English cooking has been influenced by foreign ingredients and cooking styles since the Middle Ages. Traditional meals have ancient origins, such as bread and cheese, roasted and stewed meats, meat and game pies, boiled vegetables and broths, and freshwater and saltwater fish. The 14th-century English cookbook, The Forme of Cury contains recipes for these, and dates from the royal court of Richard II
Laborers in Western Europe in the 18th century ate bread and gruel, often in a soup with greens and lentils, a little bacon, and occasionally potato or a bit of cheese. They washed it down with beer (Water was too contaminated), and a sip of milk. Three fourths of the food was derived from plants; fats came from plant oils. Meat was much more attractive, but very expensive.
Food Porn is a glamourized visual presentation of cooking or eating in advertisements, infomercials, blogs cooking shows or other visual media. These may be foods of a high fat and calorie content, or exotic dishes that arouse a desire to eat or the glorification of food as a substitute for sex. Food porn often takes the form of food photography with styling that presents food provocatively, in a similar way to glamour photography or pornographic photography.
