Food writer/historian Colman Andrews returns to Mystic on Sunday to introduce his new book, “The British Table,” at an event hosted by Bank Square Books and the Oyster Club.

An exhaustive exploration of the origins and evolution of British food and drink over the centuries, the 328-page tabletop book includes more than 150 recipes from top London chefs to rustic dishes from all corners of the British Isles, as well as travel anecdotes, profiles of cheese makers and specialty food purveyors, and detailed histories of regional foods. 

Editorial director of “The Daily Meal,” books by Andrews include his memoir, “My Usual Table: A Life in Restaurants,” “Catalan Cuisine,” The Country Cooking of Italy,” and “The Country Cooking of Ireland,” for which he won the James Beard 2010 Cookbook of the Year Award.

In this Day interview, Andrews talks about his new book and why English food, once discounted as bland and colorless, is now being celebrated and reinterpreted by leading chefs.

Q. I interviewed you when “The Country Cooking of Ireland” was first published, and you said when you wrote “The Country Cooking of Italy,” you had a hard time deciding what to include because there were so many great recipes. But when writing about Ireland, you were afraid there wouldn’t be enough recipes to fill the book and were pleasantly surprised when you ended up with an equally large book. 

Now you’ve written another big book, “The British Table.” What were your expectations going into this project?

A. I knew there’d be a lot more here — maybe halfway between Italy and Ireland, in a way — I knew enough to know there was a lot of history, and people asked me, ‘Was it tough doing a book on English cooking? This was like a piece of cake compared to doing the one on Ireland.

Q. English food had gotten a bad rap for years and has redeemed itself in more recent years. You say in the book, “The mystery isn’t so much why British food is so good today, but why it ever wasn’t.” Can you explain? 

A. There are a lot of factors that went into the decline of British cooking. A lot were socioeconomic, and the industrial revolution had a tremendous effect on the rural culture of the UK. It sent people to cities, away from the farms. Also, World War I took all the young men from the farms and sent them back, maybe missing an arm or a leg. Another factor was the Victorian era that didn’t celebrate pleasure, at least not so openly. And the rise of convenience foods, especially after World War II, had lots to do with it.

Of course, most of the really good food in the 18th and 19th centuries was what the upper class ate. And as a middle/merchant class developed, that probably had an effect, like the full English breakfast (I write about) was originally an upper-class pursuit. And then little by little, this abundance of meat that characterized it filtered down, was taken on by the middle class.

Q. The subhead of the book is “A New Look at the Traditional Cooking of England, Scotland, and Wales.” How did you decide what to focus on and include? Did you try to strike a balance between city and country cooking?

A. Unlike the Irish book, which definitely (leaned) toward country cooking and left out dishes intentionally identified with cities like Dublin or Belfast, I made a list of things that were absolutely essential: roast beef, grouse, some of the classic desserts, meat pies. And I made a decision to discover dishes that were newly traditional — dating back 30 or 40 years — but have become a really key part of how people eat. The majority of the dishes, not all, are not chef’s dishes, they’re home-cooking dishes that have been part of the way people eat or used to eat. The “New Look” in the subtitle has two meanings. 1. I’m American, looking at it in a slightly different way than people who grew up with these dishes. 2. It’s about rediscovering these old dishes and making them well with new ingredients, and finding them on tables in new restaurants.

Q. Besides the cosmopolitan restaurants and pubs in London, did you do a lot of traveling to remote places in the countryside to do your research? Were people happy to share their stories and their recipes with you?

A. Absolutely. And I definitely learned a lot. Two of the recipes come from as far north as you can get in the UK — the Shetland Islands, where Shetland ponies come from — and one of most popular dishes there, probably dating back hundreds of years is Saucermeat — ground beef or lamb that has a lot of aromatic, strong spices in it: cloves, allspice, ginger, pepper, etc. — an acquired taste. ... Saucermeat Bronies (burgers) pull back on the intense spices. I went to a wonderful cheese producer in Wales and went to many more producers. I could have spent another three years on this book.

Q. You include all kinds of delicious puddings, both savory and sweet. Are puddings particularly native to Great Britain? 

