausages, fish and chips.

 Dinner is the ordinary evening meal for middle class people.  Lower class people call it supper. The evening meal is increasingly becoming the main meal, especially for workers and urbanities.

2.5 British staples

 First Courses

   Soup is the usual start for dinner. Soups come for the most part in two categories: thick and thin.

   There is often a fine line between a stew, a broth and a soup. Soup is generally regarded as a lighter meal. Add meat and your soup became a broth. If the meat happens to be sliced potatoes, vegetables, you may end up with the famous Irish stew. Cock-a-leek is a Scottish specialty made from chickens boiled with leeks.

   At lunch time cold meat and fish are served as first courses. Uncooked cold fish dishes are especially popular: smoked, salmon, eel, dressed crab, shrimps while hot fish dishes are served at dinner.

    Eggs are used in a larger variety of ways and more frequently than on the Continent.

Main  Courses

    The main dish at lunch probably poultry or fish. Fish pie is a unique English dish. It contains braised haddock or cod filled topped with layers of hard boiled eggs and mashed potatoes.

Bread

    Bread is not an accompaniment to every meal. It is most commonly eaten, with butter or anything else, for a snack, either as a sandwich or a toast. On the other hand, the British use a lot of flour for making pastry dishes (pies and cakes).

Meat

    The English had long been famous for their appetites and foreigners were astonished at the vast quantities of meat they ate.  The British climate produces some of the healthiest animals and tastiest meat in Europe. Ham, bacon, sausages, other products of pork are British staples today. The leg of the pig is known as ham.  A traditional turkey is eaten at Christmas, but bacon is eaten all year-round. Coupled with cabbage it makes up one of the British best-known dishes. Cooked ham is one of popular fillings for the sandwiches.

    While the pig has negative connotation in the vocabulary of most countries in Britain is often associated with positive things. To say someone is “on the pig’s back” is to acknowledge their good fortune or success.

    Dishes that require beef are extremely numerous in British cooking. Roast beef  is often served medium rare. More common preparations include fried beefsteaks, spiced beef, steak, onions, beef cooked with herbs, shepherd pie.

   Sheep have always been important to the British people and provides the essential ingredient for Irish stew. Mutton and lamb are always well cooked, as are pork and veal. Cold meats are not very popular. To many British people preserved meats are typically “Continental”.

   Chicken is widely eaten. Turkey is ignored for 11 months of the year, but once Christmas comes around, all is getting their bird and boasting how much it weighs. Duck, pheasant provide a tasty alternative to turkey at Christmas.

   A “fry-up” is a phrase used informally for several items fried together. The most common items are eggs, bacon, sausages, tomatoes, mushrooms, and even bread. The British eat a lot of fried food.

Eggs

   Eggs are the basic part of most people’s diet. They are either fried, soft boiled and eaten out of “an egg cup”, hard boiled (they can be put into sandwiches) or poarched (steamed). Eggs are used in a larger variety of ways and more frequently than on the Continent.

Fish

   With the advantage of rich source of seafood, British cooking developed a great variety of methods for cooking fish.

   While not a staple, the fish, shellfish and seafood are certainly specialities. Much of the fish available is farmed and the difference in taste between wild and farmed fish is substantial.

   Fish and chips is a favourite fish dish, fish fingers and fishcakes are also popular, especially with children.

   Trout is also common. Other fish available include mackerel, eel, plaice, haddock, cod, sole, herring, smelt.

   Kippers (smoke herrings) are widely used as starters. Some towns used to hold herring funerals once the fasting was over to celebrate the return to meat. Kippers were the fish most eaten during the lent period.

   Salmon, especially smoked, is one of the delicacies and has been the delight of gourmets for centuries.

 Cereals

   Cereals are vital to the diet. British mild climate produces wheat which is perfect for pastries and soda bread.

    Oats were probably used to make the first breads, a variation of these oat cakes are often used as snacks with fresh butter and jam. Maize is used to make yellow duck bread. Rye is used in bread making but not is very common.

