Traditional British Dishes

This page contains some of England's most popular traditional dishes.

British food has traditionally been based on pork, chicken and fish and generally served with potatoes and other vegetables.
 The most common and typical foods eaten in Britain include the sandwich, fish and chips and pies.
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You may already have several ideas about typical British food, but the most popular dish in England at the moment is… fast food and curry!  

Main meal dishes

Yorkshire Pudding

This dish is not usually eaten as a dessert like other puddings but instead as part of the main course or at a starter.

Yorkshire pudding, made from flour, eggs and milk, is a sort of batter baked in the oven and usually moistened with gravy.

The traditional way to eat a Yorkshire pudding is to have a large, flat one filled with gravy and vegetables as a starter of the meal. Then when the meal is over, any unused puddings should be served with jam or ice-cream as a dessert.

Toad-in-the-Hole
Similar to Yorkshire Pudding but with sausages placed in the batter before cooking.

Roast Meats

Typical meats for roasting are joints of beef, pork, lamb or a whole chicken. More rarely duck, goose, gammon, turkey or game are eaten.

Roast Gammon

Fish and chips

Fish (cod, haddock, huss, plaice) deep fried in flour batter with chips (fried potatoes) dressed in malt vinegar.
This is England's traditional take-away food or as US would say "to go". Fish and chips are not normally home cooked but bought at a fish and chip shop ("chippie" ) to eat on premises or as a "take away".

Afternoon tea and High tea

AFTERNOON TEA 

(The traditional 4 o'clock tea)
This is a small meal, not a drink. Traditionally it consists of tea (or coffee) served with either of the following:

Freshly baked scones served with cream and jam (Known as a cream tea)
Afternoon tea sandwiches - thinly sliced cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off.

Afternoon Tea today

Afternoon tea is not common these days because most adults go out to work. However, you can still have Afternoon tea at the many tea rooms around England.

Afternoon tea became popular about one hundred and fifty years ago, when rich ladies invited their friends to their houses for an afternoon cup of tea. They started offering their visitors sandwiches and cakes too. Soon everyone was enjoying.

HIGH TEA 

(The traditional 6 o'clock tea)
The British working population did not have Afternoon Tea. They had a meal about midday, and a meal after work, between five and seven o'clock. This meal was called 'high tea' or just 'tea'.

(Today, most people refer to the evening meal as dinner or supper.)
Traditionally eaten early evening, High tea was a substantial meal that combined delicious sweet foods, such as scones, cakes, buns or tea breads, with tempting savouries, such as cheese on toast, toasted crumpets, cold meats and pickles or poached eggs on toast. This meal is now often replaced with a supper due to people eating their main meal in the evenings rather than at midday

Tradicional desserts

 The desserts are simple and traditional, with recipes passed on from generation to generation.

Puddings

Spotted Dick
(Also called Spotted Dog)
Spotted dick is a steamed suet pudding containing dried fruit (usually currants), commonly served with either custard or butter and brown sugar.


Apple Crumble
Often served with thick cream, ice cream or custard.

Cakes

The Victoria Sponge

Parkin
A spicey cake combining oatmeal and ginger. Traditionally enjoyed around Guy Fawkes Night (November 5)

Lardy Cake

 Cupcakes