Do you know what toad in the hole, roly poly pudding and chip butties are? If you’re not from Britain you may be baffled by some of the quirky foods consumed there and if you are, maybe you’re yet to explore the island’s culinary heritage. From meat pies and savory puddings to fruity, boozy desserts, here are incredible British foods you might not have heard of and really need to try.
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Kippers
Kippers are herring that have been sliced in half, salted or pickled, then smoked. The dish became popular during Victorian times in England when the cheap, oily, pungent-smelling fish were eaten for breakfast or as an after-work meal by the working class. These days, they’re much less common but you’ll still find kippers on toast and kipper omelets eaten by older generations or in old-school restaurants.
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Eccles cake
Great for afternoon tea, Eccles cakes are golden, buttery pastries filled with dried fruit and spices. Flat like a disc (there’s a reason why their nickname is ‘squashed fly cake’) and made with flaky pastry, they’re different from the traditional Christmas treat, mince pies. They hail from the town of Eccles, part of Greater Manchester, but they’re eaten all over the UK.
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Shepherd’s pie
Easy, comfort food, shepherd’s pie features stewed ground lamb topped with mashed potato. Chopped carrots, onion, wine and Worcestershire sauce usually go into the sauce for flavor. It’s very similar to another British dish called cottage pie, which uses ground beef instead of lamb. But the lamb dish gets the name ‘shepherd’s pie’ because shepherds look after sheep.
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Cottage pie
Very similar to shepherd’s pie, cottage pie is practically the same dish except it’s made with ground beef. The older of the two dishes, this beefy comfort food dates back to 1791 (recipes for shepherd’s pie only date as early as the late 19th century). A family favorite, Brits can’t get enough of the combination of rich, slow-cooked beef and fluffy mashed potato.
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Roast dinner with Yorkshire pudding
Many cuisines feature roast meat, so what makes a British roast dinner? It’s a home-cooked meal shared with the family, usually on a Sunday, as well as occasions such as Easter and Christmas. Whether you serve Yorkshire pudding – a crispy, puffed-up, batter-based pudding similar to an American popover – depends on whether you’re having chicken, lamb, pork or beef (some people say it should only be served with beef). Seasonal roast veg, roast potatoes and gravy are always essential.
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Bread and butter pudding
This frugal dessert features layers of buttered, stale bread and raisins, baked in creamy custard. One of the earliest printed recipes is from 1728 and it doesn’t appear to have changed much since then. Stodgy and comforting, it’s still served in pubs and homes with ice cream or cream throughout winter.
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Eton mess
A pudding of fresh strawberries, broken meringue and whipped cream, Eton mess is a summer dessert which shares the first word of its name with the private boarding school in Windsor. Some people say it was invented at a cricket match there in the 19th century, after a dessert was dropped. Whether this is true or not, it’s still a firm favorite.
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Cornish pasty
The lunch of choice for 19th-century miners, Cornish pasties were favored as they were easily portable and the crust could be used to hold the bulk of the pie, which would then be thrown away (as it would be dirty). They contain ground beef, potato, swede, onion and seasoning, wrapped in shortcrust pastry and crimped down one side. Although made and eaten throughout Britain, a true Cornish pasty must be made in Cornwall to the west of the River Tamar.
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Fish and chips with mushy peas
A match made in heaven, fish and chips is a classic British pairing that dates back to the 19th century. White fish such as cod or haddock is coated in a crunchy batter and served with thick, fluffy chips that have been drenched in salt and vinegar. On a Friday night, families all around the country pick this up from their local chippy, wrapped in paper, with a side of mushy peas (peas that have been processed in a blender with cream).
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Chip butty
Originally a working class lunch from the north of England, the chip butty’s origins can be traced to a chip shop in Oldham, Lancashire, in the 1860s. It was originally made with a barm cake, which is a soft, round bread roll. Although these days it’s just as common to see fat chips stuffed between two slices of buttered white bread and covered in ketchup.
