Best ploughman's I ever had was a huge plate of salad with a quarter wheel of Stilton and maybe half a cottage loaf along with a wide selection of pickles to choose from. Half way through it and the waitress said "sorry I forgot your apple" then picked one from a nearby tree and polished it with her apron. Moments like that last.
@@awatt They're all good in memory. Thirty+ years ago I had a beautifully-kept Timothy Taylor Landlord that's fresh in my admittedly-aging mind. Had several in fact.
best ploughmans I ever had was at a pub called the bush near Narbeth in wales your ham and cheese came out on a plate and welsh dressers along the side of the room were ladden with salads pickles and new potatoes ect and you just filled up ( and by the amount of tractors and landies ect parked up i think every farmer for miles lunched there)
I commented to a farmer friend of mine that I had paid £14 for a ploughman's lunch, his response was "I'd have sold you mine for a fiver " Upon further questioning he'd had a ham sandwich and a flask of tea.
I wouldn't mind paying that if the ingredients were all top notch and the portions were generous... but if it's mediocre bread, mediocre cheese and some chutney out of a jar then that is a bit of a cheek for what is such a simple dish to prepare!
I was an American expat married to a lovely Brit. We lived on our narrowboat as continuous cruisers. He was my dictionary and reference library for all things English. We moored up on the Leicester !line of the canal near a village called Crick. we visited The Red Lion pub, a family owned establishment, and my. husband was surprised to find Ploughman's Lunch on the menu. We ordered and he was delighted when our plates arrived, to see a traditional Ploughman's lunch. It was hands down one of my favorite lunches I've eaten. Delicious simplicity!
Consulting diary, 16th August 1972. Ploughman's lunch in some unamed pub at Bourton on the Hill, Cotswolds. Bread, cheese, butter, pickled onions, bottle of soft drink and half of brown ale. Total cost 45p.
A charming and fascinating vid. My grandfather was born 1914 and was a true ploughman who had Shire horses ahead of his plough when he first starting work on Lord Lambton's estate as a young man (Clydesdales were more common then) . There used to be ploughmen competitions back in the day that were big events locally and he won many a medallion for his skill. Admittedly he loved it when tractors came along but he still looked after his horses for the rest of their days. He's long gone now sadly, but I recall his comment about when the modern ploughman's lunch started appearing on pub menus. It was thus ''All I ever had was a lump of cheese between two one inch thick slices of homemade bread ''
Thanks Phil! Yes it does seem like the Ploughman's is essentially a "deconstructed" sandwich - or at least that's probably what a fancy restaurant would call it... but then, if we believe that the sandwich only goes back to the 18th century (the Earl of Sandwich and all that), then what came before that...?
@@TweedyPubs That put me in mind of the Blackadder quote '' Blackadder: Baldrick, go to the kitchen and make me something quick and simple to eat, would you? Two slices of bread with something in between. Baldrick: What, like Gerald Lord Sandwich had the other day? Blackadder: Yes, a few rounds of Gerald's.'' I imagine ploughmen of yore took to the fields whatever was freely available to them on the farm that'd not go off during the day. Homemade cheese and a hunk of bread, maybe an apple if they were lucky.
Anyone ever stop to think that ploughmen would never have eaten olives and cheeses of the world? A slab of bread and cheese is what most rural labourers would have got by on.
By the time the PR wallahs invented the "ploughmans" in the 1960s, most people who ploughed the land for a living had frozen fish fingers or tinned spaghetti hoops for lunch.
Ploughman's lunch should have a big slab of cheddar or locally made cheese, a large slice or two of bread, tomatoes, lettuce and some pickled veg (something like Branstons pickle), and some cold boiled ham. Thats original from were I came from in Wales.
Me too! As I said in the video I didn't think the one I had was a great example (and plenty of people here in the comments are even more unimpressed with it!) but I was, to be honest, happy to find one at all in London in 2024.
In the 1950s, at my godmother's Devon pub, the ploughman's lunch was always on the lunch menu. Cheddar, pickled onion and a chunk of bread along with chutney. Also, a pint of rough! Cider that is.
Being born in the US, I got hooked on them in 1974 when my Mum took us back to her home for a visit. Being 9, I didn't have a taste for the pickled onions, never knew regular pickles were an option. Just bread, cheese, pickles and mustard. My Grandfather lived in Bognor Regis on the Channel and we stayed south of London on our travels. Family side note - My grandparents home in London was hit by a V1 during WW2. Grandma and neighbor were talking over the back yard fence, the V1 cleared 2 Poplar trees nearby when the engine cut out. They both dove into their backyard shelters as it destroyed the homes. Apparently they came out to their surviving chickens running around mostly stripped of feathers. Front door knocker was found a mile away.
I actually had a ploughman's lunch first time I went to England back in 1993. It was in a small town named Goldicote, cant remember the pub name. We stopped on the way to Stratford upon Avon and had lunch there. It was, as much as I can remember, very good and everything was fresh. We have something similar down here in Louisiana, the veggies are usually fresh drizzled with vinegar and oil or pickled, and the eggs are often pickled as well. Ours usually always include a slab of ham though on the side or a big scoop of fresh tuna salad. My grandmother used to call it something like "poormans"...or similar but that was 40 years ago so I may be misremembering. Cheers, great video!
I'm in my fifties now, and just about old enough to remember the joys of a Nottinghamshire/South Yorkshire ploughmans being fairly common. Up here a ploughmans seemed to be made up of the following: A good hunk of bread A slab of home cooked ham A wedge of sharp cheddar A big rustic pickled onion A good sharp apple, quartered Mustard or chutney I remember the salad as effectively being a garnish. I know that my grandfather, who was born sometime around 1920, and who was a lincolnshire ploughman before the tractors took over, greatly relished a ploughmans.😊 He would generally wash it down with mcewan's export.
That's a great description of a perfect Ploughman's - and I agree the salad is only really there for show! Although sometimes a bit of crunchy but-not-too-fussy lettuce (no rocket please!) and perhaps a tomato can make for a nice break between the mouthfuls of cheese.
I passed through London in August 1987 on my way home to the US from Kenya. I ate ploughman's lunches and steak and kidney pies several days in a row. In recent visits to London, I have not noticed ploughman's lunch on pub menus.
It does seem to be a bit of a rarity these days, which is a shame because the popularity of this video suggests there is still a keen interest in them. Perhaps time for a revival?
As a Canadian lad of 12, visiting Castle Coomb with my family in 1970, I had a ploughmans lunch in the local with cheese, bread and pickle. What i remember most is burning my mouth on the unfamiliar English mustard that came with it. 😂
Canadian here as well. My parents were both of English stock. Ploughman's lunch was simply cheddar cheese, the older the better, pickles that were on hand sweet or dill, and buttered bread. A pot of tea was always served with it. My dad always said, "cheese isn't ready to eat until you can put it at one end of the table and it can walk over to you!" Meaning of course STRONG (old). Good old dad! So of course I developed the same love of strong aged cheeses!
There used to be a British themed pub in the US in the late 1980's. In the Livonia Mall in Livonia, Michigan. Believe there was a chain of them and all in shopping malls. (Can't remember their name) Used to get Ploughmans lunches there. And beer.
Something from "across the pond" - I can recall having to run my grandfathers lunch out to him one day while he was discing out in tge field. So he stopped , and we had a lunch of sausage, cheese, and a couple of bread rolls, washed down with a couple of Coca Colas (He didnt drink)
Tweeds (is it ok to call you this name!?), thank you for posting this video. I went down a rarebit-hole last year researching ploughman lunches and found some tasty nuggets, but your video really brought everything to light! Keep posting some oddities like this…no one else does it like you 😅
Thank you, Tweedy - another marvellous video. Just as I was enviously watching your good fortune in having perhaps my favourite London pub, Ye Olde Mitre, to yourself, you made my mouth water from the sight of that ploughman's at The Harrow, perhaps my absolute favourite pub. I can still remember going there way back in 1977, on the eve of embarking on a 3-week trek on the South Downs Way (with extensive detours). As a callow youth, I was more than a tad apprehensive trudging down the road at Steep, in pitch darkness. All my worries disappeared once I was ensconced in The Harrow, enjoying a pint from the cask and a Stilton ploughman's - still the finest I have ever eaten. Seeing you enjoying your own perfect ploughman's there confirmed that my memories were not just the result of the rose-tinted spectacles of time.
