The British Food History Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

It’s the end of season seven, so it is time for the traditional special postbag edition of the podcast. Much is covered: feminist dining tables, 17th-century household books, regional gingerbreads, musk-flavoured sweeties and much more.

Thanks to everyone who wrote in with a question, comment or query.

The podcast will return in August.

Support the podcast and blogs by becoming, if you can, a £3 monthly subscriber, and unlock lots of premium content, or treat me to a one-off virtual pint or coffee: click here.

Previous podcast episodes mentioned in today’s episode:

Spices with Ian Anderson

Christmas Special 2023: Mince Pies

The Philosophy of Chocolate with Sam Bilton

Historical Cookery with Jay Reifel

Ormskirk Gingerbread with Anouska Lewis

18th Century Tavern Cooking with Marc Meltonville

18th Century Dining with Ivan Day

Recreating 16th Century Beer with Susan Flavin & Marc Meltonville

Elizabeth Raffald with Alessandra Pino & Neil Buttery

Food in Gothic Literature with Alessandra Pino

Traditional Food of Lincolnshire with Rachel Green

Blog posts mentioned in today’s episode:

Quick & Easy Puff or Rough Puff Pastry

What’s in a Name?: Buttery

#446 Lincolnshire Chine

#174 Grasmere Gingerbread I

#244 Grasmere Gingerbread II

Books mentioned in today’s episode:

The Accomplish’t Cook by Robert May

Good Things in England by Florence White

Food in England by Dorothy Hartley

Lost Country Practices by Dorothy Hartley

Other things mentioned in today’s episode:

Today I am talking with chef Jay Reifel who specialises in cooking historical food. He has co-written a beautiful book with collaborator Victoria Flexner called The History of the World in 10 Dinners.

We talk about the influence of other cultures on British cuisine as well as the influence British cuisine has had on other cuisines, sweet and sour food, mince pies, mediocre medieval spices, and helmeted cocks – amongst many other things.

This is the last regular episode of the run, meaning that the next episode will be the traditional postbag edition – so send me your comments, questions, and queries. Your deadline is the 28th of May 2024.

Support the podcast and blogs by becoming, if you can, a £3 monthly subscriber, and unlock lots of premium content, or treat me to a one-off virtual pint or coffee: click here.

Follow Jay on Instagram @jayreifel and visit his website jayreifel.com – where you can find more details of his book.

Things mentioned in today’s episode:

Jay’s Helmeted Cock in Vogue

Neil’s Helmeted Cock on Channel 5

Previous podcast episodes pertinent to today’s episode:

The History of Food Waste & Preservation with Eleanor Barnett

Medieval Meals & Manners with Danièle Cybulskie

Spices with Ian Anderson

Christmas Special 2023: Mince Pies

Tudor Cooking & Cuisine with Brigitte Webster

Forme of Cury with Christopher Monk

Previous blog posts pertinent to today’s episode:

Westmorland Sweet Lamb Pie

Favourite Cook Books no.3: The Forme of Cury, Part I

Favourite Cook Books no. 3: The Forme of Cury, part 2 – recipes

Upcoming events:

British Library Food Season 2024, 25 May at 2pm. 

We Invented the Weekend festival, Salford, 16th June

In today’s episode I am talking to returning guest and friend of the show food historian and writer Sam Bilton about her new book The Philosophy of Chocolate published by the British Library.

Today Sam and I talk about how the peoples of Mesoamerica took their chocolate, how it came to Britain, chocolate houses, the sexualisation of chocolate, and the Cadbury’s Crème Egg Controversy, amongst other things.

Find out more about the Philosophy of Chocolate here.

There are 2 Easter eggs associated with this episode. To become a £3 monthly subscriber, and access them and other premium content, or to buy me a virtual pint or coffee to support the running of the blogs and podcast click here.

Links to things mentioned in today’s episode:

Sam’s podcast Comfortably Hungry

A Flake ad from in 1980s

A Flake ad from the 1990s

The Cadbury’s Caramel rabbit

Sam’s social media handles:

Twitter/Insta/Threads: @mrssbilton

Bluesky: @mrssbilton.bsky.social

Sam’s website: sambilton.com

Previous episodes pertinent to today’s episode:

Lent Episode 3: Pagan Lent & Easter

A Dark History of Chocolate with Emma Kay

The Philosophy of Curry with Sejal Sukhadwala

Gingerbread with Sam Bilton

Saffron with Sam Bilton

Tripe Special

Neil’s blogs:

‘British Food: a History’

‘Neil Cooks Grigson’

Neil’s books:

Before Mrs Beeton: Elizabeth Raffald, England’s Most Influential Housekeeper

A Dark History of Sugar

Both are published by Pen & Sword and available from all good bookshops.

