Pub Snacks

[Real Ale Ray]

Back in the day when pubs were open, I always liked something to chomp on with my beer, so I've put together a list of my favourites down through the years:

Pork Pie: Lion Tavern (https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/26715/) & The White Hart (https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/60902/)
Ham & Salad Cob: The Old Oak Inn (https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/7427/) & Weavers at Park Lane (https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/81654/)
Cheese Cob: The Blue Boar (https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/84554/)
Steak Pie: Coach & Horses (https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/30284/)
Pizza: Tapped (https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/81228/)
Veg Samosas (homemade!): The Old Moseley Arms (https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/37762/)
Pork Scratchings: The Burnt Pig (https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/83040/)
Meat & Potato pie: from a bakery in Upper Mill and scoffed in here: Albion Tap (https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/84098/)
Fish & Chips: from a chippy around the corner from The Badgers Arms (https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/86021/)

[Aqualung]

My favourite all time snack (more of a meal really) was the pork baps in the Great Western. In the 1990s it was a long soft bread roll packed with freshly cooked and carved pork with stuffing and optional fried onions. It cost about the same as a pint of bitter. The pulled pork baps of today are microwaved and absolute rubbish in comparison.

[london calling]

I cant say I have every eaten a snack with beer in a pub.Have a beer then have another one is my motto.

[Pangolin]

No, you definitely need something to soak it up! Too much consumed over the years to remember anything too specific, but a couple of thoughts from the days when a free snack was often provided on a Sunday lunchtime.

I recollect a canal trip in Yorkshire many moons ago when we stumbled upon a pub giving out all manner of stuff; roast potatoes, black pudding and lord knows what else. Will have to do some digging and see if I can find where it was.

And several pubs in Penzance used to have cheese on the bar (not uncommon) but uniquely with bowls of raw onion in vinegar. Does this still happen?

[Mobyduck]

The Pork and Apple sauce rolls in The Southampton Arms (https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/23788/) , about 4 quid or so but loads of meat and big rolls.

[oldboots]

You can't beat the Cheese & Onion Cobs and the Pork Pies in Black Country pubs. These days most pubs just seem to sell a wide range of peanuts, crisps, and packets of potato starch in various forms although I am pretty fond of mini-cheddars.

In the olden days, Friday and Saturday nights were the sea-food man times, as discussed here before I think? Sunday lunchtime was the time for free bar snacks, usually cheese cubes, peanuts, sometimes roast potatoes, some places with crackers or black pudding or deeply fried bacon rind as a nancy southern version of scratchings ;). The Village Inn in Salisbury used to have bowls of prawn crackers liberally dusted with Ceyenne pepper as a free snack on Sunday lunchtimes.

I won't mention those occasional tests carried out into what else was lurking in the bowls used :sick:

In a pub I used to frequent one old lady used to bring in a big bag of home made cheese straws for the regulars.

[Brainypool]

I’m not a fan of the standard bar snacks really. My friends always get crisps and peanuts but I find they get annoyingly stuck in my teeth for hours on end. Pies are too often disappointing.

Free food is still fairly common around here in an afternoon, usually just cheese sandwiches offered around the pub. Recently I was given so many sandwiches in the White Star, Liverpool that I couldn’t eat for the rest of the day!. Less common but some pubs give away hot pot/scouse/lobby or even curry and rice too, they go up massively in my estimations as a result.

[NickDavies]

These days most pubs just seem to sell a wide range of peanuts, crisps, and packets of potato starch in various forms although I am pretty fond of mini-cheddars.


At its worse the evil practice of rushing you a couple of quid for a huge bowl of stale nuts bought in bulk from the cash and carry. I sometimes ask for a packet of salted peanuts knowing full well what will be offered just so I can decline and have crisps instead.

[Spinko]

Pork scratchings in the Golden Smog, they even have two varieties. The airy ones, and the dense proper ones.

[sheffield hatter]

My friends always get crisps and peanuts but I find they get annoyingly stuck in my teeth for hours on end.

It's not just me, then.

[NickDavies]

It's not just me, then.

To drift the thread a little I once had a work colleague who thought that buying a round of packets of crisps, whether anyone wanted any or not, got him out of buying a proper round. Bloody annoying but not much we could do as he was more useful alive than dead, especially where juicy gossip was concerned.

[Tris39]

The Pork and Apple sauce rolls in The Southampton Arms (https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/23788/) , about 4 quid or so but loads of meat and big rolls.

Yup. They are good.


It's not just me, then.

And a lot of sodium which isn't healthy at our - average - age.

[london calling]

Pickled eggs seemed to be a feature in pubs years ago but never saw anyone buying them.
Went on a pub crawl maybe 1971 around Dundee pubs and my mate invited his stepfather Norrie.He must have been in his late 60,s and he turned up with a big block of cheddar cheese and a lethal knife to cut it with.Apparently this was a common practice he said for pub crawls in his youth as it kept you sober. We as usual got hammered.Cheese or no cheese. happy days

[london calling]

Yup. They are good.



And a lot of sodium which isn't healthy at our - average - age.

Often in that pub and think they look disgusting. Sorry.

[Mobyduck]

Often in that pub and think they look disgusting. Sorry.

Tasty.

[bcfczuluarmy]

Places round Bristol and wider area Pickled Egg in a bag of salt and vinegar crisps, maybe elsewhere in Country as well. As for C&O rolls in black country. The Vine (https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/38031/) is about the only one I had in that neck of the woods. Round here if they are offering then at the bar they are now ~£2.50-£3.00 mark few do/did cheap ones still but most not known for real ale from memory.

