The REAL Reason British Food Has a Bad Reputation

[@bob_the_bomb4508]

The bad reputation used to be deserved. I was born in the early 60’s. As a kid getting school dinners, every single one of the adults serving the food had gone through the Second World War and the subsequent rationing. This led to an ‘eat what you’re given and be grateful’ mentality. Not much sympathy for kids who didn’t like that particular food (yes beetroot I’m looking at you). This ‘mustn’t grumble’ mentality accompanied your average Brit in the ‘60s and ‘70s when they dived out. Nobody would ever complain about restaurant food so there was no incentive to improve it. Lastly there’s the emergence of the fridge/freezer. We had no fridge when I was a lad. There was a marble slab in the cupboard under the stairs where mum kept the butter etc. she’d also shop twice a day and pick up what she needed for the next meal. Owning a fridge allowed the shopper in the family to indulge in fantasies about modern dishes.

[@RemnantCult]

The aftermath of WW2 had an opposite effect in the US. We pretty much began to go ham on our quick foods and turn them into business while inviting migrants to come and further enrich our selection of cuisines. It did give a lot of people a taste for processed foods though. It was a full on processed food takeover. Think spam and frozen OJ. It's a nice snapshot of how well the US did after the war which was the opposite of how the UK did. It's quite unfortunate but as someone who enjoys blood sausage and marmite, I hope to see British foods fully shed its rationing era skin. I still don't think I can get into beans on toast though. Soggy toast with beans doesn't sound too thrilling. Where I come from, beans are for BBQ. I eat stripey bacon with peanut butter so I can't make fun.

[@Thurgosh_OG]

@@RemnantCult A couple of things. The US made a big profit from WWII, with all of those countries on both sides owing big debts to the US (only 2 countries ever fully repaid the US, Britain and the Soviet Union), so while the UK was having to rebuild a lot of the nation, while repaying war loans and helping other countries rebuild, the US had none of this and could flourish. Beans on Toast - we British and also Aussies, Kiwis and Canadians know to butter our toast before putting the beans on it. This layer of butter, enhances the taste and slows sogginess down considerably, though by the end it will get through, if you leave it long enough. Also we have been brought up to enjoy this and you haven't, so you're not accustomed to the taste and textures like we are. Trying my first T-Bone Steak while visiting the US, was like a jaw exerciser, because I wasn't used to that for example.

[@AudieHolland]

Dutch cuisine shares some similarities with British cuisine, in that most of our traditional dishes were 'poor people's food.' Anyone know Van Gogh's The Potato Eaters? Every dish (nearly every) was based on potatoes. For the rich people's cuisine, see French cuisine. Raw herring is an exception, as that's really old. First accounts of the curing of herring go back to 1380. I guess most people ate a lot of bread and of course turnips, before potatoes were introduced. Although even tulip bulbs are edible, and many Dutch in the big cities (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht) turned to eating tulips bulbs during the last winter of the Second World War (Dutch Hungerwinter). Anyway, like the British, Dutch cuisine was saved by the people in our colonies, the Dutch East Indies and Suriname. Following the Indonesian War of Independence, many Dutch Indies people were 'repatriated' even though many had never been to Holland before. And when Suriname was granted independence in the 1970s, a lot of Surinamese people used their Dutch passports to emigrate to The Netherlands. The best bami dish I ever tasted was Surinaamse Bami, a combination of Javanese and Surinamese culinary influences.

[@CavemanSynthesizer]

@@RemnantCult Yeah, we suffered a lot less scarcity after the war.

[@laurabailey1054]

My father and other family members were in England during WWII. My father was a kid and hunted as a kid. In Canada my nana was saving the rations and sending what she could to relatives to help them out during the war.

[@jonathanreno8958]

As an American, when someone says British food, I think fish and chips, bangers and mash, sunday roasts, shepherd's/cottage pie, beef wellington, and those massive breakfasts. If those are bad, then I like bad food.

[@kapuzinergruft]

Yes, you like bad food 😂

[@NayuzAqua]

​@@kapuzinergruft still better than the supre processed food you guys eat evey minute lol I'm not even british, but I do dislike modern "american" food

[@CuriousEnthusiast956]

@@NayuzAqua McDonalds and Hersheys don't constitute as 'American food', just corporate rubbish, which we all eat by the way🤮

[@AxGerm756]

Yes you do. But what else can we expect ? The British are the ones who teached your country how to cook ! 😂😂

[@wellread8649]

They're not bad, just mid as fuck.

[@jamesfx2]

My German wife had heard that British people added mint to everything. The idea of mint sauce with meat sickened her to the same amount as a pineapple on a pizza would a normal person. We didn't realise that to Brits, mint usually means Garden Mint whereas to them, mint means Peppermint. I made a salad that tasted 1000% of the 0.1% Peppermint I added to it before I figured that out.

[@leviturner3265]

Mint is good on lamb meat. Mint sauce is vinegar, sugar, and mint.

[@ninaelsbethgustavsen2131]

@@leviturner3265 I guess it depends on what you're used to (eat). Mint to me shoud be left for a tisane (herb tea). Or some cold sauce to go with Middle Eastern food. Lamb meat is very delicate. I make fricassé, saddle steak or lamb cutlets (with rosemary, thyme and oregano), shanks, or leg roast. But no mint please. I'm Norwegian !

[@mememaster695]

There's actually a bit of folk lore around the lamb and mint sauce. Supposedly, the British were eating too much lamb and the supply of sheep couldn't keep up, so the ruler at the time, I believe either queen Victoria or Elizabeth I, ordered that all lamb had to be eaten with mint sauce. This was meant to stop people from eating lamb, as it was thought that lamb and mint sauce would be terrible. However, the common folk loved the mint sauce so much that the plan backfired and they ate even more lamb than before.

[@kavasir7042]

Mint sauce is good with lamb, the acidic sweet sauce cuts through the fat and lamb can be rather fatty. Its like using redcurrant sauce with venison or gamey meat...or using cranberry sauce in a bacon and melted brie sandwich.

[@leviturner3265]

@@ninaelsbethgustavsen2131 Personally when dealing with an old fashioned mint sauce I find the vinegar to have more of an overpowering characteristic than the mint. I am sure it does depend what one is used to. I would recommend giving it a try, to see if you like it. I generally would also look for rosemary as a seasoning for lamb, perhaps thyme, and salt and pepper of course. Even seasoning the lamb this way I would generally also make a mint sauce, if mint is in season. I have also seasoned lamb with dried mint in addition to other herbs. Mint sauce is indisputably not for everyone. Lamb fricassee... interesting. I have only made chicken fricassee and have heard of rabbit, but never lamb. Interesting.

[@petuniasevan]

I seem to remember that someone insulted British food in John Cleese's hearing. He snapped, "We had an empire to run!"

[@alejandronieto4212]

@@petuniasevan so did the spanish, french, ottoman, greek (byzantines), russian and chinese. In all fairness, "rich people's" english cuisine is pretty good, like Wellington Beef. But the fact they made their "common" british food that gruesome is a fact.

[@GeorgeDCowley]

@@alejandronieto4212 Beef Wellington.

[@OscarOSullivan]

Guess he should have said lots of civil engineering projects to do.

[@EastSider48215]

I’m an American and most of these foods aren’t gross to me at all. As near as I can tell, bad British food is usually the result of bad cooking, not bad ingredients. The same can be said about American food as well.

[@jerrelfontenot747]

Because you label yourself as "eastsider" suggests that you maybe of british heritage or influence. Like England you have few endemic items of food culture; look outside of your area and you will see beautiful food culture. We are more than the 13 colonies!

[@ozelhassan8576]

Correction: water was a gamble in the cities not the rural areas.

[@shanewalta7876]

It could still be a gamble. You never knew if there was a dead sheep half a mile up the river, but it was definitely a better option than the water out of the Thames.

[@ninaelsbethgustavsen2131]

​@@shanewalta7876 Hmm, yes. Brown bog water can hide a lot of sins... Luckily I'm Norwegian. ❤

[@JimCarner777]

@@shanewalta7876 I've never understood this issue of contaminated water, especially in the countryside. It's possible to make a water filter using layers of sand, gravel, grass, etc, and then boil the filtered water. And if you have access to a well even better still.