Thanks Simon! When I watched this back I thought there was something almost perverse about sitting in one beautiful pub while reminiscing nostalgically about a different beautiful pub! Yes I get the sense the Harrow has hardly changed in decades, and long may it stay the same.
Incidentally, I have a new joint favourite pub: The Cornewall Arms, Longtown, Herefordshire - a perfectly unspoilt gem, not too far away from that intriguing tower you stayed in a while back, near Hay-on-Wye.
@@SimonRichardsTFAyes I have been, and absolutely loved it! Unfortunately before I started doing UA-cam so I don't have a video. I suppose it's sort of one of those "parlour pubs" where the pub space is essentially adapted from the living room of a domestic dwelling. Drinks just served through a hatch. The locals were fascinating. It was like stepping into another world. Magical!
In 97 went too london on a class trip. Our first meal in london was at a place called the sherlock Holmes pub. We were all starving Americans and most of my group ordered ploughmen thinking it would be a hearty lunch for a working man. Imagine their suprize when they got a plate of pickles with a small chunk of cheese. I had to defend my steak and ale pie with a bullwhip! 😂😂
I realize now that I always ate a lunch of freshly baked rye bread, french mustard, cabot heavily aged cheddar and beer, usually Labatts, Guinness, or Bass, this was in Vermont in the 1970s.
Prior to the spread of maize from the Americas, the term "corn" was used much like we use the word "kernel" today. It was not referencing corn (maize) as we think of it today, but the kernel of whatever grain was used, be it wheat, barley, or whatever. Maize was unknown to England prior to the 16th century.
Thank you for that additional insight! I got the sense the way it was used in that poem implied wholegrain bread, rather than more refined white bread, which would presumably have been more expensive because of the additional milling involved.
@@TweedyPubs That might be the case as well. I was merely trying to address the confusion that modern audiences might encounter when trying to square the use of the term corn today.
@@inthepub Well, I don't remember the Corn Laws, as they weren't taught in my American schools. But the word "corn" and its evolution of meaning has created some confusion today, so I made the comment.
i had been given a recipe by an elderly lady in somerset for a loaf of bread cored out and stuffed with meat and so forth like a pie, and she called it the ploughmans special and said that it was traditional to that area from the industrial era onward. no real idea if thats explicitly what a carter or ploughman might have eaten but yeah it was an amazing sammy.
The last pub ploughmans lunch i had was decades ago at the Maltsters arms in Tuckenhay in south Devon, eaten on a picnic bench next to the river. Perfect.
I've been there - what a great location! It used to be owned by the late great Keith Floyd didn't it? Alas when I visited it was after his tenure, but it still had quite a special atmosphere to it.
@@TweedyPubs My mistake, i was thinking of the Watermans arms just along the road from the Maltsters ... also by the river. Keith Floyd did indeed own the Maltsters arms for a while, ... my band played a gig there once whilst he owned it,and feeling a little underpaid we raided the fridges for champagne and sparkling wine 😂 I lived in Tuckenhay when i was little when they still made cider at the maltsters ... a lovely little backwater place.
Very interesting. I've not lived in London for a long time but I did have a stonking ploughman's lunch at the Double Locks in Exeter, not far from my home, a few weeks ago. Historically, you may wish to find any electronic version of the semi-autobigraphical trilogy 'Lark Rise to Candleford' and do a ctrl F search for the term 'bavour'. There are two references to 'bavour' and 'afternoon bavour' which the author mentions that the ploughmen used to refer to a snack, but surmises that the word was 'rapidly being modernised into lunch or luncheon'. Afternoon bavour is referred to later on as a meal for the workers consisting of bread, cheese and beer, generally taken around 3pm.
You're in a great part of the world for finding a good Ploughman's! I think the Bridge Inn at Topsham does a really good one. Thanks for the tip on "bavour" - I'll look into that!
Sorry I’m late to the party here - I had to cleanse my ditches, yet again. I love the idea of Cheese Bureaus and Milk Marketing Boards. I don’t know why! This video deserves to be”blow up” - this must be a question asked by so many seeking the simple pleasures of the past. Quite amazed you found one in all honesty. Whilst it looked slightly “gentrified” - if one can “gentrify” cheese, onion and bread - you hit the bullseye. This could trigger a whole series of investigations. I’d like to know if scampi in a basket is sold anywhere! Or prawn cocktails! Also, are there any pubs that still stick candles in those bulbous wine bottles with sort of netting round them? Anyhow, well done on the success of this video. Totally deserved.
Thank you Mr WC21! I'm delighted with the response to this rather unassuming video - I guess I was just in the right place, at the right time, talking about something which wasn't getting much attention but seems to have really struck a chord! Or perhaps this didn't happy entirely by chance, and I am unwittingly following a trail of breadcrumbs... Part of some mysterious greater scheme; of which ditch cleansing is, no doubt, also a constituent...? I wonder if Dan Brown likes a Ploughman's? I too found the "Cheese Bureau" and "Milk Marketing Board" oddly delightful - I like to imagine some kind of analogue of the FBI and the CIA, but for dairy produce.
Probably more often named the Cheese Board and Milk Marketing Bureau. Famous Australian government official Sir Les Patterson spent many years sitting on the Cheese Board.
As a 13 yr old, my father used to work on a farm in the North East of Scotland during the war. He'd set off with a knap sack holding half a loaf a junk of Orkney cheese and bottle of cold tea. Does this count as a ploughman's lunch?
Ok. Going to need to fish my sourdough starter out of the fridge, gie it a bit of a feed, and bake me up some bread to have this delicious meal I'd forgotten about for far too long.
I doubt there was any specific farmer's lunch recipe in the past. They would eat whatever was in season or preserved over the Winter. Including apples, pears, tomatoes, nuts and berries. Plenty of pies too. I think the traditional English Breakfast is also dubious. As a kid in the 70's I remember a more common breakfast was porridge and/or Kippers on toast, a far healthier breakfast. Salmon for the nobles. The English or Irish breakfast was served in cafes for truckers and road workers. Bread and beef dripping was also common. My grandfather kept chickens in his back garden in north London, so boiled eggs would have been common for lunch. Btw, I've heard that beer is meant to be drunk out of an opaque vessel, not glass. The sunlight spoils it apparently. That's why people had tankards. The glass jug with a handle is really just a glass version of a tankard. Glass vessels were easier to clean and store.
As you mentioned a lot depends on location, time of year and era. I've seen mentioned that some Scottish farm workers had it specifically mentioned in work contracts that they could only be fed salmon a limited number of days out of the week (as certain estates having salmon rivers made it dirt cheap rather than a nobles meal) and had to be fed bread and cheese as part of the meal.
Tweedy, you have knocked this one out of the park indeed. Just what I was looking for in regards to my upcoming October visit. I am carefully crafting a full 3 days of a London gentleman's day out which will commence with a proper shave at Taylor's of Old Bond Street, a shoe shine at the Burlington arcade, several carefully curated pub sojourns that have been heavily influenced by your videos,, a superbly engineered martini at Duke's Bar, all topped off in the evening with a well aged Cuban cigar at the Sahakian Lounge at the Bulgari hotel. The Ploughman''s will provide just the right sustenance along the way.
smoking allowed in a hotel ? so one rule for the public and another for those with money ! that should be banned if i cant smoke in a pub no smoking in a hotel its even more dangerous people sleep there overnight !