Barley is responsible for two of British most popular drinks: whiskey and stout.

Potatoes (spuds)

    Farmers have grown potatoes since 1585 when it was brought to England by sir Walter Raleigh.

It is eaten in a variety of ways, almost at every meal. Most commonly, potatoes are boiled-the new variety in their jackets, while the old are peeled and then usually mashed with grated garlic, onion or milk.

   Chips are also popular and seen by some as a nice break from mashed potatoes. If you are in Britain in June, you can notice signs advertising “New Potatoes” all over the place.

Other vegetables

   Perhaps,   the second most common vegetable is cabbage. British cooks used to boil it so long that it tasted like pureed wood. One of the great culinary advances in the early 20th century was in the treatment of vegetables. These days they are not cooked at all.

   Depending on the season you can get excellent locally grown asparagus, beetroot, broccoli, broadbeans, cabbage,  Brussel sprout, carrots, cauliflower, courgetts, celery, cucumber, garlic, leek, lettuce, mushrooms, peas, pepper, spinach, tomatoes.

   About 10 percent of the British are vegetarians.

Dairy Products

   The British people are great milk lovers. Milk consumption per head is almost the highest in the world. But over the last 25 years many of them have changed from full fat to skimmed milk.

   The British know that there is no substitute for butter when making sandwiches, baking or making a sauce.

   England is famous for the hard cheese the names of which derive from rich dairy farming areas, such as Cheddar, Cheshire, Leicester, Derby.

2.6 Sauces

    In British cuisine you will not find the delicacy and fineness of French sauces but basic sauces will accompany most meal. Whereas a French sauce is an intrinsic part of the dish it accompanies, often made with the juices that result from its cooking, the English sauce is a thing apart.

   Whereas in France sauce is used to implement and reinforce the main flavour of the main element, in England the sauce is used to give a contrast: in taste, texture and sometimes temperature. English sauces are rather primitive.

    Almost every main dish has its accompanying sauce. To eat roost lamb without mint sauce or red currant jelly is unthinkable. Roast beef is invariably accompanied by horse radish, boiled mutton by onion sauce. Parsley sauce is served with boiled ham, egg sauce with boiled cod, bread sauce with grilled herrings, apple sauce with roast pork. Bread sauce is made white bread crumbs, butter and sometimes cream.

    The most popular sauce is gravy. Gravy is made from the juice that comes from meat as it cooks mixed with flour and water.

    Sweet sauces including hot jam sauces are steamed and baked puddings. Custard makes the perfect accompaniment for fruit puddings. This sweet yellow sauce is made with milk, sugar, eggs and flour.

Golden syrup makes an easy sauce for sponge pudding.

2.7 Puddings, cakes, pies

    British cuisine can boast numerous recipes of buns, rolls, pies, cakes, puddings and other sweet baked goodies. Britain is full of pastry shops, delicatessens, tea and coffee shops. Delicious food adds a little luxury people’s life.

    A cake can be large, needing to be cut or sliced, or small, for one person. Ginger bread is not bread but a ginger-flavoured cake. Bath buns, Chelsea buns and doughnuts are all made from bread dough.

   Meat pies are very popular, but there are vegetable pies too.

    Pudding is the most prominent produce of Britain’s kitchen. Pudding is a unique English dish since it does not exist in quite the same form in any other countries. Puddings can be baked, steamed and boiled. The original pudding was a mixture of various ingredients with a grain product or other binder such as butter, flour, cereal, eggs, and/or suet.

     In the dictionary you can find three different definitions of the word “pudding”.    “Pudding is a hot dish made of a mixture of flower, fat etc., with meat or vegetables inside (steak and kidney pudding, black pudding)”.

But according to another definition pudding is” a hot sweet dish, often like a cake, made from flour, fat and eggs with fruit, jam etc. in or on it: treacle pudding, bread and butter pudding.”