[@SetuwoKecik]

​@@JimCarner777 The thing is, we're only knows that boiling water kiIIs most of the bacteria somewhere around the 18th century when study of microbiology is widespread after the invention of microscope.

[@TSInfiMa-r6z]

@@ozelhassan8576 British also bathed before Vikings arrived.

[@shadibrahim1489]

It’s because social media only talk about beans on toast and that stupid fish head pie. British food is great when you look into it

[@Jodamango]

man u fan 💀💀💀

[@eg_manifest510]

i also blame the photography side of things. We're used to seeing photos of food taken like they're gonna be on Italian Vogue, but a lot of the "gross British food" photos are taken with crappy lighting and grainy quality that only make the dish look dull and lifeless. Sure the examples actually show off crap food a lot of the time, but a lot of those dishes would probably look better if they just opened a curtain or turned on a lamp for some warmer lighting

[@jojojojo4332]

no, its because the british predominately eat things like pigs/toads in blankets the names are very different and unusual because english is the main trade language of the world. and everyone just understand the bland expressions that are translated to our own different cultured minds. For example what is dutch food to the british. often i get to hear. ah you mean snitzel man. but thats actually austrian. or when you ask germans why not the entire country wears bavarian clothing in oktober. its that stereotypical bs mixed with a lot of misinformation that makes it much worse.

[@bruhed1117]

British food is definetly not as bad as people say, but with the exception of a handful of pretty good foods, it is super bland and uninteresting

[@jojojojo4332]

@@bruhed1117 the British eat utilitarian. The French eat overcomplicated, the Dutch and Germans just eat what was available and efficient, the danish over produced on its main trading articles. To the point of them being gullash barons. I think that covers most of Western Europe. And for added bonus the Italians have a lot of dishes we eat and love that came from poor regions or poor people.

[@bignibbles]

Hey everyone! Thanks for the love on this, quick clarification. My last two longform videos took two different approaches, for this one the budget went completely on an editor. For the Last one (Amsterdam food tour) the budget went on the content itself and I handled the whole production. Its clear the use of AI isnt going down well with you guys, and the edit pulls away from my style too much, so in future Ill be taking a different approach, but thanks for watching regardless.

[@fupoflapo2386]

British moment

[@Thurgosh_OG]

You missed (possibly on purpose, if you have a large US audience) that the biggest reason for British food's poor reputation is that during WWII, we had around 4 million US military based here in the UK and they arrived (late) after we'd been at war for around 2 years and were on heavy rationing. This meant that US servicemen, were given very bland but hearty foods to sustain them, while here and after the war, they took these stories of bland, boring, tasteless, British food, home with them and the internet has revived kept these tales and reputation in the minds of US Americans to the present day.

[@mrkiplingreallywasanexceed8311]

Both getting over myself and chilling out, I nevertheless take the greatest umbrage under a dense miasma of pique at your assertion our "produce" isn't up to much🙂‍↔️ You deign to suggest that we "make nice cheeses" but somehow pretty much skip over everything else which, while maintaining the stiffest of upper lips (if, sadly, these days not so much the nether environs), did create a certain internalised stress! The Scots, for example, while gruffly acknowledging the salmon reference no doubt, will be furious at the lack of rapture over the Arbroath smokie - the pinnacle, the zenith, the apogee of the smoked fish. Fish and chips gets a worthy mention but ffs we're a figgin' island so Scots asides, our herring, cod, sea bass, Cromer crabs and frabjous oysters all deserve to be lionised - and most spectacular of all IMHO - the tiny brown shrimp. A food so wondrous - and excruciatingly painstaking to prepare - it laughs in the face of the famously infamous ortolan. Our miniature crustaceans, moreover, while simply astonishingly expensive, are also entirely legal to be sold and eaten - unlike the consumption of those tiny French songbirds where part of the semi auto erotic pleasure other than the flavour engendered by the Armagnac which filled their minuscule lungs as they were drowned in the stuff - is the searing agony of the gush of hot fat at the back of the throat released as one crunches whole the hapless creature - at least now very much dead - bones and all. Whether, as legend has it, the napkins traditionally placed over the head while consuming brutalised roast avians was to stop God seeing - or merely to shield the diners from each others' shame for so enjoying the experience - or from their own hideous grimacing from the explosion of boiling grease - remains moot. The point being our most divine delicacy requires no such price on our consciences, even if it does on our wallets! But I don't recall cost being the main point of your perusal of our gastronomic history and anyway, most of what comes from here isn't dear at all - the climate takes care of that since the warming effects of the Gulf Stream bathe us all year round taking the edge off the Baltics freeze of a northern winter and gently enhancing the surprising amount of sun we get - the Spanish (themselves not exactly the object of ridicule for their food - which is incredible) have a word which uniquely describes very specifically the ENGLISH countryside - la campiña - such is their wonder at the lush verdancy of our peerless pastures! What, honestly, does anyone REALLY think will be the quality of ALL our meat, poultry, fish, fruit, veg, herbs - as well as dairy - and all the iddly biddly amazing specialities like pears - and perry - and baked cheesy nibbly things so light and cholesterolæmic, they make once you pop you just can't stop seem freshly appropriate! Even if you set out to make poor - or even average - "produce", you couldn't😂. There are just too many lovely fresh green things for deer to munch and on which pheasants blithely gorge themselves! The fat fuckers can barely lift off by the time they're ended in a hail of lead 😂😂 Fair dos, you had more than 2000 years to get through - but even slowing to a canter from the gallop, the real prize gems whizzed by in a blur - perhaps a more diffuse leisurely bimble through the orchard, field and barnyard for at least a few future episodes?😉😎

[@platynowa]

I am Polish and I like British food. We have kaszanka and czernina instead of black pudding, and blood is very nutritious. Indian and Mexican food is rubbish, honestly.

[@invisibleman4827]

Usually, the voices making fun of British cuisine are Americans, but they forget a few things. 1) British traditional cuisine is pretty heavy, because that's typical for northern Europe. See German, Irish, Eastern European and Scandinavian food. So naturally it doesn't have the same characteristics as food from southern Europe and overseas. 2) Americans often eat the same food, such as fish and chips, for example. And beans. 3) British food has evolved since the rationing days and before. What was haute cuisine 90 odd years ago would be pretty boilerplate today.

[@Scoutbutball]

@@invisibleman4827 that is unsurprisingly true But our neighbours overseas just like to yammer on about how our food is ‘bland’ and ‘boring’, as if their food isn’t just over processed and overpriced slop (plus, all the additives and dyes used is definitely not healthy…. And they have roast chicken in a can. Why.)

[@Foogi9000]

​​@@Scoutbutball British food has the spice and consistency of a joke told by James Corden. The United States is so multicultural that we've got a bit of everything here. Especially in the south, Cajun food is my favorite personally. British people need to come here lol, it'll be like a food spiritual awakening.

[@OfficialAnthem]

​@@Foogi9000Britain also has a bit of everything too. We are still very much a multicultural nation, with food from all over the world. You can't compare multicultural foods to native, just because traditional British food doesn't include spices and cajun, doesn't mean we don't have those foods.

[@Gallic_Gabagool]

@@Scoutbutball British food uses additives and dyes too, perhaps you should look in a mirror (or an ingredient list). And you have PIE in a can. Why.

[@ReinhartSchneider]

@@Gallic_Gabagool nowhere near as much as the ultra processed slop you eat in america. even your grocery store bread has absurd amounts of sugar, probably even corn additives and other garbage in it. the level of quality of the produce and basic ingredients you can get in britain is actually very good and on par with the rest of mainland europe, which actually does have regulations for what can be considered food or put in food products, unlike usa.

[@tyne_9]

i bet %99.9 of people who diss British food has never even been close to trying it

[@MostlyPennyCat]

Correct. And guess what they say when they do get to try our food? 😂

[@John-kc4cg]

Or they eat it but don't know it's from here, to this day Americans will even claim Alexander Graham Bell or Andrew Carnagae are Americans so its no surprise that they don't know that macaroni cheese, apple pie, possibly fried chicken, and many other dishes are British.

