Why do Brits boil everything ?

[Lotc]

I’m European but not British. I have to say the way you guys cook (vegetables in particular) ie boiling everything) really isn’t for me. It just makes everything so bland even if you add butter and salt after. Carrots especially. Why not roast or lightly sautee in a pan with some olive oil? My husband boils everything. I’ve never seen anything like it. Why boil carrots? Same as ILs. The first time I met ILs we had poached chicken. It’s so weird to me. Is it a health thing?

Gammon, stewing beef, chicken stew..

27 pages, antagonist departed chuckling to themselves,
‘well that was easy’
yet who is still here
justifying boiling
and various other cooking methods to a phantom!

Why would I only roast vegetables, sounds terrible all the time when I could steam them and have something that tastes good?

Just thinking of the old Irish great grannies recipe that was carried on (from dad's side, mums side was polish/irish) mashed tatties, boiled white cabbage and fried smoked bacon..the boiled cabbage was then fried in the same in as the bacon. Bloody loved that 😋. So bad but so good! 😋

Such a lot of sweeping generalisations about how cooking is done in the United Kingdom. 🤣🤣🤣
The days of boiling everything to death are surely long gone, though I suppose there might be exceptions - but I, for one, don’t boil veg to the extreme the OP suggests most of us do.

It struck me from the beginning as a bit suspicious and I’m now convinced it was MN bait, which we all took. There have been a few of these over the recent months

I prefer to roast or stir fry veg. I once poached a chicken when the oven broke.

I mostly boil potatoes to make mash potatoe and I'll heat sweetcorn or peas up by boiling them. I don't have a massive oven so the two small shelves I have are taken up with roast meats, Yorkshire puddings or roast potatoes. I part boil some things to save time. I don't finish work until 5pm and need to pick my children up and get them home, dinner and bathed and read a book to them all by 7pm.

I completely agree. Why is OP obsessed with everything having to be done with oil? Sounds greasy and disgusting to me 😂 boiled veg is only rank if it's overboiled.

Why would you want to cover up the flavour of cauliflower? It's got a great flavour if you don't put all that rubbish on it all the time.

Absolutely! A lot of pub roasts are disappointing (it’s hard to get the potatoes right when you are mass catering) but when cooked at home by an experienced roast maker with all the trimmings, they are amazing. My friend visited the Uk from the Caribbean and said my homemade roast dinner was the best meal she ate in 3 weeks in the Uk!

How for you cook frozen peas OP?

I don't boil everything, not all British people are like your husband

Funnily enough he learnt to cook from his parents.... I'm British and can say I never boil anything apart from pasta and maybe peas and sweetcorn for my daughter or potatoes for par-boiling / mashing. My husband is french and the first time he cooked for me he diced up the veg into little squares and when I met his parents I realised they did the same because they had a device for chopping things... Never once did I think all French people chopped their veg like that 🤦

Agree lots of veg that can be sauteed or roasted etc... however some veg takes ages to get beyond raw such as carrots and celery although these can be sweated. Perhaps its a time issue. My great aunt would be turning in her grave if i suggested not boiling everything to within an inch of its life - al dente?? Forget it. Theres a reason that most uk houses used to smell of boiled cabbage!!

Just cook things how you want 🤣🤣🤣

I have family from Eastern Europe. They boil stuff too, so not just Brits.
I didn't realise other countries don't boil their veg to be honest.
Is it a problem?

Brits don’t boil everything? Your husband might but not everyone does. Carrots when cooked are generally steamed or roasted to be soft enough to cut with a table knife. It’s an etiquette thing. Softer veg is about dinner parties. It’s rude to hear your knife clattering on the plate cutting hard vegetables, or being able to hear the carrot crunching in your mouth. Hard vegetables take time and attention to cut and eat, getting in the way of polite conversation.

In reality, Brits eat loads of different things at home. In the last week I’ve made fajitas, sushi, a variety of salads and a very nice lemon chicken risotto with some home-preserved lemons.

The mushy beige food thing is a myth. Our national dishes might be dull but we don’t really eat this stuff that often. I think a jacket potato with baked beans and cheese is the only boring beige British food I’ll do at home semi-regularly.

We don't. Don't generalise

Garlic?! You wild thing! 🤣

Sorry, I wasn't super clear - I start it off in the pan till the edges are just softening, but they're still raw through. Then they go in the oven for the last half hour with the Yorkshires. They're delicious.

I can only speak for myself, but I often steam vegetables or roast them. The only things I boil are rice and pasta. If the veg is bland, they may be overcooked.

You can’t ‘slowly boil’ anything.

I’ve just remembered that in Spain we have a dish called ‘hervido’, literally meaning boiled, where you boil together whole potatoes, onions, green beans. Serve in chunks with olive oil and salt for seasoning. We tend to have it when you want something simple, cheap and easy on the stomach.

The cocido, also using the boiling for hours technique, is more sophisticated and involves meat and chickpeas.

You can simmer? That could be considered a slow boil?