In other words pudding is “a sweet dish served at the end of a meal: What’ s for pudding?” So pudding can be another name for dessert. Its synonyms are afters, dessert, sweet.

    A pudding also can be “a hot dish like a pie with soft pastry made from flour, fat and eggs and usually filled with meat: a steak and kidney pudding.”

    What is a pudding or pud (“pud” is used informally)?

     Depending on its ingredients a pudding can be a main course or a its part or a dessert. Boiled pudding was a usual main course aboard ships in the Royal Navy in the 18th and 19th century. It was made of flour and suet.

   Puddings can be baked, boiled or steamed.

    Steamed pies consisting of a filling enclosed by suet pastry are also known as puddings.  They may be both sweet and savoury and include steak and kidney pudding. They are eaten hot or cold.

    There are three main kinds of puddings:

• -savoury puddings;
• sweet puddings;
• creamy puddings

Savoury puddings are eaten hot as a starter or a main course.  They are made of flour, meat, fat, cereals, potatoes. The original pudding was formed by mixing various ingredients with a grain product or other binder such as butter, flour, eggs, suet, resulting in a solid mass.

    The oldest type of pudding is one that is boiled in an intestine. Among surviving relatives of puddings in skin are the black pudding (bloodings), the haggis.

    The most celebrated of all ‘skin puddings’ is the haggis. It is made from a sheep’s or calf’s heart, lungs, liver and oatmeal and boiled in a sheep’s stomach. Haggis is traditionally eaten on Burn’s night.

In the early days the pudding mixture was put into a bowl, wrapped in a cloth and boiled.

    Black pudding is a sausage of boiled pig’s blood in a length of intestine, usually bound with cereal and fat usually bound with cereal and cubes of fat.   Some savoury puddings are hot dishes like pies and made from flour, fat and eggs and usually filled with meat, for example a steak and kidney pudding. Steak and kidney pudding (pie) is eaten hot. It is made of beef and pig’s kidney and braised in thick gravy and topped with browned pastry crust.

   When is a pudding not a pudding? Yorkshire pudding isn’t a pudding; it is a savory pastry case than can be filled with vegetables or served, full of gravy, with that other English staple, roast beef. Yorkshire pudding was cooked in the radiant heat below a roasting mutton and absorbed the gravy as the meat cooked. (Before the butter was put under the roast, it was cooked over the fire in a pan.) . Yorkshire pudding, also known as batter pudding, is an English dish made from batter consisting of eggs, flour, and milk. The dish is usually served with roast meat and gravy of the traditional British Sunday roast. It may also be served as a dessert.  It can be filled with vegetables.  Shepherd’s pie (cottage pie) is made of mashed potatoes, onions and meat mince.

Puddings are cooked either by simmering on the top of the stove in a saucepan or double boiler or by baking in an oven. Microwave ovens are also now often used.

   Sweet puddings or desserts are made of flour, milk, butter, sugar with fruit and berries.  I was astonished by the variety of sweet puddings:

• sponge puddings
• bread and butter puddings;
• plain puddings;
• summer puddings;
• rice puddings;
• semolina puddings;
• milk puddings;
• plain puddings;
• creamy puddings and etc.  

    There are hundreds of variations of sweet puddings in England, but each pudding has the same ingredients of milk, sugar (sometimes treacle), eggs, flour and butter and many involve fresh fruit, custard, cream and cakes. The dishes are simple and traditional, with recipes passed from generation to generation. The word pudding often means ‘dessert’, ‘sweet’ and ‘afters’.  A pudding may be any variety of cake pie, tart or trifle. In the dictionary you can read that trifle is a cold dessert made from cake and fruit soaked in wine and/or jelly. Most British puddings are rich and sweet (a “sweet” is another name for a pudding) with the recipes often going back hundreds of years. The quintessential English pudding incorporates fruits that are grown in England: apples, red currants and raspberries, bright red rhubarb, or gooseberries or dried fruit, spices and rum. Milk pudding is made of rice or other grains baked with milk and sugar. British housewives like to flavour puddings with chocolate, raisins, poppy, seeds, almond, prunes, date, whisky, rum or brandy. Sponge pudding is a hot dessert like a sponge cake that usually has jam or fruit on top.