As a better snack to standard crisps Snyder's Pretzels Jalapeno https://www.amazon.co.uk/slp/snyders-pretzels/v335epw7gf7y4ec

[Aqualung]

Places round Bristol and wider area Pickled Egg in a bag of salt and vinegar crisps, maybe elsewhere in Country as well.
I've seen that but can't vouch for the flavour of crisps! It was a long time ago, probably the 1970s. I remember going to the long gone Plough cider house at Elmley Castle. It was midday in the week and the florid faced locals were food matching cheddar cheese and raw onion with the home brewed cider. The onion was peeled and they were eating it like an apple.

[ETA]

Early pub snacks (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5ofIBw3uMM)

[Blackthorn]

Places round Bristol and wider area Pickled Egg in a bag of salt and vinegar crisps, maybe elsewhere in Country as well.

Definitely, I quite often have a pickled egg with a bag of crisps. Doesn't have to be salt & vinegar of course, but that seems to be the best combination. Didn't realise that was a Bristol thing!

And as oldboots said, the seafood man used to be a regular fixture, although pretty much always in The Kings Head (https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/455/), I think I only ever saw him anywhere else once or twice. A straightforward prawns with marie rose sauce was generally my preferred option.

[oldboots]

Definitely, I quite often have a pickled egg with a bag of crisps. Doesn't have to be salt & vinegar of course, but that seems to be the best combination. ...

Cheese & Onion crisps for me, I had an egg in a bag during the No38 pub crawl we did in a pub with about 10 varieties of pickled eggs, possibly the Cock Tavern in Hackney?

[Real Ale Ray]

Cheese & Onion crisps for me, I had an egg in a bag during the No38 pub crawl we did in a pub with about 10 varieties of pickled eggs, possibly the Cock Tavern in Hackney?

Definitely the Cock Tavern, I remember that. They have a few strange varieties in there.

[Tris39]

Definitely the Cock Tavern, I remember that. They have a few strange varieties in there.

Highly likely 'twas the Cock. They also had vegetarian port scratchings on our visit too.:rolleyes:

[Mobyduck]

Definitely the Cock Tavern, I remember that. They have a few strange varieties in there.


Indeed it was.
2001

[oldboots]

Indeed it was.
2001

I had the yellow one but I suspect they all taste the same - vinegary
egg :D


Incidently when you order a Takehome Taproom from Roosters you get four
different snacks as well as the beer, a quiz and some music choice by
famous dikhead Pete Brown,

[bcfczuluarmy]

They aren't your normal Booker Chef's Larder/Makro ones. Seen the posh ones ages ago round here as a Gloucestershire company. We did the maths when in a pub in Frome that was selling them, can't remember the difference between buying online for posh big jar against walking into my local Booker but there is as hell of a difference per egg.

[Pangolin]

I too am quite partial to a pickled egg in a packet of crisps. The posh ones are in rice vinegar which is less acrid, if anyone cares - they have been at GBBF for quite a few years.

I have come across a few pubs with home made ones, but don't ask me where!

[Tris39]

I think pickled eggs were a very big East End thing. The most gastrofied pub I've seen them in is The Sutton Arms (https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/23364/) and I think the Southampton Arms sells them. They are standard fayre in fish 'n' chip shops here.
I love eggs in all their forms and pickled things too. When I was a kid, I'd always sprinkle Sarson's on my fried eggs. I've never been tempted by a pickled egg, though I was never sure if they were pickled in vinegar or brine. If the former, aren't they incredibly rubbery?

[london calling]

I think pickled eggs were a very big East End thing. The most gastrofied pub I've seen them in is The Sutton Arms (https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/23364/) and I think the Southampton Arms sells them. They are standard fayre in fish 'n' chip shops here.
I love eggs in all their forms and pickled things too. When I was a kid, I'd always sprinkle Sarson's on my fried eggs. I've never been tempted by a pickled egg, though I was never sure if they were pickled in vinegar or brine. If the former, aren't they incredibly rubbery?

Was in a Chinese resteraunt and said to the waiter this chicken is rubbery.He said glad you like it.

[oldboots]

Was in a Chinese resteraunt and said to the waiter this chicken is rubbery.He said glad you like it.

Benny Hill lives !

[aleandhearty]

I recollect a canal trip in Yorkshire many moons ago when we stumbled upon a pub giving out all manner of stuff; roast potatoes, black pudding and lord knows what else. Will have to do some digging and see if I can find where it was.

Yorkshire pubs tend to be quite generous with pub snacks, particularly on a Sunday. The best place I came across was The Shepherds Boy (https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/40380/), Dewsbury. My daughter was having a riding lesson nearby and I'd snuck away for a swifty. The bar had several platters of pork pies, scotch eggs, black pudding and bread with 'mucky fat' (beef dripping, to non-Yorkshire folk). Marvellous.



My friends always get crisps and peanuts but I find they get annoyingly stuck in my teeth for hours on end.


It's not just me, then.

Peanuts are my snack of choice, (bags only) but I praise the Lord for TePe brushes! Being of a certain age, once I've emptied my bladder, on returning home, I often have a quick session clearing my gums.

[Pangolin]

Yorkshire pubs tend to be quite generous with pub snacks, particularly on a Sunday. The best place I came across was The Shepherds Boy (https://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/40380/), Dewsbury. My daughter was having a riding lesson nearby and I'd snuck away for a swifty. The bar had several platters of pork pies, scotch eggs, black pudding and bread with 'mucky fat' (beef dripping, to non-Yorkshire folk). Marvellous.


That's exactly the sort of thing I remember. It wasn't the Shepherds Boy but might well have been in that area. Glad to know it still happens - must make a revisit when normality resumes.