Comfortably Hungry – Details, episodes & analysis

In Episode 1 I’m joined by my fellow A is for Apple podcast host Dr Alessandra Pino who is an expert on the intersection of the Gothic, food and cultural memory. We talk about her theory on ‘dark food’ in literature, an original concept that provides an insight into the legacies of slavery and its relationship to capitalism, in the context of Cristina Garcia’s novel Dreaming in Cuban (1992). We also chat about the long awaited A Gothic Cookbook, which is finally out of its ‘coffin’.

Useful Links

You can find Allie on Instagram @sasacharlie and X @foodforflo or discover more about her work on her website. Allie also co-hosts the Fear Feasts podcast.

A Gothic Cookbook is published by Unbound and can be ordered direct from their website. For more information on Allie’s theory of dark food see her essay on the subject in The Palgrave Companion to Memory and Literature.

Professor Lorna Piatti Farnell founded the Gothic Association of New Zealand and Australia.

Roland Barthes was a French essayist and social and literary critic.

Suggested Reading

* Babette’s Feast by Isak Dinesen

* Dark Tourism by Malcolm Foley and J. John Lennon

* Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia

* Sweetness & Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History by Sidney Mintz

* ‘Exploring the Role of Food in Gothic Literature’ by Alessandra Pino in Petits Propos Culinaires 129, Autumn 2024

* Mind in Society: Development of Higher Psychological Processes by L. S. Vygotsky

Don’t forget you can follow me on Instagram or X @mrssbilton or find out more about my work on sambilton.com.

A huge thank you to Thomas Ntinas of The Delicious Legacy for doing the sound mixing on this season of the podcast.

Season 3 of the Comfortably Hungry podcast will be launching on 3 October 2024 in which my guests and I will be taking a walk on the dark side of the culinary realm.

Here’s a little preview of what’s coming up.

The first ‘course’ of episodes will feature:

* Dr Alessandra Pino on the meaning of dark food.

* Emma Kay on the (not so) dark ages.

* Jay Reifel and Giles MacDonogh on funeral banquets.

* Dr Neil Buttery and Kate Ryan on black puddings

* Dr Lindsay Middleton and Peter Gilchrist on a Hogmanay favourite.

* Thomas DuBois on fermented beans.

Plus lots more!

A second ‘course’ of episodes will follow in the new year.

Ever since Europeans encountered chocolate in the sixteenth century it has been a divisive substance as I explore in my latest book The Philosophy of Chocolate. So you probably won’t be surprised to learn that wars have been fought over it. We’re not talking about modern warfare with guns and tanks but in the field of commerce where chocolate and who or what it represents can be a controversial subject.

In this episode I am joined by food historian and author of Sweet Invention: A History of Dessert, Michael Krondl. We’re going to be talking about the iconic Sachertorte which Michael has described as ‘an edible manifestation of an urban, cosmopolitan Vienna, as smooth and fitted as a little black dress.’

Useful Links

Do take a look at Michael’s Books Sweet Invention: A History of Dessert, The Taste of Conquest: The Rise and Fall of the Three Great Cities of Spice and The Donut: History, Recipes, and Lore from Boston to Berlin

Aldi’s Cuthbert Advertisement (2023) can be found here.

Ed Cumming, Caterpillar wars: time to pick sides in battle of Colin v Cuthbert, The Guardian, 18 April 2021.

The Original Sachertorte on the Hotel Sacher Website

Demel the famous Viennese Pastry Shop

Welcome back to Season 2 of the Comfortably Hungry Podcast!

Today is the 2nd of November (unless of course you are listening to this episode after this date). In the Christian calendar it is known as All Souls Day and in Mexico specifically Dia de los Muertos or day of the dead. But as we shall see it is far from a mournful occasion.