   The most traditional home-made puddings are apple or rhubarb crumble, bread and butter pudding, spotted dick and trifle.

    Bread and butter puddings are hot sweet dishes consisting of slices of white dried bread baked in egg custard with raisins (sultans) and sugar. Seasonal fruits are added in summer puddings, that is a kind of bread and butter puddings. In recipes of puddings local seasonal ingredients are widely used.

    Paradise pudding is a variant of summer puddings. It is made from slices white bread and berries (raspberries, blueberries, redcurrants) and served with lightly whipped cream.

     Rice pudding is a hot dessert made of cooked rice, beaten eggs, milk and sugar and flavoured with vanilla, lemon or orange peels and nutmeg.

  Then there are fluffy puddings that usually have jam or fruit on the top.

   Sweet puddings are usually served with sweet sauces: hot jam sauces, golden syrup, and whipped cream.

   The names of some puds stick in the mind. “Spotted Dick,” a hefty steamed pudding with butter, eggs and dried fruit folded into a heavy pastry, has been a funny name for generations of schoolboys.  No one knows where the name came from, other than that currants traditionally gave the pudding a ‘spotted’ appearance. “A gooseberry fool” isn’t an idiot whose friends don’t want to have him around; it is a deliciously creamy summer pudding. And despite its French sounding name, crème brulee, the creamy dish with the burnt sugar topping, was actually created in Cambridge in the early 19th century.

   In the book “Harry Potter and Philosopher’s Stone” by JK Rowling you can read: “…a moment later the puddings appeared. Blocks of ice cream in every flavour you could think of, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate éclairs and jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, jelly, rice puddings…”

    Summer and bread puddings are made from stale bread and served with whipped cream. The more traditional and well-known home-made puddings are apple or rhubard crumble bread and butter pudding, spotted dick and trifle. Semolina pudding is similar to Russian traditional dessert Gurievskaya kasha.

    Plain cakes exist in many forms. In their recipes equal weights of flour, eggs, butter and sugar are used. They can be thin iced.  

 Creamy puddings are newer type of puddings, they consist of sugar, milk or cream, chocolate, jam and a thickening agent such as gelatin to create a sweet creamy dessert. Eggs, rice, chocolate or tapioca can be added too. These puddings are made either by simmering on top of the stove in a saucepan, double boiler or by baking in an oven, a microwave oven are also now used to avoid this problem and to reduce stirring.

   Creamy puddings are typically served chilled, but a few may be served warm. Instant puddings do not require boiling and can be prepared much quicker.

    An inescapable addition to any British pudding, especially the steamed ones, is custard; rich, golden and runny, it is poured hot over a steaming bowl of treacle pudding, apple crumble, plum duff or any other delicious pud hot from the oven. Another complication: Ask for a “custard” in a British bakery and you will be given a small pastry with a thick, creamy filling, which you would eat cold. Pudding custard is a flowing nectar made from egg yolk, milk, sugar and vanilla pods, and the thought of licking the bowl after your mum had made it fresh must linger in the top five of every Brit’s favourite childhood memories. The other name for custard is crème anglaise (English sauce).

     Golden syrup is served with sponge pudding.

The Christmas pudding is the highlight of the Christmas dinner, especially if you were served the portion with the lucky sixpenny piece in it. Copious quantities of currants, candied fruit, orange peel, lemon peel, eggs and beef suet bind the Christmas pudding together. Then go in the spices, cloves and cinnamon; brandy if you want it and a good slug of sherry. Initial cooking involves steaming for many hours, it depends on the size of the pudding (the period can be shortened by using a pressure cooker) or baking in an oven. To serve, the pudding is reheated. Many households have their own recipes for plum puddings (another name for Christmas pudding).