[@ninaelsbethgustavsen2131]

Well, I must admit the Stargazer Pie looks a bit... Different. That said, Norwegians eat fermented mountain lake trout, and fermented cod. (Only Icelandic cousins take it one notch up, with fermented shark, and whale blubber ditto). The Swedes of course have a mad love for über fermented herring. 😮 But that's close to suicede... Love from Norway 😊❤

[@ninaelsbethgustavsen2131]

​@@John-kc4cg Americans think they invented planet Earth... ❤😂

[@Gantali9305]

@@ninaelsbethgustavsen2131 I am English ...and before this comment thread i had never even heard of stargazy pie. Its not a common item in UK diets.

[@davidcheater4239]

Growing up in Canada, there was a type of Selection Bias guiding our opinions of "British Food". We thought of every day food as "British" (even when it was not) while restaurants served "Exotic" foods. ie. Beans on toast, sandwiches, canned soup, hard-boiled eggs, breakfast sausage, meat & potatoes, and boiled vegetables were "British". The very plain, mostly flavourless, low effort home cooking. But when we went to restaurants that's where we saw 'foreign cooking'. Food that was prepared with some flare: shish kabob, Sweet n' Sour chicken with pineapple, lasagne, biryani, enchilades, and crepes suzette. What we didn't get from British cuisine were any of the items from fine dining: Christmas goose, Yorkshire pudding, trifle, steak and kidney pie, cranachan, or meat pies. tldr; we got mediocre British food to the point where we identified mediocre food as British. We didn't get mediocre 'foreign' food, only a selection of the most appealing. That solidified the bias that British food was inferior.

[@MostlyPennyCat]

Funny thing is, a lot of those fancy dishes you list will almost certainly be the British version of that dish. And the British dishes you've listed aren't mediocre, there's only mediocre preparation. My nan was a Cordon Bleu chef and when _she_ made those dishes, I'm sad that as good as I am at cooking, I will never be that good.

[@Pudddle]

To be clear, Yorkshire pudding is the very opposite of fine dining, it's one of the simplest foods we have and came from using cheap/leftover ingredients. It's very bland too, but super crispy and airy and tender and the perfect vehicle for flavourful gravy and sweet sauces/jams 😋

[@laurabailey1054]

I am Canadian and grew up on British cooking and what my nana and grandma made was not bland and flavourless. My mum learned to cook from her English mother and what she cooked was not lacking in flavour.

[@finnmcginn9931]

​@@laurabailey1054some of the best Sunday roasts I've ever tasted were cooked by mums and grans in Canada. British is great when prepared by those who care. Cheers

[@carltonlambert7608]

Fair comment.

[@Ratblink]

I was hoping you'd point out that Scotch Eggs are English, as that always riles someone up. Solid video, and great editing!

[@thataintfalco7106]

Scotch eggs are fucking fire

[@Scoutbutball]

Yesss They are amazing

[@PiousMoltar]

I knew this but had forgotten. Thanks!

[@ninaelsbethgustavsen2131]

Seagull eggs anybody ? Love from Norway ❤😅

[@Thurgosh_OG]

True but 'Scotch' is generally a word used (even by us Scottish folk) for foods and of course drinks, at least in more recent centuries and not to do with the location of production or origin.

[@Nathan-lp2iz]

The abundant use of AI 'art' makes it look horrible

[@bignibbles]

Last time I use Fiverr for an editor

[@L1d0]

@@Nathan-lp2iz the craziness goes with the channel and music. quite like the dancing squirrel 😄

[@Nathan-lp2iz]

@@Seansmusicvault I still give him money indirectly by watching the ads, so I have every right to complain when I watch like 5 ads and the video has at least 20 AI images with hilariously wrong fingers, food clipping into plates, broken hands, and terrible lighting

[@YuddhaVeera]

@@Nathan-lp2iz how much you give by watching ads?

[@FabioKun]

Womp Womp

[@cjpalmi8]

Absolutely adored the abundance of alliteration in this food focused feature. The clever, continuous cadence of culinary commentary kept me captivated!

[@svenv9034]

As a Belgian food blogger (Vegatopia), I don't quite understand the bad reputation of British food. Until the 1980's cuisine in most of Western Europe was incredibly bland, with the Netherlands as somehow an exception because of colonial influence. We crossed the border for more flavourful groceries. Several of my childhood dishes were even quite similar like "balkenbrij" (check Wikipedia) and black pudding. I had it with pan fried apple slices. On the one hand British food is mocked at because it is supposed to be weird, bland and overcooked, on the other hand British chefs conquered the world and influenced many other cuisines. So, the there's a contradiction and not so much rationality. Be proud of your heritage!

[@KIJIKLIPS]

You forget western europe included Iberia (Spain and Portugal) and sorry as a Portuguese i have to say you're incorrect we have and INCREDIBLY LONG AND COLOURFUL FLAVOURFUL EVEN culinary history stretching back to the age of discovery we started by sailing around africa to reach india and capitalise on the spice trade before the UK dutch or any other European had the chance, then with the discorvery of the new world Portugal and Spain were thr FIRST european to use POTATO'S (Portuguese keeps the exact same word as the natives in south america used to refer to BATATA) As well as peppers and the first people outisde of mexico to start using chilis and cacao were portugal and Spain also. Without Portuguese spreading chillies to africa india china etc there wouldn't be the same piri piri chicken no spicy indian curries like you know or chinese food you might be familiar with either. Due to the favourable climate in southern europe we have been cultivating these plant's for near 5 centuries did i even mention tomatoes too😂 what would Italian cuisine be like now without these contributions from south America brought to the outside world by Portuguese and Spanish explorers? Not to mention our amazing history of pastries cakes and baked goods which gave rise to some of the deserts and cakes you see in macau china and japan today ! Truly an extensive and tasty culinary history to be found in western europe if you ask me! No fish and chips or tea time in England either the list goes on😂

[@Croz89]

Interesting, because Dutch food nowadays has a reputation for blandness similar to the British (yes it does, Dutch people, stop pretending it doesn't!).

[@Jonathan_Fairbanks]

@@Croz89 Dutch food is the worst in Europe

[@rob876]

When I go to the Netherlands I always look for Dutch croquettes, salted herring, smoked eel, appelstroop and salted liquorice.

[@draum8103]

Um, you're Belgian so right next to France and you don't understand why British food has a bad reputation?! Lmao. When I was in the UK the food is like ten times worse than in France or Belgium and more expensive.

[@mahdireza5695]

As a British South Asian myself, I will say people HEAAAAVILY overdramatise British food as an "awful" thing. While it's arguably not the most complex cuisine on the planet, it's definitely more about simple comfort foods and that doesn't mean British cuisine cannot be delicious. Is it out of this world? Maybe if your taste pallet is simple it might be a huge standout, but if you've had the chance to discover many different cuisines and tastes in the world, you will find that many other cuisines have more standout qualities. It's also a matter of who cooks that specific British food. There's a reason why Gordon Ramsay got mad at lots of British cooks before lol. 😂

[@NaviRyan]

Gordon Ramsey: “this is dry as a camels asshole in a sandstorm”

[@mahdireza5695]

@NaviRyan gotta love Gordon's brutal reality checks for bad cooks 😂

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Exactly, it isn't overly elaborate and aims to make the best out of simple things.

[@otherssingpuree1779]

@@mahdireza5695 As a South Asian British, we love to hate British food. Most of us rarely try it but the rest of us, we love it secretly.

[@robertp457]

Dude at no time did anyone criticize British food for being simple. Italian food is simple, but they know how to make food taste like the ingredients that are in it. Salt isn't bad for you unless you have a health condition like high blood pressure, or you rarely drink water. Food made in the UK, unless it's London, isn't made with much care how it's made or the ingredients that go into it. At least not in Peterborough. Meat and two veg can be good if those items are cooked and seasoned well, but they just aren't. Get some chucky chips that have been seasoned with salt *the moment* they come out of the oil, and you'll see what I'm talking about.

