British cuisine

English cuisine has traditionally been based on beef, lamb, pork, chicken, and fish, all cooked with the minimum of embellishment and generally served with potatoes and one other vegetable.

Traditional British food usually includes dishes such as fish and chips, roast dishes of beef, lamb, chicken and pork, both sweet and savoury pies and puddings, as well as regional dishes such as the Cornish pasty and Lancashire Hotpot.

The Sunday roast is perhaps the most common feature of English cooking. The Sunday dinner traditionally includes roast potatoes accompanying a roasted joint of meat such as roast beef, lamb, or a roast chicken and assorted vegetables, themselves generally roasted or boiled and served with a thick gravy.

Yorkshire pudding and gravy is now often served as an accompaniment to the main course.

Fish and chips, traditionally wrapped in old newspapers to keep warm on the journey home, has long been one of England's most popular carryout dishes. It is possibly the most popular and uniquely English dish, and is traditionally served with a side order of mushy peas with salt and vinegar as condiments. The advent of take-away foods during the industrial revolution led to foods such as fish and chips, mushy peas, and steak and kidney pie with mashed potato (pie and mash).

The full English breakfast (also known as "cooked breakfast" or "fried breakfast") also remains a culinary classic. Its contents vary, but it normally consists of a combination of bacon, grilled tomatoes, fried bread, black pudding, baked beans, fried mushrooms, sausages, eggs (fried, scrambled or boiled) and other variations on these ingredients and others.

By convention, at least for middle-income households, the main family meal of the week was the “Sunday joint” when a substantial piece of beef, lamb, or pork was roasted in the oven during the morning and served around midday.

The English sausage is distinctive, being made of fresh meat and rarely smoked, dried, or strongly flavoured. A variant of the sausage is the black pudding. It is made from pig's blood. Pig's trotters, tripe and brawn are also traditional fare in the North.

Pies, originally a way to preserve food, have long been a mainstay of English cooking. Meat pies are generally enclosed with fillings such as chicken and mushroom or steak and kidney (originally steak and oyster). Pork pies are almost always being eaten cold. Open pies or flans are generally served for desert with fillings of seasonal fruit. Another kind of pie is topped with mashed potato — for instance, shepherd's pie, with lamb, cottage pie, with beef, or fisherman's pie.

Britons make kippers, ham, bacon and a wide variety of pickled vegetables. Scottish smoked fish — salmon and Arbroath smokies — is particularly prized.

A formal teatime meal often may include scones with jam and butter or clotted cream. There are also butterfly cakes, simple small sponge cakes which can be iced or eaten plain. Nationwide, assorted biscuits and sandwiches are eaten. At home, the British have many original home-made desserts such as rhubarb crumble, bread and butter pudding, trifle and spotted dick. The traditional accompaniment is custard, known as crème anglaise (English sauce or English Cream). The dishes are simple and traditional, with recipes passed on from generation to generation. There is also Christmas pudding.

Tea itself, usually served with milk, is consumed throughout the day and is sometimes drunk with meals. In recent years herbal teas and speciality teas have also become popular.

Vocabulary notes

Advent - приход, прибытие

Arbroath smokies - арбротские копчушки (мелкая копчёная пикша) название по Арброту, Шотландия

Brawn - засоленная свинина, консервированная свинина; студень из свиной головы и говяжьих ножек

Clotted cream - сливочный варенец (сливки сквашиваются путем нагревания и медленного охлаждения)

Condiment - приправа

Cornish pasty - корнуэльский пирожок (горячий, жареный; с начинкой из мяса, почек, картофеля и капусты) первоначально выпекался в графстве Корнуолл

Custard - сладкий крем (из яиц и молока)

Embellishment - украшение; декорирование

Flan - открытый пирог с фруктовой, ягодной (и т.п.) начинкой; заварной крем, запеченный с карамельной глазурью

Gravy - подливка (из сока жаркого), соус, сок

Joint - мясной отруб (a joint of meat — кусок мяса)

Kidney - почка

Lamb - (зд.) мясо молодого барашка

Lancashire Hotpot - ланкаширское рагу (то же, что hotpot)

Mainstay - главная поддержка, опора, оплот

Mushy - мягкий; кашеобразной консистенции; мятый

Oyster - устрица

Pickled - соленый; маринованный

Rhubarb crumble – толченый (тертый) ревень

Savoury - острый, пикантный, пряный; острое блюдо, острая закуска (подаваемая в качестве аперитива или диджестива)

Scone - ячменная или пшеничная лепешка

Scramble - взбалтывать (обычно яйца для болтуньи)

Shepherd's pie - картофельная запеканка с мясом

Tripe – рубец или желудок (у жвачного животного), потроха (мн.ч.)

Trifle - бисквит, пропитанный вином и залитый сбитыми сливками

Trotters - ножки (свиные и т. п. как блюдо)

Roast – жаркое; кусок мяса, пригодный для жарки или приготовления жаркого; жареный; to roast - жарить(ся); печь(ся) (особ. в духовке или на открытом огне)

Vinegar - уксус

TESTS

1. Britannia is…

1. a national anthem of the UK;

2. a personification of England;

3. a personification of the UK;

4. an emblem of the England national football team.

2. The flag of the UK is commonly known as …

1. the “Merry Roger”;

2. the “Union Cross”;

3. the “Union Jack”;

4. the “Stars and Stripes”.

3. In 1801 legislation united … to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

1. Great Britain with Wales;

2. Great Britain with Ireland;

3. Scotland with Ireland and Wales;

4. England with Scotland.

4. … established the Church of England.

1. Henry VIII;

2. Elizabeth I;

3. Queen Victoria;

4. William I the Conqueror.

5. … must nominate a head of government (Prime Minister).

1. the government;

2. the ministers;

3. the Parliament;

4. the monarch.

6. At present there are two main political parties in England: …

1. the Conservative Party and the Communist Party;

2. the Conservative Party and the Labour Party;

3. the Labour Party and the Royalists;

4. the Liberal Party and the Labour Party.

7. The United Kingdom does not have a constitutionally defined official language.

1. have a constitutionally defined official language (English);

2. does not have a constitutionally defined official language;

3. have two constitutionally defined official languages (English and Welsh);

4. have four constitutionally defined official languages (English and Welsh, Irish and Scottish Gaelic).

8. Presbyterianism is the official faith in….

1. Scotland;

2. England;

3. Wales;

4. Ireland.

9. … is the highest mountain in the British Isles.

1. Snowdon;

2. Slieve Donard;

3. Ben Nevis;

4. Scafell Pike.

10. England has ….

1. a subtropical climate, with plentiful rainfall all year round;

2. a temperate and oceanic climate, with plentiful rainfall in winter;

3. a very dry subtropical climate;

4. a temperate climate, with plentiful rainfall all year round.

11. Today only a small part of the English countryside is woodland, ….

1. a substantial amount of it is a state property;

2. a small part of it is privately owned;

3. a substantial amount of it is privately owned;

4. a half of is a state property.

12. …is London's main entertainment and shopping district, with locations such as Oxford Street, Leicester Square, Covent Garden and Piccadilly Circus acting as tourist magnets.

1. the East End;

2. the West End;

3. the City;

4. the North London.

13. … is a very famous exhibition of wax figures.

1. British Museum;

2. London Eye;

3. Tate Gallery;

4. Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum.

14. … is considered to be the world's first industrialised city.

1. Glasgow;

2. Manchester;