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English Cuisine
English cuisine is shaped by the country's temperate climate, its island geography and its history. The latter includes interactions with other European countries, and the importing of ingredients and ideas from places such as North America, China and India during the time of the British Empire and as a result of post-war immigration.

As a result, traditional foods with ancient origins, such as bread and cheese, roasted and stewed meats, meat and game pies, and freshwater and saltwater fish, are now matched in popularity by potatoes, tomatoes and chillies from the Americas, spices and curries from India and Bangladesh, and stir-fries based on Chinese and Thai cooking. French cuisine and Italian cuisine, once considered alien, are also now admired and copied. Britain was also quick to adopt the innovation of fast food from the United States, and continues to absorb culinary ideas from all over the world.

These trends are exemplified by dishes such as spaghetti bolognese which has been a common family meal in Britain since at least the 1960s. More recently there has been a huge growth in the popularity of dishes influenced by the Indian Sub-Continent (a throwback to the times of British influence in the region), though modified to suit British tastes. The British curry, essentially a holdover from the days of the British Raj (and subsequently embellished by immigrants), may be hotter and spicier than the traditional North Indian variety.

The Sunday roast
This is, perhaps the most common feature of English cooking. The Sunday dinner traditionally includes roast potatoes accompanying a roasted joint of meat such as roast beef, lamb , or a roast chicken and assorted vegetables, themselves generally roasted or boiled and served with a gravy. Yorkshire pudding and gravy is now often served as an accompaniment to the main course, although it was originally served first as a "filler".

An elaborate version of roast dinner is eaten at Christmas, with almost every detail rigidly specified by tradition. Since its wide-spread availability after World War II the most popular Christmas roast is turkey, superseding the goose of Dickens's time. Game meats such as venison which were traditionally the domain of higher classes are occasionally also eaten by those wishing to experiment with a wider choice of foods, due to their promotion by Celebrity Chefs, such as Antony Worrall Thompson, although it is not usually eaten regularly in the average household.

Fish and Chips
Notably, England is famous for its fish and chips and has a huge number of restaurants and take-away shops that cater to it. It is possibly the most popular and identifiable English dish, and is traditionally served with a side order of mushy peas with salt and vinegar as condiments. Foods such as Scampi, a deep fried breaded prawn dish, are also on offered as well as fishcakes or a number of other combinations.

The advent of take-away foods during the industrial revolution led to foods such as fish and chips, mushy peas, and steak and kidney pie with mashed potato (pie and mash). These were the staples of the UK take-away business, and indeed of English diets however, like many national dishes, quality can vary drastically from the commercial or mass produced product to an authentic or homemade variety using more discerning ingredients.

Indian, Kebab and other
Ethnic influences, particularly those of Indian and Chinese, have given rise to the establishment and availability of ethnic take-away foods. From the 1980s onwards, a new variant on curry, the balti, began to become popular in the West Midlands, and by the mid 1990s was commonplace in Indian restaurants and reasurants over the country. Kebab houses, pizza restaurants and American-style fried chicken restaurants aiming at late night snacking have also become popular in urban areas.

Full English Breakfast
The full English breakfast (also known as "cooked breakfast" or "fried breakfast") also remains a culinary classic. Its contents vary, but it normally consists of a combination of bacon, grilled tomatoes, fried bread, black pudding, baked beans, fried mushrooms, sausages, eggs (fried, scrambled or boiled) and other variations on these ingredients and others. Hash browns are sometimes added, though this is not considered traditional. In general, the domestic breakfast is less elaborate, and most "full english" breakfasts are bought in cafes since having being replaced by cereals. A young child's breakfast might include rather yummy "soldiers", finger-shaped pieces of bread to be dipped in the yolk of a lightly boiled egg.

English Sausages or Bangers
English sausages or Bangers are distinctive in that they are usually made from fresh meats and rarely smoked, dried, or strongly flavoured. Following the Post World War II period, sausages tended to contain low-quality meat, fat, and rusk.

