Best of English Food and Cooking

Cookery Book Collects 80 of England's Traditional Regional Recipes

Feb 16, 2009
Mike Gerrard

Best of English Food and Cooking - Anness Publishing Ltd

The Best of English Food and Cooking by Annette Yates is more than just a cookbook. As well as eighty traditional regional recipes it has a history of English food too.

The best of English cooking today is among the finest in the world, with chefs like Gordon Ramsay and Heston Blumenthal collecting whole galaxies of Michelin stars. But English food has a long tradition and a new cookbook, The Best of English Food and Cooking by Annette Yates, collects together eighty of England's best traditional and regional recipes, while also including essays on such subjects as:

The History of Eating in England
England's Regions
Feasts and Festivals
Teatime Traditions
Alcoholic Beverages
Cheese-making
Bread-making

If there's one thing wrong with this book then it's the cover photo, as the English fried breakfast that's featured might be fine to eat on a winter morning but looks unappetising in the extreme in glorious Technicolor close-up. It probably adds a calorie each time it's looked at.

Food Essays

That aside, this is a wonderful book that anyone with any interest in English cooking and food would want to own. The essays are fascinating, although far from in-depth. They cover the history of eating in England going back to Roman times and beyond. Another essay covers the different regional English foods, taking 12 pages to wander through the English landscape and such local delights as Chester buns, Gressingham ducks, and Bakewell tarts. There's an essay too on Feasts and Festivals throughout the year, from Shrove Tuesday through to Christmas.

Teatime Traditions explains the difference between Afternoon Tea and High Tea, while stronger drinks including Mead, Beer and Ale, Cider, and Gin are all covered as well.

The Recipes

After a lengthy section describing the English kitchen and what types of food can be found there, the author goes on to the eighty traditional and regional recipes she has collected together. These do include such old English favorites as:

Fish and Chips
Brown Windsor Soup
Yorkshire Puddings
Lancashire Hotpot
Lincolnshire Plum Bread
Kedgeree
Yorkshire Parkin
Suffolk Buns
Bakewell Tart
Queen of Puddings

The Author

Annette Yates has written over 30 cookbooks including England's Heritage Cookbook, A Taste of Wales, A Taste of England, and Fresh Bead in the Morning from your Bread Machine. She also writes for newspapers and magazines, and is a member of the Guild of Food Writers, and the Association of Culinary Professionals.

The Verdict

For anyone wanting an English cookbook that is more than merely a collection of recipes then the Best of English Food and Cooking can be well recommended, from the Gateshead bacon floddies in the north-east through to the south-west's Cornish pasties.