Don’t forget, there will be postbag episodes in the future, so if you have any questions or queries about today’s episode, or indeed any episode, or have a question about the history of British food please email Neil at neil@britishfoodhistory.com, or on twitter...

S07E03

Apples & Orchards shownotes

Happy New Year and welcome to episode 50 of the British Food History Podcast! I talk to Joanna Crosby about the history of apples and orchards in England. I saved this episode specially for today because it is Twelfth Night – the last day of Christmas – the traditional day of the Wassail, the blessing of the apple orchards. Joanna’s new book Apples and Orchards since the Eighteenth Century is out now from Bloomsbury.

Things discussed today include, the origins of the apple, growing and grafting apple trees, some of the excellent names given to varieties – including Bramley's Seedling and the Cox’s Orange Pippin, Wassailing and the London apple women of the nineteenth century. And more!

There are 4 Easter eggs associated with this episode. To become a £3 monthly subscriber, and access them and other premium content, or to buy me a virtual pint or coffee to support the running of the blogs and podcast click here.

Things mentioned in today’s episode:

The Pomological Personality Picker

Henry Mayhew’s London Labour and the London Poor (Vol 2)

Neil’s Apple Hat recipe

Neil’s appearance on Fear Feasts podcast

Previous episodes pertinent to today’s episode:

London’s Street Food Sellers with Charlie Taverner

Neil’s blogs:

‘British Food: a History’

‘Neil Cooks Grigson’

Neil’s books:

Before Mrs Beeton: Elizabeth Raffald, England’s Most Influential Housekeeper

A Dark History of Sugar

Both are published by Pen & Sword and available from all good bookshops.

Don’t forget, there will be postbag episodes in the future, so if you have any questions or queries about today’s episode, or indeed any episode, or have a question about the history of British food please email Neil at neil@britishfoodhistory.com, or on twitter @neilbuttery, or Instagram and Threads dr_neil_buttery. His DMs are open. He is also on BlueSky at @neilbuttery.bsky.social

You can also join the British Food: a History Facebook discussion page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/britishfoodhistory

Mentioned in this episode:

Fruit Pig are currently sponsoring The British Food History Podcast

Visit fruitpig.co.uk for more details of their products and journey, and to access their shop. Grant and Matthew are very kindly giving listeners to the BFHP a unique special offer: 10% off your order until the...

Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!

Leaving a mince pie out for Santa this year? I do hope so. This year’s Christmas Special is all about mince pies: the history and baking, as well as the confusion surrounding the fact that there’s no meat in them. Neil makes some early 18th-century-shaped pies and makes a sweet lamb mincemeat from the North of England. He’s on a mission to get the meat back into mincemeat AND to have them on the menu outside of the Christmas period.

A huge thank you to Ivan Day for his help regarding the making of those 18th-century pies.

*blog posts of recipes to accompany the episode will appear on Wednesday 20th December and Friday 22nd December 2023.*

Things mentioned in today’s episode:

Ivan Day’s blog post about mince pies

The Accomplisht Cook by Robert May

The Experienced English Housekeeper by Elizabeth Raffald

Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management

Receipts of Pastry and Cookery by Edward Kidder

Jane Grigson’s Orange Mincemeat

Mrs Beeton’s Mincemeat Recipe

Jane Grigson’s Gooseberry Tarts recipe

Ivan Day’s historical pie-making course

Neil’s appearance on the Full English podcast

Neil’s appearance on the Shackbaggerly podcast

Neil's A Dark History of Sugar talk

Neil's Museum of Royal Worcester talk

Previous episodes mentioned in today’s episode:

Pagan Lent and Easter (includes a section on hot cross buns)

Elizabeth Raffald with Alessandra Pino & Neil Buttery

Christmas Feasting with Annie Gray

Welcome to a special bonus episode of the podcast which is a collaboration between myself and the Delicious Legacy, hosted by Thomas Ntinas. It’s all about some of the women who were writing cookery books in the 18th century, their characters and the influence they still have upon us today.