[@UnicornsAndUnions]

Most of the distaste about british food culture is because we have a very honest food culture. What we say we eat is what we do eat, for everyone. In most other countries, their food culture is aspirational, but the UK's is WYSIWYG.

[@mzple]

@@UnicornsAndUnions That’s actually a really good point.

[@327legoman]

That's true. I've been living in Japan for 3 years and honestly, and people can be served a turd and it won't complain. On TV, they just start yelling "OISHIIII" (delicious) before the food even reaches their mouth. Part of the reason for this is to be polite, the other is that being defaming a business, even if it's your own perfectly valid opinion, is a crime. Ironically there's a cafe/bakery near me, called Penny Lane, a beatles themed place and it is heaving. Despite the isolated location, it's stupidly busy even on weekdays and it's the only place in Japan I've found which serves proper pub grub with proper pub style burgers and triple cooked chips, nice pies etc. Yet, if you asked any of those diners "Do you like British Food?" They'd probably turn around and say "Like Stargazy pie? Nah! British food is terrible!" (Probably in Japanese of course.)

[@Croz89]

True, most British food in restaurants are basically tarted up versions of what people eat at home. In many other countries, the food you get in restaurants is almost never eaten at home, maybe only on a special occasion.

[@artspooner]

@@327legoman yeah but we can’t exactly claim burger and chips as British food. As you describe it, it’s just a British spin on a quintessential American food. But I do agree in essence. If there was a restaurant doing proper pie and mash, Sunday roasts, toad in the hole etc then people would love it (may need to adjust for each countries palate as we do here).

[@mallardofmodernia8092]

@@artspooner not American either 😂 German, Belgian and French origins.

[@TheMajinHermit]

Long form content lets go

[@JimCarner777]

As a Brit, my main criticism of our food is the lack of consistency. I've had great Scotch eggs, I've had bad ones. I've had great Cornish pasties, I've had bad ones. I've had great fry-ups, I've had bad ones. You get the idea. We need consistency in order for our food to be considered, well, consistently good.

[@Leitis_Fella]

Bad Cornish pasties?! My Dad is from Michigan (pasties introduced there by Cornish miners) and he never made a bad pasty. How can one mess up a pasty?

[@davidwright7193]

British food has a bad rep because rationing led to very poor food during a period when there were 3 or 4 million US troops in the country. So if they ate outside the unit mess would have been served a very bad or ersatz version of something they ate at home.

[@ninaelsbethgustavsen2131]

German ancestry ?

[@diarmuidkuhle8181]

​@@ninaelsbethgustavsen2131 Traditional German food is in fact well-seasoned. It's more the strong Puritan influence, with the emphasis on 'plain, honest, simple fare' and a suspicion of making food too 'extravagant' in preparation or flavouring.

[@robokill387]

No, it had a bad reputation well before then. Victorian era British food was even worse.

[@garyrowden7150]

this is what i also think, the people of GB had it hard in WW2, much much harder than the dominions, my MIL was 14 when WW2 started, she was born and raised in Birmingham

[@robertp457]

@@diarmuidkuhle8181 It's not that seasoned in the Stuttgart area.

[@ИванРодионов-у5ь]

Full English breakfast is one of the best inventions in humans history. One dish = energy until evening.

[@NanobanaKinako]

In the Philippines, we also eat baked beans thanks to the only brand producing this Hunts. We usually like to combine with hard boiled eggs, but I don't find baked beans on toast appetising, that's like putting banana ketchup on Korean noodles or pineapple on pizza.

[@JlandelMoncada1]

Listen, when i had Bangers and Mash when I went to England, it changed my life.

[@Scoutbutball]

YES

[@MostlyPennyCat]

I love our pork sausages, they just perfectly present you with the flavour of pork. We like taking just a few ingredients and cooking them to perfection to present their unaltered flavour.

[@Ryysight]

Modern British food for the most part is actually really good, the quality of the ingredients on the European continent is usually far superior to the quality of food in other places (excluding Japan, Korea etc) due to strict food standard laws which really contributes to these classic meals tasting really great without the need of heavy seasoning or alteration, some people (mostly Americans) simply can't comprehend this because most of them haven't tasted food in Europe which for the most part is of a much higher standard and quality than what they're used to

[@kapuzinergruft]

​@@MostlyPennyCatPork sausage british style is fat pressed into the shape of a sausage... 😮

[@MostlyPennyCat]

@@JlandelMoncada1 For the comedian who got deleted for saying British sausages are fat and filler:

[@aidancampbell5644]

So there was a British food joke that popped up in Dragon Age origins: “ we take the biggest pot we can find and put everything in it, then cook it for as long as possible until everything is bland and tasteless. When everything is a uniform, greyish colour, that’s when I know it is done”…

[@RustyCadet]

Baked beans taste great, I don't know why people dislike them so much.

[@christianmarriott3696]

Who dislikes them ?

[@Bedic-Mag]

Because baked beans in the US Vs UK are very different. They've never tried Heinz beans before. And TBF, the beans themselves taste better than they look

[@MostlyPennyCat]

​@@Bedic-Mag It's literally an American product. _Heinz_

[@PiousMoltar]

@@MostlyPennyCat It's an American company, it's not an American product, they don't really sell them over there. Well they sell baked beans but they're not the same. I think they do actually sell some called "British style" or something (edit: Oh, they are literally pictured in this video) because I saw a video about it, which compared them to actual British Heinz Beanz, but even they are not identical, and most people probably don't even know you can buy them. For some reason as a kid I didn't like baked beans. I thought they were kinda gross. Nowadays I think they're pretty good. Oh and Heinz aren't even the best.

[@ninaelsbethgustavsen2131]

Beans is a less costly, good source of protein if you can't have meat. In Norway we serve tomato beans with thick slices of fried unsmoked salty bacon. This is eaten with steamed potatoes and white sauce. The Danes add chopped parsley to the sauce, where as in Sweden they just swap tomato beans for brown beans. Very typical Scandinavian... 😊❤

[@rosiefay7283]

2:22 Now if you're vegetarian, fair enough, black pudding is gross, but then so is all meat. But you can hardly call it gross if you're willing to eat hot dogs or American burgers with whatever they make them out of.

[@enoyna1001]

I think people don't like the idea of too much blood in their food.

[@emkalina]

Black pudding in contrary to meat actually has some vitamins in it

[@rustyhowe3907]

I heard an american lose his mind "I can't understand how *anyone* could eat something as vile as that!" myself (Australian born), a Ukrainian friend and my own mother (born in Switzerland where it was common) all said "poverty" and shut him up real quick.

[@emkalina]

@rustyhowe3907 not exactly poverty but lack of land more precisely. Europe has no shitload of free space for cows to graze freely

[@rustyhowe3907]

@@emkalina Yep that's what my mother also said about where she grew up, but in hers and my friend's case it was definitely poverty being a huge factor too.

[@Cazzer1604]

This is great, love the deep dive and clearly tons of effort has gone into this! Bonus points for defending our mid cuisine.

[@michaelchen8643]

As someone pointed out during World War II, there was very severe rationing of food and this rash actually persisted into the early 1950s I think this rationing lasted into maybe 1953 even 1954 a time when North America was going through Renaissance of consumer items and advertising I’d have to ask why did the British government insist on rationing food into the early 1950s? What happens with food is that people associated with comfort and familiarity so low quality ration food actually became a stable and people would prefer having it as a form of familiarity and comfort I think that’s where the bad reputational British food comes from mid to late 20th century

[@jaconbran2367]

Apparently the indigenous Americans ate fried beans but it was made with bear fat not tomato sauce. Baked beans were inspired by that to make bake beans in sauce in a convenient tin for travel

[@topazz5574]

Jellied Eel sounds good. I'm deffinetly gonna give it a try. Here, in Ukraine, we have jelly but made out of pork. I'm really excited to taste jellied fish. (in Ukraine we call jallied pork like [holodets])

[@RendererEP]

Jellied eel tastes better with some parsley sauce.

[@henryblunt8503]

We have pork jelly too, but usually we only use it to fill up the space in a pork pie between the meat and pastry that's formed as the pie cooks. Keeps the meat away from the air and adds an extra texture and juiciness.

