Virtually every pub in England includes a Ploughman’s Lunch on its lunchtime menu.
A Ploughman’s Lunch is usually a large lump of rustic bread, a piece of cheese (usually Cheddar, sometimes Stilton), some side salad, apple and pickle – a dark sweet relish – often Branston Pickle.
Some pubs offer more exotic variations including ‘Anglers Lunch’ which would feature smoked mackerel or a ‘Gamekeepers Lunch’ featuring a game paté.
Interestingly there are very few references to the Ploughman’s lunch before the late nineteen fifties, in part this might be due to the rationing of cheese after the second world war. The end of rationing prompted the Cheese Bureau – who were tasked with re-popularising cheese post rationing – to invent (or reinvent) the Ploughman’s Lunch.