Thanks Al - it did seem to strike a chord didn't it? I think this video is on track to knock even the Wetherspoon's video off the top spot. It's a long time since I've had a martini at Duke's, but that always seemed to lead to fun (if slightly off-the-rails) evenings. As you're probably aware they have that two martini maximum rule (or at least they always used to). When I was once in there with some particularly thirsty friends we insisted that they waive it because we were all seasoned drinkers and we'd be fine. Long story short: the bartenders were right and we definitely weren't fine.
Excellent video John! Ploughman’s Lunch takes me back to 1989 where, as a fresh faced 18 year old, I used to enjoy a ‘pint and a ploughman’s’ for lunch in The Kings Arms on Newcomen Street and then go back to work as a plumbers mate in Guys Hospital (Nuffield House to be precise!) I love that area I believe it’s called Southwark
Thanks Seán! I don't think I've covered the Kings Arms in any video, and I can't recall ever going in there either, although I have walked past there a few times. It still looks like a nice traditional pub in the photos online so I must poke my nose in at some point!
@@TweedyPubs I couldn’t remember the name of the pub but I knew the location and checked it on maps! It may have been called a different name back in 1989 but Kings Arms sounds a bit familiar. It was a great old fashioned boozer back then with a lovely bar counter. I hope you get a chance to visit it and hopefully it’s not full of grapefruit IPA’s 😀
About 30yrs ago I worked at a strictly British Pub in the South Street Seaport in NYC. It was called The North Star Pub. The "Ploughman" was a sandwich there. Grilled sausage, sauteed onions and cheddar cheese. Branston pickle on the side. It has since closed after hurricane Sandy flooded it out. Love me a good Pork pie too. 🇺🇸✝️🇬🇧
You can find a Ploughman’s lunch in Cupertino, California. Or at least you could a few years ago. The cheese they served was Stilton.. it included a Scotch Egg.
I had, and enjoyed ploughman’s lunch in a London Pub during one of my business visits to that city in 1991. The contents of my plate resembled that shown at the end of this video.
My mother wanted to visit an English pub in DC when I lived there, we went to one out in the burbs, but we are a cheap cheap family (yes, quite a bit Scots, why do you ask?😂 Dutch too), so four of us split two ploughmans. I haven’t seen it since, but haven’t looked either. I had to call it “DIY lunchables” when my son was little, but it’s still something I eat at least once a week, although I don’t aim for any authenticity. I see German cold dinners that look quite similar, but I’m not too fussed over the details. Bread, cheese, something sour, something pungent, & I’m good…
Where iam from we mostly do snow instead of fields , but its usually some form of pop like faygo or coke with some kind of tobacco chew or smoke, protien drink, and maybe some nuts or a oatmeal bar.
I love a ploughmans. Best I had was in pub near the Brecon Beacons. The pickled onions were so strong it made my eyes water. You could add hand cut ham for a little extra
Also keep in mind the fast laws that were practiced during that era. They also were believers in what you ate helped to shape who you were and your life.
Wow. As I write this video has hit 63,000 views. It looks like there is a demand for a cracking good Ploughman’s Lunch. Let’s hope Tweedy continues his quest and finds not only the best Ploughman’s Lunch in London, but also elsewhere in Britain. 👏👏👍😀🥖🍺
I have had the ploughman's lunch at The Queen's Larder a number of times - it was very very nice. Like all things historical - they are updated and their version is simply that - an updated version of a classic. There is no harm in doing that. I have had other ones as well - likely too many to mention. Sometimes the are disguised by the name 'cheese board' and they too can be lovely. If I recall correctly I think I had a good one at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese Pub, but that again would be some time ago. As for beer - no - I think a cold crisp cider is far better with a ploughmans!
It's probably one of those things where you can't please all of the people all of the time! The Queen's Larder is quite close to all those big hotels around Russell Square, so naturally draws a lot of international tourists, and correspondingly maybe this slightly more international version of a Ploughman's works better for many of their customers...? I agree on the cider - at the Harrow Inn it's what I always have with a Ploughman's.
My dad on a hot day would order a slice of whatever cheese they had between 2 slices of white bread not toasted and a glass of water. Seemed weird to me but maybe not.
Thank you - I wish I had known that before making the video, as I've referred to Pepys in several other videos. I do have a copy of his diary but it's such a huge tome that I've never managed to read the whole thing cover to cover!
This was an excellent commentary about the Ploughman lunch. Born in Canada before emigrating to the USA in the 1970's, i always remembered that bread cheese and beer were the holy trinity of an English worker's lunch and no one had ever mess with it. Or else.
The last time I had a ploughman's in London was at the Green man and French Horn, somewhere around 2009. It had cheddar, pork, bread, some small pickled onions, and Branston pickle. Had it with some London Pride ale. Can't remember what it had cost, though.
Sorry to hear that! I spent about a year-and-a-half living abroad when I was much younger - it really doesn't sound like very long but I was desperately homesick! When I got back to England I ate as much cheese and spent as much time in the pub as I could. That old phrase about not knowing what you've got 'til it's gone rang very true for me.
@TweedyPubs Our pib traditions are very special, you realise that even more when you travel I think. I managed to visit last year and needless to say, it was hand pull ale or naught! Fortunately two very good independent pubs are minutes away from mums house. I've just found your channel and I'm working through the back log. Hopefully some of my Hants favourites will make an appearance!
I think the name probably was invented in the 50s / 60s but I am confident people have been eating bread and cheese (with maybe some pickles) for centuries!
When I lived in England I was a poor college student so I never got to try any truly good pub meal. The food I had wasn't very tasty. But...like I said....I had no money. I used to LOVE a Hampson's bacon sandwich though!!! 🥪
There's a place in south Minneapolis that does a very nice Ploughman's. The Merlin's Rest on east Lake Street. Probably the last place you'd expect to find one, but surprises abound.
Tweedy, you need to start a petition to resurrect ditch cleansing. A bit more ditch cleansing might stop our roads from flooding quite so much. Jolly good workout too, then down the pub for a ploughman's!
I live in a village and at the foot of my garden I have ditch. Each year I do my bit to “cleanse the ditch”. The tradition continues in our community. 👍🍺
I enjoyed many a Ploughman's lunch at many pubs in London when I attended university there in 1981. That and Shephard's pie were found pretty much everywhere then.
Beer could also be a source of nutrients. When Captain Cook was exploring New Zealand he brewed beer using native plants to help introduce a little vitamin B and C into the diet 🇬🇧 🇳🇿
*Water to drinken*? River water was unhealthy to drink unless it had been boiled. The only water boiled was in the production of beer. So it was quite normal for **everyone** to consume 4-6 pints of weak beer a day?
I love it! My Dad was in England during WW2 and picked up food habits. Marmite, beans on toast and Ploughman's lunch. The latter two were art on a plate. Imagine my surprise when my future husband told me his go to survival food in grad school was his triple decker beans on toast, with cheese. Dad would have been proud of the lad.
@TweedyPubs A fry up by my Dad would be diced potatoes, some onions fried in dripping. Pour some beans in to keep them company and serve with eggs or not as you see fit. Buttered bread is needed to navigate the plate, good coffee, or tea to wash it down. I'm hungry.
@davidneal6920 The glory of this dish or method is that you can add anything you have leftover. The dripping from bacon with bits of nice smokey chunks, sausage of any kind, beef, or chicken. Never tofu, that is against the Method.
My partner loves a Ploughman’s. We live here in Australia and he tries to get one if they offer it (or close To it) A couple of wineries we like and go to frequently have a variation on it - various cold meats (ham, salami, corned beef, prosciutto), cheeses, pickles, bread and relish of some type. Coincidentally we have in Melbourne a Mitre Tavern that is accessed down a laneway as well and is one of the oldest pubs in Melbourne and is all little rooms and panelled in side. Very popular with office workers on Friday night or lunchtimes.
