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:

Petit pâté de Pézenas

Stand Pies

Musk flavouring in Australia

The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago

Museum of Royal Worcester

Fake Food Workshop

1699 Commonplace Book pdf

Upcoming events:

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

Ludlow Food Festival, Friday 13th September. 

Warwick Words History Festival, Thursday 3rd October at 4.30pm. 

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 more 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 and BlueSky @neilbuttery, or Instagram and Threads dr_neil_buttery. His DMs are open.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

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

Ludlow Food Festival, Friday 13th September. 

Warwick Words History Festival, Thursday 3rd October at 4.30pm. 

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 and BlueSky @neilbuttery, or Instagram and Threads dr_neil_buttery. His DMs are open.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

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 @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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

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

Hogmanay and Hamely Kitchen with Paula McIntyre

Christmas Pudding

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

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.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

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

C. Anne Wilson obituary

Fish & chips are not a Jewish invention

13th century mead recipe

Fodder & Drincan by Emma Kay

The Earl of Sandwich

Upcoming events:

The Elizabeth Raffald Manchester Central Library event at 6pm on 13 September

Ludlow Food Festival on Sunday 10 September 2.30pm

Chelsea History Festival on Friday 29 September 2023, at 6pm

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 more postbag episodes in the future, 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. 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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

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: 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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

 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’ 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 there will be a postbag episode at the end of the season, 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 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: 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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

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’ 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

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 there will be postbag episodes, 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

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: 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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

Esteemed food historian Marc Meltonville returns to the podcast to talk about taverns, 18th century dining and the cook and author Richard Briggs, the focus of his new book The Tavern Cook: Eighteenth Century Dining Through the Recipes of Richard Briggs which has recently been published by Prospect Books.

We talked about how he found out about Richard Briggs and his book; the similarities and differences between life and cooking then and now; who may have influenced Briggs’ writing; his death; broiling and other older English words the Brits no longer use but North Americans do; authenticity; and much more.

Marc’s website: www.meltonville.uk

Find Marc on Instagram @marcmeltonville

Buy The Tavern Cook: Eighteenth Century Dining Through the Recipes of Richard Briggs from the publisher: https://prospectbooks.co.uk/products-page/current-titles/the-tavern-cook/

There is 1 Easter egg associated with this episode, to access them start a monthly £3 subscription. Subscribers get access to all of the Easter eggs, premium blog content and Neil’s monthly newsletter. Visit https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ for more details. On that page, you could also donate a one-off ‘virtual coffee’ or ‘virtual pint’. All money received goes into making more content.

Previous podcast episodes pertinent to this episode

Recreating 16th Century Beer with Susan Flavin & Marc Meltonville https://open.spotify.com/episode/6wtjaqTVyqjacVkyvvO3FP?si=b3c29819ed7b453a

Elizabeth Raffald with Alessandra Pino & Neil Buttery https://open.spotify.com/episode/0oPYbFhNAfIHOfj6KL9RWC?si=cfdfadbbf32a4d24

18th Century Dining with Ivan Day https://open.spotify.com/episode/22BHsKHncyk2i6UXEzcIY2?si=92c16fc7a2904e45

Other bits:

Neil’s new blog post about malt loaf, with recipe for subscribers: http://britishfoodhistory.com/2023/07/28/to-make-malt-loaf/

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/

Neil’s Elizabeth Raffald tour of Manchester on Twitter: https://twitter.com/neilbuttery/status/1634872473396342784

Neil’s blogs:

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

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

Buy 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 there will be postbag episodes, 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 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: 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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

Today Neil talks with Brigitte Webster about her new book Eating with the Tudors which has just been published by Pen & Sword History.

We talked about how she came to live in her Tudor house; how the food changed going in and coming out of the Tudor period; food and the four humours and how ideas about those also changed; favourite cookbooks; fritters; sops; mince pies; cheese; and many other things.

Follow Brigitte on Twitter @tudorfoodrecipe;

Instagram @tudor_experience; Facebook https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064747654339

Buy Eating with the Tudors, published by Pen & Sword History: https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Eating-with-the-Tudors-Hardback/p/23659

Transcript of The Good Huswifes Handmaide for the Kitchin on the Foods of England website: http://www.foodsofengland.co.uk/book1594huswife.htm#:~:text=London%201594-,The%20good%20Huswifes%20Handmaide%20for%20the%20Kitchin.,the%20same%20to%20the%20Table.

There are 2 Easter eggs associated with this episode, to access them start a monthly £3 subscription.

Subscribers get access to all of the Easter eggs, premium blog content and Neil’s monthly newsletter. Visit https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ for more details. On that page, you could also donate a one-off ‘virtual coffee’ or ‘virtual pint’. All money received goes into making more content.