However, there has been a backlash in recent years, with most butchers and supermarkets now selling premium varieties. Pork and beef are by far the most common bases, although gourmet varieties may contain venison, wild boar, etc. There are particulaly famous regional varieties, such as the herbal Lincolnshire, and the long, curled Cumberland with many butchers offering their own individual recipes and variations often handed down through generations, but are generally not made from cured meats such as Italian selections or available in such a variety as found in Germany.

Most larger supermarkets in England will stock at least a dozen types of English sausage: not only Cumberland and Lincolnshire but often varieties such as Pork and Apple; Pork and Herb; Beef and Stilton; Pork and Mozarella; Sundried Tomatoes and so forth.

There are estimated to be around 400 sausage varieties in the United Kingdom. Sausages form the basis of dishes such as toad in the hole where they are combined with a batter similar to a yorkshire pudding and baked in the oven, this can be served with an onion gravy made by frying sliced onions for anywhere over an hour on a low heat then mixed with a stock, wine or ale then reduced to form a sauce or gravy used in Bangers and Mash. A variant of the sausage is the black pudding, strongly associated with Lancashire similar to the French boudin noir or the Spanish Morcilla. It is made from pig's blood (eeek), in line with the adage that "you can eat every part of a pig except its squeal". Pig's trotters, tripe and brawn are also traditional fare in the North.

Pies
Pies have long been a mainstay of English cooking. Meat pies are generally enclosed with fillings such as chicken and mushroom or steak and kidney (originally steak and oyster). Pork pies are almost always eaten cold, with the Melton Mowbray pork pie being the archetype. Open pies or flans are generally served for desert with fillings of seasonal fruit. Quiches and savoury flans are eaten, but not considered indigenous.

The Cornish pasty is a very much-loved regional dish, constructed from pastry is folded into a semi-circular purse, like a calzone. Another kind of pie is topped with mashed potato - for instance, shepherd's pie, with lamb, cottage pie, with beef, or fisherman's pie. As usual, there is a vast difference in quality between mass produced and hand-made versions. Good quality pies are obtainable from some pubs, traditional pie and mash shops, or specialist bakeries.

England can claim to have given the world the word "sandwich", although the eponymous Earl was not the first to add a filling to bread. Fillings such as pickled relishes (Branstons Pickle) and Gentleman's Relish could also be considered distinctively British.

Pickles, Salting and Smoking
Northern European countries generally have a tradition of salting, smoking, pickling and otherwise preserving foods. Britons make kippers, ham, bacon and a wide variety of pickled vegetables. Scottish smoked fish - salmon and Arbroath smokies - are particularly prized. Smoked cheese is uncommon. Meats other than pork are generally not cured. Bacon sandwiches, often referred to as "bacon sarnies" or "bacon butties", at any time of the day or night.

Pickles and preserves are given a twist by the influence of the British Empire. Thus, the repertoire includes chutney as well as Branston or "brown" pickle, piccalilli, pickled onions and gherkins. The Asian influence is also present in condiments such as tomato sauce (originally ketjap), worcester sauce and "brown" sauce (such as HP). Because Britain is a beer-drinking nation, malt vinegar is commonly used. English mustard, associated with Colman's of Norwich, is strongly-flavoured and bright yellow.

Pickles often accompany a selection of sliced, cold cooked meats, or "cold collation". This dish can claim to have some international influence, since it is known in French as an "assiette Anglaise".

Tea Time
It is believed by some that the English "drop everything" for a teatime meal in the mid-afternoon. This is no longer the case in the workplace, and is rarer in the home. A formal teatime meal is now often an accompaniment to tourism, particularly in Devon and neighbouring counties, where comestibles may include scones with jam and butter or clotted cream. There are also butterfly cakes, simple small sponge cakes which can be iced or eaten plain. Nationwide, assorted biscuits and sandwiches are eaten. Generally, however, the teatime meal has been replaced by snacking, or simply ignored.