This is truly wonderful as about 30 years ago I used to work in a pub called the Waterman top of Hatton Hill right next to the Hatton flight of locks on the Grand Union Canal near Warwick now called the Hatton Arms. Actually owned by Johnny Arkwright of the famous industrialist Arkwright dynasty who’s seat is the nearby Hatton House. That was the last time I served, ate & saw a ploughman’s lunch. As a boy during the 70/80’s pub lunches were mainly awful …. beef goulash being one particular horrible episode in Aldeburgh I recall… however a ploughman’s, prawn open sandwiches & very occasionally the odd (cheap) steak or gammon egg & chips could be found ( £3.99 at the Falcon pub Birmingham Rd Hatton 1986) were always a favourite ….. never seen one in London during my 35 years living here.
When I lived in London in 1982-83, I was a big fan of the Ploughman's Lunch and can't recall a pub that didn't have one on offer. The contents varied. But they definitely had them. The film THE PLOUGHMAN'S LUNCH (1983) began to solidify the notion that the meal was some kind of lie. Pity. It features some of the best of Britain, decent cheese, nice bread, ham or pate, apple, some chutney, and whatever else to fill out the plate. Hope it comes back into fashion.
The best ploughman's I've ever had was in the Virgins and Castle whilst visiting Kenilworth. An incredible lunch washed down with some great real ales.
1.) - Would love a Ploughman's lunch in a quiet setting, just me or one other person who had the same interest as me and wanting a quiet talk. 2.) Our Family growing up would call that a picnic lunch. Except we might add sliced meats, more vegetables, maybe fried chicken, fruits, olives, a dessert, and other finger foods. Drinks could be anything the individuals desired.
Thank you - I think there's something to be said for a video which just sticks to the point and doesn't go on too long! (Although that said I still managed to go down a couple of rabbit holes here...)
Shows like Tales from the Green Valley has plowmans for lunch. A wedge of home made cheese. A cottage loaf and home made beer. Pickles I am not sure about. Thats based around the 1620s. Ruth Goodman is a very good historian and I think would pick up on things like that. Especially as they make a lot about the meals that were eaten.
I've never seen Tales from the Green Valley - I'll look into that. I think I read somewhere that pickled onions may have been an important source of vitamin C for some rural labourers. I'm sure pickling in general was a lot more common in the days before refrigerators and freezers.
Thank you very much for this video. It is become clear that I do not pine for th Ploughman's Lunch. Give me a whacking big bottle of Scotch ale and two Scotch eggs or pies any time. Enjoyed the vid though.
The word 'luncheon' used to mean a big lump of food, such as cold meat, cheese, or even just a large bit of bread that people would use as a sort of packed meal at around midday. It wouldn't have had pickles, let alone tomatoes, spring onions etc. but the big piece of cheddar you were missing was the authentic version.
I agree they can often be a disappointment - and often for the reason you describe. Cheese - particularly traditional English cheese - used to be a cheap foodstuff. Now that no longer seems to be the case, sadly.
I only heard of ploughman’s lunch from the tv show “Upstart Crow”. I promised my middle daughter a trip to London. She is desperate to see hear Big Ben and see the clock tower itself. We were to go a few years ago, but covid changed that. Hope to get there soon and see London through her eyes.
You used to be able to get a proper ploughman's lunch at a now demolished pub here in Toronto. I'll be over there this November and plan to visit the Olde Mitre again. It's been a while.
The Olde Mitre is a fantastic pub! They don't exactly serve a ploughman's but they do things like toasted sandwiches and pork pies, which isn't a million miles away.
Best ploughman's I ever had was a huge plate of salad with a quarter wheel of Stilton and maybe half a cottage loaf along with a wide selection of pickles to choose from. Half way through it and the waitress said "sorry I forgot your apple" then picked one from a nearby tree and polished it with her apron. Moments like that last.
Cheers, mate! I'll wager that meal won't be bettered. What beer did you have, if you don't mind my asking?
@@sanseijedi
I honestly can't remember what beer I had or where it was. Decades ago.
@@awatt They're all good in memory. Thirty+ years ago I had a beautifully-kept Timothy Taylor Landlord that's fresh in my admittedly-aging mind. Had several in fact.
Beautiful
best ploughmans I ever had was at a pub called the bush near Narbeth in wales
your ham and cheese came out on a plate and welsh dressers along the side of the room were ladden with salads pickles and new potatoes ect and you just filled up ( and by the amount of tractors and landies ect parked up i think every farmer for miles lunched there)
I once had a Ploughman's lunch. He wasn't very happy about it.
Boom boom 🐿️
Oh, ha ha.
Made me giggle 😂
I commented to a farmer friend of mine that I had paid £14 for a ploughman's lunch, his response was "I'd have sold you mine for a fiver " Upon further questioning he'd had a ham sandwich and a flask of tea.
I wouldn't mind paying that if the ingredients were all top notch and the portions were generous... but if it's mediocre bread, mediocre cheese and some chutney out of a jar then that is a bit of a cheek for what is such a simple dish to prepare!
I was an American expat married to a lovely Brit. We lived on our narrowboat as continuous cruisers. He was my dictionary and reference library for all things English. We moored up on the Leicester !line of the canal near a village called Crick. we visited The Red Lion pub, a family owned establishment, and my. husband was surprised to find Ploughman's Lunch on the menu. We ordered and he was delighted when our plates arrived, to see a traditional Ploughman's lunch. It was hands down one of my favorite lunches I've eaten. Delicious simplicity!
Immigrant
@@ab8588So?
Consulting diary, 16th August 1972.
Ploughman's lunch in some unamed pub at Bourton on the Hill, Cotswolds.
Bread, cheese, butter, pickled onions, bottle of soft drink and half of brown ale. Total cost 45p.
Them were the days lad
@p.stephens9305 yeah, I was only 20
Sounds idyllic!
@@HighWealder In the cotswolds, probably be £45.00 today!
First time I paid £1 was Punch and Judy Covent Garden in 1983. It seemed like madness.
A charming and fascinating vid. My grandfather was born 1914 and was a true ploughman who had Shire horses ahead of his plough when he first starting work on Lord Lambton's estate as a young man (Clydesdales were more common then) . There used to be ploughmen competitions back in the day that were big events locally and he won many a medallion for his skill. Admittedly he loved it when tractors came along but he still looked after his horses for the rest of their days. He's long gone now sadly, but I recall his comment about when the modern ploughman's lunch started appearing on pub menus. It was thus ''All I ever had was a lump of cheese between two one inch thick slices of homemade bread ''
So he had a sandwich for his lunch like every other working man.
Thanks Phil! Yes it does seem like the Ploughman's is essentially a "deconstructed" sandwich - or at least that's probably what a fancy restaurant would call it... but then, if we believe that the sandwich only goes back to the 18th century (the Earl of Sandwich and all that), then what came before that...?
@@TweedyPubs That put me in mind of the Blackadder quote '' Blackadder: Baldrick, go to the kitchen and make me something quick and simple to eat, would you? Two slices of bread with something in between. Baldrick: What, like Gerald Lord Sandwich had the other day? Blackadder: Yes, a few rounds of Gerald's.''
I imagine ploughmen of yore took to the fields whatever was freely available to them on the farm that'd not go off during the day. Homemade cheese and a hunk of bread, maybe an apple if they were lucky.
Anyone ever stop to think that ploughmen would never have eaten olives and cheeses of the world?
A slab of bread and cheese is what most rural labourers would have got by on.
That and a bit of low alcoholic short ale or not so low alcoholic cider;).
And of course homemade pickle of some sort. No messing around with rabbit food. A fine apple or pear for a special occasion.
and an onion
By the time the PR wallahs invented the "ploughmans" in the 1960s, most people who ploughed the land for a living had frozen fish fingers or tinned spaghetti hoops for lunch.
