An Easy Recipe

You will expect different types of food from different restaurants – pub food, caf food, fast food, and fine dining all fall under the category of meals from food outlets. We all expect there to be a world of difference between a meal from a fast food joint and a dinner from an award winning restaurant, both in quality and price, but what about pub food? Is pub food freshly made or mass-produced? Just how healthy is this kind of food?

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?

Nowadays, you can get meals like fish and chips, bangers and mash, hot pot, pasties or shepherd’s pie in pubs, as well as international recipes like chili con carne or lasagna. Popular pub recipes in Australia include steak, battered fish or chicken schnitzel served with fries, potato wedges or mashed potatoes and a side 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.

The chicken Marsala recipe you ordered might not be a freshly made dish, but rather something that was mass made a year ago and been sitting in the pub freezer all that time. Two minutes later, the microwave pings and your order is ready. We know of one famous British pub chain with only two dishes on the menu, which are cooked to order. The rest are frozen dinners but the menu descriptions obviously hide that fact.

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.