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Battered sausage
Another chip shop delicacy, battered sausage is made in the same way as crispy fish, by dipping a sausage in batter then deep-frying it in hot oil. It’s the favorite menu option of fish-phobes when the Friday chip shop order is being put in. You might also choose to order a side of chips and curry sauce.
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Trifle
A quintessential English dessert, trifle has played a starring role at banquets and birthday parties since the 18th century. It’s usually served in a glass bowl to show off its different layered fillings: booze-soaked sponge or sponge fingers, fruit, jello, custard and cream. Two trifles are rarely the same as each layer can have so many different variations.
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Chicken tikka masala
One of the most popular curries in Britain, chicken tikka masala features juicy chicken chunks in a rich, mildly-spiced tomato sauce. Although many people consider it Indian, it’s likely it was first created at a curry house in Glasgow in the 1970s. The story goes, a customer complained their chicken was dry so chef Ali Ahmed Aslam whipped up a sauce to accompany it made from tomato soup.
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Full English breakfast
This hearty fry-up is one of England’s most ubiquitous dishes, found on menus everywhere from casual cafés to fancy restaurants and people’s home kitchens, though it can vary greatly. It usually always features bacon, sausage, a fried egg (or scrambled or poached), baked beans and toast. But mushrooms, tomato, black pudding, hash browns and fried bread are all common additions.
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Black pudding
Similar to French boudin noir, black pudding is sausage made from blood (usually pigs’), fat and oatmeal. It’s usually cut into slices, fried and served as part of a hearty breakfast. It can also be crumbled over soups, stirred into stew or used as a stuffing. It’s very divisive but has enough fans to be sold in butchers all over Britain.
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Potted shrimp
Potted shrimp is made from the small brown shrimp found in the waters around North Norfolk (on the east coast) and Morecambe Bay (in the northwest), as opposed to prawns which are larger and found all around the British Isles. It’s a traditional dish where the sweet shellfish are boiled, shelled and preserved in butter that has been spiced with mace, nutmeg, pepper and clove. It’s great spread on top of warm toast.
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Jellied eels
At one point, jellied eels was the most popular dish in London. In the 18th century, the River Thames was swimming with the creatures, so they were caught and eaten as a snack – chopped, boiled and set in clear gelatin. Another way to eat the fish was alongside pie and mash. Sadly, there are just a few establishments left in the East End still serving this slippery dish.
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Scotch egg
Despite their name, scotch eggs aren’t Scottish in origin. It’s believed they were first widely produced at fancy London department store Fortnum & Mason in 1738 and sold to travelers heading west from Piccadilly. The portable snack features a cooked egg coated in sausage meat and breadcrumbs, and deep-fried. It’s perfect picnic and pub food.
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Sausage roll
Another picnic, pub and party platter essential, sausage rolls consist of sausage meat encased in puff pastry and baked in the oven. Miniature, big, hot and cold, this snack has been enjoyed by Brits for centuries, so were horrified when US store Trader Joe’s claimed to have invented a suspiciously similar dish called “puff dogs” in 2017.
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Pigs in blankets
In America, pigs in blankets are frankfurters wrapped in croissant dough, almost like the British sausage roll. But in the UK, they’re something entirely different. Served almost exclusively at Christmas, pigs in blankets are chipolatas wrapped in bacon and baked. Two of the country’s favorite pork products combined, the bite-size appetizers are juicy and crispy at the same time.
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Pork pie
The British love savory meat pies and the pork pie, which is eaten cold, makes for a quick and easy lunch – it’s old-fashioned fast food. The best kinds are handmade, with hot water crust pastry (made with lard, boiling water and flour), seasoned pork and stock jello. They hail from the Midlands where there are a number of varieties.
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Sticky toffee pudding
Saucy, spongy and sugary, sticky toffee pudding is one of the richest desserts you can eat. A golden sponge cake filled with chopped dates is cut into squares, served with a ladle of caramel sauce and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. While some might think this British dessert dates back centuries, it was actually first served at the Lake District’s Sharrow Bay Hotel in the 1970s.