Tea itself, usually served with milk, is consumed throughout the day and is sometimes drunk with meals. In recent years herbal teas and speciality teas have also become popular. Coffee is perhaps a little less common than in continental Europe, but is still drunk by many in both its instant and percolated forms, often with milk (but rarely with cream). Italian coffee preparations such as espresso and cappuccino and modern American variants such as the Frappuccino are increasingly popular, but generally purchased in restaurants or from specialist coffee shops rather than made in the home. Sugar is often added to individual cups of tea or coffee, though never to the pot.

Milk and Cheese
For much of the 20th century Britain had a system whereby milk was delivered to the doorstep in reusable glass bottles in the mornings, usually by special vehicles called "milk floats". This service continues in some areas, though it has increasingly been replaced by supermarket shopping. Many Britons consider their milk superior to the heat-treated variety found in some other countries.

Cheese is generally hard, and made from cows' milk. Cheddar cheese, which is considered not to made anywhere but Cheddar, is by far the most common type, with many variations. Tangy Cheshire, salty Caerphilly, Sage Derby, Red Leicester, creamy Double Gloucester and sweet Wensleydale are some traditional regional varieties. Cheddar and the rich, blue-veined Stilton have both been called the king of English cheeses. Cornish Yarg is a successful modern variety. The name 'Cheddar cheese' has become widely used internationally, and does not currently have a protected designation of origin (PDO).

However, the European Union recognises West Country Farmhouse Cheddar as a PDO. To meet this standard the cheese must be made in the traditional manner using local ingredients in one of the four designated counties of South West England: Somerset, Devon, Dorset, or Cornwall.Sheep and goat cheeses are made chiefly by craft producers. Continental cheeses such as French Brie are sometimes also manufactured.

Wine can be served with meals, though for semi-formal and informal meals bitter (beer), lager or cider may also be drunk.

Sweets
Sweets consist of many original home-made desserts such as rhubarb crumble, bread and butter pudding, trifle and spotted dick. The traditional accompaniment is custard, known as creme anglaise (English sauce or English Cream) to the French. The dishes are simple and traditional, with recipes passed on from generation to generation. There is also a dried fruit based Christmas pudding, and the almond flavoured bakewell tart.

Another formal British culinary tradition rarely observed today is the consumption of a savoury course, such as Welsh rarebit, toward the conclusion of a meal. This now though may be eaten as a snack or a light lunch or supper. Most main meals today end with a sweet dessert, although cheese and biscuits may be consumed as an alternative or as an addition. In Yorkshire, fruit cake is often served with Wensleydale cheese. Coffee can sometimes be a culminatory drink.

Some English Dishes

• Bubble and squeak - Bubble and squeak (sometimes just called bubble) is a traditional English dish made with the shallow-fried leftover vegetables from a roast dinner. The chief ingredients are potato and cabbage, but carrots, peas, brussels sprouts, and other vegetables can be added.
• Cornish pasty - is a type of pie, commonly associated with Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is a baked savoury pastry case traditionally filled with diced meat, sliced potato and onion.
• Cottage pie - Cottage pie, also known as shepherd's pie, is a traditional English dish made with minced (ground) meat covered with mashed potato. The meat is typically beef or lamb left over from a Sunday roast. The term "shepherd's pie" tends to be used when the meat is lamb.
• Lancashire hotpot - Lancashire hotpot is a culinary dish consisting essentially of meat, onion and potatoes left to bake in the oven all day in a heavy pot and on a low heat. Originating in the days of heavy industrialisation in Lancashire in the north west of England, it requires a minimum of effort to prepare.
• Pie and mash - Pie and mash is a traditional London working class food. Pie, mash and stewed eels shops have been in London since the 18th century and are still common in south and east London. The main dish sold is pie and mash - a minced beef pie and mashed potato. It is common for the mashed potato to be spread around one side of the plate and for a type of parsley sauce called liquor (although it is non-alcoholic) to be added. Liquor traditionally has a green colour which is not from food colouring but the parsley. It is also traditionally made using the water kept from the preparation of the stewed eels.
• Sunday roast - The Sunday roast is a traditional English main meal served on Sundays (usually in the early afternoon), and consisting of roasted meat together with accompaniments. Sunday roasts can be served with a range of boiled and roast vegetables. Other vegetable dishes served with roast dinner can include mashed swede or turnip, roast parsnip, boiled or steamed cabbage, broccoli, green beans and boiled carrots and peas.
• Toad-in-the-hole - Toad in the hole is a traditional British dish comprising sausages in Yorkshire pudding batter, usually served with vegetables and gravy.
• Bread and butter pudding - is a traditional dessert popular in British cuisine. It is essentially a baked form of French toast.
• A knickerbocker glory - is a very elaborate ice cream sundae that is served in a large tall glass, particularly in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the closest equivalent would be a parfait.
• Spotted dick - is a traditional English steamed suet pudding containing dried fruit (usually currants), commonly served with either custard or butter and brown sugar.
• A trifle is a dessert dish made from thick (or often solidified) custard, fruit, sponge cake, fruit juice or, more recently, jelly (gelatin), and whipped cream. These ingredients are usually arranged in layers with fruit and sponge on the bottom, and custard and cream on top.