Ploughman's lunch should have a big slab of cheddar or locally made cheese, a large slice or two of bread, tomatoes, lettuce and some pickled veg (something like Branstons pickle), and some cold boiled ham. Thats original from were I came from in Wales.
Couldn’t find a ploughmans lunch last time in London. Which made me super sad. Happy to see there are still a few out there.
Me too! As I said in the video I didn't think the one I had was a great example (and plenty of people here in the comments are even more unimpressed with it!) but I was, to be honest, happy to find one at all in London in 2024.
Try the Counting House by the Royal Exchange
In the 1950s, at my godmother's Devon pub, the ploughman's lunch was always on the lunch menu. Cheddar, pickled onion and a chunk of bread along with chutney. Also, a pint of rough! Cider that is.
Sounds great! Cider is brilliant with a ploughman's and the rougher the better in my opinion.
Being born in the US, I got hooked on them in 1974 when my Mum took us back to her home for a visit. Being 9, I didn't have a taste for the pickled onions, never knew regular pickles were an option. Just bread, cheese, pickles and mustard. My Grandfather lived in Bognor Regis on the Channel and we stayed south of London on our travels. Family side note - My grandparents home in London was hit by a V1 during WW2. Grandma and neighbor were talking over the back yard fence, the V1 cleared 2 Poplar trees nearby when the engine cut out. They both dove into their backyard shelters as it destroyed the homes. Apparently they came out to their surviving chickens running around mostly stripped of feathers. Front door knocker was found a mile away.
I actually had a ploughman's lunch first time I went to England back in 1993. It was in a small town named Goldicote, cant remember the pub name. We stopped on the way to Stratford upon Avon and had lunch there. It was, as much as I can remember, very good and everything was fresh. We have something similar down here in Louisiana, the veggies are usually fresh drizzled with vinegar and oil or pickled, and the eggs are often pickled as well. Ours usually always include a slab of ham though on the side or a big scoop of fresh tuna salad. My grandmother used to call it something like "poormans"...or similar but that was 40 years ago so I may be misremembering. Cheers, great video!
Hanks for sharing your lovely memory 🙌🏼
I'm in my fifties now, and just about old enough to remember the joys of a Nottinghamshire/South Yorkshire ploughmans being fairly common.
Up here a ploughmans seemed to be made up of the following:
A good hunk of bread
A slab of home cooked ham
A wedge of sharp cheddar
A big rustic pickled onion
A good sharp apple, quartered
Mustard or chutney
I remember the salad as effectively being a garnish.
I know that my grandfather, who was born sometime around 1920, and who was a lincolnshire ploughman before the tractors took over, greatly relished a ploughmans.😊
He would generally wash it down with mcewan's export.
That's a great description of a perfect Ploughman's - and I agree the salad is only really there for show! Although sometimes a bit of crunchy but-not-too-fussy lettuce (no rocket please!) and perhaps a tomato can make for a nice break between the mouthfuls of cheese.
Piece of pork pie is an essential part of ploughman's lunch up North.
It's a very versatile meal!
A very English dish is the pork pie. Have tried imported ones here in New Zealand. Good source of protein, high-calorie and very tasty. Good meal
Wish I could find a good one in Brissie Queensland, love a good pork pie and I’m not even a Pom.😂
Aussies love pies I've noticed
@@chilldude30 its just Americans who are afraid of meat pies
I passed through London in August 1987 on my way home to the US from Kenya. I ate ploughman's lunches and steak and kidney pies several days in a row. In recent visits to London, I have not noticed ploughman's lunch on pub menus.
It does seem to be a bit of a rarity these days, which is a shame because the popularity of this video suggests there is still a keen interest in them. Perhaps time for a revival?
As a Canadian lad of 12, visiting Castle Coomb with my family in 1970, I had a ploughmans lunch in the local with cheese, bread and pickle. What i remember most is burning my mouth on the unfamiliar English mustard that came with it. 😂
Canadian here as well. My parents were both of English stock. Ploughman's lunch was simply cheddar cheese, the older the better, pickles that were on hand sweet or dill, and buttered bread. A pot of tea was always served with it. My dad always said, "cheese isn't ready to eat until you can put it at one end of the table and it can walk over to you!" Meaning of course STRONG (old). Good old dad! So of course I developed the same love of strong aged cheeses!
Gherkins and brie? What's happened to pickles and farmhouse cheddar? Not a legitimate ploughman's at all.
Cornichons and Comté, we'll call it quits. The French, after all, have ploughmen too also desirous of a mid-day repast.
Oops in my rage at this woeful attempt at a ploughman's I said pickles when I meant pickled onions of course.
I would definitely have preferred farmhouse cheddar and pickled onions.
I really like the format of your video! Keep up the good work!
Thank you!
Ploughman’s lunch is pretty common in Canada. Always a pickled onion, some chutney, cheese and bread. Beer or cider optional.
That's good to hear! I had no idea it existed at all outside of the UK.
@@TweedyPubs oh yes. Popular here and I have seen it in the USA in areas near Canada such as Buffalo NY.
There used to be a British themed pub in the US in the late 1980's. In the Livonia Mall in Livonia, Michigan. Believe there was a chain of them and all in shopping malls. (Can't remember their name) Used to get Ploughmans lunches there. And beer.
A Plowman's Lunch at a Bloomsbury pub was the first meal I ever ate in the U.K. In 1995 many pubs served them and each did it their own way.
Something from "across the pond" - I can recall having to run my grandfathers lunch out to him one day while he was discing out in tge field.
So he stopped , and we had a lunch of sausage, cheese, and a couple of bread rolls, washed down with a couple of Coca Colas
(He didnt drink)
@@MrDdaland Choco cola, the Bain of my childhood.
Tweeds (is it ok to call you this name!?), thank you for posting this video. I went down a rarebit-hole last year researching ploughman lunches and found some tasty nuggets, but your video really brought everything to light! Keep posting some oddities like this…no one else does it like you 😅
"Tweeds" fine by me! Glad you enjoyed the video, thank you for the kind words!
Thank you, Tweedy - another marvellous video. Just as I was enviously watching your good fortune in having perhaps my favourite London pub, Ye Olde Mitre, to yourself, you made my mouth water from the sight of that ploughman's at The Harrow, perhaps my absolute favourite pub. I can still remember going there way back in 1977, on the eve of embarking on a 3-week trek on the South Downs Way (with extensive detours). As a callow youth, I was more than a tad apprehensive trudging down the road at Steep, in pitch darkness. All my worries disappeared once I was ensconced in The Harrow, enjoying a pint from the cask and a Stilton ploughman's - still the finest I have ever eaten. Seeing you enjoying your own perfect ploughman's there confirmed that my memories were not just the result of the rose-tinted spectacles of time.
Thanks Simon! When I watched this back I thought there was something almost perverse about sitting in one beautiful pub while reminiscing nostalgically about a different beautiful pub! Yes I get the sense the Harrow has hardly changed in decades, and long may it stay the same.
Incidentally, I have a new joint favourite pub: The Cornewall Arms, Longtown, Herefordshire - a perfectly unspoilt gem, not too far away from that intriguing tower you stayed in a while back, near Hay-on-Wye.
@@SimonRichardsTFAyes I have been, and absolutely loved it! Unfortunately before I started doing UA-cam so I don't have a video. I suppose it's sort of one of those "parlour pubs" where the pub space is essentially adapted from the living room of a domestic dwelling. Drinks just served through a hatch. The locals were fascinating. It was like stepping into another world. Magical!
@@TweedyPubs That's an excellent description; it reminded me of Welsh farmhouse parlours I had visited as a child.
In 97 went too london on a class trip. Our first meal in london was at a place called the sherlock Holmes pub. We were all starving Americans and most of my group ordered ploughmen thinking it would be a hearty lunch for a working man. Imagine their suprize when they got a plate of pickles with a small chunk of cheese. I had to defend my steak and ale pie with a bullwhip! 😂😂
I realize now that I always ate a lunch of freshly baked rye bread, french mustard, cabot heavily aged cheddar and beer, usually Labatts, Guinness, or Bass, this was in Vermont in the 1970s.