Previous podcast episodes pertinent to this episode

Cheddar& the Cheese Industry with Peter J. Atkins: https://open.spotify.com/episode/19pckHxXKXfQlFf8xINGgW?si=88a8649064494657 

The History of Lent: https://open.spotify.com/episode/05EKPFVQaXmVf54tbh1xIC?si=e8dccb1b959c4014

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/

Neil’s Elizabeth Raffald tour of Manchester on Twitter: https://twitter.com/neilbuttery/status/1634872473396342784

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

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 there will be postbag episodes, 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 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: 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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

Niche topic alert! Today I am

talking to Anouska Lewis about Ormskirk Gingerbread.

Anouska is the writer and presenter

of the BBC Sounds podcast Hometown Boring? The first episode

being all about Ormskirk gingerbread

We

talk about how one lands getting a podcast series on BBC Sounds in the first

place; the ingredients of Ormskirk gingerbread, the town’s pride in its

gingerbread, the gingerbread ladies who sold them at the train station in the

Victorian period, Ormskirk’s link with Liverpool’s sugar and slave trade, and

the value of having difficult conversations – amongst many other things.

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.

Listen to Hometown Boring? on BBC Sounds

Follow Anouska on Instagram @history_hun and TikTok @historyhun

Things mentioned in today’s episode:

Ormskirk Gingerbread on the Foods of England website

A Dark History of Sugar by Neil Buttery

Previous podcast episodes pertinent to today’s episode:

Gingerbread with Sam Bilton

Upcoming events:

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

Ludlow Food Festival, Friday 13th September. 

Warwick Words History Festival, Thursday 3rd October at 4.30pm. 

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 me at neil@britishfoodhistory.com, or on twitter and BlueSky @neilbuttery, or Instagram and Threads dr_neil_buttery. My DMs are open.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

Today Neil talks to food historian and returning guest Lindsay Middleton about the history of tinned food –something one doesn’t really think about, tinned food being just so every day.

We talked about what led her to take on the topic, its origins, how people had to be convinced by such an alien concept, the big sell to the navy, and to well-to-do housewives, the big tined food scandal, and the inherent snobbishness around using tinned foods, and many other things.

Follow Lindsay on Instagram and Threads @lindsaymiddleton_ and on Twitter @lindsmiddleton.

Read Lindsay’s paper about tinned foods: https://arrow.tudublin.ie/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1220&context=dgs

Listen to Lindsay’s appearance on the BBC Radio 4 programme Free Thinking talking about tinned foods: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001jcr0

There are 2 Easter eggs associated with this episode, to access them start a monthly £3 subscription.

Subscribers get access to all of the Easter eggs, premium blog content and Neil’s monthly newsletter. Visit https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ for more details. On that page, you could also donate a one-off ‘virtual coffee’ or ‘virtual pint’. All money received goes into making more content.

Other bits:

Lindsay’s previous appearance on the podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6S2YCcfFMqipsOrZ48wVAp?si=12e95b1ce4454bca

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/

Neil’s very long Twitter thread of cocktails: https://twitter.com/neilbuttery/status/1678814821406392320?s=20

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 there will be postbag episodes, 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 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: 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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

In this week’s episode, Neil talks to medlar expert Jane Steward. Jane has done sterling work in the area of medlar awareness, and now the medlar is not the forgotten fruit it once was. She has a medlar orchard and associated business Eastgate Larder selling a whole range of medlar products, and is the author of Medlars: Growing & Cooking, published by Prospect Books.

We discuss how Jane discovered the fruit and made a business out of it, the domesticated varieties and wild fruits, growing medlar trees, the importance of medlars in the past, medlars in the kitchen, the subtleties of making medlar jelly and much more.

Follow Jane on Instagram and Twitter @eastgatelarder

The Eastgate Larder website: www.eastgatelarder.co.uk

Jane’s book Medlars: Cooking & Eating: https://prospectbooks.co.uk/products-page/new-and-forthcoming-titles/medlars-growing-cooking/

There are 3 Easter eggs associated with this episode, to access them start a monthly £3 subscription.

Subscribers get access to all of the Easter eggs, premium blog content and Neil’s monthly newsletter. Visit https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ for more details. On that page, you could also donate a one-off ‘virtual coffee’ or ‘virtual pint’. All money received goes into making more content.

Read Neil’s work on the medlar:

Forgotten Foods #7: Openarses (also available as part of the mini-season on the Easter Eggs page of the website) https://britishfoodhistory.com/2017/11/12/forgotten-foods-7-openarses/

How to Make Medlar Jelly: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2017/11/17/how-to-make-medlar-or-quince-or-crab-apple-jelly/

Medlar Tart: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2018/11/19/medlar-tart/

That Shakespeare Life ‘Medlars’ episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2w7xGGBye93jvO39IuntTO?si=395c4f240f7d4f5d

Other bits:

Neil’s blogs:

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

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

Buy 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 there will be postbag episodes, 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 find me on twitter @neilbuttery, or Instagram dr_neil_buttery my DMs are open.

