North AmericanBritish
Butter Tart History: The Two-Line Barrie Recipe of 1900
The earliest printed butter tart recipe is a two-line filling in a 1900 hospital fundraiser cookbook from Barrie, Ontario. Everything before it is theory.
6 min read
British Stories
Every PlateTales food history story tagged British, newest first.
8 stories · All stories
Trade RoutesChineseBritish
Why Is Ketchup Called Ketchup? Blame a Hokkien Fish Brine
Ketchup was a fish brine before it was a tomato sauce. How a Hokkien word reached a London slang dictionary by 1699, and why the Cantonese tomato theory fails.
8 min read
South AsianMigrationBritish
Where Chicken Tikka Masala Comes From, and Who Made Up the Soup
A Glasgow restaurateur said he invented chicken tikka masala for a customer who found his tikka dry. The tin of tomato soup in the story was a joke told to journalists.
10 min read
BritishEuropeanRitual Foods
Why Do We Bob for Apples on Halloween? The 1777 Answer
The oldest descriptions of the game, from 1777 and the 1780s, call it diving and dipping. The Roman goddess and the future husband were written in later.
8 min read
BritishEuropeanRitual Foods
Soul Cakes History: The Cakes England Traded for Prayers
Soul cakes were small spiced cakes handed out around All Souls' Day in return for prayers for the dead. Whether they became trick-or-treating is a harder question than most pages admit.
10 min read
MigrationBritish
The History of Fish and Chips, From Soyer to Malin
Fried fish tied to Sephardic Jewish cooks met the fried potato chip in 1860s Britain. Joseph Malin and John Lees both have claims, and neither is settled.
6 min read
Trade RoutesBritish
The History of Tea, from Han Tombs to Boston Harbor
Tea began as a Chinese medicine and became a daily drink, then a cargo that tied together silver, opium, war and revolution. Here is what the records show and which stories are legend.
6 min read
British
Who Invented the Sandwich? The Earl and the Rumour
The Earl of Sandwich gave the sandwich its name, but not its idea. The card-table story rests on one French travel book, and Britannica calls it apocryphal.
6 min read
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