     But it isn’t just the wonderfully rich pudding that is important, it is important how it is served. You warm yet more brandy and then light it, pouring it over the hot Christmas pudding moments before it is carried to the table. If served when the light is low, the blue flames dance and sparkle around the traditional sprig of berried holly stuck into the top of the pudding.

    The forerunner of today’s Christmas pudding was plum porridge. It was made with raisins, currants, plums, bread crumbs and spices and eaten with a spoon. It is usually dark as a result of the dark treacle in most recipes, and long cooking time.

    The history of plum pudding goes back to medieval England with the Roman Catholic Church’s decree that the “pudding” should be made on the 25th Sunday after Trinity, that it be prepared with 13 ingredients to represent Christ and 12 apostles, and that every family member stir it in turn from east to west to honour the Magi and their supposed journey in that direction.

    The pudding‘s origin can be traced back to two sources. The meat was kept in a pastry case with dried fruit acting as preservative. The resulting large “mince pies” could be eaten at the festive season. The chief ancestor of the modern pudding was the pottage prepared from meat, vegetables with dried fruit, sugar and spices added.

    As techniques for meat preserving improved, the savory element of both the mince pie and the plum pottage diminished as the sweet content increased. The mince pie kept its name, though the pottage was referred to as plum pudding.

    Traditionally puddings were made on Sunday “next before Advent” that is 4-5 weeks before Christmas. The day became known as “stir-up Sunday”. Every member of the household stirs the pudding, while making a wish. It was common to include a small silver coin in the pudding mixture. The coin was believed to bring wealth in the coming year.

    Other token are also known to have been included, such as a very small wishbone to bring good luck, a silver thimble for thrift, or an anchor which symbolizes safe harbour.

     Christmas pudding have very good keeping properties and many families keep one back to be eaten later in the year, often at Easter.

    Copious quantities of currants, candied fruit, orange peel, lemon peel, eggs and beef suet bind the Christmas pudding together. Then go in spices, cloves and cinnamon, nuts, brandy and a good slug of cherry. Decorated with holly, doused in brandy, and flamed, the pudding is brought to the table and greeted with applause.

    It may take from 4 to 6 hours to make a true pudding.

    English cuisine has always been laughed at by its European neighbours as bland, greasy and overcooked. This may not be true, but one thing is for sure-not one of European cuisines can measure up to British Pudding. The variety is endless, and even French were forced to admit British superiority, when Misson de Valbourg, a French, said, after a visit to England in 1690,”Ah, what an excellent thing is an English pudding”.

2.8 Beverages

     The six most popular drinks in Britain, in order of priority, are tea, milk, beer, coffee, soda water and juice. Among strong drinks are beer, whiskey, gin, brandy, wine or cider.

    Tea occupies a special place in the life of Great Britain. The British are the world’s greatest tea drinkers and drink a quarter of all tea grown in the world.

They drink 5-6 cups of tea a day. Tea is drunk at meals and before meals, at different occasions during the day.

   The American humorous writer Leacock describes British tea-drinking tradition that if you are invited to an English home, at 5 o’clock in the morning you get a cup of tea. There are some occasions when you must not refuse a cup of tea, otherwise you are judged an exotic and barbarous bird without any hope of being able to take place in civilised society. You must not refuse any additional cups of tea under the following circumstances: if it is hot;  if it is cold; if you are tired; if you are nervous; before you go out; if you are out; if you have returned home; if you feel like it; if you don’t feel like it; if you had not tea for some time; if you have just have had d cup of tea.

     The Victorian Prime Minister Gladston remarked:”If you are cold, tea will warm you, if you are heated, it will cool you, if you are depressed, it will cheer you, if you are excited it will calm you”.

     Coffee is not as popular as tea, some foreigners thinks that coffee in England is terrible. But Irish coffee is terrible. But Irish coffee is popular. It is made of strong coffee, whiskey, sugar and whipped cream. Nowadays the consumption of coffee is increasing.