You can now find me at Mastodon too: @neilbuttery@mastodon.gastrokon.com.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

Today Neil talks to Susan Flavin and Marc Meltonville about recreating as close as possible beer from the accounts of Dublin Castle right at the end of the 16th century. This investigation is part of a much larger project called Food Cult, which is, according to their website “a five-year project funded by the European Research Council. This project brings together history, archaeology, science and information technology to explore the diet and foodways of diverse communities in early modern Ireland. It will serve as a model for future comparative and interdisciplinary work in the field of historical food studies.”

In today’s episode we talk about the Food Cult project, the aims of the beer project, misconceptions about beer and beer drinking in the past, when beer becomes porridge, how to source 16th century ingredients and – of course – what the beer tasted like!

Follow Susan Flavin on Twitter @flavin_susan

Follow Marc on Instagram @marcmeltonville

Marc Meltonville’s website: www.meltonville.uk/

The FOOD CULT website: https://foodcult.eu/

Their journal article: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/historical-journal/article/understanding-early-modern-beer-an-interdisciplinary-casestudy/76C118F73B8D35FED9E5B69CB3E966FB

There are 4 Easter eggs associated with this episode, to access them start a monthly £3 subscription.

Subscribers get access to all of the Easter eggs, premium blog content and Neil’s monthly newsletter. Visit https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ for more details. On that page, you could also donate a one-off ‘virtual coffee’ or ‘virtual pint’. All money received goes into making more content.

Other bits:

Neil’s new blog post ‘Forgotten Foods #10: Porpoise’: http://britishfoodhistory.com/2023/06/25/forgotten-foods-10-porpoise/

Neil’s blogs:

‘BritishFood: a History’ http://britishfoodhistory.com

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

Buy 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 wellas from the publisher Pen & Sword: https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/A-Dark-History-of-Sugar-Hardback/p/20481

Don’t forget there will be postbag episodes, 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 find me on twitter @neilbuttery, or Instagram dr_neil_buttery my DMs are open. You can now find me at Mastodon too: @neilbuttery@mastodon.gastrokon.com.

Join the new 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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

We kick off the new season with a fascinating chat with Aaron Allen at Edinburgh University about cake baxters in Early Modern Scotland – usually women – who were unfree, and how they fit into society at this time. Making and selling of baked goods were highly controlled, and – quelle surprise – it was not in their favour. We also discuss the ways oatcakes and wheaten bread were baked, beehive oven tech, horse bread and many other things.

Find Aaron on Twitter at Mary’sChapelProject: @Mchapelproject

A list of Aaron’s research: https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/persons/aaron-allen

‘Baking on the Margins: Pastry Women and Cake Baxters in the Early Modern Bread Market’, in History Scotland (May/June 2023), 20-5, available at: https://www.historyscotland.com/store/back-issues/history-scotland/history-scotland-vol23issue3-mayjun23-issue-131/

Building Early Modern Edinburgh: A Social History of Craftwork and Incorporation: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-building-early-modern-edinburgh-hb.html

Things from the web mentioned in this episode:

Neil’s recipe for seed cake: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2021/05/23/to-make-a-seed-cake/

Neil’s recipe for peasebread: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2017/04/09/forgotten-foods-6-pease-bread/

Hodmedod’s website: https://hodmedods.co.uk/

Video of Josh Townshend making a clay oven: https://youtu.be/i0foHjPVbP4

Other bits:

Neil’s Raffald talk on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9SyiYvHq-Q

Neil’s media page where you can see his Country Life article, as well as links to the podcasts he’s guested on, radio spots or TV shows: http://britishfoodhistory.com/media/

Don’t forget to catch up on Neil’s blog posts published over the last few months.

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 there will be postbag episodes, 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 find me on twitter @neilbuttery, or Instagram dr_neil_buttery my DMs are open.

You can now find me at Mastodon too: @neilbuttery@mastodon.gastrokon.com.

Join the new British Food: a History Facebook discussion page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/britishfoodhistory

If you like my blog posts and podcast episodes, please consider a monthly subscription or buying me a virtual coffee or a pint? Go to https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ for more details.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

In a special bonus of the podcast, Sam Bilton and Neil Buttery have combined forces to make a whole episode about all things tripe. We discuss our experiences, and why it is viewed rather differently in different countries and it’s indelible association with poverty. Sam interviews chef and food writer Rachel Roddy for some tripe inspiration, and Neil visits Chadwick’s stall at Bury Market to interview one of the few remaining tripe sellers in the country. He also takes some home to cook up.