Prior to the spread of maize from the Americas, the term "corn" was used much like we use the word "kernel" today. It was not referencing corn (maize) as we think of it today, but the kernel of whatever grain was used, be it wheat, barley, or whatever. Maize was unknown to England prior to the 16th century.
Thank you for that additional insight! I got the sense the way it was used in that poem implied wholegrain bread, rather than more refined white bread, which would presumably have been more expensive because of the additional milling involved.
@@TweedyPubs That might be the case as well. I was merely trying to address the confusion that modern audiences might encounter when trying to square the use of the term corn today.
Known to British Soldiers in Spain during the Napoleonic Wars as Indian Corn.
As you know if you remember the Corn Laws from history at school - they were about wheat, not maize.
@@inthepub Well, I don't remember the Corn Laws, as they weren't taught in my American schools.
But the word "corn" and its evolution of meaning has created some confusion today, so I made the comment.
i had been given a recipe by an elderly lady in somerset for a loaf of bread cored out and stuffed with meat and so forth like a pie, and she called it the ploughmans special and said that it was traditional to that area from the industrial era onward. no real idea if thats explicitly what a carter or ploughman might have eaten but yeah it was an amazing sammy.
The last pub ploughmans lunch i had was decades ago at the Maltsters arms in Tuckenhay in south Devon, eaten on a picnic bench next to the river. Perfect.
I've been there - what a great location! It used to be owned by the late great Keith Floyd didn't it? Alas when I visited it was after his tenure, but it still had quite a special atmosphere to it.
@@TweedyPubs My mistake, i was thinking of the Watermans arms just along the road from the Maltsters ... also by the river. Keith Floyd did indeed own the Maltsters arms for a while, ... my band played a gig there once whilst he owned it,and feeling a little underpaid we raided the fridges for champagne and sparkling wine 😂 I lived in Tuckenhay when i was little when they still made cider at the maltsters ... a lovely little backwater place.
Very interesting. I've not lived in London for a long time but I did have a stonking ploughman's lunch at the Double Locks in Exeter, not far from my home, a few weeks ago. Historically, you may wish to find any electronic version of the semi-autobigraphical trilogy 'Lark Rise to Candleford' and do a ctrl F search for the term 'bavour'. There are two references to 'bavour' and 'afternoon bavour' which the author mentions that the ploughmen used to refer to a snack, but surmises that the word was 'rapidly being modernised into lunch or luncheon'. Afternoon bavour is referred to later on as a meal for the workers consisting of bread, cheese and beer, generally taken around 3pm.
You're in a great part of the world for finding a good Ploughman's! I think the Bridge Inn at Topsham does a really good one. Thanks for the tip on "bavour" - I'll look into that!
Love the Double Locks!
Sorry I’m late to the party here - I had to cleanse my ditches, yet again.
I love the idea of Cheese Bureaus and Milk Marketing Boards. I don’t know why!
This video deserves to be”blow up” - this must be a question asked by so many seeking the simple pleasures of the past.
Quite amazed you found one in all honesty. Whilst it looked slightly “gentrified” - if one can “gentrify” cheese, onion and bread - you hit the bullseye.
This could trigger a whole series of investigations. I’d like to know if scampi in a basket is sold anywhere! Or prawn cocktails! Also, are there any pubs that still stick candles in those bulbous wine bottles with sort of netting round them?
Anyhow, well done on the success of this video. Totally deserved.
Thank you Mr WC21! I'm delighted with the response to this rather unassuming video - I guess I was just in the right place, at the right time, talking about something which wasn't getting much attention but seems to have really struck a chord!
Or perhaps this didn't happy entirely by chance, and I am unwittingly following a trail of breadcrumbs... Part of some mysterious greater scheme; of which ditch cleansing is, no doubt, also a constituent...?
I wonder if Dan Brown likes a Ploughman's?
I too found the "Cheese Bureau" and "Milk Marketing Board" oddly delightful - I like to imagine some kind of analogue of the FBI and the CIA, but for dairy produce.
Probably more often named the Cheese Board and Milk Marketing Bureau. Famous Australian government official Sir Les Patterson spent many years sitting on the Cheese Board.
Nice bit of research. Well done. Not many youtubers or even journalists putting in any investigative effort like this. Keep up the good work.
My Boxing Day meal, turkey ham cheese and pickles (onions, gherkins, branston & piccalilli) lovely
Festive Ploughman's! Sounds great.
As a 13 yr old, my father used to work on a farm in the North East of Scotland during the war. He'd set off with a knap sack holding half a loaf a junk of Orkney cheese and bottle of cold tea. Does this count as a ploughman's lunch?
Yes
I'm no authority but it does sound like it to me!
I discovered ploughman's lunch while studying in Sheffield in 1996 (from US) and couldn't get enough.
Ok.
Going to need to fish my sourdough starter out of the fridge, gie it a bit of a feed, and bake me up some bread to have this delicious meal I'd forgotten about for far too long.
It is beautiful in its simplicity - but it really does need good ingredients to shine. Home baked bread sounds like a very good start!
I need bread and i need cheese now
So simple and yet so perfect.
😂😂
I love the old Mitre. Used to take visitors their when I used to work at Gray’s Inn Road.
It's a fantastic pub - not just a great location and a really atmospheric interior, but the beer is also very well kept. Potentially ancient cellars!
I doubt there was any specific farmer's lunch recipe in the past. They would eat whatever was in season or preserved over the Winter. Including apples, pears, tomatoes, nuts and berries. Plenty of pies too. I think the traditional English Breakfast is also dubious. As a kid in the 70's I remember a more common breakfast was porridge and/or Kippers on toast, a far healthier breakfast. Salmon for the nobles. The English or Irish breakfast was served in cafes for truckers and road workers. Bread and beef dripping was also common. My grandfather kept chickens in his back garden in north London, so boiled eggs would have been common for lunch. Btw, I've heard that beer is meant to be drunk out of an opaque vessel, not glass. The sunlight spoils it apparently. That's why people had tankards. The glass jug with a handle is really just a glass version of a tankard. Glass vessels were easier to clean and store.
As you mentioned a lot depends on location, time of year and era. I've seen mentioned that some Scottish farm workers had it specifically mentioned in work contracts that they could only be fed salmon a limited number of days out of the week (as certain estates having salmon rivers made it dirt cheap rather than a nobles meal) and had to be fed bread and cheese as part of the meal.
Yes I think what you say makes a lot of sense, and probably also varied based on what the farm itself produced.
I have to say it's possibly one of the best pub lunches, a good ploughman's is a tremendous thing
Agreed!
Great video, Tweedy! Looks like this one is your bigger one so far. Good luck with your success. You deserve it!
Thank you! Yes it does seem to have struck a chord!
Tweedy, you have knocked this one out of the park indeed. Just what I was looking for in regards to my upcoming October visit. I am carefully crafting a full 3 days of a London gentleman's day out which will commence with a proper shave at Taylor's of Old Bond Street, a shoe shine at the Burlington arcade, several carefully curated pub sojourns that have been heavily influenced by your videos,, a superbly engineered martini at Duke's Bar, all topped off in the evening with a well aged Cuban cigar at the Sahakian Lounge at the Bulgari hotel. The Ploughman''s will provide just the right sustenance along the way.
What about afternoon tea at Claridge's?
@@witlof5492 Perhaps!...good idea.
smoking allowed in a hotel ? so one rule for the public and another for those with money !
that should be banned if i cant smoke in a pub no smoking in a hotel its even more dangerous people sleep there overnight !
Thanks Al - it did seem to strike a chord didn't it? I think this video is on track to knock even the Wetherspoon's video off the top spot.