‘To the modern Mexican death doesn't have any meaning. It has ceased to be the transition, the access to the other life which is more authentic than this one. But the unimportance of death has not taken it away from us and eliminated it from our daily lives. To the inhabitant of New York, Paris, or London death is a word that is never uttered because it burns the lips. The Mexican, on the other hand, frequents it, mocks it, caresses it, sleeps with it, entertains it; it is one of his favourite playthings and his most enduring love. It is true that in his attitude there is perhaps the same fear that others also have, but at least he does not hide this fear nor does he hide death; he contemplates her face to face with impatience, with contempt, with irony: 'If they're going to kill me tomorrow, let them kill me for once and for all.’ Octavio Paz The Labyrinth of Solitude (1959)

In this episode my guest is Maite Gomez-Rejón an educator, writer and cook who explores the connection between art and culinary history with Artbites. She has recently curated two exhibitions at LA Plaza Cocina in Los Angeles, Maize: Past, Present & Future and The Legacy of Cacao. When you have a moment do check out Maite’s podcast with actor Eva Longoria Hungry for History. We are taking a look at the role chocolate plays in the Day of the Dead celebrations.

Are there any chocolatey subjects you’d like me to explore further? Let me know in the Subscriber chat.

Useful Links

Maite’s website is Artbites and you can find her on Instagram @artbites_maite

Hungry for History Podcast with Maite & Eva Longoria. In particular you may like these episodes:

“Pan Dulce y Dia de los Muertos”

“Chocolate: The Food of the Gods”

Maite also recommends this “Day of the Dead special” on Pass the Chipotle podcast

The British Museum produced this short film on the Day of the Dead celebrations.

Further Reading

The True History of Chocolate by Sophie & Michael Coe (1996)

The Essential Cuisines of Mexico by Diana Kennedy (2009)

Sacred Consumption: Food and Ritual in Aztec Art and Culture by Elizabeth Moran (2016)

Sacred Gifts, Profane Pleasures: A History of Tobacco and Chocolate in the Atlantic World by Marcy Norton (2010)

Que vivan los tamales! Food and the Making of Mexican Identity by Jeffrey Pilcher (1998)

The Village in the Valley by Corinna Sargood (2021) (for an evocative description of the Dia de los Muertos celebrations from a British perspective)

If you’d like to find out more about Josefina Velazquez de Leon (the subject of the next exhibition Maite is curating at LA Plaza Cucina) take a look at The Forgotten Legacy of Mexico’s Original Celebrity Chef from Saveur (2016).

Additional music (Mexican Dia De Muertos Mariachi composed by Brais González) produced by Blue Panda, sourced via Pond5.

Welcome back to the comfortably hungry podcast where yesterday’s dinner is tomorrow’s history. I hope you’ve been keeping well over the past few months and are ready for a new season of delicious episodes.

2023 has been a hectic year for me. As well as the podcast I’ve busy writing articles on everything from my pet subject gingerbread to festive food which appears in the new Christmas Book published by Phaidon earlier this year. I’ve also just released my third book called The Philosophy of Chocolate published by the British Library which is handy as CHOCOLATE is the theme for season two of the podcast.

The Philosophy of Chocolate explores our complex relationship with this versatile confection. The book moves between the ceremonial uses of chocolate and its reputation as an aphrodisiac, investigates its reputed health properties and poisonous possibilities. Other chapters reveal the darker side of its production in the Americas, through slave labour and exploitation of indigenous populations, as well as its commercialisation as a sweet treat in Western cultures, and chocolate consumption around the world.

This season I’ll be taking a look at some of chocolate’s more surprising history. So join me on All Souls day on the 2nd November when I’ll be examining chocolate’s role in the Mexican Day Of The Dead celebrations.

Welcome back to Part 2 of Make Do and Cook, the final episode of Season 1. Last time I chatted to food writer Urvashi Roe and food historian Sejal Sukhadwala about resourcefulness in the kitchen particularly when it comes to store cupboard ingredients and leftovers.

In this part I discover that eating leftovers was not always embraced by some sectors of Indian society while others took more of a stalk to root approach to cooking vegetables.

Useful Links

Biting Biting: Snacking Gujarati-Style by Urvashi Roe

https://urvashiroe.com/

Follow Urvashi on Instagram & X

Kitchen Press

Urvashi will be appearing at the following food festivals:

Rangeelu Gujarat 1st - 3rd September 2023

Ludlow Food Festival 8th - 10th September 2023

Dartmouth Food Festival 20th - 22nd October 2023

If you’d like to try making Dhokra ENO Fruit Salts are available here

Philosophy of Curry by Sejal Sukhadwala

Whoever heard of Vegetable Offal? by Sejal Sukhadwala

Follow Sejal on Instagram & X

Original Home Economist Podcast ‘Make Do and Mend’

The British Food History Podcast ‘Tinned Food with Lindsay Middleton’

In this last episode of season 1 of the Comfortably Hungry Podcast I wanted to take a slightly different approach to the theme of austerity.