Scottish Cuisine
Scottish cuisine shares much with that of other parts of the British Isles but has distinctive attributes and recipes of its own, thanks to foreign and local influences both ancient and modern. Traditional dishes exist alongside international foods brought by immigration and a Scottish public eager to try new dishes.

Scotland's natural larder of game, dairy, fish, fruit, and vegetables is the integral factor in traditional Scots cooking, with a high reliance on simplicity and a lack of spices from abroad, which were often very expensive. While many inveterate dishes such as Scotch broth are considered healthy, many common dishes are rich in fat, contributes to the high rates of heart disease and obesity in the country. In recent times greater importance has been placed on the consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables, but many Scots, particularly those of low incomes, continue to have extremely poor diets, which contributes to Scotland's relatively high mortality rate from coronary heart disease.

Despite this, Scottish cuisine is enjoying a renaissance. Nine restaurants with Michelin stars, operating in the country in 2006, serve traditional or fusion cuisine made with local ingredients. In most towns, Chinese and Indian take-away restaurants exist along with traditional fish and chip shops. Larger towns and cities offer cuisine ranging from Thai and Japanese to Mexican, Polish or Turkish.

Soups

• Cullen Skink - Cullen Skink is a thick Scottish soup made of smoked Finnan haddie, potatoes and onions.
• Cock-a-leekie soup - Cock-a-leekie soup is a Scottish soup dish of leeks, potatoes, and chicken stock. The original recipe added prunes during cooking, and traditionalists still garnish with a julienne of prunes.
• Partan Bree - is a seafood speciality from north-eastern Scotland, where much of the country's fishing fleet is based. Its name derives from its ingredients in a mixture of Gaelic and Scots respectively, partan being the Gaelic for crab and bree a Doric term for soup (lit. brew).
• Scotch broth - Scotch broth is a filling soup, originating in Scotland but now obtainable world wide. Its principal ingredients are usually barley, a cut of beef or lamb, and vegetables such as carrots, turnips or swedes, cabbage and leeks. The proportions and ingredients can vary according to the recipe. Dried peas, split peas, and lentils are often added.

Fish and Seafood

• Arbroath smokies - The fish are first salted overnight to preserve them, they are then tied in pairs using hemp twine and left overnight to dry. Once the Smokies have been tied and dried, they are hung over a triangular shaped length of wood to smoke. This kiln stick fits in the middle of the pair of Smokies, one fish either side. These kiln sticks are then used to hang the dried fish in a special barrel containing a hardwood fire.
• Cabbie claw (Cabelew) - Cabbie claw or Cabelew is a traditional dish from the North-East of Scotland and Orkney. Traditionally made using Speldings, young fish of the Gadidae family, such as Cod, Haddock or Whiting.
• Crappit heid - Crappit Heid (English: Stuffed Head) is a traditional Scots fish course, and can be considered a variation on the theme of Haggis and Black Pudding.
• Finnan haddie - One form of smoked haddock is Finnan Haddie, named for the fishing village of Finnan or Findon, Scotland, where it was originally cold-smoked over peat. Finnan haddie is often served poached in milk for breakfast.
• Kippers - A kipper is a whole herring that has been split from tail to head, gutted, salted, and cold smoked.
• Rollmops - The word rollmops refers to a pickled herring fillet rolled (hence the name) into a cylindrical shape around a piece of pickled cucumber or an onion. The rollmops is held together with one or two small wooden skewers.
• Smoked salmon - Smoked salmon is a preparation of salmon, typically a fillet that has been cured and then hot or cold smoked. Due to its moderately high price, smoked salmon is considered a delicacy in Northern Europe, North America and other parts of the world.
• Tatties and Herring

