What is middle class cuisine?

[mrsfran]

I don't actually think that, I was seeing if I could start a fight. The British can and do produce some fantastic food - British cheeses and ales stand up with anything any other country produces for instance - but (a) it's "transparent cuisine" to us, we don't think it unusual, and (b) there's still cachet attached to imported vs local foods.

I did wonder what had happened to you

 

[jayeola]

Anything with more syllables than the actual food content.

1 - ready salted crisps
means = deep fried potato wedges with chunks of rock salt, lashings of sea salt and traditional flavours

2 - beans on toast
means = organic bean-seeds marinated in wholesome tomato-based sauces and cream, resting on wholemeal toasted bread

3 - corn flakes
becomes "Italian open sun-dried flakes, (alfresco), slow primed in a Milanese roasting process" *

* Best consumed with mature, organic juice-dela-moo

 

[Geri]

Salad in a wooden bowl.

Taking the food to the table in a big bowl instead of dishing it out onto the plates before sitting down.

 

[Cid]

Do the British have a traditional cuisine anyway? Apart from the assorted regional muck like jellied eels and tripe and haggis, which is too silly to count. I thought we either ate turnips, or nicked dishes from other people.

Monster Munch doesn't count.

Sure, but by the same token Spain just nicked their dishes from the moors etc etc... A good deal of traditional cooking does go back to anglo-french stuff going on in the middle ages though. I think in the early to mid C20th it's mainly stuff like boiled Veg, stews, boiled meat, the odd roast, black pudding... Probably a lot to do with the fact that, although the middle classes were considerably wealthier than the W/C, there has often been a fair amount of austerity (2 wars, depressions etc) anyway. Certainly that was the kind of thing my mum used to get. There're all sorts of weird Edwardian fad diets and that kind of thing as well of course, the whole 'eating healthily' thing was extremely popular with the M/C and the U/C.

 

[Poi E]

off topic, but it seems one GP reckons that the peasantry of the middle ages were better nourished than your average Brit today.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7148534.stm

 

[ivebeenhigh]

the middle classes dont have tea, they have supper.

 

[butchersapron]

off topic, but it seems one GP reckons that the peasantry of the middle ages were better nourished than your average Brit today.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7148534.stm

There was a massive academic debate over this in the 70s. Seriously, as part of a debate over whether industrialisation actually worsend conditions.

 

[Poi E]

There was a massive academic debate over this in the 70s. Seriously, as part of a debate over whether industrialisation actually worsend conditions.

Well, given that a US Senate report in the 1930s was bemoaning the massive depletion of the soil and it's effect on the nutritional content of food, I'd say we get four fifths of fuck all from our five a day these days.

 

[Idaho]

Salad in a wooden bowl.

Taking the food to the table in a big bowl instead of dishing it out onto the plates before sitting down.

Neither are specifically middle class - although I know what you mean. Serving a sunday roast at the table is fairly tradition across social classes.

 

[Geri]

My mum dishes it out in the kitchen and gives us the plate with the food on it already. We don't have the carrots in a dish on the table.

 

[Athos]

The middle class eat Crunch Nut Cornflakes instead of Frosties.

 

[PacificOcean]

Reminds me of that Catherint Tate sketch.

Woman: We were visting my sister and we thought we'd pop into this cafe for a sandwhich. We asked for two cheese sandwhiches. What did we get Roy?

Man: Listen to this. A French baguette with Brie and Grapes. A cheese sandwich in a baguette with grapes.

Woman: And this was in Beverly.

Roy: We had to pick out the grapes ourselves. I mean charging us for a cheese sandwhich where you have to pick grapes out. And listen to this. This is the worst part - do you know how much the "two cheese sandwiches" came to?

Woman: And we didn't have a brew did we Roy?

Man: £7.80. The dirty, robbing theiving bastards.

Woman: And this were in Beverly.

 

[Stanley Edwards]

Anything Mrs Beaton cooked.

 

[northernhord]

Who is "they"? Who exactly are you talking about? It's a useless category - "middle class cuisine". What does that even mean? Does your definition of middle class involve people who somehow eat differently to the rest of the country?

I'm middle class. I eat the same stuff you do. Why try to invent a category that divides people?

You shouldnt be offended by this thread it was a valid and real question about social tradition and cuisine.

I dont need to invent a catagory that divides people its been there already for hundreds of years, probably more so in Britain than many other places.

 

[Santino]

Pointless thread is pointless

 

[butchersapron]

If you're so eternally bored with everyone and everything you could nob off the thread like.

 

[FabricLiveBaby!]

at thread. I think we should talk about how chavs eat mcdonalds and shove greggs iced buns down thir 6 months olds throat.

 

[butchersapron]

You too. And w/c = chav, nice one. Roll eyes indeed.

Apart from the fact that there's been precious little of the stuff of your nightmares on this thread.

 

[mrsfran]

You shouldnt be offended by this thread it was a valid and real question about social tradition and cuisine.