[@squeezter]

Yes, I thought of that too, but if there are bones in the fish it would be a pass for me

[@MostlyPennyCat]

I've been making Halupsi, except I now need a meat grinder to make them really well. And I want to use fermented sour cabbage however I think that's, er, can't remember the nation that's from.

[@jimmyjenkins1907]

@@MostlyPennyCat you mean sauerkraut? I think its german 🤔

[@nightshade3685]

Love this format, would love to see more educational long form food vids!! 👏👏

[@comteqfr525]

We have blood sausage in France too, it's called boudin noir.

[@jcrossan1351]

Yanks just simply cannot comprehend the complexity of the greggs sausage roll

[@sevenember3332]

No, we can’t, but have you ever had a scrapple egg and cheese sandwich? Regional, but very tasty

[@lemdixon01]

Greggs sausage rolls are okay, not great because it's a big chain bakery/store with low quality meat, half cooked pastry and not local and home made.

[@Beedo_Sookcool]

@@sevenember3332 We have something similar to scrapple, called haslet. Usually sliced thinner than scrapple and served as a cold lunchmeat, but can also be heated up.

[@Beedo_Sookcool]

Gregg's is mediocre at best, but it'll suffice if you don't have a good local independent bakery.

[@stargirlskye]

your editing is fluid af omgg but bro if you rendered this in 60fps, it'd be buttery

[@swankmank]

i think he went to a school for that or something

[@kurtwagner4663]

​@@swankmankhe literally mentioned hiring an editor at Fiverr in another comment 😅

[@Seansmusicvault]

Well done video, mate! Excellent culinary history lesson, replete with your wonderfully witty wordplay and delightfully dry analogies. ☮

[@nilsbrown7996]

The internet has brought a wave of colonization by American food, Barbecue etc. For this reason I’m very very happy to see the survival of the Sunday Roast!!!This is a unique phenomenon in fact, now only for Thanksgiving and major feast days, here in North America. Brilliant video! Well done! Subscribed.

[@leonie3294]

This video is so well made! Definitely deserves more attention

[@Tobias_Brix]

Really enjoyed this mate. Keep the long form vids coming !

[@Scoutbutball]

Black pudding is legitimately good Like Why y’all foreigners dissing it >:(

[@hartmann3288]

beans on toast is peak too, especially with a bit of cheese on top

[@Pudddle]

@hartmann3288 I don't even consider it the proper meal yet without cheese tbh. The pictures you see people react to are always just beans on an underdone bit of cheap, pre-sliced white toast. No wonder they aren't impressed, GET SOME BLOODY BROWN SAUCE ON IT 😤

[@Scoutbutball]

Or add a fried egg Make it crispy on the edges with salt and pepper seasoning That makes things ten times better imo ❤️

[@Im_dj_]

FR, americans literally believe they know everything, the guys who diss our food i bet haven't even had it before 💀

[@KajiRider1997]

Because I've had it, it tastes like liverwurst but warmed up, just ew

[@taltamir]

I ate breakfast in england once. I ordered a "british breakfast" off the menu. They gave me: fried tomato, fried potato, fried egg, fried sasuage, fried beans, and fried bread. ... it was actually surprisingly tasty. but a bit too heavy and greasy. and the bread was too soggy from the oil it was fried in.

[@CraftZ08]

Bro couldn’t even find an image of someone looking at some fish fingers in a shop or even a pub so he resorted to AI images smh. Still a good video regardless, I am now very hungry

[@MrCashoos]

As a Mexican guy I can say that besides jelly eel I didn't find anything gross on the dishes showed in the video. Bland? Definitely, but gross? Absolutely no.

[@thornappletea]

They don't even have to be really bland, it's not a fiery hot cuisine overall but a lot of these things were supposed to be served with sauces and condiments like horseradish and mustard (English mustard is usually much hotter than USA version) or highly flavoured herby/fruity accompaniments and relishes.

[@OscarOSullivan]

English mustard with sausages, rashers and black and white pudding.

[@vacri54]

For pity's sake, it's not the CUISINE, it's the QUALITY. The British CUISINE is fine. But Brits in general accept a really, really low standard in their bought food. I spent half a year in the UK recently and lost over 10kg because eating was just something to regret. I ended up looking for places to eat where it looked like the cooks grew up somewhere else. It's the QUALITY that's the problem. Even if you go to McDonald's in the UK, the buns are consistently slightly stale - and this is a global chain that has perfected getting disinterested teenagers to make identical food. I remember once getting a Thai green curry at a Thai place in the O2 Arena... and it was half *pea soup*. You yourself say the same thing at 18:00 when you reference the *thousands* of bad eateries. YOUR food that you personally make for this channel is fine because you're a food enthusiast, and yes you can find good food in the UK, but you have to hunt for it. In other countries you don't have to hunt, you just throw a brick and chances are you'll hit an eatery that's decent. Or look at a chain store like Greggs that's really popular, and their offerings are oily, soggy things. Nothing wrong with a sausage roll... but that popular chain makes miserable ones. I personally thought the "British food is bad" thing was a meme because of the rivalry with the French who do food well. Then I lived in the UK for a bit. Brits accept really poor quality in their bought meals, like no place else. As a history video, it's great. But it completely misses providing the "real reason" in the title. (and seriously - the UK was not the only place that had war rationing. that really isn't part of the reason.)

[@jimtaylor294]

Ironically French food is the opposite case of largely iffy food that's hyped up. After all the French invented Margarine (via boiling up roadkill 😂), have made a tradition of being d1cks to Geese and other birds, and think that Snails is a starter 🤦‍♂️ . Och, and we Brit's have more varieties of Cheese than the French do 😏 .

[@y0uw0tm8-t9g]

That's such bullshit. I live in Poland and the quality of everything is horrible. I've frequently has to throw away meat from the supermarket because it smelled bad. Polish shops will only make you happy if you're looking for cheap beer and vodka and 1000 near identical varieties of dried pork sausage. Or their *shudder* herring they eat. That's nightmare fuel.

[@baseman2002]

My parents came to UK from Jamaica. I was born here. Everything here was bland we would season everything. Even beans. To this day I season everything shop bought. Everyone loves my cooking.

[@y0uw0tm8-t9g]

Let's not pretend the patty isn't just a remix of the Cornish pastie, though. It must be pretty good if you copy it ;) Talking of bland food, lots of people are guilty of that. Have you ever had fufu, like the West Africans eat? Imagine eating thick wallpaper paste with your fingers. No wonder they all go crazy about jollof rice (basically just tomato rice), compared to fufu it's an incredible taste sensation

[@PLZnoHEXES]

Production value on this one is a bit crazy Good job :>

[@minipily1841]

good video! it would be good if you would include more vital information like dates so theres more narrative. however i see this long form style is new to you so yay!

[@tommymorrison6478]

British food is a long way from being awful. In fact it's a huge improvement on the food most people in the world today eat. But it's fashionable to criticise the British and everything British, and so we have to endure this nonsense.

[@MaMa-Marie]

I lived in the UK outside of Cambridge for 3 years. I moved back recently. Just my and my families opinion. The restaurant food outside of the major cities is pretty bland, boring and often undercooked by our standards. The Asian style foods are often just unedible. However, even in our small village there was an amazing Japanese/Chinese restaurant that was very good. By contrast eating at someone's house was always a treat. I never left without being amazed how different it was from getting a take away. So called American themed restaurants in England were always way over salted, way over sugared, and nothing that most Americans would ever dream of eating together. Groceries stores are also extremely different. There is much less choice at a uk gr9cery store. However, the quality of fruit, veg, dairy, meat and seafood is so much higher in the UK. The cost is also so much lower. We didn't care for most of their frozen or pre-packaged foods. The dairy selection was also much smaller than than North America. But what they do have is very good and of a high quality. The selection we really shocked me as I thought that being so close they would have more imported food. As far as bread. Yes sandwich bread in the us mostly has too much sugar, but we I barely noticed a difference in taste between the English bread and US. We also have access to bakeries and artisan breads. Since covid there is also a marked uptick in people making their own. I will say everything I ate in Ireland was amazing. I know not what were really talking about. In the end there are pros and cons of both countries. And also just a matter of preference base on what we are used to. I would kill to get access to a Saintsbury s here. Especially with the lower prices. But I prefer all of north Amercas restaurant food with only a few exceptions. But I respect that many Brits would rather have their food over ours.

