In Britain, Every Banger Has A Story!

Tales of Food Origins
by Pauline Parry

Thanks to chefs like Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsey, traditional British cooking has certainly been elevated to new heights. And yet, there remains the stigma. For instance, when Top Chef Masters did an episode where the chefs had to make pub food one of them remarked that he was certain pub food had been invented on a dare! I get that, but there’s a reason, and a story, behind this food.

A lot of this type of rough and ready fare (think kidney pie) was a necessity. Our little island was besieged by war for years and certain resources became very scarce. The British learned to be very resourceful on a budget. So you could say that our food heritage is a lot like us – hearty, colorful, and enduring. Yet still, what about those names?!

When a new book came out called What Caesar Did for My Salad by Albert Jack, even I learned some new things about our most well-known food. I share it with you here!


PLOUGHMAN’S LUNCH
Doesn’t the name of this lunch conjure up romantic rural images of beautiful fields and trees under which ploughmen break for lunch and to tuck into their humble savory meals of fresh break, hard cheese, onions and pickles? And yet the truth is very different. Ploughman’s Lunch is a modern term coined in the 1960’s by the English Country Cheese Council as part of a campaign to encourage people to eat more cheese. Now that’s successful marketing!


FISH ‘n’ CHIPS
Fish fried in batter became popular in the East End of London in the early 19th century when many Jewish immigrants settled in the area, bringing with them their own style of frying fish. Developed separately, “chips,” or fries as Americans say, go back to the 18th Century when potatoes were a staple of the Scottish diet. In 1860, an immigrant named Joseph Malin put the two together and opened the first Fish ‘n’ Chips shop. By 1925, there were 30,000 of these shops in Britain! The dish became so connected to being English that, to keep morale high during World War I, it was one of the only dishes to avoid rations! What would Joseph Malin think to know that Fish ‘n’ Chips now show up in many forms and on many menus of even the fanciest restaurants. In the photo above our chef Joanne Purnell has updated the dish with battered cod with sea salt French fries with mushy peak and tartar sauce in a cedar box.

BANGERS AND MASH
Another British staple (albeit one that has not made as big a hit “across the pond”) is Bangers and Mash. I’m sure you can guess the mash part…but bangers? Basically, they are sausages, the earliest example of processed food. British pork sausages have been mass produced since the 19th century but after World War I, food shortages led to dramatic reduction of any type of meat in sausages. To make up for this, sausage producers packed them with scraps of cereal and water which caused them to pop and hiss when cooked … hence the name. Hmmm. Perhaps this is why they’ve never become popular here.


CORNISH PASTY
Like Ploughman’s Lunch, the Cornish Pasty (or Pastie) is about the working man. But in this case, its history is real. These savory turnovers were eaten by workers in the tin mines of Cornwall. The thick pastry kept the contents secure and warm. Similar to the Empanada of Argentine, the ingredient of a proper pasty aren’t cooked before being encased in the pastry. Wives made one for each member of the family, stuffed with meat and veggies on one end and a jam on the other. Then they marked them with their initials to avoid fights.

Understandably, miners are a superstitious lot and there was a belief that it was unlucky to eat the thick crimped crust. Once they were done with what was in it, the crust was thrown down the shaft to appease the “knockers” or spirits. Just like any superstition this one comes with a credible reason why it began – the crust was so think that miners would use it as a handle to hold pasty while they ate thereby avoiding transmitting the arsenic that was prevalent in the tin mines to their food.


BLOODY MARY
Now in this case, I think it’s pretty easy to guess the origins of the name of the drink that’s become known as a hangover cure. This concoction of Vodka, tomato juice, and seasonings such as cayenne pepper and Worcester sauce (which is more commonly known here as Worcestershire sauce) is said to be named after the Catholic Queen Mary who reigned in England, then Ireland in the 1500s. Mary got her nickname for the blood she spilled in her relentless pursuit of Protestant dissenters and her harsh sentence of death for them. Certainly a bad hangover might make you want to end it all, but in the hands of our mixologist and Creative Director Dan Smith, a Bloody Mary is something for which to live!


SCOTCH EGGS
From the sound of it, this dish couldn’t be more Scottish if it tried – a hard-boiled egg wrapped in sausage meat, dipped in breadcrumbs and deep-fried. But it actually originated in India and was introduced to England by soldiers of the British Empire. The Scotch egg is a descendant of the Indian dish, nargisi kogta, which consists of eggs covered in minced lamb and cooked and curried tomatoes.

As I read this book, I found it so interesting that wars and soldiers are the reason for most of British food traditions until I realized that food is the ultimate in accessible comfort. It can transport you back to a moment of happiness or a memory of a loved one in one bite. I love to think about those soldiers and survivors carrying on tradition from one generation to the next and from culture to culture in one big game of telephone; each person making the dish his or her own.

So the next time you dig into a meal, give a moment to think of our ancestors and the flavorful memory that we keep alive. Bangers anyone?

Photos by Brilliant Studios LA