It's a long time since I've had a martini at Duke's, but that always seemed to lead to fun (if slightly off-the-rails) evenings. As you're probably aware they have that two martini maximum rule (or at least they always used to). When I was once in there with some particularly thirsty friends we insisted that they waive it because we were all seasoned drinkers and we'd be fine. Long story short: the bartenders were right and we definitely weren't fine.
@@adeptusmagi Best to stay elsewhere then.
Excellent video John! Ploughman’s Lunch takes me back to 1989 where, as a fresh faced 18 year old, I used to enjoy a ‘pint and a ploughman’s’ for lunch in The Kings Arms on Newcomen Street and then go back to work as a plumbers mate in Guys Hospital (Nuffield House to be precise!) I love that area I believe it’s called Southwark
Thanks Seán! I don't think I've covered the Kings Arms in any video, and I can't recall ever going in there either, although I have walked past there a few times. It still looks like a nice traditional pub in the photos online so I must poke my nose in at some point!
@@TweedyPubs I couldn’t remember the name of the pub but I knew the location and checked it on maps! It may have been called a different name back in 1989 but Kings Arms sounds a bit familiar. It was a great old fashioned boozer back then with a lovely bar counter. I hope you get a chance to visit it and hopefully it’s not full of grapefruit IPA’s 😀
Ham and turkey sandwiches, bags of lettuce, heaps of tomatoes and lashings of ginger beer.
About 30yrs ago I worked at a strictly British Pub in the South Street Seaport in NYC. It was called The North Star Pub. The "Ploughman" was a sandwich there. Grilled sausage, sauteed onions and cheddar cheese. Branston pickle on the side. It has since closed after hurricane Sandy flooded it out. Love me a good Pork pie too. 🇺🇸✝️🇬🇧
You can find a Ploughman’s lunch in Cupertino, California. Or at least you could a few years ago. The cheese they served was Stilton.. it included a Scotch Egg.
I had, and enjoyed ploughman’s lunch in a London Pub during one of my business visits to that city in 1991. The contents of my plate resembled that shown at the end of this video.
I wonder if anywhere is left in London that still does a more traditional style of Ploughman's? Perhaps it is time for a revival...?
@@TweedyPubs Yes, indeed.
My mother wanted to visit an English pub in DC when I lived there, we went to one out in the burbs, but we are a cheap cheap family (yes, quite a bit Scots, why do you ask?😂 Dutch too), so four of us split two ploughmans. I haven’t seen it since, but haven’t looked either. I had to call it “DIY lunchables” when my son was little, but it’s still something I eat at least once a week, although I don’t aim for any authenticity. I see German cold dinners that look quite similar, but I’m not too fussed over the details. Bread, cheese, something sour, something pungent, & I’m good…
This is such a cool channel, wonderful work
Thank you! The pubs are the star of the show, I just try and give them some air time.
Where iam from we mostly do snow instead of fields , but its usually some form of pop like faygo or coke with some kind of tobacco chew or smoke, protien drink, and maybe some nuts or a oatmeal bar.
I had some cheddar in the '100 club' in Soho 40 years ago. It had a brown wrinkled rind and it was insanely good with just a piece of bread
Had an EXCELLANT ploughman's lunch in Ely last visit to the UK.
It was advertised as "Plowman's Lunch with Stinky Cheese" it was wonderful.
Very happy to hear the Ploughman's is alive and well in Ely!
I love a ploughmans. Best I had was in pub near the Brecon Beacons. The pickled onions were so strong it made my eyes water. You could add hand cut ham for a little extra
Haven't had a ploughmans in years, may just have to make one today.
If the Milk Marketing Board still existed they ought to be paying be commission now!
Also keep in mind the fast laws that were practiced during that era. They also were believers in what you ate helped to shape who you were and your life.
Wow. As I write this video has hit 63,000 views. It looks like there is a demand for a cracking good Ploughman’s Lunch. Let’s hope Tweedy continues his quest and finds not only the best Ploughman’s Lunch in London, but also elsewhere in Britain. 👏👏👍😀🥖🍺
I have had the ploughman's lunch at The Queen's Larder a number of times - it was very very nice. Like all things historical - they are updated and their version is simply that - an updated version of a classic. There is no harm in doing that. I have had other ones as well - likely too many to mention. Sometimes the are disguised by the name 'cheese board' and they too can be lovely. If I recall correctly I think I had a good one at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese Pub, but that again would be some time ago. As for beer - no - I think a cold crisp cider is far better with a ploughmans!
It's probably one of those things where you can't please all of the people all of the time! The Queen's Larder is quite close to all those big hotels around Russell Square, so naturally draws a lot of international tourists, and correspondingly maybe this slightly more international version of a Ploughman's works better for many of their customers...?
I agree on the cider - at the Harrow Inn it's what I always have with a Ploughman's.
My dad on a hot day would order a slice of whatever cheese they had between 2 slices of white bread not toasted and a glass of water. Seemed weird to me but maybe not.
That's not a ploughman's lunch, it's a cry for help!
The King Edward IV in Stratford had the best Poughmans platter I've ever had. That was in 2009.
Samuel Pepys used to eat Bread cheese and beer, as he put in his diary. sometimes at midnight.
Thank you - I wish I had known that before making the video, as I've referred to Pepys in several other videos. I do have a copy of his diary but it's such a huge tome that I've never managed to read the whole thing cover to cover!
Very small amount of Branston pickle at the Queen’s Larder.
This was an excellent commentary about the Ploughman lunch. Born in Canada before emigrating to the USA in the 1970's, i always remembered that bread cheese and beer were the holy trinity of an English worker's lunch and no one had ever mess with it. Or else.
Thank you!
The last time I had a ploughman's in London was at the Green man and French Horn, somewhere around 2009. It had cheddar, pork, bread, some small pickled onions, and Branston pickle. Had it with some London Pride ale. Can't remember what it had cost, though.
don’t know about london, but enjoyed enjoyed ploughmans lunch in st. andrews some years ago
"y-cleanse diches" literal guess would be cleaning out the septics. Viking, Roman, Norse, Saxon, and French influenced language.
Watching you casually stroll from pub to pub quaffing ale and talking Ploughmans' lunch makes this Englishman very homesick!
Sorry to hear that! I spent about a year-and-a-half living abroad when I was much younger - it really doesn't sound like very long but I was desperately homesick! When I got back to England I ate as much cheese and spent as much time in the pub as I could. That old phrase about not knowing what you've got 'til it's gone rang very true for me.
@TweedyPubs Our pib traditions are very special, you realise that even more when you travel I think.
I managed to visit last year and needless to say, it was hand pull ale or naught! Fortunately two very good independent pubs are minutes away from mums house.
I've just found your channel and I'm working through the back log. Hopefully some of my Hants favourites will make an appearance!
Looks delicious. I first tried a ploughman’s lunch in a restaurant in Victoria, British Columbia.
It's such a simple thing but when it's done well it can be fantastic!
Invented in the 50s or 60s to help cheese sales by the cheese marketing board - love all the nonsense about it being something from the annals of time
I think the name probably was invented in the 50s / 60s but I am confident people have been eating bread and cheese (with maybe some pickles) for centuries!
When I lived in England I was a poor college student so I never got to try any truly good pub meal. The food I had wasn't very tasty. But...like I said....I had no money. I used to LOVE a Hampson's bacon sandwich though!!! 🥪
There's a place in south Minneapolis that does a very nice Ploughman's. The Merlin's Rest on east Lake Street. Probably the last place you'd expect to find one, but surprises abound.
That's good to know! Happy to hear the ploughman's has international appeal.
Tweedy, you need to start a petition to resurrect ditch cleansing. A bit more ditch cleansing might stop our roads from flooding quite so much. Jolly good workout too, then down the pub for a ploughman's!
I live in a village and at the foot of my garden I have ditch. Each year I do my bit to “cleanse the ditch”. The tradition continues in our community. 👍🍺
@andrewdolinskiatcarpathian Well done, Andrew. I'll get you a pint next time I'm in your neck of the woods!
