Why Britain Once Rose to be the Greatest Empire the World Has Seen

[Sukerkin]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/0/20979973

A lovely little thumbnail of the why's and wherefores of the Industrial Revolution.

 

[billc]

It wasn't because of their cooking...

 

[Dirty Dog]

Nonsense. I love English cooking. Yorkshire pudding has been a favorite of mine forever. When we started dating, Sue didn't think she liked mushrooms. When I took her to England, she learned differently. And who doesn't love fish & chips (although I'm one who wishes they hadn't banned wrapping it in newsprint)?
OK, so black pudding I can do without...

 

[Sukerkin]

The myth about British cooking is more or less just that, a myth, Bill. It's funny and we'll laugh too but it's not true.

A few centuries back it was something spread by the French to make themselves feel a little better whilst we kicked their arses around the globe (other than America which was not rich enough to worry about (talk about major league mistakes there )). Then the Americans themselves joined in when they arrived late for two world wars and found that the food in a country that had been knocked to it's knees for a few years did not match their culinary needs (oh the shame of it).

You see we had Yeoman food, from strip farm to Lords table all that changed was the amount of meat. We had Saxon and Roman roots before the Norman interlopers so there was always a lot of 'dead critter' in our diet, as much as we could get. We have pies and roasts as our staple rather than effete girly-breads and 'delicacies' because we had longbowmen to feed rather than ... well, I shall not insult the entire French nobility just to make a point about food .

A British pork pie not made with rationing in effect is a thing of beauty and our bacon, sausage, lamb, beef ... well you get the picture .

 

[Sukerkin]

I am so with you on the newspaper wrapping for fish and chips DD. That and making chip shops use vegetable oil rather than lard. I know that the ink was poisonous and the lard filled our arteries but it tasted so good! :lol:

 

[Dirty Dog]

And just exactly how much fish & chips would you have to eat in order to get anything approaching a toxic dose of newsprint? :rofl:

You're in far more danger from the lard, and even that can be offset by exercise and not existing on a diet of 100% fish & chips...

 

[Sukerkin]

You can still find good chippies even now, it just takes a bit of searching. We have one here in our home town, tucked up a back street and always busy because they are the best around . You can tell this because the local police always go there for their 'on-duty' snappin' .

Translation Note: "Snappin'" = satisfying food whilst at work.

 

[Steve]

British cooking: brown, fried or both.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[Sukerkin]

On the Black Pudding front, aye, it is not for me. But my wife loves it so we have to corral it whenever there is any in the fridge so that it does not come near anything I want to eat :lol:.

 

[celtic_crippler]

Interesting how this thread degenerated into one concerning British cuisine.

 

[Dirty Dog]

An army travels on its stomach, and not much advancement can be made by people who are starving.

 

[aedrasteia]

The myth about British cooking is more or less just that, a myth, Bill. It's funny and we'll laugh too but it's not true. A British pork pie not made with rationing in effect is a thing of beauty and our bacon, sausage, lamb, beef ... well you get the picture .

Hear hear. Pay no attention to the ignorant dolts above.

Consider: salmon, every other kind of fish, oysters, Glorious Cheeses, lamb, mutton, steak, chops, asparagus, potatoes, bread (40 gazillion kinds), tarts (of all kinds) savories, Summer Pudding!!! more pudding!! saddle of venison, grouse, game, rabbit, trout, porridge with whiskey, more whiskey, BEER, ALE, PORTER, WHISKEY, eels, did I mention oysters?, BEEF, pie, pie made of beef... or pork... or lamb .. or apples, spring peas, sorrell, ONION PIE, more oysters, LEEKS, apples, 300 freaking varieties of apples, Apples and cheddar, STILTON, 40 gazillion kinds of mushrooms... Cockles, mussells, scallops, toad-in-the-hole, BANGERS and mash, sausages, kippers, partridge pie, LARD, best bacon in the known Universe, chestnuts, squab pie, wood pigeon pie, roast GOOSE with onions and leeks, Irish brown bread, lemon curd tarts..... colcannon, cabbages, more leeks, endless mushrooms, morrells, jersey cow's milk, double cream, clotted cream on STRAWBERRIES, raspberries, more cream, LEEK PIE...
sorry, must stop now.

No great food in the British Isles??? Are you people barking, bleeping mad???

Jane Grigson: English Food;

• English Food (London: Macmillan, 1974; with illustrations by Gillian Zeiner; an anthology of English and Welsh recipes of all periods chosen by Jane Grigson, for which she was voted Cookery Writer of the Year.
• The Mushroom Feast: A Celebration of All Edible Fungi With Over 250 Recipes (1975)[SUP][10][/SUP]
• Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book (1978) (for which she received the Glenfiddich Writer of the Year Award)[SUP][11][/SUP]

Adrian Bailey, Tamasin Day-Lewis, Alan Davidson, Clarissa Dickson-Wright, Jennifer Paterson, Nigella Lawson,
Arabella Boxer, more, Simon Hopkinson ... too many more

One of the best writing today: Nigel Slater (a champion of British foods of all kinds)

And the finest prose writer on food in the 20th century: ELIZABETH DAVID (English Bread and Yeast Cookery).

and British food wonderfully expanded by foods and sources from all the commonwealth.

No great food in Great Britain?
please.

All y'all who say thus speak from profound ignorance.
(she frowns and goes off to make a lovely round of Irish soda bread and some tea)

Albion ever.

 

[aedrasteia]

It wasn't because of their cooking...

BillC. You speak from profound ignorance on this matter. please don't.

 

[celtic_crippler]

"The sun never sets on the British Empire"...isn't that how the saying used to go?

I'm sure many thought it would last forever, just as many Americans feel invincible and impervious to the lessons of history today. Who do you think will be at the helm of the next "big empire"?

 

[Sukerkin]

Many thanks to Aedrasteia for her staunch support of our culinary heritage :rei:. It is good to read such enthusiasm; it lifts the spirits for food is one of those things that links all countries and cultures.

 

[Sukerkin]

A good question from CC above. The common assumption is that China will be at the helm of the next 'Empire', tho' it is likely to be more of an economic hegemony than anything resembling a military one.

 

[Big Don]

Britain rose to become the greatest empire the world has ever seen, simply by kicking *** and taking the names of those whose asses still needed kicking and kicking their asses later.

 

[Tez3]

Britain rose to become the greatest empire the world has ever seen, simply by kicking *** and taking the names of those whose asses still needed kicking and kicking their asses later.

Ah but Victor, we also bought and even paid cash for many territories, we also settled some where there hadn't been anyone before ie The Falklands.

 

[Sukerkin]

:chuckles: Simpler times.

:raises his glass in salute to when motivations were simpler {tho' perhaps not as noble as we would like on occasion}:

 

[Steve]

Interesting how this thread degenerated into one concerning British cuisine.

Interesting in what way?

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2