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Haggis
A Scottish dish, haggis is made from ground sheep’s heart, liver and lungs, plus oatmeal, onions, suet and spices. It used to be stuffed into a cleaned animal’s stomach for cooking, but nowadays synthetic casings are often used. It’s traditionally eaten on Burns Night (25 January), to celebrate the life and works of poet Robert Burns, alongside neeps and tatties (mashed turnip and potato).
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Welsh rarebit
Basically a fancy version of grilled cheese on toast, Welsh rarebit is a recipe that has been cooked since the 18th century and, despite a similar-sounding name, has nothing to do with rabbit. Grated Cheddar, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, spices, and sometimes wine or beer, are added to a béchamel sauce. The rich, cheesy, spicy mix is then poured all over toasted bread.
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Roly poly pudding
Another sweet, stodgy British dessert designed to make sure you’re full, roly poly pudding is suet pastry with jelly spread on the top, rolled up like a roulade and steamed. Although not as popular today as it once was, home cooks still make variations of it including with mincemeat (the sweet, fruity kind).
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Bubble and squeak
If you don’t know what this dish is, you’ll never guess from the name alone. A way of using up leftover vegetables, bubble and squeak might feature cooked onion, carrot, cabbage, swede or kale, plus mashed potato to bind it all together. It’s fried in a pan, sometimes with a little bacon or leftover meat added, in small potato patties or one big potato cake. It’s delicious with a fried egg on top.
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Stargazy pie
This strange and magical pie is a Cornish tradition, baked and eaten in the coastal village of Mousehole on 23 December. It features whole (gutted and boned) herrings and pilchards with their heads gazing through the crust of the pie, plus chopped egg and bacon in a creamy, herby sauce. Not many people have tried it, but those who have love it.
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Beef olives
A slow-cooked Scottish dish, beef olives feature thinly-sliced steak wrapped around sausage meat, black pudding or haggis. The parcels are then braised in gravy with onion and veg for a couple of hours while you go and work up an appetite. It’s comfort food at its finest.
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Marmite
“You either love it or hate it” is Marmite’s slogan, but most people in Britain tend to be in the love camp, slathering the salty spread onto toast every morning. Made from brewer’s leftover yeast, it was invented by German scientist Justus von Liebig in the UK in 1902. It has been popular ever since, even included in soldiers’ rations during the First World War.
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Kedgeree
A dish of flaked, smoked haddock, hard-boiled eggs and spiced rice, kedgeree has been a go-to brunch dish since Victorian times. Brought across from India by British colonizers, it’s thought to have been inspired by a dish called khichuri, featuring rice and lentils paired with fried fish. Originally kedgeree was only flavored with salt, pepper and cayenne, but these days other seasonings such as curry powder, turmeric, cardamom, chili, garlic and cumin are added.
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Beans on toast
This is the kind of dinner Brits have when they’re tired, don’t have much in the pantry or don’t want to cook. It’s as simple as toasting two slices of bread, heating up a can of baked beans, pouring them over the toast and sprinkling some grated Cheddar over the top. It’s a classic, country-wide dish that has been around nearly as long as branded baked beans have.
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Scones and clotted cream
A British cream tea is an afternoon ritual where you tuck into scones, jelly, clotted cream and a pot of tea. Clotted cream is different from double cream in that it’s thick enough to spread and used in place of butter. Tea rooms in Devon and Cornwall in southwest England specialize in serving these, but you can find the sweet treat all over the country. The big debate is whether to add the cream or the jelly first…
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Toad in the hole
A much-loved dish of sausages baked in batter, toad in the hole was a school cafeteria favorite and midweek meal staple back in the day. To make it, you pour a flour, egg and milk mixture into a roaring hot pan of cooked sausages and fat, and bake until it’s puffed up and crispy. It’s reminiscent of a giant Yorkshire pudding, and often served with mashed potato and gravy.