Things mentioned in today’s episode:

Rachel Roddy’s blog, Rachel Eats: https://racheleats.wordpress.com/

An article by Rachel on tripe alternatives, from The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/nov/09/rachel-roddy-recipe-for-eggs-in-tomato-sauce

Chadwick’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/chadwicksbbp/

Neil eats andouillette: https://twitter.com/neilbuttery/status/1560893580788506624?s=20

Sam links:

Twitter: @sjfbilton; Insta: @mrssbilton ; website: https://www.sambilton.com/

Sam’s podcast, Comfortably Hungry: https://open.spotify.com/show/3iSZMea3TBwMx1tZ1c9rN7?si=a57a4e98a0414b3a

Neil’s Elizabeth Raffald talk at Station South in Levenshulme Manchester 14 May 7pm: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/elizabeth-raffald-englands-most-influential-housekeeper-tickets-604909158577

The Culinary Worlds of 18th-Century Women in Britain, USA and Türkiye event at The British Library 25 May at 5pm: https://www.bl.uk/events/the-culinary-worlds-of-18th-century-women-in-britain-usa-and-turkiye

Neil’s appearance on Tony Robinson’s Cunningcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1KIk11FeFs0bVqiiT3XIkL?si=936fa20808b34b58

Neil’s appearance on the Bread and Thread podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3EouGD3HqeMLkMpgVx8am8?si=191cfe91c9654dd5

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

Neil’s 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

If you want to buy a signed copy of either book directly from Neil for £18 + postage (£2.85 if within the UK, the going rate if outside!). Contact him via email or social media if you fancy it (see below).

Don’t forget there will be another postbag episode at the end of the season. 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 dr_neil_buttery my DMs are open. You can now find me at Mastodon too: @neilbuttery@mastodon.gastrokon.com.

Join the new British Food: a History Facebook discussion page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/britishfoodhistory

If you like my blog posts and podcast episodes, please consider a monthly subscription or buying me a virtual coffee or a pint? Go to https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ for more details.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

Neil’s polishing off season 5 with a postbag edition of news, readers’ questions, comments and queries, special events and other miscellany.

Previous Episodes discussed in this episode:

Invalid Cookery with Lindsay Middleton

Traditional Food of Lincolnshire with Rachel Green

Christmas Feasting with Annie Gray

Hogmanay and Hamely Kitchen with Paula McIntyre

Eel special: 1. Elvers with 'Elver' Dave

Eel special: 2. Silver Eels with John Wyatt Greenlee

Eel special: 3. The Plight of the Eel with Andrew Kerr

18th Century Dining with Ivan Day

Christmas Special 2021: Christmas Pudding

The British Cook Book with Ben Mervis

Yorkshire Pudding with Elaine Lemm

Upcoming Events:

Celebrations. 37th Leeds Symposium of Food History & Traditions 20 May 2023: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/celebrations-37th-leeds-symposium-of-food-history-traditions-tickets-554704063787?fbclid=IwAR3f6l4dlB23S0_0TYNvQhXTVpyDIqpAc3eb4FmatS2kFvkW5csaqb-8dpg

The Wilder Wedmore Eel Release Project crowdfunder and festival: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/the-wilder-wedmore-eel-release-project---june-23

Things from the web mentioned in this episode:

Food Matters Live podcast, featuring Neil talking about food innovations: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5y5RWFFDQfQx8vXIHogKQQ?si=36b94a2985e14084

Chambers’ Book of Days: https://www.thebookofdays.com/

Clarissa Dickson-Wright’s BBC TV programme about pigs & Lincolnshire chine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0X37TOqjGA

Raised Pies post on Neil Cooks Grigson: https://neilcooksgrigson.com/2011/03/17/282-raised-pies/

BBC News article on the eel spawning mystery: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63259738

Cornish Pasty post on British Food: a History: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2019/09/13/cornish-pasties/

Early Scots recipe manuscripts: https://digital.nls.uk/recipes/introduction.html

Early Welsh recipe manuscript: https://www.library.wales/discover-learn/digital-exhibitions/manuscripts/early-modern-period/merryell-williamss-book-of-recipes#?c=&m=&s=&cv=&xywh=-1322%2C-1%2C6102%2C4894

Christopher Monk's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@MonksModernMedievalCuisine

Dr Cheung’s breakfast nonsense: https://propermanchester.com/trending/the-full-english-breakfast-isnt-actually-english-academic-claims/

Food as Status before the Norman Conquest Substack by Tristan Alphey: https://seaxeducation.substack.com/p/what-did-rich-pre-conquest-thegns?fbclid=IwAR0LLK9E2_wZazc4bPGwEuau0BgGGKVSQYeE3nycRpQgRA4wETI4KOagMJo

Books mentioned in this episode:

Preorder Neil’s new book Before Mrs Beeton: Elizabeth Raffald, England’s Most Influential Housekeeper at you 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

