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Food

A Worrying Number of Brits Think Yorkshire Puddings Are from Scotland

A new survey has found that despite 91 percent of Brits describing themselves as “knowledgeable” about food, many fail to correctly answer basic culinary questions.
Photo via Flickr user Andy Matthews

There's no question that Britain is pretty big on eating and drinking. We put away more booze than anyone else, spend over a month every year thinking about what we're having for lunch, and suffer near cardiac arrest when you don't add milk to our hot beverages at precisely the right moment.

But enjoying food doesn't necessarily equate to strong culinary know-how—at least that's what a new survey damning Britain's food knowledge would seem to show.

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Surveying 1,500 Brits, restaurant chain Chef & Brewer found that despite 91 percent describing themselves as "knowledgeable" about food, many failed to answer basic gastronomic questions correctly.

READ MORE: British People Know Terrifyingly Little About Where Food Comes From

And we're not talking Ferran Adrià-levels of quizzing here, either. When asked to define "al dente," almost one in five Brits thought it meant eating outside, and 14 percent believed aperitifs were drunk after a meal. Haven't these heathens ever enjoyed a cleansing, pre-dinner Campari, followed by a plate of firm penne?

A similar number of respondents said that ordering a "blue steak" would get them a piece of meat accompanied by blue cheese sauce, rather than describing its cooking method.

When it got round to wine, things weren't much better. The survey found that over 20 percent believed rosé wine was made with "rosé grapes" (sorry guys, no such thing) and less than half of respondents were able to correctly identify Prosecco as a sparkling wine. A further 13 percent believed the Italian tipple was from Spain. Makes you wonder whether Brits actually knew what they were freaking out about during last summer's much publicised Prosecco shortage.

But the real kicker came when respondents were asked to identify the origins of the Yorkshire pudding. Come on, guys. You've got this one. Think about the name: Yorkshire pudding.

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Nope. Four percent of Brits said that the egg-based Yorkshire dish originates from Scotland. Adding insult to injury, another 6 percent identified kale as an "exotic fruit" and 5 percent thought that haggis was English.

READ MORE: Apparently Brits Spend 34 Days a Year Thinking About Food

Sadly, Chef & Brewer's survey isn't the first to highlight Britain's lacking food knowledge. Research released last year from sustainable agriculture organisation Linking Environment and Farming found that a third of British children didn't know that pork was from pigs and according to a survey from online wine service taste4, 45 percent of Brits are too intimidated by complex wine terms to opt for anything other than a trusty Sauvignon Blanc or Chardonnay when buying wine.

Commenting on the survey's findings, Chef & Brewer brand manager Caroline Gallimore said: "Many of us pride ourselves on our knowledge of food and drink, but it seems we're not as clued up as we like to think we are!"

But we sure like to pretend. Despite suffering pretty severe gaps in gastronomic understanding, 43 percent of respondents also admitted to trying to impress friends with their knowledge of food and drink.

If you can't pronounce it, shove it in your mouth and blag it, right?