    The British are great milk lovers. Milk consumption per head is almost the highest in the world. It is over 130 litres a year. Some British prefer skimmed milk instead of full fat milk. Figures for skimmed milk went up from zero before 1980 to 12 percent at the beginning of the 1990-s.

2.9 British and Russian Cooking Traditions

  It is interesting to compare British and Russian cuisine. Do they have anything in common?

  Although, they are quite different in many ways, Russian cuisine can also boast a rich choice of different kinds of  pies, cookies and cakes. Meat, fish, vegetable and fruit pies (pirozhky) have always been popular in our country. Various fruit and berries (strawberries, gooseberries, red whortleberries, black and red currants, cherries, apples, dried and fresh apricots) are used for pie fillings. Such pies are considered to be classic Russian delicacies.

    Russian cuisine like English one is rich in meat and fish dishes. Russians as well as English are fond of meat and sausages. Various aspics of meat and fish are very popular. Siberian cuisine has such dishes as stroganina (frozen fish) and pelmeni (meat filled dumplings).

   Some Russian eating habits are close to English ones. It is difficult to imagine Russian tea drinking without jam. Drinking tea with honey is as popular in Russia as in Britain. Tea is popular in both countries, but Russian people prefer it without milk.

   Potatoes and cabbage are the most common vegetables both in Russia and in England. Russian cuisine has a great variety of dishes made of potatoes.

   Both Russian and British housewives often cook various kinds of cereals.

   The pecularity of Russian cuisine is a large number of dishes cooked and served only at church feasts and secular festivals. English cuisine also has a lot of specialities for holiday dinner. A Russian dessert Gurievskaya kasha (now nearly forgotten) is similar to English semolina pudding. Its main ingredients are semolina, cream, raisins, nuts and spices. But in Russia it is not customary to serve sweet sauces with cakes.

    In many ways Russian and English cooking traditions are very different. Russian people enjoy various kinds of soup (meat soup, chicken soup, fish soup, cabbage soup, mushroom soup, cabbage soup, etc.) which are served as a main course. Soups in Russia are usually thin.

    Distinguishing feature of the Russian cooking style is wide using of cottage cheese and sour cream. Foreigners rarely understand why Russian people love these dairy products. Sour cream is used as a dressing for numerous vegetable salads. Sour cream is often added to vegetable and mushroom soups to make them tastier. In every Russian household open cottage cheese pies (vatrushka) are often eaten with tea or coffee. These products are not used in Britain so often.

3. Conclusion

    Different traditional British dishes, ways of their cooking and British eating habits have been studied and the following conclusion has been drawn.

    British cuisine is not very popular in other countries. But it would be incorrect to say that all British food is not tasty or unhealthy. Traditional British dishes are also a part of British cuisine. One of the British writers described British cuisine as ”clean, tasty English cooking, the fruits of a thousand years of civilization”.

    A main feature of British food is the high quality of the ingredients and the simplicity of the way they are cooked.

   The British has always been blessed with a wealth of meat, dairy products and fish. Their quality has been recognized by other countries. The British believe that it is impossible to get roast beef or mutton like English beef or mutton. British have always liked meat dishes, from roast beef to popular favourites such as bangers and mash, shepherd pie, steak and kidney pudding, sausages. Scottish haggis is always served at Burn’s Night supper.

  It was discovered that sauces traditionally accompany meat dishes. For example, lamb is eaten with mint sauce, horseradish sauce is for beef, apple sauce is for pork and cranberry sauce is for turkey.

    With the advantage of rich source of seafood, British cuisine has developed great variety of methods for cooking fish. Fish and chip, fish fingers and fish cakes are popular dishes.

Potatoes are one of the most common vegetables, served as chips, roasted, mashed potatoes or baked in their skins.

    British are great lovers of milk and other dairy products. England is famous for its hard cheeses.