Ivan Day’s book on ovens and kitchen tech, Over a Red-hot Stove: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21092035-over-a-red-hot-stove?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=WldZJtGQVE&rank=1

The Domestic Revolution by Ruth Goodman: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/45992751

Fodder and Drinkan by Emma Kay: https://prospectbooks.co.uk/products-page/new-and-forthcoming-titles/fodder-drincan-anglo-saxon-culinary-history/

Leeds Symposium on Food History and Traditions: Pigs (& other topics) https://www.leedsfoodsymposium.org.uk/Publications.html

Social media accounts mentioned in this episode:

Paul Couchman (aka the Regency Cook): Twitter @TheRegencyCook; Insta: @theregencycook

Mary Gibson and her campaign for a National Food Society: Insta: @thecookeryclub25

If you want to buy a signed copy of either book directly from Neil for £18 + postage (£2.85 if within the UK, the going rate if outside!). Contact him via email or social media if you fancy it (see below).

Don’t forget there will be postbag episodes, 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 find me on twitter @neilbuttery, or Instagram dr_neil_buttery my DMs are open.

You can now find me at Mastodon too: @neilbuttery@mastodon.gastrokon.com.

Join the new British Food: a History Facebook discussion page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/britishfoodhistory

If you like my blog posts and podcast episodes, please consider a monthly subscription or buying me a virtual coffee or a pint? Go to https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ for more details.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

Today the tables are turned, and Neil is the guest on his own podcast and is interviewed about his new book Before Mrs Beeton, Elizabeth Raffald, England’s Most Influential Housekeeper, about c18th cook and Manchester legend Elizabeth Raffald, published on 28 February.

In the interviewer’s chair is previous guest and friend of the show Alessandra Pino. Alessandra is co-author of A Gothic Cookbook which is an illustrated cookbook inspired by classic and contemporary Gothic texts. She is also co-host of Fear Feasts which is a podcast about food and horror in books and the films based on those books. Like Neil, she is also interested in the history of sugar and has a chapter coming out soon in The Palgrave Companion to Memory and Literature about memory, sugar and Cuba.

They talked about how I discovered Elizabeth, her great achievements, the problem of Mrs Beeton, her recipes, my recipe section of updated Raffald recipes, "Rabbits Surprized", comparisons with modern chefs like Heston Blumenthal, why there’s no statue of her, the time she exorcized a house from an evil spirit and much, much more.

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

Things mentioned in today’s episode:

The Experienced English Housekeeper by Elizabeth Raffald (1769): https://archive.org/details/experiencedengl01raffgoog/page/n9/mode/2up

Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management (1880 edition): https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Book_of_Household_Management/otoAAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0

The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy by Hannah Glasse (1780 edition): https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/_/fe8HAAAAQAAJ?hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjPiaaExKz9AhUMQ8AKHazyCXkQre8FegQIHRAJ

Previous podcast episode 18th Century Dining with Ivan Day: https://open.spotify.com/episode/22BHsKHncyk2i6UXEzcIY2?si=3afcd447af0b4eb9

Previous Podcast episode Food in Gothic Literature with Alessandra Pino: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6Nt55uQLXp6vrqH6MZsdPY?si=7b342ca391514232

Alessandra links:

A Gothic Cookbook: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63143496-a-gothic-cookbook

Fear Feasts podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/5IV7dms3DLxrVF81zj6ZRY?si=deac902534cd442d

Find her on Instagram @sasacharlie and twitter @foodforflo

Neil’s 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

If you want to buy a signed copy of either book directly from Neil for £18 + postage (£2.85 if within the UK, the going rate if outside!). Contact him via email or social media if you fancy it (see below).

Don’t forget there will be another postbag episode at the end of the season. 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 dr_neil_buttery my DMs are open. You can now find me at Mastodon too: @neilbuttery@mastodon.gastrokon.com.

Join the new British Food: a History Facebook discussion page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/britishfoodhistory

If you like the blog posts and podcast episodes, please consider a monthly subscription or buying Neil a virtual coffee or a pint? Go to https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ for more details.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

In this episode, Neil talks to chef and food writer Rachel Green about the traditional foods of Lincolnshire. Rachel is a chef, author, TV presenter, demonstrator, food campaigner and passionate ambassador of British produce, especially that from Lincolnshire. She comes from 14 generations of Lincolnshire farmers. spoke to Rachel in her home in the beautiful Lincolnshire countryside about Lincolnshire chine, Grimsby haddock, the importance of pigs, haslet, Lincolnshire poacher cheese, plum bread (contains no plums) and savoury duck (contains no duck), and much more.