Meat, Poultry and Game

• Black pudding, Red pudding and White pudding - Black pudding or less often blood pudding is a sausage made by cooking blood with a filler until it is thick enough to congeal when cooled. The term blood sausage (first attested in 1868) is a North American term that may be a translation from German "Blutwurst". Blood sausage has become a useful term for similar blood-based solid foods around the world. Red pudding is a food commonly served at chip shops in certain parts of Scotland as an alternative to fish (see Fish and chips). Naturally, the pudding is coloured red inside. It consists of spicy pork meat and fat that is formed into the shape of a large sausage of roughly 8 inches in length. White pudding or oatmeal pudding is a meat dish similar to black pudding, but does not include blood. It consists of pork meat and fat, suet, bread, and oatmeal formed into the shape of a large sausage.
• Forfar Bridie - is a Scottish type of meat pastry or pie, originally from the town of Forfar, similar to a Cornish pasty in shape, but the pastry is not as hard and no potato is used. It is made of minced beef, sometimes with onions and spices, placed on rolled-out pastry and folded into a semi-circular shape; the whole thing is baked in an oven.
• Collops - are slices of meat. The term derives from the French escalope.
• Haggis - There are many recipes, most of which have in common the following ingredients: sheep's 'pluck' (heart, liver and lungs), minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally boiled in the animal's stomach for approximately three hours.
• Mince and tatties - is an extremely popular evening dish, consisting of minced beef and mashed potato.
• Pottit heid - potted head of a cow, pig or sheep.
• Potted hough - similar to Pottit heid; but made from the shin of the animal.
• Roast Aberdeen Angus beef
• Roast Haunch of Venison
• Roast Grouse
• Roast Woodcock/Snipe
• Scotch pie - A Scotch pie is a small, double-crust pie filled with minced mutton or other meat. It may also be known as a shell pie or a mince pie (although the latter term is ambiguous) to differentiate it from other varieties of savoury pie such as the steak pie, steak-and-kidney pie, steak-and-tattie (potato) pie, and so forth.
• Skirlie - it is eaten on its own, used as a stuffing for a mock-sausage, the mealie pudding, or used as a stuffing for turkey (most commonly) or other fowl.
• Square sausage - sliced sausage (often known as square sausage, or lorne sausage) is a delicacy most often enjoyed in Scotland. Sausage meat - which may be pork, beef, or a mixture of the two - is set into a square and sliced into pieces generally about 3 inches (9 cm) square by about half-an-inch (1.5 cm) thick.
• Stovies - the dish usually consists of tatties (potatoes) and onions and some form of cold meat (especially sausages or leftover roast; mincemeat or corned beef in the east).

Puddings and Desserts

• Clootie Dumpling - is made with flour, breadcrumbs, dried fruit (sultanas and currants), suet, sugar and spice with some milk to bind it, and sometimes golden syrup. Ingredients are mixed well into a dough, then wrapped up in a floured cloth, placed in a large pan of boiling water and simmered for a couple of hours before being lifted out and dried before the fire or in an oven.
• Cranachan - today it is usually made from a mixture of whipped cream, whisky, honey, and fresh raspberries topped with toasted oatmeal.
• Deep-fried Mars Bar - A deep-fried Mars Bar is an ordinary Mars Bar fried in a type of batter used in the British Isles for fish, black and white pudding, sausage, and often haggis. The Mars Bar is typically chilled before use to prevent it from melting into the frying fat.

