British Food: An Extraordinary Thousand Years of HistoryColumbia University Press, 2003 - 400 pages Until the middle of the nineteenth century, English cuisine was known throughout Europe as extraordinarily stylish, tasteful, and contemporary, designed to satisfy sophisticated palates. So, as Colin Spencer asks, why did British food "decline so direly that it became a world-wide joke, and how is it now climbing back into eminence?" This delectable volume traces the rich variety of foods that are inescapably British--and the thousand years of history behind them. Colin Spencer's masterful and witty account of Britain's culinary heritage explores what has influenced and changed eating in Britain--from the Black Death, the Enclosures, the Reformation, the Age of Exploration, the Industrial Revolution, and the rise of capitalism to present-day threats posed by globalization, including factory farming, corporate control of food supplies, and the pervasiveness of prepackaged and fast foods. He situates the beginning of the decline in British cuisine in the Victorian age, when various social, historical, and economic factors--an emphasis on appearances, a worship of French cuisine, the rise of Nonconformism, which saw any pleasure as a sin, the alienation from rural life found in burgeoning towns, the rise and affluence of the new bourgeoisie, and much else--created a fear that simple cooking was vulgar. The Victorians also harbored suspicions that raw foods were harmful, encouraged by the publication of a key cookbook of the period, Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management. However, twenty-first century British cooking is experiencing a glorious resurgence, fueled by television gurus and innovative restaurants with firm roots in the British tradition. This new interest in and respect for good food is showing the whole world, as Spencer puts it, "that the old horror stories about British food are no longer true." |
Contents
Prologue The Land | 11 |
AngloSaxon Gastronomy | 23 |
Norman Gourmets 11001300 | 36 |
Anarchy and Haute Cuisine 13001500 | 69 |
Tudor Wealth and Domesticity | 100 |
A Divided Century | 134 |
Other Island Appetites | 169 |
Glories of the Country Estate | 208 |
The Global Village | 328 |
Wild Food Plants of the British Isles | 344 |
Traditional British Cooking | 352 |
Notes | 356 |
Glossary | 372 |
Glossary of Conversions | 380 |
381 | |
Select Bibliography | 382 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
almond milk almonds anchovies bacon baked barley beans became beef Beeton began biscuits Black Death blancmange boiled bread breakfast Britain British cuisine broth butter cabbage cakes cattle century cheese chicken classes cloves coffee cold colour cookery books cows cream cuisine diet dinner dishes dried drink eaten egg yolks England English English cuisine farming feast fish flavoured flour French fresh fried fruit garden garlic ginger Hannah Glasse herbs household ingredients jelly King kitchen labourers land leeks lemon London meal meat medieval milk mixed mustard mutton Norman nutmeg onions op.cit oven oysters parsley Parson Woodforde pastry peas peasant pepper Pepys pickled pies pigs poached poor pork potatoes pottage pudding rabbits recipes rich roasted salad salmon salt sauce servants served sliced soup spices stewed stuffed sugar sweet tarts taste throughout veal vegetables venison verjuice vinegar wheat wild wine