I’m sure many with you are familiar with the ‘Make Do And Mend’ initiative launched by the British government in 1941. New clothing was rationed from June of that year so people were encouraged to repair or repurpose clothes (you can hear one of my earlier guests Liz Trigg and her mother Val talking about this on the Original Home Economist podcast). I’m not going completely off piste but the concept of ‘make do and mend’ did get me wondering about how it can be applied to the kitchen. Whether it’s a canny use of leftovers or utilising vegetable offal (more on that later), I want to explore how we can make the most of what we have available in our kitchen cupboards.

I could of course have focused on the war years in Britain when food rationing was place but I‘m particularly interested in how other cultures approach this idea of making do. To help me answer this question I have two guests with me today of Gujarati heritage. Now we talked for a very long time so I have split this final episode into two parts. The second part will be released in a couple of weeks.

Useful Links

Biting Biting: Snacking Gujarati-Style by Urvashi Roe

https://urvashiroe.com/

Follow Urvashi on Instagram & Twitter

Kitchen Press

Urvashi will be appearing at the following food festivals:

Rangeelu Gujarat 1st - 3rd September 2023

Ludlow Food Festival 8th - 10th September 2023

Dartmouth Food Festival 20th - 22nd October 2023

If you’d like to try making Dhokra ENO Fruit Salts are available here

Philosophy of Curry by Sejal Sukhadwala

Whoever heard of Vegetable Offal? by Sejal Sukhadwala

Follow Sejal on Instagram & Twitter

Original Home Economist Podcast ‘Make Do and Mend’

The British Food History Podcast ‘Tinned Food with Lindsey Middleton’

In Episode 6 I chat with Professor Rebecca Earle from the University of Warwick about the fascinating history behind the potato.

The potato is one of the most versatile vegetables we eat in the western world. To quote Rebecca from her book Feeding the People: The Politics of the Potato :

‘Today the potato is a remarkably successful global food. It ranks just behind wheat, maize and rice in terms of the volume harvested each year, and is the world’s fifth most valuable food crop. More potatoes are eaten per capita in Malawi than Peru itself. Overall, Europeans are now the world’s most assiduous eaters of potatoes consuming on average some 82 kilos per person each year.’

But it hasn’t always been plain sailing for this south America immigrant. It has been plagued by myths surrounding it’s edibility, such as links between its consumption and leprosy, leading some writers to assume that potatoes weren’t widely eaten in Europe by the working classes prior to the nineteenth century when in fact they were. Over the centuries it has been hailed as both a health food and as a nutritional pariah accused of making the working population lazy. At times the potato has been a source of social unrest yet during both world wars it was relied upon to feed allied and enemy nations. Although in Britain they don’t count as one of your five a day, potatoes are a source of potassium, vitamins C, B1 and B6 and their skins contain fibre. However, finally the potato’s importance to global food security has been officially recognised by the United Nations which declared 2008 the International Year of the Potato.

You can find out more about Rebecca on her website. Rebecca has written a number of books including:

Feeding the People: The Politics of the Potato, Cambridge University Press (2020).

Potato (Object Lessons), Bloomsbury (2019)

The Body of the Conquistador: Food, Race and the Colonial Experience in Spanish America, 1492-1700, Cambridge University Press (2012). Winner of the Conference on Latin America History 2013 Bolton-Johnson Prize.

The Return of the Native: Indians and Mythmaking in Spanish America, 1810-1930, Duke University Press (2008). Winner of the Conference on Latin American History's 2008 Bolton-Johnson Prize Honorable Mention.

Further Reading

Domestic Medicine by William Buchan (1801)

Rural Rides by William Cobbett (1822)

Cottage Economy by William Cobbett (1828)

I’m afraid there were a few Gremlins in the system when we recorded this session but there is a transcript available here.

It’s very easy to get carried away when chatting to my guests so I’ve collated a few of the bits that didn’t make it into the original pressure cooking episode. Given that we’re in the height of summer I thought it would be interesting to explore how nations with consistently hotter climates than Britain utilise pressure cookers and even slow cookers to great effect.