   A characteristic feature of  the  British table is a variety of baked desserts made of pastry: dusty cones seed, creamy, chocolate and fruit (luncheon) cakes, pies with rhubarb, peas, apple, blackberry fillings, gingerbread, breadsticks, biscuits, and other baked goodies.

   Puddings of all kinds are typical British dishes. The word itself can describe both savoury and sweet dishes. It often means dessert in general. Puddings can be baked, boiled or steamed.  They can be eaten both hot and cold. The variety of puddings is astonished.

   Among sweet puddings are bread and butter puddings, rice and semolina puddings, summer and creamy puddings. Other desserts are fruit based ones such as apple pie or gooseberry fool (creamy summer pudding). The number of pudding recipes is impressive.

   In recent years eating habits of British people has changed. Traditional British food no longer forms a man part of most people diet.

   Nevertheless many traditional dishes has survived, especially those associated with special occasions. Christmas food traditionally involves plum pudding, which do not contain any plums, sweet mince pies, which do not contain any meat, ginger bread animals, a turkey. Ginger bread is not bread but a ginger flavoured cake.

Some foods are traditionally prepared for a particular festival or celebration. Pancakes are often served (as a sweet dish) on Shrove Tuesday, hot cross buns are eaten on Good Friday.

   There are many regional dishes, usually named after a county such as Yorkshire pudding or Cornish pasties.

  Tea drinking is usually accompanied by eating various sandwiches, pies, teacakes, buns, scones. Bread and butter with jam, honey, meat or fish paste or other spread is usual for tea drinking.

   Nowadays British food is influenced by European and Asian cuisines. British   are extremely open to the cuisines of other countries. In recent years there has been an increase in the consumption of convenience and unhealthy junk foods. Convenient food is already cooked. It should be heated up in the microwave before eating. But the interest in healthy, natural or “organic” food is increasing.

    In my opinion, traditional English dishes are delicious and often healthy. They deserve to hold their place on the Russian diet of today. In Russia there are all necessary ingredients for their cooking. They can make our food tastier and more various. I strongly recommend you to include some of traditional British dishes in your menu. I’d like to give you recipes of three British dishes. I think they are worth cooking and eating (аppendicies 2-4)

Appendix 1Cookery Survey

       Appendix 2                                   ПАСТУШЕСКИЙ  ПИРОГ

       Ингредиенты (на одну порцию):

          120г говядины

          150г картофеля

          30г лука

          1/4  яйца

          10г сливочного масла

          морковь, петрушка, сельдерей, помидоры

          перец горошком, мускатный орех

           Нежирную говядину припустить в таком количестве воды или бульона,           сваренного из костей, чтобы оставшийся после припускания бульон можно было полностью использовать при приготовлении соуса к данному блюду.

    В бульон при припускании мяса  добавить  морковь, петрушку, сельдерей, лук, черный перец горошком.

    Сваренное мясо пропустить через мясорубку.

    Сварить картофель и пропустит его через мясорубку, добавить сырые яичные  желтки. После этого ввести взбитые яичные белки и мускатный орех. Выложить половину картофельного пюре на смазанный маслом и посыпанный сухарями противень, на картофель выложить фарш и накрыть его второй половиной картофельного пюре. Смазать поверхность  картофельного пюре сливочным маслом .

       Запекать в хорошо нагретой духовке в течение 25-35 минут.

       В бульон, в котором припускалось мясо,  добавить жареный лук и по желанию разрезанные на мелкие кусочки помидоры (без кожи и семян). Можно также добавить мелко нарубленные и поджаренные с маслом шампиньоны в количестве 75-100г на 1 л соуса и кипятить соус в течение 10 минут.

       Пудинг разрезать, положить на тарелку, полить соусом и посыпать зеленью.

