The Truth about Pub Food Recipes
There are different kinds of restaurants - pub food, cafe food and fine dining food all fall under the restaurant category. You will expect a different standard of cooking and care in each of these kinds of places but let us have a look at pub food. What is the truth behind pub food recipes? Are these dishes usually freshly prepared or will you get something that has been made months before and deep-frozen?
In Britain, pub food is usually known as “pub grub.” In the early twentieth century, this consisted of a cold snack such as a salad or shellfish vendors setting up stalls outside and selling cockles, mussels and whelks.
In the 1950s, most pubs offered “a pie and a pint” and the landlord’s wife would make steak and ale pies for the workmen who came in for lunch. In the 1960s, dishes such as scampi or chicken in a basket appeared. In Ireland, Irish stew with soda bread was common pub food.
How is Modern Pub Food Different?
These days in Britain, you can expect meals like bangers and mash, fish and chips, Sunday roast dinner, hot pot and pasties. International recipes such a lasagna and curry feature on many pub menus. In Australia, popular pub dishes include pub-style hamburger, steak, or chicken schnitzel served with mashed potatoes, wedges or chips and a salad.
Since the 1990s, the food has become a more important part of pubs and most public houses serve meals at the table rather than bar snacks only. Some pubs, which call themselves “gastro pubs,” serve top quality food. This word, which is a combination of gastronomy and pub, was coined in 1991 when The Eagle, a London pub, started to serve fine food.
Pub Food versus Homemade Food
Not many pubs offer the type of food found in The Eagle and most modern pubs use cheap ingredients, easy cooking methods such as microwaving and they have a cook who might or might not have any culinary skills. Rather than fresh pub food, you can expect something that has been made in a factory, packaged in plastic wrap, boxed and deep frozen for a year.
Your chicken Marsala might have been made a year ago and been in the pub freezer all that time. One popular British pub chain only has two freshly made dishes on its menu and the rest are all frozen dinners but of course, they do not tell you that.
You might like to eat pub food now and again but you cannot compare it with homemade fare. Look at boneless chicken recipes for example. Chicken is used in lots of pub dishes because it is cheap, versatile and freezes well but did you know how quick and easy it is to make your own boneless chicken recipes at home? Not only that but it is cheaper to make your own food, you control the ingredients and your family will love you for it.