Cakes, Breads and Confectioneries

• Bannock - is a bread the same thickness as a scone. It is a form of flat bread, baked on a griddle. Generally made of oatmeal, it takes the form of a large oatcake. However, this meaning is not universal and some Scots use the term to refer to a wheat flour cake similar to a large thin scone.
• Berwick cockles - is a Scots style sweet (candy) coloured white with red stripes originally associated with Berwick-upon-Tweed, England.
• Black bun - is a type of fruit cake completely covered with pastry. It is Scottish in origin, originally eaten on Twelfth Night but now enjoyed at Hogmanay.
• Butterscotch - is a type of confectionery made by boiling sugar syrup, butter, cream, and vanilla.
• Caramel shortbread - is a confectionery item believed to be of Scottish origin because of the use of shortbread. It traditionally consists of three layers; a shortbread biscuit base, a caramel filling and a milk chocolate topping.
• Edinburgh rock - it consists of sugar, water, cream of tartar, colourings and flavourings. It is formed into sticks, and has a soft and crumbly texture.
• Jethart Snails - a brown mint-flavoured boiled sweet.
• Moffat toffee - is a boiled sweet made in the Scottish town of Moffat.It has a lemon centre which gives the sweet its unusual flavour.
• Oatcakes - oatcake is a type of cracker or pancake, made from oatmeal, and sometimes flour as well.
• Scones - is a small quickbread made of wheat, barley or oatmeal, usually with baking powder as a leavening agent.
• Scots Crumpets - is a savory/sweet snack made from flour and yeast.
• Selkirk Bannock, variations include Yetholm Bannock - is a form of flat bread, baked on a griddle.
• Shortbread - is a type of biscuit (cookie) which is traditionally made from one part white sugar, two parts butter, and three parts plain white flour, although other ingredients like ground rice or cornflour are sometimes added to alter the texture.
• Soor plooms - is a sharp flavoured, round, green boiled sweet (candy) originally associated with Galashiels, Scotland.
• Tablet - Scots) is a medium-hard, sugary confection from Scotland. It is made from sugar, condensed milk, and butter, boiled to a soft-ball stage and allowed to crystallize. It is often flavoured with vanilla, and sometimes has nut pieces in it.

Welsh Cuisine
Although both beef and dairy cattle are raised widely, especially in Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire, Wales is best known for its sheep, and thus lamb is the meat traditionally associated with Welsh cooking. Specific dishes associated with Wales include:

• Bara brith, "speckled bread," is a sweetbread which originated in Wales. It is traditionally made with raisins, Zante currant, and candied peel.
• Cawl is a Welsh stew with lamb and leeks.
• Cockles are very popular in Wales and served in a variety of ways although usually steamed.
• Crempogs are Welsh buttermilk pancakes.
• Faggots are Welsh pork meatballs.
• Glamorgan sausage is cheese in breadcrumbs in the shape of a sausage.
• Laverbread is a Welsh seaweed delicacy.
• Welsh cakes are small cakes cooked on a bakestone.
• Lob Scows is a popular stew in Holyhead and Anglesey, a version of the Liverpudlian 'Scouse'.
• Welsh rabbit, or Welsh rarebit, is toast with cheese and butter.
• The Clark's Pie, an internationally famous pie first produced in Cardiff.

Various cheeses are produced in Wales. These include Caerphilly cheese, Y Fenni cheese, Hen-Sir cheese, Llanboidy cheese, Red Devil, and an exceptionally strong variety of cheddar, the "Black Bomber."

There are a number of Welsh beers and more than 20 vineyards in the country. Most of the vineyards have been started since the 1970s. By contrast, S A Brain and Felinfoel companies have existed since the late 19th century, based on breweries which were yet older.

The Corona company used to make a variety of fizzy drinks in their factory in the Rhondda, the factory has now shut down, but memories of the Corona man, of collecting the bottles to collect the deposits back and of the flavours - especially cherryade and dandelion and burdock - remain, in and around the South Wales Valleys in particular.