whatever happened to the ploughman's lunch?

[PineappleDanish]

We didn't often eat out as children but did have the occasional pub lunch. My parents would ALWAYS order a ploughman's lunch - bread, cheese, cured meats, pickle, sometimes a pork pie, salad. It was seen (in the 70s and 80s) as a culinary delight.

They appear to have disappeared - are all the ploughmen now eating Vietnamese pho or Japanese bento boxes instead?

This was a recent ploughman's I've had. It was huge and included pie, hard boiled egg, several cheeses, potatoes, coleslaw. Enormous!

Wow, Lido. That looks delicious.

It was so huge, @TheMemoryLingers, I had to take a photo which I never usually do with food. The plate itself was a big charger, not normal dinner plate size, to fit it all on!

DH came back from the pub with this.

Oh Lido drooool!

That pack is so cute, Arthursblanket

@lidoshuffle that is a truly magnificent Ploughman's.

@Arthursblanket - not so magnificent.

served on a plate

NOT a Roof tile

Chopping board

Or a swirl fashioned from stained glass.

Yes! Yes, Martha

A PLATE!

A fucking PLATE, you poncey cheffy bastards!

A PLATE!!!!!

I love a ploughmans lunch too, not seen one on the menu in years.

Ohh this threads brought back happy memories of eating out in the 70’s and 80’s

I’m veggie now but have fond memories of ploughmans, scampi, chicken in a basket, chicken Kiev, prawn cocktail, melon boats, fondu, Black Forest gateau, blackcurrant cheesecake, death by chocolate (can’t find that ANYWHERE now)

“We have some amazing local food in this country and we should be celebrating that just as much as looking overseas for inspiration.” Hear hear!

If I were to do one now I think I’d have a good mature scottish cheddar, some Lanark blue cheese and a nice crumbly single Gloucester cheese, some good pan loaf slices or soda bread, pickled onions (proper yellow ones none of this silver skin malarkey), branston pickle, a local place does a gorgeous sweet corn chutney, boiled egg and gherkins, sliced tomatoes, iceberg lettuce and sliced cucumber. Maybe some quorn ham or cocktail sausages. Washed down with a good chilled lager, maybe a lager shandy.

Preferably followed by a huge slab of death by chocolate served with canned whipped cream! Wash this down with either a good mug of builders tea or a traditional cloudy lemonade.

Many dishes that started as paupers/working class food when done well with good quality ingredients are amazing.

UserXX who lives in the us i would suggest making your own but I hear your cheeses are pretty bland, to get the real effect you need good strong mature hard cheeses. Or else the pickles will overwhelm them.

Something very similar to the Ploughman's Lunch is available in even the smallest Alpine hut in Austria, Germany and Italy - a 'Jause' platter. Cold meats and sausages/salami, local cheeses, pickles, peppers, boiled egg and a few slices of various breads. Usually served with a schnaps and a beer.

I could eat a ploughman's every day given the chance! Best one I had was at the Chesil beach visitors centre cafe about 4 yrs ago-so good I'm still thinking about it 😂 however I was pregnant at the time so not sure whether it was actually good or good because I was so hungry!

My favourite , while it’s not always offered I’ve found most pubs will knock one up if you ask - the ingredients are pretty basic after all

Writing my shopping list for tomorrow, definitely including ingredients for a plougman's now I know what pickled onions are called in Finnish (Jam onions - weird language...). I don't actually know if I like pickled onions though, I always avoided the pickled part of the ploughman's when I was a child.

We have ploughman's nights in the local village, complete with the young farmers doing a pantomime 😂

Where do you live namechangin ??? (Only in case DH runs of with the lollipop lady...)

So want a ploughman's now, a favourite Saturday lunch. But hardly found now and often when they do they are not quite right, most annoying when little more then cheese and bread. Porkpie and pickle are required. Need to find somewhere to get a proper one on Saturday now.

My local hotel does one

This was a topic of discussion a few nights ago chez single.

Last one I had was about 2 years ago at a local cafe, 3 cheeses, massive slab of ham , a slice of pork pie and pate.

Got the proper sweats on after eating it.

Me n DH used to order one ham and one cheese one from a local pub and swap half of said ham and cheese.

I now want a ploughman’s.

I had a lovely ploughmans lunch in a naice restaurant last year. It was amazing 😍

My favourite 'snack' tea is making myself a ploughman's. Bread, cheese, meats, dinky pork pie, pickled onions and some nice crisps. Sometimes I'd rather have that than a cooked meal.

I went to a country pub for lunch. They said the kitchen was closing but they could do us a Ploughmans. It arrived with two slices of brown sliced bread from a bag, two slices of thin, wet, square ham, limp lettuce, some cheese, apple and tomato. It took me some time to get over the sheer awfulness of it.

Ploughmans with “cottage” roll or fresh baked bread at least

Nevermind the ploughmans... what happened to a good old liver sausage and onion toastie?

Crackers have no place in a Ploughman's.

Cottage loaf roll all the way. And much as I hate the trend for slates and other ridiculousness, the best Ploughman's i everr had was served on an apple chopping board. Chutney and pickles to die for

You just made me crave pickle.