Things mentioned in today’s episode:

Thomas’s podcast Delicious Legacy

The Compleat Housewife by Eliza Smith

The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy by Hannah Glasse

Professed Cookery by Ann Cook

The Experienced English Housekeeper by Elizabeth Raffald

Before Mrs Beeton: Elizabeth Raffald, England’s Most Influential Housekeeper

A. Cook’s Perspective: A Fascinating Insight into 18th-century Recipes by Two

Historic Cooks by Clarissa F. Dillon & Deborah J. Peterson

More on Yorkshire Christmas Pyes

Neil’s disastrous Christmas Pye

Ivan Day’s Historic Ices course

Don’t forget, there will be postbag episodes in the future, so if you have any questions or queries about today’s episode, or indeed any episode, or have a question about the history of British food please email Neil at neil@britishfoodhistory.com, or on twitter @neilbuttery, or Instagram and Threads dr_neil_buttery his DMs are open. Youcan also join the British Food: a History Facebook discussion page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/britishfoodhistory

Neil’s blogs:

‘British Food: a History’

‘Neil Cooks Grigson’

Neil’s books:

Before Mrs Beeton: Elizabeth Raffald, England’s Most Influential Housekeeper

A Dark History of Sugar

Both are published by Pen & Sword and available from all good bookshops....

It’s the end of the current run so that means it is time for the now traditional end-of-season special postbag edition.

Thank you to everyone who has listened, downloaded, donated and spread the good word. I’ll be back in a couple of months (hopefully) for season seven!

Previous episodes mentioned in the episode:

The School Meals Service with Heather Ellis

Tudor Cooking & Cuisine with Brigitte Webster

Tinned Food with Lindsay Middleton

Cake Baxters in Early Modern Scotland with Aaron Allen

Tripe Special: Sam Bilton & Neil Buttery Talk Tripe

The British Cook Book with Ben Mervis

Forme of Cury with Christopher Monk

Neil’s blog posts mentioned in this episode:

Boiled turkey with celery sauce

Boiled leg of mutton with caper sauce

Sea kale

Sago pudding

Pink sponge & custard

Links to things mentioned in this episode:

Leeds Symposium on Food History and Traditions

Gousto statement about using Tetra Pak

Stephanie Rosenbaum makes Pizza on YouTube

Alan Scott obituary in the New York Times

Museum of Royal Worcester website

Burley’s pudding tree

Handel’s kitchen recreated

Neil’s guest is Diane Purkiss and they talk about just some of the topics covered in her book English Food a People’s History published by William Collins. Diane is Professor of English Literature at Oxford University, and she has written about such topics as the English Civil War, the supernatural, especially witchcraft; folklore and fairytales; writer’s block and of course food and food history.

They had a rather meandering conversation that covered: bread, and its poor reputation compared to that bake in France; coffeehouses and politics, and coffeehouses as early examples of gay bars; tea and Empire; and foraging – the latter being particularly tricky to get at.

£3 subscribers can hear the full interview with Diane on the Easter Eggs page of the website: http://britishfoodhistory.com/easter-eggs/

Diane’s book English Food: a People’s History available here: https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/english-food-a-peoples-history-diane-purkiss?variant=39825973411918

Neil’s blog post about dock pudding (with recipe): http://britishfoodhistory.com/2023/05/26/dock-pudding/

Other bits:

The Elizabeth Raffald Manchester Central Library event at 6pm on 13 September: https://librarylive.co.uk/event/elizabeth-raffald-englands-most-influential-housekeeper/

Neil will be speaking at the Ludlow Food Festival on Sunday 10 September at 2.30pm, talking all things Elizabeth Raffald: https://www.ludlowfoodfestival.co.uk/

He is also talking at Chelsea History Festival on Friday 29 September 2023, at 6pm about the history of sugar: https://chelseahistoryfestival.com/events/dark-history-sugar/

Neil’s blogs:

‘British Food: a History’ http://britishfoodhistory.com

‘Neil Cooks Grigson’ http://neilcooksgrigson.com

Order Before Mrs Beeton: Elizabeth Raffald, England’s Most Influential Housekeeper at your favourite bookshop, or from the publisher Pen & Sword History: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Before-Mrs-Beeton-Hardback/p/22437

Neil’s other book A Dark History of Sugar is available now from all bookshops as well as from the publisher Pen & Sword: https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/A-Dark-History-of-Sugar-Hardback/p/20481

Don’t forget the upcoming postbag episode, if you have any questions or queries about today’s episode, or indeed any episode, or have a question about the history of British food please email Neil at neil@britishfoodhistory.com, or find me on twitter @neilbuttery, or Instagram and Threads dr_neil_buttery my DMs are open. You can also join the British Food: a History Facebook discussion page:

 S06E09 The School

Meals Service with Heather Ellis: shownotes

Neil’s guest today is Heather Ellis from Sheffield University. Helen is a historian of Education and she, along with academics from the University of Wolverhampton and UCL, have just embarked on an ambitious project looking at people’s experiences and memories of their school dinners in all four UK Home Nations. School dinners have been supplied by the School Meals Service – i.e. by the Government – since 1908.