As an aside I was intrigued to discover that it wasn’t only Denys Papin who was convinced chicken would benefit from the pressure cooker treatment (listen to Episode 5 if you don’t know what I’m talking about). A certain ‘Colonel’ Harland Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame doctored a pressure cooker in 1939 so that he could fry chicken quickly and with less oil. This is dangerous in modern, domestic pressure cookers so don’t try it at home. Today’s fast food chains use specially designed pressure fryers. This ultimately helped Sanders (who was given the honorary title of ‘colonel’ by the state in 1935) grow his franchise and in 1964 sold his interest in the company for $2m.

You can find Catherine Phipps on Twitter @catlilycooks or Instagram @catherinephipps. Do subscribe to Catherine’s Substack newsletter Catherine is Under Pressure. Catherine has written several books including Modern Pressure Cooking, as well as Citrus, Leaf, Chicken and The Pressure Cooker Cookbook.

Further Reading

Taste of Life: When Punekars warmed up to introduction of Icmic cooker by Chinmay Damle, 10 November 2022

Indumadhab Mallick revolutionized the kitchen with the invention of ‘Icmic Cooker’, 7 May 2021 on GetBengal.com

Kentucky Fried Chicken Started With An Iron Pan, Dining Room Table & A Gas Station, Consumerist May 2015

Pressure cookers have been hailed as a saviour of the kitchen in these financially straitened times. They cook food quickly and efficiently thereby saving energy and money. BUT… I can’t get the idea of the pressure cooker being a steaming demon out of my head, ready to spew forth its contents like Regan MacNeil of The Exorcist fame being told she has to attend church on Sunday. Hence, my pressure cooker has been buried beneath a tower of boxes in the attic for many years.

Or at least it was until I read Modern Pressure Cooking by Catherine Phipps. She has a far more positive view of pressure cookers and chats to me in this episode about the history behind this device, how it works and the benefits of this mode of cooking. So if you’re a pressure cooking doubter be prepared to be converted.

Like so much kitchen gadgetry the pressure cooker has its origins in the depths of history. A French protestant refugee called Denys Papin (1647-1713) is credited with designing a prototype for the pressure cooker. Papin’s steam digester cooked meat under pressure to produce tender, tasty and nutritious morsels. So intense was this process that even after a short period of time bones were rendered as soft as cheese. He published his results in A New Digester Or Engine For Softening Bones, Containing The Description Of Its Make And Use in 1681. Papin’s aim was that the digester could be used to make portable meat jellies for use at sea (these he argued would be more nutritious than the salted meat usually served on board ships). He concluded that when the jelly was seasoned with sugar and lemon juice he ate it with much pleasure.

The Fellows of the Royal Society were seemingly not put off by the device looking and sounding like a contraption designed for torture and were astounded by the results. Seventeenth century diarist John Evelyn exclaimed:

‘I went this afternoon with several of the Royal Society to a supper which was all dressed, both fish and flesh, in Monsieur Papin’s digester, by which the hardest bones of beef itself, and mutton, were made as soft as cheese, without water or other liquor, and with less than eight ounces of coals, producing an incredible quantity of gravy; the best for clearness and good relish, and the most delicious that I had ever seen, or tasted.’ (12 April 1682)

In the twentieth century the pressure cooker was tamed and additional safety features mean that the risk of explosion has been nullified so kitchen worktops and walls do not run the risk of being sullied by any sudden pressurised outbursts. I’m a convert, how about you?

You can find Catherine Phipps on Twitter @catlilycooks or Instagram @catherinephipps. Do subscribe to Catherine’s Substack newsletter Catherine Phipps . Catherine has written several books including Modern Pressure Cooking, as well as Citrus, Leaf, Chicken and The Pressure Cooker Cookbook.

Further Reading

Castro Opts For Steam Power, Associated Press in The Guardian, 10 March 2005

The Diary of John Evelyn, Volume 2 (M.W. Dunno, 1901)

A New Digester Or Engine For Softening Bones, Containing The Description Of Its Make And Use by Denys Papin, (1681)

Papin’s Digester by Andrea Sella and Thony Christie in Chemistry World, 1 October 2019