[@thomasdevine867]

Baked Beans were the standard Sunday meal in colonial New England. Basically, they banked the oven fires on Saturday night. They set the crock with beans and sauce in the oven the night before, and it was ready the next day. This made cooking on the Sabbath unnecessary. 12:50

[@ZhukovsBoots]

How on earth did you not mention Ainsley Harriott in the Celeb chef section, he deserves it way more than Jamie Oliver!

[@jimtaylor294]

Yup. Delia Smith was an especially logical one to have mentioned... yet wasn't 🤦‍♂️ . Gary Rhodes too (sadly passed away in 2019) as well as Hairy Bikers (one sadly now passed) and Two Fat Ladies (one hath passed) ...not to mention the legendary F@nny Craddock and Mrs Beaton 😌👌 .

[@mtb7579]

When he said "Henry VIII's body count"......not sure which is more, people he bedded & married, or people he executed lol

[@rustyhowe3907]

My granny was 100% British, raised as a kid during the Depression while I was kid born and raised in Australia. My father was the brat always complaining and she'd pelt him with the wooden spoon for being so fussy. To me there was nothing wrong with her cooking, it was just a different style for a different climate well away from the Indian/Rest of Asia cuisines that had become the norm to us Aussies, I have a deep respect for all styles thanks to understanding not *everyone* had the spoilt for choice fancy ingredients as a part of their culture, by default.

[@MrWillyMrBrightside]

People really do forget that unlike America, the majority of people in Britain had very limited options for food for different reasons. The First World War led to food shortages, after that unlike America there was no great economic uplift in the 1920s, compounded by the Great Depression, and then by the Second World War and rationing which went on for nearly twice as long as the war did. So that's four decades of limited food options for many people. Okay it's an excuse the French, Italians and Spanish could have as well but don't, but for a lot of people born in the 50s and 60s, all they'll have known growing up was crap, unseasoned food

[@whome9842]

I don't buy these excuses. British empire was the biggest empire in history with territories in the Americas, Asia and Africa so historically they had access to many ingredients and techniques meanwhile Japan also went through famine and rationing, destroyed in war but had much more limited access to other ingredients and their cuisine is considered one of the bests of the world. Japanese cuisine often focus on making the best of limited ingredients, one of their most famous dishes is raw fish with no spices or other ingredients besides some soy sauce.

[@MartynPS]

@@whome9842 Its not like Japan didn't have a substantial empire too. If that theory held then other empires would show as much impact by the countries they ruled over. I think most of the influence went the other way. Japan was rebuilt by the west, mostly for the west. Their international cuisine is probably more tailored to a western palette that it would otherwise have been.

[@whome9842]

@@MartynPS When did Japan had colonies in the Americas, Africa and Oceania? Potatoes, tomato, corn and many other things came from the Americas. UK couldn't have fish and chips without their colonies.

[@MrWillyMrBrightside]

@@whome9842 You're ignoring the biggest thing Nibbles didn't really go into, Britain's extremely rigid class system. The working class didn't have access to the imported goods of the empire. The peasant farmers who raised cows spoke Anglo-Saxon wheras the nobility who ate the meat of cows called it beef because they spoke French, this continued for centuries.

[@MartynPS]

@@whome9842 IIRC it was the Spanish who introduced the Potato to Europe, and the Portuguese who have the earliest example of fish and chips. I don't recall either being part of the British Empire. 'Modern' changes British food, like much of Europe, is influenced by its neighbours via the upper classes. Until globalization started kicking off most new foods and techniques were out of reach of most of the population.

[@dibs3615]

I'm a U.S Southerner....Black Pudding sounds and looks soooooo good to me. Om nom nom nom. Wish we had it here.

[@deanstanley2125]

@@dibs3615 go to Louisiana and get some boudin noir

[@RemnantCult]

I know you usually make shorts with cooking and dry, distinctively British comedic narration but I really enjoy this standard length video here.

[@surprisedchar2458]

Anyone making fun of baked beans hasn’t had good baked beans. But I still don’t get why you guys put them on toast. Wouldn’t that just make the toast soggy and basically just revert it to bread?

[@DaveGreen-gw6ew]

@@surprisedchar2458 No funnily enough it doesn't make the toast soggy. Most people will also add something of their choice to it. I personally like to add some smoked paprika to the beans as they are cooking and then sprinkle some grated cheese on top of it when it has been served.

[@superlynx98]

Hi mate, been loving your shorts for ages now, great longer video too. Only criticism is that the use of AI imagery is a bit outputting. Otherwise, nicely done

[@conho4898]

The problem with British cuisine is the presentation. Non-British look at British cuisine and see a monotone beige/brown, and it always looks kinda messy. If the presentation looks a little better, I'm sure the reputation will be gone.

[@felixbonnet6639]

Bro just skipped the Anglo-Saxon period 💀

[@Blaidd7542]

Almost like that time period is known as the dark ages specifically because unlike the literate native Britons the Anglo Saxons were illiterate.

[@felixbonnet6639]

« Illiterate »? I mean the Britons,yeah, but the Anglo-Saxons.They are known for having a huge body of literature back then. Don’t tell me they did’nt mention how they cooked.

[@Blaidd7542]

@@felixbonnet6639 no the Britons had been a literate culture since the romans brought the Latin alphabet over half a milenia before the arrival of the Anglo Saxons, first in Latin and then in Brythonic around the 5th century.

[@tisFrancesfault]

@@Blaidd7542 tbf, literacy in the anglo saxon period was fairly high, comparatively speaking. Its literary works and artistry were, and are, highly regarded. Anglo Saxon England also had one of the most advanced tax systems in Europe at the time. The idea that Anglo-saxon England was a backwater is nonsense.

[@Blaidd7542]

@ the Anglo Saxon era covers a period of around 4 centuries.

[@tamaratamtammorris8151]

Great video! Informative and entertaining. More content like this!

[@minhquanvu2944]

As an Vietnamese and an Asian, i like blood sausage. We all have our version of blood sausage here in SEA

[@rosemartasgaminghoard]

Thank you for this video. It pisses me off so much when I see people bashing traditional British food or daring to say that it doesn't even exist and that it was stolen from other places. British food is great. It's very similar to other European cuisines and there's nothing wrong with that.

[@silvesta5027]

Ayo the editing goes crazy

[@jaconbran2367]

Great episode 👍 though I think it could’ve been made into multiple episodes 😅

[@cowgurlbebop]

Love this! Please do more deep dives on culinary culture in the UK.

[@marlongaribay9414]

British curry houses sound exactly like american mexican restaurants from your description lmao

[@Harril8265]

All this video taught me was that any decent British food actually came from a different culture, so it isn't even British at all.

[@robertp457]

Any good can be good if it's made well enough, which is the problem with food made in the UK.

[@MyronZhang]

If pizzas, hot dogs and apple pies can be considered synonymous with the US, then why are chicken tikka masalas, tea and smoked salmon not allowed to be associated with Britain? Unless you're dismissing 2/3 of the dishes here by default that weren't cultivated overseas. Besides, the video title is a bit misleading. It's more so a history recap of food in Britain, and picks out some British favourites. Food quality is subjective, but I have tried everything mentioned in this video at least once and liked (and ,more often than not, really enjoyed) them. Jellied eels were the only exception. And it's not like this video is exhaustive of other food found in the UK.

[@vibepenguin4459]

Do you realise all cultures themselves come from other cultures? When the Earth was made British people weren't just magically there, the British culture was made by other cultures combining so yes it is from British culture.

[@aidancampbell5644]

… much like the British themselves.