A. There are a number of meanings of pudding. The old meaning was awful — it meant organ meat, tripe and liver. Now the term pudding is used as a generic term for actual pudding or any kind of tart or even ice cream. What I found particularly fascinating is that savory puddings are just like savory pies, except, instead of being baked in the oven, they’re steamed on a stovetop in a pudding bowl and are a little more moist and chewy. I think this may have developed because homes didn’t always have ovens and a pudding you can always cook in a fireplace. It could have exactly the same ingredients as a pie, and you wouldn’t need an oven for it.

Q. You included some great quotes in the book. Are there any that particularly stand out for you?

A. In the introduction, I include a passage from a novel by Tobias Smollet, written in 1771. A wealthy man describes how everything he eats and drinks is grown on his own country estate or is fish from the ocean that he can eat within four hours after being caught. He makes and grows everything. I thought that was astonishing (considering) how long ago this was being written.

Q. Do you know what dishes in the book will be served at the Oyster Club? I’m assuming fish will be included?

A. Yes, and definitely a traditional favorite: roast prime rib of beef and Yorkshire pudding.

Roast Prime Rib of Beef

Serves 8 to 10

If there is any food associated with Great Britain more than "the full English" or fish and chips, it is surely roast beef (almost inevitably accompanied by Yorkshire pudding).

1 (6- to 7-pound) prime rib of beef

1 tablespoon dry mustard

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 cup dry red wine

Yorkshire Pudding, for serving

English mustard or Horseradish Sauce, for serving

Ask the butcher to remove the chine bone and short ribs from the prime rib. Save the chine bone for stock, if you like, and reserve the short ribs. Ask the butcher to tie the roast and weigh it without the bone and ribs; remember the weight.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees

Combine mustard, flour, and a generous amount of salt and pepper in a small bowl, mixing them together well. Rub the mixture all over the prime rib.

Make a bed of the short ribs in a large roasting pan, then place the prime rib on top of them, fat side up. Put pan on lowest rack in oven and roast meat for 30 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees and roast, basting the meat frequently with the pan juices, for 15 minutes more per pound.

After 1½ hours, pour the wine over the meat and roast for 15 minutes more. Insert a meat thermometer into center of roast. If it reads 120 degrees, the meat is done to medium-rare. If it hasn't reached this temperature, continue roasting, checking temperature every 10 to 15 minutes.

When the meat is done, remove it from oven and let it rest for 30 minutes before carving. Serve the short ribs alongside or reserve them for stock.

Yorkshire Pudding

Serves 6 to 8

Today, there are two common ways of making Yorkshire pudding. The more traditional is to pour the batter into the drippings in the roasting pan from which the meat has just been extracted and returning the pan to the oven; also acceptable is baking the puddings in individual muffin tins. Both methods are described here:

1 cup all-purpose flour

Pinch of salt

2 large eggs

1 cup whole milk

1/4 cup vegetable oil or bacon fat (optional)

If you have just cooked a roast, remove the roasting pan from the oven, lift the roast out of the pan, and raise the oven temperature to 450ºF.

Sift together the flour and salt into a medium bowl. In another bowl, beat eggs and milk together, then make a well in the middle of the flour and slowly pour in egg mixture, whisking it until the ingredients are just combined (do not over mix).

Pour batter into roasting pan and bake until pudding has risen and browned, 20 to 25 minutes.

Horseradish Sauce

Makes about 1 cup

Along with good English mustard, horseradish is a favorite British condiment for roast beef and other meats. There are good bottled versions available (Colman's is the standard), but it's easy to make your own, especially these days when fresh horseradish root is increasingly available at farmers' markets.

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup crème fraîche

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons grated peeled fresh horseradish root

Whisk the cream, crème fraîche, and sugar together in a small bowl, then stir in lemon juice and fold in horseradish root.

If you go

The book

"The British Table: A New Look at the Traditional Cooking of England, Scotland and Wales" (Abrams, New York) by Coleman Andrews, color photography by Hirsheimer & Hamilton, is $50, hardcover.

The dinner

What: Dinner with author Coleman Andrews

Where: The Oyster Club, 13 Water St., Mystic

When: 6:30-9 p.m. Sunday

Presented by: The Oyster Club and Bank Square Books

Tickets: $100 per person, plus tax, gratuity and fees. Include a five-course dinner, drink pairing, and a copy of the book.

For tickets: banksquarebooks.com, (860) 536-3795