Talk:British cuisine

Progress

I've had a go at recasting the article to provide at least a sketch of reliably-cited history, followed by an equally brief but at least accurate and cited sketch of the cuisines of the four nations. This is no more than a foundation for a proper article on this subject. Editors are invited to contribute properly-cited materials within this framework, or of course to propose a better framework if need be. Chiswick Chap (talk) 11:11, 17 September 2021 (UTC)

Merge

I feel as if this wiki could be merged into English cuisine with a section on British food. All of the countries of the United Kingdom have their own food Wikipedia pages. This page itself is poorly written compared to the England one and seems to focus on ingredients. Menacinghat (talk) 15:37, 11 February 2022 (UTC)

• Oppose. There is ample scope for more detail in this article, with numerous reliable texts available (both scholarly and cookery) for each of the 4 nations with their distinctive cuisines. Glad you like the article on England but it certainly does not cover the cuisines of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland (and the various small territories), and would become seriously unbalanced were a merge to be attempted. More to the point, the topics are beyond all doubt individually notable. The cure is to get on with writing the British cuisine article from the plentiful materials available, not to shoehorn topics that do not belong into a different article that quite correctly stands by itself. Chiswick Chap (talk) 15:44, 11 February 2022 (UTC)

Scotland and Wales already have a cuisine section. This Wiki page seems to focus on ingredients and outside influence, as if that's somehow unique.Menacinghat (talk) 17:13, 11 February 2022 (UTC)

I think we are in agreement that the article could be improved. Where we differ is that I believe it should be improved right here. Cuisine is plainly more than ingredients; influences are pretty central, but the article obviously needs to give some account both of history and of the distinctive features of the cooking. There are plenty of books and scholarly articles available for that. Chiswick Chap (talk) 17:21, 11 February 2022 (UTC)

• Oppose. There's a Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish cuisine page. There needs to be an English page too for the sake of continuity, plus it's an integral component of the British Cuisine template. If you think it needs improving, then improve it, but getting rid of it is simply a non-starter. Obscurasky (talk) 19:00, 11 February 2022 (UTC)

Lack of reference

No source or justificación for" while Anglo-Saxon England developed meat and savoury herb stewing techniques before the practice became common in Europe" 2A00:23C5:BF8B:2801:59DE:52F8:78BB:6066 (talk) 06:44, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

Why does this article have a section on Northern Ireland Cuisine?

The article begins with the sentence:

British cuisine is the specific set of cooking traditions and practices associated with Great Britain, and includes the individual cuisines of England, Scotland and Wales.

But later on the lede refers to the cuisine of Northern Ireland, and the main text has a short section on this.

Northern ireland is not part of Great Britain, and its people are Irish, not British. It is part of the UK, and its cuisine has features related to both Ireland and Britain arising from its history, but I would suggest that it should not feature in this article - or if it does, then the article should be renamed 'Cuisine of the United Kingdom' Sbishop (talk) 17:01, 20 August 2023 (UTC)

Because we Brits use "British" as the standard adjective for the United Kingdom. We don't have an adjective "United Kingdish" or whatever, so we always say "British" when we mean the whole nation (including ourselves). You may formally in a fossilized sort of way be right that "Cuisine of the UK" would cover the patch but all the other article are formed as "<Place>ish cuisine", which is the natural way we Brits (and probably everybody else, ... French cuisine/Cuisine Française, Swedish cuisine, etc) would choose to describe national subjects. So it's correct as it is, and we only had the stuff put up there in para 1 of the lead when a drive-by editor came along just now. Let's just leave it, it's clear, simple, normal and legible as it is. We really don't need all our article titles frozen into transnational, least-common-denominator iced mush. Chiswick Chap (talk) 18:51, 20 August 2023 (UTC)

History section

The first part of the history section seems confused to me. Right of the bat, The Celts weren’t “indigenous” to the UK; they were Indo-European migrants who spread across western Europe during the Iron Age (around 700–500 BCE). So references to archaeological evidence of cheese production in 3,800 BC, and bread in 3,700 BC pre-date them. Obscurasky (talk) 10:08, 16 April 2025 (UTC)

They were indigenous to the UK since they were the first peoples to live there. By that logic, the First Nations in Canada or Native Americans in the United States aren't indigenous, the Maori aren't indigenous to New Zealand, the Aborigines aren't indigenous to Australia, and so on. — Preceding unsigned comment added by ~2026-24595-09 (talk) 17:11, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

No beans?

@Sharnadd with the removal of the mention of beans on toast, this article now fails to mention baked beans at all. The popular dishes section is quite short; I don't see why it can't mention beans on toast, a distinctively British dish. CaptainEek ^{Edits Ho Cap'n!}⚓ 18:48, 16 May 2026 (UTC)

It doesn't really need to mention every ingredient that is eaten in great Britain. Sharnadd (talk) 19:31, 16 May 2026 (UTC)

I mean, beans on toast is the fifth most popular dish and a dish that I think many would associate with Britain, much more so than roast chicken. Its also not a dish that is widely eaten elsewhere? CaptainEek ^{Edits Ho Cap'n!}⚓ 19:39, 16 May 2026 (UTC)

It does seem an oversight not to mention it, when it appears ahead of English breakfast in the YouGov survey that we're already quoting. I've added it to that sentence. Belbury (talk) 13:49, 5 June 2026 (UTC)

its now 8th place and constantly changing. Maybe more should be done to mention highly consumed dishes rather than ones where a small survey of people may have a positive opinion on them Sharnadd (talk) 21:29, 14 July 2026 (UTC)

Well originally I didn't cite to the YouGov survey itself, but rather an RS that in turn cited the YouGov survey at a particular point in time. I think it's better that way rather than keeping it up to date. CaptainEek ^{Edits Ho Cap'n!}⚓ 23:16, 14 July 2026 (UTC)

Sharnadd has removed it from the article again, saying in their edit summary that they feel there is No point mentioning dish 8 out of ten before those higher up in the order. I think there is a lot of reason to do so, when those higher entries are rather generic ones (chicken, chips, soup), and we're picking out an otherwise unmentioned British dish and giving some context on it being a popular one.

Are you standing by the earlier statement that this article should not list "every ingredient that is eaten in great Britain", so does not need to include beans on toast? Do you think the article should list all of Britain's most notable dishes? Belbury (talk) 12:33, 16 July 2026 (UTC)

not in that particular area. There has to be somewhere better to have it on the page than a small survey where the results change quarterly. The popularity mentioned isn't how much it's consumed. It's if a few hundreds people have a positive view on the dish Sharnadd (talk) 19:14, 16 July 2026 (UTC)

Economics

Is this article just about what is fashionable - not about what people actually eat and the effect of increasing costs? Rathfelder (talk) 14:18, 3 July 2026 (UTC)

If you have specific recommendations on how to improve the article, let's hear it. (~2026-42359-63 (talk) 17:42, 6 August 2026 (UTC))

Citations

This article has 255 citations, yet has been flagged for not having enough citations. American cuisine has 241 citations, but has not been similarly flagged. How many more citations does this page need before this can be removed? (~2026-42359-63 (talk) 17:48, 6 August 2026 (UTC))