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You are here: Home / Food / Interesting Facts about British Food

Interesting Facts about British Food

By Helen Page 5 Comments

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10 Interesting Facts about British Food:

English Pub Food

English Pub Food

Have you ever wondered how some of your favourite foods came to be discovered or invented?

Here are ten interesting facts (or myths) about British food, some going back to Roman times:

  1. It was the Romans who made oysters popular in Britain and were responsible for establishing their cultivation .  The rich waters of Camulodunum (Colchester today) are  ideal for cultivating the delicious Colchester oysters .
  2. In Spring, you can trace the routes of the Roman Army through the south of England by following the white blossom on tall, wild cherry trees. Roman soldiers brought cherries from Italy and spat the pips out as they marched.
  3. The world’s most eaten ‘convenience’ food, the humble sandwich was named after an English aristocrat.   The Earl of Sandwich had such a passion for gambling, that he didn’t want to have to stop playing – gambling addiction?  To ensure his game was not interrupted and to keep his hands clean for the cards, the Earl of Sandwich asked for meat to be put between two slices of bread.
  4. King James I of England and VI of Scotland imported 10,000 mulberry trees to start a silk industry. Unfortunately, he ordered the wrong variety and the silk worms wouldn’t eat the leaves. The mulberry tree ‘berries,’ however, made excellent jam.
  5. English Cream Teas

    English Cream Teas

  6. Crowdie, a soft, fresh milk cheese, also known as ‘gruth’ in Gaelic is the result of traditional methods dating back to Scotland’s Viking occupation. The first farm to flavor it with garlic only did so after their cows had escaped from their field, wandered into woods and ate wild garlic. The flavor that went into the milk was so good that garlic crowdie quickly became a favorite item.
  7. ‘Bletted’ Medlars were a much loved after dinner treat in Victorian homes in November and December. The fruit was gathered from trees in September, laid in sawdust and kept until the flesh turned dark and soft, as they had to be ‘rotten to be ripe’.  I’ll give this one a miss!
  8. It is not only Stilton cheese that is important to the people of the Heart of England. In 1734, the Mayor of Nottingham was bowled over with a 100 lb. wheel of cheese during a riot after stall-holders at an annual street market had increased cheese prices by more than a third.
  9. The world’s first chocolate bar was made in Bristol in the late 1720s by Joseph Fry. His company was eventually taken over by Cadbury, another British, family owned firm.
  10. Mint sauce became the ‘essential’ accompaniment to roast lamb in Britain thanks to Queen Elizabeth I. To stop her subjects eating lamb and mutton (and help the wool industry), she decreed that the meat could only be served with bitter herbs. Enterprising cooks discovered that mint made the meat taste better, not worse.
  11. Ice cream was so popular in London in the 19th century that massive ‘ice wells’ were dug in the city. Ice was imported from America, and later from Norway to fill them.

Foods in England and Wales
Traditional English Food Specialities

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Filed Under: Food Tagged With: cool facts, england food, english delicacies, facts about, food facts, food in england, food of england, fun facts, historical facts, interesting british facts, interesting facts, interresting facts about united kingdom, popular foods in england, special foods of england, traditional english food

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About Helen Page

Helen Page is a prolific blogger and ardent traveller; she runs Travelsignposts with her professional writer and photographer husband Tony.

Comments

  1. avatarRachel Stokes says

    November 16, 2011 at 1:09 am

    I am a student at Bishop Grosseteste university, Lincoln, Lincolnshire and am involved in designing an 1860s food stall. I would like to do a ‘dip in’ basket of interesting food facts. There is nothing commercial about the stall, this would offer us some interaction with people as they pass. It will run for the afternoon and evening of Saturday 3 December 2011. May I use some of the facts found on your website please?
    Best wishes
    Rachel

    Reply
    • avatarTony Page says

      November 16, 2011 at 4:44 pm

      Hi Rachel,

      Please feel free to use any facts on our web site to help you in your interesting project, and thank you for your courtesy in asking our permission – although as you probably know, information per se cannot be copyrighted – facts themselves are free to use!

      Best of luck with your stall, and if you send us some details and a photo or two maybe we could feature it in an interesting post that could link up with traditional English food?

      Incidentally, my grandmother came from Bourne in Lincolnshire!

      Cheers,

      Tony Page

      Reply
      • avatarRachel Stokes says

        November 17, 2011 at 1:50 am

        Thank you Tony,
        Actually I didn’t know that facts are free to use – I’ll think on about that one. Thank you for your swift reply. Certainly I’ll send you a photo!
        What a small world it is, we seem to meet ‘local’ folk wherever we turn!
        Best wishes
        Rachel

        Reply
  2. avatarMary Ann says

    October 11, 2016 at 5:06 am

    Somebody hijacked your article and did a horrible job doing it…just thought you should know.

    (URL)

    Reply
    • avatarTony Page says

      October 11, 2016 at 2:02 pm

      Thanks for that, Mary Ann, we see it’s a classic scraper site with no contact address etc., but have sent a take-down notice to them and will contact Google if there’s no response. Fortunately they have little traffic, but still…

      Reply

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