PLOUGHMAN'S LUNCH...what is your version?
 

I've made several trips to different parts of England over the past decade and have heard many a pub goer lament the fact that the Ploughman's ("Plowman's") lunch is either disappearing or has changed from "the good old days."

I have noticed that what I get when I order the ploughman is different in Great Yarmouth than what I get in say Cheltenham. For instance sometimes it includes a hunk of cheese, other times it does not. I have also been served a cold banger and, at least once, a chunk of lean, cold, roast beef.

What do you think the "authentic" Plowman should include?

I was always served a hunk of bread, cheese and some fresh vegetables.

I was served a huge piece of cheese, fruit and bread.

Since it was traditionally supposed to consist of leftovers: cold meat (such as beef or lamb), along with bread, cheese, fruit and some sort of pickle is usually served.

I'd always heard that the ploughman's lunch is not really a countryside tradition, but that it originated in the mid-20th century as a cheap pub meal after manufactured cheddar was widely available.

That said, I can't imagine a ploughman's lunch without cheese! The basic components were cheese, bread, and pickle (British pickle, like a Branston pickle, not pickled cucumbers), though I have seen additions to that.

Hi
I have always thought that the traditional Ploughman's should consist of; fresh chunky bread, a couple of types of cheese - cheddar/stilton etc, loads of pickle (as is Branston's - not gherkins - although a ghurkins can be a welcome addition), salad and maybe pate?

What EnglishOne has described (with pate) is what I've usually had. My most memorable, in a pub in Slough, of all places, on the way back from an idyllic Cotswold weekend. The pub wasn't really serving food at that hour but said we could have a ploughman's. I wasn't expecting much & it was terrific.

In days gone by, we have had each of the versions described above under the nomer Plougman's or Plowman's. The one addition, it always included several slices of fruit (apple, orange?). It was our standard quick lunch in the British Isles along with a half-pint. Last trip to the Isles in 2002, we tried to get one in all the old places only to find it no longer available. Kept getting referred to hamburger joints. Pity!

The best I can remember was a simple Branston and cheddar sandwich with a small salad and I think it was at the Pub on Dukes St, near the Wallace Collection.

Cheese, bread, pickled onions and maybe eggs, and beer.

I thought the name originated from when farmers ploughed with horse and plough often all day and were many fields away from the house at noon. The farmers wife would then go out to the field with a lunch that consisted of home made cheese, bread, salad, apple and home made cider.

How far back does Branston pickle go? Must say I love it and pay almost $5.00 a jar to get it here in the US. But it is so..... worth it. It positively makes a cheese sandwich.

Sandy

i expect cheddar cheese usually or a choice of cheese, some salad, some dark pickle mix (branson pickle??), some bread and butter and sometimes for an extra charge some pate...i also expect it to cost one pound....oh that was many years ago...its price has now followed all food in england---up, up, up, UP....but quality has improved generally too

"Everybody" knows that the ploughman's lunch was invented in the mid-1950s by the National Dairy Council (the dairy industry promotional body) as part of its "training" (= sales promotion) programmes for caterers. Anyone you meet who ever worked for them tells you that, and the (awful, trendy-lefty) 1980s film of the same title repeats the claim. Every media studies student in Britain knows the ploughman's lunch study: the classic example of invented history.

But no-one's ever been able to put their hands on the manual where this invention first came to light. Equally, though, there's absolutely no known use of the term before a 1956 ad. But pubs have been serving bread and cheese for centuries.

The name's a recent invention, and there's certainly no "authentic" recipe (though one we had in Australia the other week that included a pork pie really did seem a bit odd)

I've always thought it was a chunk of bread, a chunk of cheese and some pickle.

The ploughmans lunch was invented in the fifties so that pubs could sell food but still retain their traditional inability to cook.
There being no fixed definition, a ploughman's consists of anything requiring no preparation.
It does not exist ouside pubs.
It is disappearing, being replaced by chargrilled Thai chicken gougons & similar microwaveables.
This was supposed to enable we Brits to continue to be totally innocent of any knowledge of food.However so many actually like it & go into pubs for food that many pubs aren't really pubs any more.
This weird pub food is known as "fayre" instead of food.I think this name & the menus were invented by the same guy who invented the ploughman's.
The only traditional thing about pub food is that traditionally you couldn't get any.Nowadays you get "fayre".

When the term was invented in the 1950s, it was basically just bread and cheese. The association with ploughmen was just marketing: lots of other people ate bread and cheese, but dustman's lunch, train driver's lunch or road mender's lunch didn't have the same rustic appeal. Nowadays, pubs offer cheese ploughman's, ham ploughman's, etc, and it often comes with cole slaw and other embellishments which were unknown to ploughmen.

"Train driver's lunch." LOL.

For those of us old enough to remember British Rail sandwiches, that not only has no rustic appeal, it's repugnant!