They talked about the project, the origins of the School Meals Service in the first decade of the 20th century, the foods served up over the next 100 years or so including pink sponge and custard, liver with the tubes attached and the now infamous turkey twizzlers, Maggie Thatcher – milk snatcher, the fall in the quality of school dinners, as well as Jamie Oliver’s campaign to get them sorted out, and many other things. The School Meals Project wants your food memories if you have had experience with school meals in the UK, however old you may be and whatever the interaction may be.

School Meals Project website: https://www.theschoolmealsproject.co.uk/

Find Heather on Twitter @HeatherLWEllis

Find The School Meals Project on Twitter: @ESRCSchoolMeals

Jamie Oliver’s school meals campaign clip: https://youtu.be/DG66rKiNkw4

When published, Neil’s blog post with a recipe for sago pudding, will be found at www.britishfoodhistory.com

Other past blog post recipes for school dinner-style foods:

Rice pudding: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2015/01/14/rice-pudding/

How to make a steamed sponge pudding: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2023/01/13/how-to-make-a-steamed-sponge-pudding-a-step-by-step-guide/

Jam roly-poly: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2011/11/26/jam-roly-poly/

Proper custard: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2012/03/02/proper-custard/

Eton Mess: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2011/08/11/eton-mess/

Other bits:

The Elizabeth Raffald Manchester Central Library event at 6pm on 13 September: https://librarylive.co.uk/event/elizabeth-raffald-englands-most-influential-housekeeper/

Neil will be speaking at the Ludlow Food Festival on Sunday 10 September at 2.30pm, talking all things Elizabeth Raffald: https://www.ludlowfoodfestival.co.uk/

He is also talking at Chelsea History Festival on Friday 29 September 2023, at 6pm about the history of sugar: https://chelseahistoryfestival.com/events/dark-history-sugar/

Neil’s blogs:

‘British Food: a History’

Neil talks to returning guest Kevin Geddes. He told us all about the wonderful, fabulous Fanny Cradock, but today he is talking to me about Television Cookery Shows and their cookbook tie-ins. Kevin wrote a very interesting paper on the early history and origins of TV Cookbooks, and Neil found it so interesting, and he thought you would find it interesting too.

We talked about the early cooking programmes on the BBC before the war, and afterwards; the post-war TV cooks the theatrical Philip Harben and the steady pair of hands Marguerite Patten and how they published their own books whilst working for the BBC; the BBC’s worry about selling commercial products whilst being a public service broadcaster; and the one who really got it all going Mrs Fanny Cradock.

Kevin’s Food and Foodways paper: https://napier-repository.worktribe.com/output/3133885/accompanying-the-series-early-british-television-cookbooks-1946-1976

Find Kevin on twitter, Instagram and Threads @keepcalmandfannyon

Kevin’s blog: https://keepcalmandfannyon.blogspot.com/

Clip of Philip Harben demonstrating boiling techniques: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj-tapF1kgU

Clip of Marguerite Patten inducing a show from the 1950s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgG9oMq4l2U

Clip of Fanny Cradock demonstrating fish cookery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EQJ8GnDsiw

Delia Smith’s Complete Cookery Course: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D95rMYL1T2A

Gary Rhodes and Rhodes Around Britain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=fvJym_0sQ8I

Check out Kevin’s books on his Goodreads page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/19684992.Kevin_Geddes

Previous podcast episodes pertinent to this episode

Fanny Cradock with Kevin Geddes: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2U50gtyEgV4hcTvMFP2ElG?si=a7cad3d39eab4e13

Other bits:

The Elizabeth Raffald Manchester Central Library event at 6pm on 13 September: https://librarylive.co.uk/event/elizabeth-raffald-englands-most-influential-housekeeper/

Neil will be speaking at the Ludlow Food Festival on Sunday 10 September at 2.30pm, talking all things Elizabeth Raffald: https://www.ludlowfoodfestival.co.uk/

He is also talking at Chelsea History Festival on Friday 29 September 2023, at 6pm about the history of sugar: https://chelseahistoryfestival.com/events/dark-history-sugar/

Neil’s blogs:

‘British Food: a History’ http://britishfoodhistory.com

‘Neil Cooks Grigson’