@@witlof5492 😂👍🍻
Yes perhaps it was no accident that ditch cleansing popped up in the research for two videos in a row!
I enjoyed many a Ploughman's lunch at many pubs in London when I attended university there in 1981. That and Shephard's pie were found pretty much everywhere then.
Shepherd's Pie probably another fairly rare thing today in London pubs, alas!
Beer could also be a source of nutrients. When Captain Cook was exploring New Zealand he brewed beer using native plants to help introduce a little vitamin B and C into the diet 🇬🇧 🇳🇿
Great work Tweedy, Your Harrow Inn Video made me revisit the Ploughman's Lunch and it is indeed a fine and very underrated lunch.
Thanks Phil, and I quite agree - it is very underrated!
*Water to drinken*? River water was unhealthy to drink unless it had been boiled.
The only water boiled was in the production of beer. So it was quite normal for **everyone** to consume 4-6 pints of weak beer a day?
I love it! My Dad was in England during WW2 and picked up food habits. Marmite, beans on toast and Ploughman's lunch. The latter two were art on a plate. Imagine my surprise when my future husband told me his go to survival food in grad school was his triple decker beans on toast, with cheese. Dad would have been proud of the lad.
Same with me back in the day. The person who came up with the idea to add tomato sauce to a tin of beans was a genius!
I know you're never going to find any of those things in a Michelin starred restaurant but give me that kind of food over "haute cuisine" any day.
@TweedyPubs A fry up by my Dad would be diced potatoes, some onions fried in dripping. Pour some beans in to keep them company and serve with eggs or not as you see fit. Buttered bread is needed to navigate the plate, good coffee, or tea to wash it down. I'm hungry.
@@momkatmax nice but missing a sausage or bit of bacon 🥓! Or at least cheese 🧀!
@davidneal6920 The glory of this dish or method is that you can add anything you have leftover. The dripping from bacon with bits of nice smokey chunks, sausage of any kind, beef, or chicken. Never tofu, that is against the Method.
My partner loves a Ploughman’s. We live here in Australia and he tries to get one if they offer it (or close
To it) A couple of wineries we like and go to frequently have a variation on it - various cold meats (ham, salami, corned beef, prosciutto), cheeses, pickles, bread and relish of some type. Coincidentally we have in Melbourne a Mitre Tavern that is accessed down a laneway as well and is one of the oldest pubs in Melbourne and is all little rooms and panelled in side. Very popular with office workers on Friday night or lunchtimes.
This is truly wonderful as about 30 years ago I used to work in a pub called the Waterman top of Hatton Hill right next to the Hatton flight of locks on the Grand Union Canal near Warwick now called the Hatton Arms. Actually owned by Johnny Arkwright of the famous industrialist Arkwright dynasty who’s seat is the nearby Hatton House. That was the last time I served, ate & saw a ploughman’s lunch. As a boy during the 70/80’s pub lunches were mainly awful …. beef goulash being one particular horrible episode in Aldeburgh I recall… however a ploughman’s, prawn open sandwiches & very occasionally the odd (cheap) steak or gammon egg & chips could be found ( £3.99 at the Falcon pub Birmingham Rd Hatton 1986) were always a favourite ….. never seen one in London during my 35 years living here.
Also just wondering about the accompanying beer… bit cloudy? 🤔😊
When I lived in London in 1982-83, I was a big fan of the Ploughman's Lunch and can't recall a pub that didn't have one on offer. The contents varied. But they definitely had them. The film THE PLOUGHMAN'S LUNCH (1983) began to solidify the notion that the meal was some kind of lie. Pity. It features some of the best of Britain, decent cheese, nice bread, ham or pate, apple, some chutney, and whatever else to fill out the plate. Hope it comes back into fashion.
His Mum always said he would end up in The Old Nick.
12 pounds, that's a lot for bread cheese and a couple of pickles? Maybe that's the reason you can't find it.
The best ploughman's I've ever had was in the Virgins and Castle whilst visiting Kenilworth. An incredible lunch washed down with some great real ales.
Sounds great Lee!
The middle English passage reminds me of the diet in the book of Daniel. Vegetables and water, only
1.) - Would love a Ploughman's lunch in a quiet setting, just me or one other person who had the same interest as me and wanting a quiet talk. 2.) Our Family growing up would call that a picnic lunch. Except we might add sliced meats, more vegetables, maybe fried chicken, fruits, olives, a dessert, and other finger foods. Drinks could be anything the individuals desired.
From the US. Love this!
The Ploughmans at the two brewers in Windsor is Devine
A throwback to the 1970s, when pub menus would consist of ploughman's lunch, or chicken in a basket.
There is a food van often to be found at Hound Tor on Dartmoor named "Hound of the Basket Meals".
Omg yes chicken in a basket, how I long for those days, life was so much simpler😁
Short but sweet video, always interesting great as always
Thank you - I think there's something to be said for a video which just sticks to the point and doesn't go on too long! (Although that said I still managed to go down a couple of rabbit holes here...)
Love a traditional ploughmans. Like you a pickled onion or two, nice hunk of sharp english cheddar and some lovely crusty bread. Can't be bettered!😊
Agreed!
Shows like Tales from the Green Valley has plowmans for lunch. A wedge of home made cheese. A cottage loaf and home made beer. Pickles I am not sure about.
Thats based around the 1620s.
Ruth Goodman is a very good historian and I think would pick up on things like that. Especially as they make a lot about the meals that were eaten.
I've never seen Tales from the Green Valley - I'll look into that.
I think I read somewhere that pickled onions may have been an important source of vitamin C for some rural labourers. I'm sure pickling in general was a lot more common in the days before refrigerators and freezers.
Thank you very much for this video. It is become clear that I do not pine for th Ploughman's Lunch. Give me a whacking big bottle of Scotch ale and two Scotch eggs or pies any time. Enjoyed the vid though.
Get thee to the Royal Oak at Fritham. Best Ploughman’s lunch in the UK
Interesting video! Thanks!
The word 'luncheon' used to mean a big lump of food, such as cold meat, cheese, or even just a large bit of bread that people would use as a sort of packed meal at around midday. It wouldn't have had pickles, let alone tomatoes, spring onions etc. but the big piece of cheddar you were missing was the authentic version.
Many a time I have complained about the size of the cheese offered as a ploughman's Lunch they tend to give you a child's portion.🧀🥖🐁🐭
I agree they can often be a disappointment - and often for the reason you describe. Cheese - particularly traditional English cheese - used to be a cheap foodstuff. Now that no longer seems to be the case, sadly.
Ploughman’s lunch is, to me, the worst lunch choice possible. I rarely like salad, cheese, or pickle.
Great choice with the Harrow! It’s a wonderful Pub and the portions are huge! Great video, I love a proper Ploughmans.
It is a fantastic pub, one of my favourites. Thank you!
I only heard of ploughman’s lunch from the tv show “Upstart Crow”. I promised my middle daughter a trip to London. She is desperate to see hear Big Ben and see the clock tower itself. We were to go a few years ago, but covid changed that. Hope to get there soon and see London through her eyes.
You used to be able to get a proper ploughman's lunch at a now demolished pub here in Toronto. I'll be over there this November and plan to visit the Olde Mitre again. It's been a while.
The Olde Mitre is a fantastic pub! They don't exactly serve a ploughman's but they do things like toasted sandwiches and pork pies, which isn't a million miles away.
In London they could attract more tourists by calling gastro pubs ‘Ye Olde Ploughmans Lunch Shoppe’
I remember Branston Pickle from when I visited the UK 50 years ago.
It's obviously not going to be quite as special as something homemade, but now and again I actually quite like it.
Bread, cheese (preferably a nice sharp Cheddar) and beer of choice. Sounds like a winner to me!
Agreed!