Which of these British foods should this American try first?

[BananaPudding]

My little Texan village grocery has expanded and is trying to be very posh all of a sudden (which is a change from the standard Velveeta and Hamburger Helper choices) and has put in a British section of food! Imagine my shock to find some of the things you talk about in my own store here. It's quite pricy as it's all imported, so I want to try just one or two things at a time. Here's what they have to offer:

HP Brown Sauce and Fruity Sauce
Branston Pickle
Marmite
Heinz Baked Beans (apparently different than ours?)
Blackcurrant jam
Galaxy bars
Bounty bars
Bird's Custard
Bisto granules
Robinsons barley water

Think there are more but can't remember. Of these, what should I try?

Oh, almost forgot the Heinz Spotted Dick. It's creating hilarity/shock throught the town

You can also gets Branston Baked Beans.

Ham and pickle sandwiches are my 2 year old DS's favourite

I wonder would salami and pickle be horrible?

DH likes Ham, cheese, tomato, cucumber and pickle...

And pickle with Pork Pie

Branston baked beans are just the name of the make though, they don't have Brantson pickle in them. Do they??!

They don't have pickle in them but the sauce is pickle-y flavoured I thought. Are they really just tomato? That's rubbish.

Yes, they're just tomato, like any other baked beans. You imagined the pickley taste.
Salami and pickle? Not sure about that one. Only way to find out is to try it...

Corned beef and branston pickle sandwiches on white fluffy bread are nice, do you get corned beef in the US BP? Would imagine so, cowboys and all that?

Corned beef is St. Patrick's Day food in the US -- it's considered to be traditional Irish fare (corned beef and cabbage, mashed potatoes...). Probably the closest thing available as a substitute for Irish boiled bacon.

Corned beef is traditional irish fare, as long as its Irish corned beef, which has no corn in it and is nothing remotely like english corned beef!
Corned beef, cabbage, parsley sauce and boiled potatos, you can't get much more traditional than that!

Do they not get boiled bacon then?

Boiled bacon? No, we dont have boiled bacon. The only reference I've ever seen/heard is the vile slimy greenish gray bacon served by the crazy mother in Better Off Dead.

"uh....mom, what happened to the bacon?"
brightly: "I boiled it!"

cue bacon slopping itself off the plate and trying to attack the main character.

I would imagine your boiled bacon is much different!

It's just a big joint of bacon that you boil instead of roasting. Boiling reduces the saltiness. Then you slice it and eat it either hot or cold. I have half of one left in my fridge from the weekend which I may have for lunch with some Branston Pickle

proper boiled bacon is delish! One of those things that sounds awful until you have it the way its meant to be.

Coddle, on the other hand, with the boiled sausages, is vile.

oh yeah, British bacon is something else I really am not so keen on! I miss our loooovely crispy bacon from America! In Texas you could make wonderful gravy from the left over bacon drippings (after cooking it) to go over biscuits (scones) [making me hungry just thinking about it] ... but the disgusting bacon over here requires oil if you want to fry it! no lovely drippings over here! LOL

As for Branston Baked Beans, I love them! They have a much better taste compared with other baked beans - I think maybe a bit less plain tomato tasting ... a bit more like lovely American Ranch Style Beans ... tho not as good, but they're an improvement!

Rachel, I'm starting to suspect that you are living in a parallel universe. No crispy bacon? No dripping? What a load of nonsense. And you don't need oil to fry bacon as long as you have a decent non-stick pan.
There are many different types over here - the big joints which you boil and slice, back bacon which is mostly lean and very meaty and mostly does need oil to fry it, streaky bacon which is very fatty and doesn't need oil to fry it. You can get it think cut, thick cut, every which way you can imagine.

Thin cut, not think cut [grin

LOL Lyra ! Well, NO bacon I've seen over here (and I have tried quite a few different kinds) will give you about 3-6 ounces of drippings like we'd get from a pack of bacon in America! I have to admit, that most of the bacon I've had has been back bacon (as it seems that is the most readily available), but even streaky bacon doesn't seem to have enough fat for my liking!

I much prefer streaky to back. Back is much too lean.

Our bacon isn't disgusting.It's lovely.

And I don't think I'd care to eat any bacon that leaves you with that much dripping.

Well, it's just that our bacon goes sooooo hard & crispy, so I always feel like British bacon is still raw! LOL Guess it's just what each of us is used to eating! ... but yeah, I'm sure that amount of fat isn't good for the heart or figure!

Almost as hard and crispy as your arteries.

I make lovely hard, brown and crispy bacon, maybe it's your cooking style?

You can only get delicious Irish boiling bacon occasionally at Irish groceries. It sells out fast. Bacon in the US is streaky and usually fatty unless you want to spend twenty minutes examining every packet in the shop. Pooexplosions, I agree about the coddle. The corned beef is not the same at all in the US either.

Yes, was going to substitute McVities digestives for the key lime pie crust. Think they are too thick to make effective smores, though. Glad you liked the Branston Pickle. Sorry, called your DD a DS on earlier post - did she taste the Marmite?