Find Rachel on Instagram: rachelgreen.chef

Rachel’s website: www.rachel-green.co.uk/

Read about Rachel’s books: www.rachel-green.co.uk/what-i-do/food-author-writer/

Things mentioned in today’s episode:

Lincoln Red Cattle: https://www.southormsbyestate.co.uk/estate/nature/lincoln-red-cattle/

Lincolnshire Curly Coated Pig: http://www.bramblegate.co.uk/pigs.html

The new Lincolnshire blog post on Neil Cooks Grigson: https://neilcooksgrigson.com/2023/02/15/446-lincolnshire-chine/

Dennetts Ice Cream: https://www.dennetts.co.uk/

Tim & Simon Jones’s Lincolnshire Poacher cheese: https://lincolnshirepoachercheese.com/about-us/our-ethos/

May & Micheal Davenport’s Cotehill Blue cheese: https://www.cotehill.com/our-cheese/

Woldsway Meat & Game (supplier of the chine): https://woldswaymeats.co.uk/

The first podcast episode from the Lent season of BFAH: https://player.captivate.fm/episode/44012758-e0ed-41be-a407-e95f14732999

Pre-order Neil’s new book 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 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

If you want to buy a signed copy of either book directly from Neil for £18 + postage (£2.85 if within the UK, the going rate if outside!). Contact him via email or social media if you fancy it (see below).

Don’t forget there will be another postbag episode at the end of the season. 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 dr_neil_buttery my DMs are open. You can now find me at Mastodon too: @neilbuttery@mastodon.gastrokon.com.

Join the new British Food: a History Facebook discussion page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/britishfoodhistory

If you like my blog posts and podcast episodes, please consider a monthly subscription or buying me a virtual coffee or a pint? Go to https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ for more details.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

In this episode, Neil talks to food historian Lindsay Middleton about invalid cookery – an important part of cookery books of the 18th to early 20th centuries. Lindsay has produced an excellent online resource called Dishes for the Sick Room, and has trawled through the collection of cookery books at Glasgow Caledonia University that date from the 18th and 19th centuries. Cook books at this time didn’t really contain medicines but general foods to give to the sick people at home under your care.

The focus of Lindsay’s Dishes for the Sick Room project, the books, and the cookery school were created by some really forward thinking women who were really at the forefront of the new science of dietetics, so we don’t just talk about weird and wonderful foods, but also how these foods, the cookery books and the women writing and using them all fit into a wider historical context.

We talked about what inspired Lindsay to produce this excellent online resource, the archived books at Glasgow Caledonian University, the women behind the first domestic cookery school in Scotland, why providing free cookery lessons isn’t always a good idea, foods such as beef tea and toast water, the science behind the school’s work, and the administration of predigested food for the ill – amongst other things.

Find Lindsay on Twitter @lindsmiddleton

Find Lindsay’s Dishes for the Sick Room at: www.dishesforthesickroom.com 

Things mentioned in today’s episode:

Neil’s blog post and recipe for Seftons: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2015/02/03/seftons/

Neil’s blog post and recipe for Carrageen Pudding: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2022/06/21/forgotten-foods-9-carrageen-pudding/

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

If you want to buy a signed copy directly from Neil for £18 + postage (£2.85 if within the UK, the going rate if outside!). Contact him via email or social media if you fancy it (see below).

Also, don’t forget there will be another postbag episode at the end of the season. 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 dr_neil_buttery my DMs are open. You can now find me at Mastodon too: @neilbuttery@mastodon.gastrokon.com.

Join the new British Food: a History Facebook discussion page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/britishfoodhistory

If you like my blog posts and podcast episodes, please consider a monthly subscription or buying me a virtual coffee or a pint? Go to https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ for more details.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

In this special episode Neil’s guest is esteemed food historian Ivan Day. Ivan is a social historian of food culture and a professional chef and confectioner. He has contributed to dozens of tv and radio programmes over the years, and he is also the author of a number of books and many papers on the history of food and has curated many major exhibitions on food history in the UK, US and Europe.

This special episode compliments Neil’s upcoming book, a biography the 18th cookery writer Elizabeth Raffald. Ivan kindly invited Neil into his home to talk about all things 18th century dining.

They talked about ostentatious coronation feasts, the rise of female food writers in the c18th, including Elizabeth Raffald, market gardens, the presentation of food at the table like, and jelly and flummery moulds. We also talked about how crockery, cutlery and, well, the whole dining experience changed going into and going out of the c18th, authenticity, and the practicalities of spit roasting – amongst many other things.