APPENDIX 3

 РАЙСКИЙ ПУДИНГ

Ингредиенты:

680 г смеси ягод, включая смородину

2 ст. ложки сахарной пудры

8-10 толстых кусков сухого белого хлеба без корки

450 мл молока

 Для дополнительного гарнира, который готовится на второй день необходимо 340 г ягод

Этот пудинг является вариантом классического летнего пудинга.

Начните приготовление пудинга за день до подачи на стол. Положите сахар на толстую сковороду, добавьте 4 ст. ложки воды и медленно нагревайте сахар, пока он не растворится.  

Затем нагревайте в миске черную смородину 2 минуты. Добавьте красную смородину и ежевику и нагревайте ягоды еще 2 минуты. Затем вылейте кипящее содержимое сковороды в миску с ягодами. Клубника не является идеальной, так как она слишком водянистая. Если она используется, то ее лучше добавлять сырой, после того как остальные ягоды уже охладились. (Лучшей комбинацией ягод является смесь малины, ежевики, клубники, черной и красной смородины. Можно использовать чернику.)

Когда ягоды уже охладились до комнатной температуры, уложите их слоем на дно миски для пудинга. Нарежьте белый хлеб кусочками, затем погрузите каждый кусок в молоко и осторожно отожмите молоко. Положите слой белого хлеба на ягоды. Поочередно выкладывайте ягоды и хлеб слоями, пока миска не заполнится. Закончите слоем хлеба, который должен полностью закрыть ягоды. Накройте фольгой, а затем небольшой тарелкой и положите сверху груз весом около 700г. Поставьте пудинг на ночь в холодильник. На следующий день, если вы добавляете ягоды, приготовьте их как в предыдущий день и оставьте охлаждаться. Незадолго до подачи на стол выложите пудинг, перевернув его, на мелкое блюдо. Рядом уложите ложкой дополнительные ягоды. Положите сверху слой сбитых сливок или подайте густые сливки отдельно.

Appendix 4            Английский рождественский торт

      Ингредиенты:

изюм                                                  140 г

сушеные финики                               6 штук

бренди                                                ½ стакана

сливочное масло                                60г

сахар                                                   120 г

яйца                                                     3 штуки

желтки                                                2

соль                                                     1 ч. ложка

мука                                                     560 г

измельченная кожура апельсина      30 г

измельченная кожура  1 лимона

ваниль                                                 1 ч. ложка

дрожжи:

свежие                                                  20 г

сухие                                                    14 г

Очистите и крупно нарежьте финики. Поместите изюм, финики и бренди в миску и вымачивайте их по крайней мере 2 часа, а лучше целую ночь. Смочите дрожжи теплой водой и размешайте до однородной массы. Оставьте на  10 минут.

В большой миске соедините размягченное масло, сахарный песок, яйца, желтки и соль. Влейте дрожжевую смесь и перемешайте все до однородной массы. Добавьте кожуру лимона и ваниль. Введите половину муки. Добавьте остальную муку и вымешивайте тесто, пока оно не будет отставать от краев миски. Выложите тесто на посыпанную мукой поверхность и месите 10 минут. Накройте тесто полотенцем и оставьте подниматься на 10 минут.

Сформируйте из теста круг. Осушите изюм и финики и посыпьте их мукой. Положите их вместе с измельченной апельсиновой кожурой сверху на тесто и вдавите пальцами в тесто. Вымешивайте тесто до однородной массы. Положите тесто в смазанную жиром форму и оставьте  приблизительно на 2 часа подниматься, пока оно не увеличится в объеме в 2 раза.

Разогрейте духовку до 200 градусов. Выложите тесто на слегка посыпанную мукой поверхность  и быстро вымесите. Смажьте жиром форму для выпечки и положите туда тесто. Смажьте тесто сливочным маслом и оставьте подниматься приблизительно на полтора  часа. Снова смажьте тесто сливочным маслом  и выпекайте около 10 минут.

Уменьшите температуру до 170-180 градусов и продолжайте печь еще 20 минут. Перед подачей на стол охладите.