Cupcakes, meatballs and the culinary zeitgeist

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Posted at 11:02AM, 12 December 2008 by Toby Travis - Food blogger

Google has just released its list of the most popular search terms of the year, including a list of the UK's ten fastest rising recipe searches. This gives a fascinating and curious insight into the British culinary zeitgeist.

Most surprising to me is the number of traditional British dishes on the list, particularly puddings. Lemon posset (#8), crumble topping (#4), rhubarb fool (#7) and the chronically misspelt 'eaton mess' (#5) all rank highly. Is the intense promotion of local, seasonal food awakening an interest in the neglected dishes of our grandparents' generation? Or is this an attempt to rediscover a sense of national identity via the stomach, a gastronomic Last Night of the Proms?

Perhaps all these old favourites just reflect an appetite for comfort food in uncertain times. Yet there's not much evidence in this list of a credit crunch lurch towards cheaper food. Pork belly (#6) might once have been cheap but the eulogising of this cut by Hugh and other champions of the nose-to-tail approach has transformed it into a luxury item. Its inclusion, alongside beer batter and Eton Mess, also suggests that the generic Gastropub menu is starting to have an impact on our domestic eating habits.

The humble cupcake has certainly made a stunning return to form this year

The humble cupcake has certainly made a stunning return to form this year, sitting pretty at number 1 in the list. Cupcake baking and decoration seems to have transcended recipe status and become an art in itself . No doubt the scope for individual expression is a big part of the appeal. I guess many of us have a favourite cupcake of 2008 - mine was a lovingly crafted scale model of an erupting Vesuvius handed to me at a sedate garden party.

The list contains some odd entries. 'Honey comb' (#9) is certainly pushing the definition of 'recipe'. Does its popularity reflect a mass movement towards suburban bee-keeping or has Jamie O been on TV recently gorging himself on combs of dripping nectar?

I have to confess I hadn't heard of 'Rocky Road' (#3) before reading the list. Turns out it's a variation on the cupcake theme which has recently been given a new spin by none other than the Domestic Goddess herself. It looks like the A-list celebrity chefs are still powerful forces shaping our cooking habits.

The list is also revealing for what it leaves out. There are few international recipes, and only two featuring meat. There's no curry, no spag bol, no lasagne. The only non-British dish is meatballs (#2), and I'm assuming here that people are searching for the Italian-style tomato-smothered balls of meaty joy. Perhaps now The Sopranos has finished fans of the show are having to recreate for themselves the endless meals of 'meatballs and gravy' slurped down by Tony S and his motley crew of shell-suited mobsters.

Clearly this top 10 is likely to reflect the kitchen adventures of Britain's more enthusiastic and web-savvy home cooks. Probably only a small percentage of cooks feel the urge to scour the internet for advice on the optimum resting time for beer batter or the perfect lemon posset recipe. Nonetheless, at the very least the list suggests that many of us are rediscovering the delights of old-school British cookery. Roll over Elizabeth David, welcome home Mrs Beeton.

Comments

AdrianB

12 December 2008, 8:47PM
AdrianB

A superb post Toby thanks - as a keen foodie, fledgling food blogger and technical journalist by trade: you hit all my on buttons at once with this piece. I think it's a great subject and it's probably the reason why my wife and I thought it important to have a PC (well, a Mac) in the kitchen as well as my home office and one in the bedroom. If I'm going to plunge into a Moro tajine recipe or even a more straight-forward hot and sour soup for example... I'll usually look it up in two recipe books, have a peek to see what Delia or Nigella say about it (in their respective Bibles) and then go online and start seeing what online resources in other countries say about the dish in question. I still kind find the recipe for home made sauerkraut though!

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Ann

14 December 2008, 1:08AM
Ann

the honeycomb being searched for could be the recipe for the lovely centre of a "Crunchie", I have a recipe for it somewhere. I thought Rocky Road is a type of candy, not a cupcake, or a type of ice cream.

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Ann

14 December 2008, 1:08AM
Ann

the honeycomb being searched for could be the recipe for the lovely centre of a "Crunchie", I have a recipe for it somewhere. I thought Rocky Road is a type of candy, not a cupcake, or a type of ice cream.

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miniminx

14 December 2008, 1:31PM
miniminx

rocky road is a confectionary made of chocolate, fudge, marshmallow, glace fruit and nuts...nothing to do with cupcakes at all. Similarly, why shouldn't honeycomb be a recipe? It's the golden syrup/baking soda combination that makes the fluffy brittle you can put in sundaes or break into small pieces to put through ice cream (hokey pokey in New Zealand; or honeycombe in Northern Ireland). Know your sweets, lol!

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Emily

15 December 2008, 10:14AM
Emily

I think the popularity of honeycomb could be down to the Nigella effect as well - I think she made hokey pokey in her Nigella Express series...

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Lollipop

15 December 2008, 1:44PM
Lollipop

she did! I made it and I probably was the one to search for it online! Never thought it would be so controversial!!!

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Mineke

31 December 2008, 3:19PM
Mineke

I just tried to search Honey Comb, and here are the results: You searched for: Honey comb Your search didn't return any results. How do I make the lovely centre of a Crunchy?

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Misti

7 January 2009, 9:42AM
Misti

I've always called this lovely sweet "cinder toffee" and a recipe search for that brings up all sorts of resources

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