[@jimtaylor294]

Except it's a myth. Spend enough time researching British foods and it becomes clear that the ""multiculturalism gave us all our food"" mantra is codswallop 😂 . He after all didn't mention that the Sandwich - one of the most popular ways of putting ingredients together - is a British invention. Three others are Chicken Tikka Masala, Chicken Balti, and even Baileys Irish Cream. (yup; a British chap came up with the latter, and advertising bumpf created the image of it being an Irish traditional drink, that most still believe to this day 😂) Reading a recipe book or two from the Victorian age also demonstrates indisputibly that British food was surprisingly comprehensive and creative back then, before the war years and postwar lack of proper cookery lessons in schools.

[@Miodowy]

There are other countries where you can find things like blood sausage, for example in Poland or Germany.

[@amarok9749]

The British have a very high standard of ingredient quality, Everything from potatoes to lamb is very heavily controlled and sourced usually from grass fed free range animals, And with such a small population all relatively close to each other, we don't have to transport food 1000+ miles across country in freezers, Combined with a "weekly shop" culture food doesn't have as many preservatives and fake flavourings added to combat the bland old produce that's been on a shelf for 6 weeks. So whilst we might not use every herb and spice know to man in our food, its because believe it or not, a simple well made mash potato with 2 local butchers sausages and some simple meat gravy has plenty of flavour and doesn't need dousing in "BIG TEDS FLAMING HOT GRILLED EAGLE DICK SPICE MIX" like they do in the good ol' USA. Also WW2 did some weird shit to us as well to be fair..

[@amarok9749]

@Dionysos640 relative to the USA, it does, America has a pupulation of around 350 million, compared to around 70 million in the UK.

[@robokill387]

America is like 100 times the size of the UK. If anything, America is underpopulated for its size. Most countries it's size have a population of over a billion. Russia doesn't count because most of its land mass is uninhabitable.

[@sevenember3332]

I’m lucky to live in a part of the US where, from spring to mid-autumn, produce stands are run selling mostly locally grown or made food. I try to stick to seasonal produce when possible and when not, frozen vegetables with no added preservatives. We do weekly shops here too. Not every American has their freezer loaded with and dines exclusively on convenience meals just as I know not every Brit takes advantage of the high-quality meat and produce you’re proud of (and you should be). Spice mixes, outside of specific cuisine, are the crutch of people who don’t know how to cook. And again, not every American is ignorant of how to properly produce a tasty meal. It’s not even the majority. Please don’t pretend every American is the same with poor taste as I don’t do the same for you. And the blame for the reputation of British cooking can be laid entirely on the transition from wood fire cooking to coal fire cooking. When the main meal needed to be cooked in a pot, it was typically boiled for most people. That’s when things went downhill. And no, the war didn’t help Side note: I’ve had tasty food in England. I’ve also had boarding school food. Take that as you will

[@lpfan4491]

How about doing both tho? Having good food quality does not stop seasonings from making it even better.

[@amarok9749]

@@sevenember3332 All very fair points! I suppose what I'm trying to say is that geographically its easier in the UK for us to take advantage of local produce etc than in some areas of the united states (From what I've Seen/Heard) due to the UK being a smaller land size therefore we might have greater options with choosing our food locally, And admittedly yes I was a bit harsh with putting "Americans" in a singular group like I did, I know of (If only online) Great American cooks who choose their produce carefully and season things brilliantly. The USA has produced many MANY cooks and forms of cooking that I myself use on a weekly basis, I just know of my own experience here in the UK knowing I can go 2 minutes down the road and buy things such as Eggs/Bacon/Vegetables from the nearby honesty box of the local farmers etc, So its probably a bit out of mu world to imagine struggling for food when my concept of food is so simple. American healthy diets do seem like a bit of a minefield though 😬😬

[@KFrost-fx7dt]

Hi, Yank here 👋🏼 I love black pudding, haggis, bangers, Arbroath smokies, and British beans and I wish we could get them across the pond!

[@nwrth]

Beans on toast is actually going to be one of my meals tomorrow. Dunno which one yet, but I've decided to figure out why it's so popular myself. Wish me luck.

[@MostlyPennyCat]

Some advice: 1) Stove top, medium heat, don't let it boil. Microwaves don't get them hot without a disproportionate amount of effort 2) Well browned toast, don't skimp on the butter 3) taste your beans while cooking, adjust seasoning as needed, enhance the flavour without making it salty. 4) Optionally add some butter to the beans 5) If they look a little thin, reduce the sauce a bit until they thicken up 6) Optionally season with worcestershire sauce 7) put beans on toast, few turns of black pepper and optionally serve with grated cheddar.

[@Pudddle]

​@@MostlyPennyCat I second all these tips, although cheese is mandatory for me

[@nwrth]

@MostlyPennyCat @Pudddle Thanks for your advice. I happen to have a piece of delightful Snowdonia cheddar in the fridge, which will definitely turn it into a worthy meal. 😄

[@nwrth]

@@MostlyPennyCat Alright. I think I can see the point now. I didn't have the genuine Heinz beans at hand, so some cheap Italian baked beans in chilli sauce had to suffice, but in the end, it made for a hearty and filling meal with nothing screaming "this is wrong" in it. As advised, I spread some butter on the toasts, added a squirt of Worcester sauce into the beans, and topped it all up with a pinch of fresh black pepper, and a fair amount of mature cheddar. Very nice.

[@MishapsychosYT]

⁠@@MostlyPennyCatI always have them with Worcestershire sauce 13:08

[@chuckblaze5147]

5:15 another fun fact: this still shot comes from a recent (2023) Polish movie adaptation of the Polish mandatory reading book called "The Peasants" :)

[@rosiefay7283]

3:42 Indeed, British cheese is great. And while all cheese is processed food, admittedly, at least in Britain and elsewhere in Europe it's sold in big chunks or wheels, not those horrible ultra-processed slices you get in America.

[@sevenember3332]

We don’t want it. It’s something the government came up with to process the stockpiles of milk they bought during the war. There were eventually so many of the stockpiled cheese loaves that the government started giving it away to low-income families that it eventually got the name of “government cheese”. It’s not even properly cheese, it’s cheese *food* and while it does have a few good applications (part of a sauce, on a burger) I’d rather use an aged cheddar style cheese

[@AlbertoRighi-h2r]

Yes, indeed...there are many many great english cheeses out there, like Cheddar, Stilton...ehm...yes...Cheddar (did I already?🤔)...uhm...

[@matthewdominik7558]

It’s a travel myth. Everyone knows someone who knew someone who went to the UK and said the food was dreadful. It’s actually not.

[@ravilagro7896]

Loved this long form video man. Naming Jamie Oliver among British 'culinary cred' was a big mistake though 🤣

[@ninaelsbethgustavsen2131]

Jamie has tought at least one generation of Brits to dare cook their own, simple meals...

[@ravilagro7896]

@@ninaelsbethgustavsen2131 Maybe.. I've never seen Jamie make anything and not make massive technical errors and add weird flavors. Like starting fried rice with rice in a cold wok and adding water to the rice 😂 As a non-brit to us he is like the archetype of blasphemous British cooking.

[@diarmuidkuhle8181]

​@@ravilagro7896 He started off cooking actually tasty dishes. Where he went off the rails is deciding to prepare food from different cuisines based on zero preparation or learning, only his own vague ideas of what those dishes should be like.

[@ravilagro7896]

@@diarmuidkuhle8181 Yeah I believe you. He couldn't have gotten famous over bad cooking. But when he tries to put his own spin on things it's always like ying and yang 😅 I think why a lot of people dislike him as well is his dishonest school lunch program that was just good for him financially but bad for every kid at school.

[@NaviRyan]

@@ravilagro7896love uncle Roger reacting to Jamie Oliver.

[@TCh-f8f]

6:45 the welsh rarebit evolved into the Welsh in northern France. They had the ham, a egg with the dish in a small "plat à gratin"

[@jimlaker6552]

Best video yet on this channel, and by some distance. A fascinating watch, not just for the food, but also the history. The history of British tea is also the history of the British empire. The most prized possessions in the west were the Caribbean islands where sugar cane was grown. Tea was bought from China (tea being a corruption of cha), which led to a shortage of British silver and the need to get some back (resulting in the Opium war and Hong Kong). The search for other sources made Sri Lanka important. Milk in tea was a result of drinking habits in India.