Find Ivan on Instagram: @ivanpatrickday

Ivan’s blog: http://foodhistorjottings.blogspot.com/

Things mentioned in today’s episode:

The Experienced English Housekeeper by Elizabeth Raffald, 10th edition, 1786: https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Experienced_English_Housekeeper/1I4EAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0

The History of the Coronation of James II by Francis Sandford 1687: https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_History_of_the_Coronation_of_James_I/R75UAAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0

The House-keeper's Pocket-book by Sarah Harrison 1777: https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_House_keeper_s_Pocket_book/vMSIUOGoEEUC?hl=en&gbpv=0

Ivan’s blog post about the Solomon’s Temple in flummery: http://foodhistorjottings.blogspot.com/2011/10/solomons-temple-in-flummery-culinary.html

Ivan’s Ice Cream Demo which shows many of the items discussed in this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNptu7XXqmw

The Elizabeth Raffald dinner table Ivan dressed in The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston: https://www.mfah.org/exhibitions/english-taste-dining-eighteenth-century/

Some of the books Ivan has written, edited or been a contributing author:

Over a Red Hot Stove: https://prospectbooks.co.uk/products-page/current-titles/over-a-red-hot-stove/

Feast & Fast: The Art of Food in Europe 1500-1800: https://curatingcambridge.co.uk/products/feast-fast-the-art-of-food-in-europe-1500-1800

Cooking in Europe 1650-1850: https://www.waterstones.com/book/cooking-in-europe-1650-1850/ivan-p-day/9780313346248

The courses Ivan runs at The School of Artisan Food: https://www.schoolofartisanfood.org/?answered=q8%3D292

Preorder Neil’s new book 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 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

If you want to buy a signed copy directly from Neil for £18 + postage (£2.85 if within the UK, the going rate if outside!). Contact him via email or social media if you fancy it (see below).

Also, don’t forget there will be another postbag episode at the end of the season. 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, find him on twitter @neilbuttery, or Instagram dr_neil_buttery my DMs are open. You can now find him at Mastodon too: @neilbuttery@mastodon.gastrokon.com.

Join the new British Food: a History Facebook discussion page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/britishfoodhistory

If you like my blog posts and podcast episodes, please consider a monthly subscription or buying me a virtual coffee or a pint? Go to https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ for more details.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

Today I am talking to Eleanor Barnett about the history of food waste and preservation.

Eleanor has written a fantastic book about the history of how we as a society have (and sometimes have not) dealt with eliminating waste and preserving precious food resources. It is called Leftovers: A History of Food Waste & Preservation, and it is out now published by Bloomsbury.

We talk about the fabulously wasteful food of 17th century cook Robert May, whose responsibility it was to preserve food in the home (hint: not the man of the house), pies as preservation method, the food waste used in agriculture and industry, food preservation in wartime, and Hannah Glasse’s dubious method for preserving very rank potted birds, plus many other things – we fit a lot into today’s episode.

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.

Leftovers: A History of Food Waste & Preservation is out now.

Books mentioned in today’s episode:

Robert May’s The Accomplisht Cook

Sir Hugh Platt’s Delights for Ladies

Hannah Glasse’s The Art of Cookery

Previous podcast episodes pertinent to today’s episode:

London’s Street Food Sellers with Charlie Taverner

Christmas Special 2023: Mince Pies

Upcoming events:

The Leeds Symposium of Food History & Traditions, York, 27 April 2024. 

British Library Food Season 2024, 25 May at 2pm. Tickets and info to come soon!

Ludlow Food Festival, Friday 13th September. 

Warwick Words History Festival, Thursday 3rd October at 4.30pm. 

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 and BlueSky @neilbuttery, or Instagram and Threads dr_neil_buttery. His DMs are open.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

Happy New Year! In the first episode of 2023 Neil talks to historian Charlie Taverner about London’s street food sellers. Charlie’s book ‘Street Food: Hawkers and the History of London’ is published by Oxford University Press on the 12th of January 2023, and it looks at every aspect of sellers’ lives from the latter 16th to the early 20th century.

They talked about how one approaches collecting data from so long a period; what was meant by the terms hawker, costermonger and fishwife; their importance to London society and economy; ice cream; fruit; and the logistics of delivering fresh milk to an ever-growing population.

Find Charlie on Twitter: @charlietaverner

Charlie’s website: www.charlietaverner.com

‘Street Food: Hawkers and the History of London’ is available to buy from all bookshops from 12th January 2023, including Amazon and Bookshop.org: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/street-food-hawkers-and-the-history-of-london/9780192846945

Review of Charlie’s book in History Today: https://www.historytoday.com/archive/history-matters/hawk-way

Things mentioned in today’s episode:

Volume 1 of ‘London Labour and the London Poor’ by Henry Mayhew e-book: https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/London_Labour_and_the_London_Poor_the_Co/mO09AAAAcAAJ?hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwivqZbGmr_8AhWZ_7sIHdq_CF8QiqUDegQIDRAC

 ‘Food Cult’, the Irish food project Charlie is involved in: https://foodcult.eu

Neil’s 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

If you want to buy a signed copy directly from Neil for £18 + postage (£2.85 if within the UK, the going rate if outside!). Contact him via email or social media if you fancy it (see below).