I dont need to invent a catagory that divides people its been there already for hundreds of years, probably more so in Britain than many other places.

Given that this thread actually asks "What is it?", it is not a given that it exists and has been dividing people for hundreds of years. I can't think of a single traditional British dish that isn't eaten by "working class" AND "middle class" people nowadays. It's food, you don't have to divide it up into which class eats what.

Any thread about what "middle class" people eat is inevitably just going to be people sneering at the middle classes. In fact, I challenge you to suggest some "middle class" dishes without sneering.

 

[butchersapron]

Giiven that there were significant differences between the classes access to food (and esp variety of food) until relatively recently i think it's perfectly acceptable to argue that there has historically been different traditional cuisines based on classes (not what people on the whole eat today but TRADITIONAL) - the history of spices alone tell us this - and that some of these differences remain today. It's not massively outlandish or kill-a-copper.

It does seem you only need mention the m/c nowadays on here and you get this response though. We're all the same, and always have been. Get it!

 

[Hi-ASL]

In fact, I challenge you to suggest some "middle class" dishes without sneering.

Foie gras with mustard seeds and spring onions in duck jus.

Damn. I are fail.

 

[Fedayn]

Given that this thread actually asks "What is it?", it is not a given that it exists and has been dividing people for hundreds of years. I can't think of a single traditional British dish that isn't eaten by "working class" AND "middle class" people nowadays. It's food, you don't have to divide it up into which class eats what.

Any thread about what "middle class" people eat is inevitably just going to be people sneering at the middle classes. In fact, I challenge you to suggest some "middle class" dishes without sneering.

What? Are you seriously arguin that food has never been eaten by differing social strata ie classes as a result of their price, their availibility? There is a pretty clear historical tradition of certian foods only being accessible, for various reasons ie money, affordability and even law. Certain foodstuffs are not actually middle-class but for some pretty obvious reasons they become the 'preserves' (no pun intended) of those rich enough or aspirational enough to want them.

Any claim that food historically hasdn't been subject to the same divisions that occur in the rest of society is frankly laughable.

 

[DotCommunist]

anything involving balsamic vinegar, cooked with branded kitchenware

 

[Fedayn]

Pointless thread is pointless

Why is this pointless thread pointless? Care to expand on your stunning insight?

 

[DotCommunist]

((((opressed middle class people))))

 

[butchersapron]

((((opressed middle class people))))

They'll be starting on the schools next!

 

[Hi-ASL]

anything involving balsamic vinegar, cooked with branded kitchenware

Moves are afoot to stop us from sneering at the middle classes, DC. I task you now to find a new demographic for those of us who enjoy a good sneer to sneer at before there's nothing left to sneer at any more. Priority: Urgent.

 

[Stanley Edwards]

...

Any thread about what "middle class" people eat is inevitably just going to be people sneering at the middle classes. In fact, I challenge you to suggest some "middle class" dishes without sneering.

Most working class people have been encouraged to aspire to middle class status, home ownership, further education and a general lifestyle by marketing people and governments for decades, if not centuries.

The food you eat has always been very representative of your social status. It still is. We're all constantly persuaded to treat ourselves to grub with posh names and pretty packets that is often twice the price of an equivalent product from Iceland.

It's seems to be even worse with baby foods. The general theme is that the more expensive, aspirational, luxury foods not only taste better, but are actually better for you. This is rarely true.

On the other hand, you could say that the real middle class folk are well educated and see through the false imagery and buy organic fruit and vegetables where possible and even choose to spend more on ethically produced foods. Perhaps this is the true middle class food of today? The posh crap down at Waitrose is just a waste of money that fools the working classes.

Traditionally, Mrs Beaton played a big role in the new development of the new middle classes. The book of household management was an absolute must in any family home with middle class aspirations.

The class system still exists in the UK. So, why pretend that the rich, the poor and the heavily in debt to the bank don't eat different food and live a different lifestyle?

I rarely take class status as a measure of anything, but I remember going to friends houses for dinner and eating with funky habitat knives and forks, using pepper mills, feasting on Italian cuisine and a healthy pudding. At home, as teenagers we had to cook our own meals. More often than not, that meant frozen pizza and chips. Italian - yes, but without the same level of sophistication. That was until a friends mum taught me how to make spaghetti bolognese and various other pasta dishes.

Ironically, I grew up on a manufacturing dairy farm making organic, all natural, very expensive goats, cows and sheep milk products for sale in middle class healthfood shops. Pudding was often better than what the rich kids were eating.

 

[PacificOcean]

The certinaly has been class food in the past.

Has anyone been watching the Supersizers Go.... That has been on BBC 2 lately?

 

[FabricLiveBaby!]

You too. And w/c = chav, nice one. Roll eyes indeed.

Apart from the fact that there's been precious little of the stuff of your nightmares on this thread.

Irony escapes you.

only difference between my post and the OP is that one is type of classism is activley applauded, other is bannable offence.

Shit thread is sucky.