Ploughman's lunch

In the United Kingdom, ploughman's lunch is a cold snack or meal, comprising at a minimum a thick piece of cheese (usually Cheddar, Stilton, or other local cheese), relish (often Branston Pickle, sometimes piccalilli and/or pickled onions), crusty bap or chunk of bread, and butter.

It is often accompanied by a green salad; other common additions are half an apple, celery, pâté, crisps, diced hard boiled egg or beetroot.

It is a common menu item in English pubs, often shortened when ordering to 'a ploughman's.'

The familiarity of the ploughman's lunch has led catering companies to describe a sandwich containing Cheddar, pickle and salad as a 'ploughman's sandwich.'

Traditionally it consisted of nothing more than bread and the cheese locally available; it was sometimes accompanied by raw onion or pickles and a flagon of beer or cider or perry.

Etymology

The "Oxford English Dictionary" (OED) dates this phrase back to at least 1837, in the book "Memoirs of the life of Sir Walter Scott" by John G. Lockhart; but this stray early use may have meant merely the sum of its parts, "a lunch for a ploughman".

Until recently, the OED's next citation was only from 1970, indicating a long period of time when the expression was virtually unknown. This long disuse and recent rediscovery has led some people, such as the writer Ian McEwan (in his film "The Ploughman's Lunch"), to portray the dish as being a recent invention dressed up as a traditional meal.

In Britain ploughing is usually done during winter. Before the 20th century, at that time of year the ploughman’s wife or mother would have been unlikely to include salad in the ploughman’s lunch. Green vegetables would be difficult to get in winter. A real ploughman's lunch would have more likely consisted of just cheese and pickle. Onions, however were cheap and easily obtainable as were cheese and pickles made earlier. Onions could be cut up raw and included in a ploughman's lunch or pickled onions could be used.

Lexicographer Edwin Radford in "To Coin a Phrase" (1974) attributes the current usage to Richard Trehane, chairman of the English Country Cheese Council. Nigel Rees also concluded current usage to be 1970s marketing.

In 2005, research by Victoria Coren and others for the Wordhunt project traced the origin of the phrase to 1960; the documentary evidence was minutes of meetings of the English Country Cheese Council, and contemporaneous advertising matter. The new evidence supports Trehane as the inventor of the term. The new citation has been incorporated into the online edition of the OED and will be included in the next revision of the published OED.

There was a statement on BBC TV that the idea for the 'ploughman's lunch' as a name for a type of sold meal arose when a workman working in a café brought a packed lunch of bread and cheese and pickle to work; a customer saw it and ordered it, and was curtly told 'That's a navvy's lunch'; but that gave the management the idea of selling similar meals.

References

* "Why Do We Say ...?", Nigel Rees, 1987, ISBN 0-7137-1944-3.
* [http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/ploughmanslunch?view=uk Ploughman's lunch]

External links

General

* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A5649285 BBC H2G2 entry on ploughmans lunch] - describes historical origins and has detailed information on typical ingredients used.

Etymology

* [http://www.oed.com/bbcwordhunt/ploughmans-lunch.html Oxford English Dictionary (OED) entry] , part of a BBC Wordhunt appeal
* [http://www.oed.com/bbc-series1/list.html#ploughmans OED questions the origin of the term] , part of a BBC Wordhunt appeal
* [http://www.icons.org.uk/nom/nominations/ploughmans-lunch/comments User comments on the 'Icons of England' site] - concerning the view that the term was invented for marketing purposes, rather than from the eating habits of real ploughmen.

ignificance in British popular culture

* [http://www.icons.org.uk/nom/nominations/ploughmans-lunch Entry for ploughman's lunch on the 'Icons of England' website]
* [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/539903/index.html "The Ploughman's Lunch" film] from a BFI website

Recipes

* [http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/231649 Recipe for Ploughman's Lunch]

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* [http://www.flickr.com/groups/666003@N20/ Ploughmans Lunch @ Flickr]