Web Page 3083 8th December 2023 First Picture: Ploughmans Lunch

Second Picture: Pickled Eggs

Third Picture: Pickled Onions

Fourth Picture: Uncle Toms Cabin

Ploughman’s Lunch It’s as if the term ‘Ploughman’s Lunch‘ has been on the archetypal village pub’s menu for several millennia but you might be astonished to find out its use started far more recently! According to agreement from various sources including the BBC, the phrase ‘Ploughman’s Lunch’ was first promoted by the Milk Marketing Board in the 1960s. It was part of a campaign to promote the sales of cheese and other dairy products, especially in pubs. However, the concept of the combination of ingredients is much older. If we journey back slightly further to an edition of a magazine published by the Brewers’ Society called ‘A Monthly Bulletin’ (dated July 1956), we read a superb quote describing the activities of a group called the Cheese Bureau. It says “that it exists for the admirable purpose of popularising cheese and, the public house lunch of bread, beer, cheese and pickle was a heart attack waiting to happen. This traditional combination was broken by war time rationing and the Cheese Bureau hoped, by demonstrating the natural affinity of the bred and cheese to effect a remarriage”. The use of the phrase ‘traditional combination’ suggests this type of well balanced, locally produced food has indeed long been a part of rural folk’s diets. Whenever this perfect meal first originated, there is one thing that is vital to the perfect Ploughmans Lunch: generosity. Each piece of cheese, or bread or accompaniment used were large and chunky. Perhaps this explains why rationing and the war got in the way of our enjoyment of this unique English dish and we needed the advertising skills of the Milk Marketing Board in the ’60s to remind us how good it always was. There were also two other essentials that usually accompanied a Ploughman’s Lunch and they were held on the bar in large jars and were pickled onions and pickled eggs. Additional items could be added such as ham, gammon, green salad, hard boiled eggs, and an apple, or tomato and the other usual accompaniments were a portion of dairy butter and "pickle", or a chutney-like condiment. Back in the 1960’s there were many country pubs in southern Hampshire that served really good Ploughman’s Lunches. I remember eating them in The Chairmaker Arms at Worlds End (before it was modernised), The Royal Oak Hooks Way when it was in the hands of Alfie Anger the oldest landlord in West Sussex and locally Uncle Toms Cabin when the tenants were Mr and Mrs Rule. At that time, the early and mid-1960’s, none of us went out for an evening meal, the nearest we got was to buy packet of chips with salt and vinegar from Mr. Francis chip shop on the Havant Road in Drayton. Not exactly haut cuisine!! Stay in touch Peter gsseditor@gmail.com