[@327legoman]

I'm glad you made an attempt at this video! Though I do wish you'd re-visit it again after your long format video making skills are more up to par. I love you stuff but the editing in this video was super wonky and the volume level on the mic was going up and down like mad. Best of luck with making videos in the future! Would love to chat too if you ever wanted the thoughts of a jaded Brit who's lived in Japan (Supposed the holy land of good food according to every American influencer) for 3 years!

[@PizaBred]

You look like my dt teacher

[@hsjshdhsjshsh958]

Yeah I agree he does look like your dt teacher

[@Czenko16]

Yh a lot of similarities

[@harrietbarron347]

So your DT teacher is fit then

[@PizaBred]

You’d find him fit

[@Centervillejim]

I wish he were my teacher. 😈

[@kyrusinek]

I just saw it as "banter" "your foods shit mate" "Yeah well least I don't have to cover it in chilli to hide the off-crap-cut of meat"

[@marcusmelville4111]

Eel is actually delicious though. In New Zealand it's often smoked.

[@sevenember3332]

It’s the jellied part. Aside from the texture mash-up, most people these days aren’t used to savory jellies. And though I’ve only had it Japanese style, it is tasty

[@marcusmelville4111]

@sevenember3332 the same people don't mind the jellie in the pork pies though...

[@sevenember3332]

@@marcusmelville4111 Sorry, I’m a little too American to be familiar with that! A fresh, warm pork pie sounds delicious, but I’ve always been put off by the jelly that comes from cold meat

[@marcusmelville4111]

@@sevenember3332 what do you think gelatin is?

[@sevenember3332]

@ I’m fully aware it’s the source of gelatin/is gelatin. I just don’t want to eat meat flavored gelatin nor have it squish under my fingers. Chalk it up to sensory issues

[@sapphoculloden5215]

Just FYI - medieval people drank ale because they liked it, and because it was nutritious. They also drank water, and even wrote about the benefits of drinking water.

[@terrynicoll5443]

I love Curry, Sunday Pot Roast, and Yorkshire Pudding with brown gravy. Getting hungry! 🇬🇧

[@MostlyPennyCat]

Been making toad in the hole, I'm getting really good at it.

[@anonymousbloke1]

>Black Pudding Not only is it not originally british (brought in by Romans), it also exists in literally every other European country, including Italy (sanguinaccio) and even Russia (кровянка)

[@royasturias1784]

Asian / Pacific Islander example: dinuguan, that is more soup than sausage

[@Zivilin]

Because it's pretty basic and humans have always tried make the most out of the food we had available.

[@Марта-й7е]

И в България.

[@nighouds9062]

too many AI generated images. you could've done about 15 minutes of searching for some existing real photos that fit your talking points

[@AxelPoliti]

Wonderful edifying and instructive. Go ahead!

[@midnightmosesuk]

Hello. I'm your friendly local pedant. Not moderninity but modernity. Not imigration but immigration. My work here is done. On to my next mission, pedant away!

[@theamazingworldofchewy2220]

A lot of that food looked sad af

[@Roof_Pizza]

If the stereotype wasn't accurate it would soon die away, it hasn't. The French do smoke a lot and Scandanavians are rather tall. You get the idea. Being butt hurt and pretending you know what others think isn't helping your cause.

[@LordApoca]

I mean, yall do have Gordon Ramsey. Just don't let him make grilled cheese, he cant do that

[@Weary_Wizard]

easy answer - the italians hate all other cooks then them the french use suger and butter in all their recipies India spices their food so much they literally cannot eat anything else but spiced food America- is a mixture of all 3 but to the extreme, they also try to deflect from the fact they invented "Junk food" . its also important to remember 2things with british cooking, 1 , we come from a line of cooks that use herbs, which has delicate flavours, so our food is designed to enhance the meats not overpower them which is lost on people that put suger and spice in everything and 2, every person that thnks we dont spice our food just means we dont over spice our food,(for the reasona above) but also forgets every curry they can name was probably invented by the british or in britain, they dont eat vindaloos in Bombay.

[@davidwright7193]

@@Weary_Wizard Vindaloo might not be eaten in Mumbai but down the coast in Goa pork with wine and potatoes is a popular dish. Indian is a big place and what is eaten in Simla and Madras is as different as Scotland and Scilly.

[@HistorybyWilliam]

Curry and we'll seasoned food is fine once in a while, but like you said, the more you eat of it the less you enjoy other food, not because it's better, but because it makes your taste buds blind to anything else, plus, when im eating chicken curry, im not doing it for the chicken or rice, it's basically just eating curry sauce with a side of texture. Anyway there are tons of cultures that don't season their food like Japan and a lot of South American countries, but they don't get any crap for it. Seasoning is great but it's completely out of place in traditional british cuisine, except for like herbs and pepper/fresh vegetables

[@MostlyPennyCat]

​@@davidwright7193 Ah yes, vindaloo that famously _Portuguese_ recipe! 😂 Vindaloo is a British version of a Goan version of a Portuguese dish!

[@MostlyPennyCat]

OP makes an excellent point, a lot of European cuisines are very insular. They don't do change or foreign influences. Britain is the original multicultural nation, we're obsessed with everybody's food and no, not because ours is "bad". Our food is fantastic, flavoursome and has been for centuries. Go look up the original ketchup, white ketchup and tell me that's bland. But we love everybody's food, we take in every influence we can and make new things with it.

[@danielcrafter9349]

​@@MostlyPennyCat- ketchup is the best you could think of 😂😂

[@youtubehandlescostmemyusername]

"Where'd you get the coconuts?" "We found them!"

[@FiatMultipla]

Here before 1 billion

[@takis-t2g]

Well am Greek from Cyprus I came here in 1959 from the first time I arrived I did not find British food to be bad at al different yes bad No, even today after so many years cottage pie Lancashire hot pot fish n chips are 3 of my favourite foods along with full English breakfast, of course is getting better as time goes by when I went to china for a month what did I missed the most? fish n chips fasoles (Greek/Turkish cooked beans) n Kebab ops n of course Bread n butter putting Rubab pie

[@Vlad-1986]

I arrived to the UK about 13 years ago from the north of Spain, a region where food is really nearly a religion. This is what I personally think about British food, according to my palate: It is not at all that bad, and I really like some stuff, but I find it bland. There are two categories of food: -Really nice: Things like scotched eggs, multiple variants of meat pies are super tasty and I have incorporated them into my weekly diet -Most food is very bland: Ingredients are good quality, but the way they are cooked on the UK makes it taste like paper. Vegetables, Sunday roast dinner (Sorry, but tasteless sliced meat and over boiled vegetables is not that great to me). -Ah, and meat & fish is usually way too overcooked. Meat is usually cooked until it's a grey, hard substance which drains any moisture from your body, and fish is cooked on the oven till it becomes jerky and all the flavour is totally killed. But again, I just buy on the supermarket and cook it myself. Just don't ask for stuff like hamburgers, steak or salmon on a restaurant, and go for "traditional" British food!

[@michaelfoley906]

Sorry, but all your criticisms there have absolutely nothing to do with the cuisine and everything to do with whoever is preparing it being a dreadful cook. If the veggies on your Sunday dinner are bland and overcooked then that's bad cooking. If the meat is overcooked, tough and tasteless then that is REALLY bad cooking. The UK has top, top quality meat available so there is no excuse for it to be anything other than delicious. You've just described bad cooking, not bad food, and to be honest it just comes across as incredibly ignorant.

[@vespasiancloscan7077]

@@michaelfoley906 the average quality of the cooks in a country is one of several relevant factors, though.

[@aperturix]

"We still eat like Germans are flying overhead" - that one made my day! 🤣 Greetings from Berlin

[@cameroonkendrick6312]

Herbs are the hero’s of European cuisine

[@phenixnunlee372]

I used to work for a British company and I went to London and Bristol. All the foods was good and as an America I came in as a hater. The gastro pubs are good.

[@BardicRJ]

Drink every time he says “staple”

[@Sacto1654]

The food rationing of 1939-1954 essentially wiped out old British cuisine. The UK government should have asked for food imports from the USA just after World War II, which could have saved British cuisine much earlier.