The British pride themselves on their roast beef, what is different about it to that of other countries?

Question

oh, the question was about the british, not the french

Answer 1

I don't think we do pride ourselves on it. It's just that everyone else always associates the English with their roast beef, eg. the Frogs... sorry, I mean French... nicknaming us Les Rosbifs. But, hey, the fact is that a good joint of beef is a much better meal than a paltry piece of game bird like the French would have eaten at the time this nickname was originally coined. The beef fed our armies and helped make the British Empire what it was.

Answer 2

the french call us THE ROAST BEEFS like we call them FROGS

they (and other countries) laugh at us for overcooking our roast beef.

Answer 3

It's probably overcooked. I'm British, but I like my roast beef a little 'saignant'. OK, bloody.

Answer 4

It's all about the trimmings - particularly Yorkshire Puds!

Answer 5

Our beef is packed with steroids,growth hormones and CJD,yummy!

Answer 6

the British pride themselves on a lot, none of which is true. they're whole culture is based on a jealousy of americans which is constantly at the back of their minds. poor things.  

Answer 7

Actually, we don't pride ourselves on our Roast Beef, as the French do not pride themselves on their snails.

I suppose that as the French call British people "les rosbif", it is identified with our country, as much as Sauerkraut is associated with Germany. Beef is protein-rich and forms part of the traditional British Sunday Lunch of roast beef, roast potatoes and Yorkshire Pudding.  

Answer 8

I am an Englishman living in Ireland and i can tell you from personal experience why English roast beef is better than Irish,French,etc. It is that the English have become accustomed to eating beef sourced from cattle that were bred for quality not how fast they put weight on. The Irish and French largely breed charolait cattle that the meat is so tough it is barely fit to use for beefburgers.Unfortunately due to the Common Market Ag. grant system it encourages quantity not quality and so good beef from for example Angus cattle is harder to find. I will travel 50 miles across the border simply to source decent beef..

Answer 9

Its the whole meal not just the beef, roast potatoes, boiled potatoes, greens, gravy and of course Yorkshire puds, yumee.

Answer 10

its just...better

Answer 11

it's the quality of the meat.  British beef is largely grass-fed, which gives higher levels of omega 3 and better quality fat.  Fat is where the flavour is.  Our levels of rainfall mean we have good quality grass in the fields too.  We tend to keep bulls longer; on the continent, animals are slaughtered a lot younger, in Italy or Spain. for example, you'll find veal easier than you would find beef.

In drier mediterranean countries where the grass is too dry, they have to feed them grain which produces lower quality meat.

In addition, oven-roasting is something the British are good at.  It's a heritage thing, at one time post-industrial revolution people lived in small houses in cities and didn't have ovens in their homes, maybe a small stove hob for cooking veg and boiling water.  They had communal ovens which served everyone for baking bread, roasting meat and baking pies. We just got good at doing it as it was our main means of cooking meat, in the same way as we perfected the art of pie-making.  In countries with better climates and less densely populated areas people could cook on a grill outside. That's why the French are better at steak than us. But they couldn't learn to roast joints of meat or make pies on a grill.