Also, don’t forget there will be another postbag episode at the end of the season. 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 dr_neil_buttery my DMs are open. You can now find me at Mastodon too: @neilbuttery@mastodon.gastrokon.com.

Join the new British Food: a History Facebook discussion page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/britishfoodhistory

If you like my blog posts and podcast episodes, please consider a monthly subscription or buying me a virtual coffee or a pint? Go to https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ for more details.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

Today Neil talks with Paula McIntyre about Hogmanay and her BBC TV show, the excellent Hamely Kitchen. Paula is an Ulster-Scots chef who lives on the north coast of Northern Ireland and she specialises in combining those two cuisines, reviving traditional recipes and shouting about good producers.

Paula has a Hamely Kitchen Hogmanay special out on 30th December, 7.30pm on BBC1 Northern Ireland.

Paula and Neil talked about Hogmanay traditions, like first footings and gifting shortbread, cockie-leekie soup, clootie dumplings and boiled/steamed puddings in general, TV show Two Fat Ladies and dulse – and much more.

Hamely Kitchen’s BBC webpage: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000zmyh

Find Paula on social media: Twitter @paula_mcintyre; Instagram @paulacooks

Things mentioned in today’s episode:

Kilchoman distillery: https://www.kilchomandistillery.com/

Ursa Minor bakery: https://www.ursaminorbakehouse.com/

Abernethy Butter: https://abernethybutter.com/

Two Fat Ladies BBC TV programme on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nu9yUU0fTAk

Neil’s blog post on the classic Scottish Hogmanay treat the black bun: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2022/12/27/black-bun-scotch-bun-part-1-history/

Neil’s 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

If you want to buy a signed copy directly from Neil for £18 + postage (£2.85 if within the UK, the going rate if outside!). Contact him via email or social media if you fancy it (see below).

Also, don’t forget there will be another postbag episode at the end of the season. 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 dr_neil_buttery my DMs are open. You can now find me at Mastodon too: @neilbuttery@mastodon.gastrokon.com.

Join the new British Food: a History Facebook discussion page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1474543579696033

If you like my blog posts and podcast episodes, please consider a monthly subscription or buying me a virtual coffee or a pint? Go to https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ for more details.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

Neil kicks off the season with a Christmas special, talking Christmas feasting – and cooking – with scholar and author Dr Annie Gray. Annie is author of books such as the excellent The Greedy Queen: Eating with Victoria and Victory in the Kitchen: The Life of Churchill’s Cook. Her new book At Christmas We Feast: Festive Food Through the Ages, published by Profile Books, is out now in paperback, and she kindly came on the podcast to tell me about it.

We talked about many things including the myths and misconceptions about the food we eat at Christmas, why and we feast, and how the feast of Christmas has changed through time, what the Victorian’s DIDN’T invent, jelly, wassail, the ancient Christmas centrepiece the boar’s head, trifle, Yorkshire Christmas Pye, and the recipes contained within the book.

At Christmas we Feast is published by Profile Books: https://profilebooks.com/work/at-christmas-we-feast/

Find Annie on social media: @DrAnnieGray on Twitter and Instagram. Her website is www.anniegray.co.uk

Things mentioned in today’s episode:

View Francatelli’s book The Modern Cook here: https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Modern_Cook/F68_6rvpwdsC?hl=en&gbpv=0

Neil’s disastrous Yorkshire Christmas Pye: http://neilcooksgrigson.com/2021/12/22/445-to-make-a-yorkshire-christmas-pye-part-2/

Neil’s Smoking Bishop recipe: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2018/12/14/smoking-bishop/

Neil’s 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

If you want to buy a signed copy directly from Neil for £18 + postage (£2.85 if within the UK, the going rate if outside!). Contact him via email or social media if you fancy it (see below).

Also, don’t forget there will be another postbag episode at the end of the season. 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 dr_neil_buttery my DMs are open. You can now find me at Mastodon too: @neilbuttery@mastodon.gastrokon.com.

Join the new British Food: a History Facebook discussion page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1474543579696033

If you like my blog posts and podcast episodes, please consider a monthly subscription or buying me a virtual coffee or a pint? Go to https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ for more details.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

Welcome to the first postbag edition of ‘The British Food History Podcast’.

On this episode: memories of Glyn Hughes; listeners letters; Yorkshire puddings; and new book news.

Links to things mentioned on this episode:

‘The Foods of England’ website: http://www.foodsofengland.co.uk/

Glyn Hughes’s book ‘The Surprising History of Fish and Chips’: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1471631656

Contain the Samaritans 116 123 or go to www.samaritans.org

Mind website: www.mind.uk

Smack Barm Pea Wet video: https://youtu.be/N_oIys5KS4A

The ‘Peniarth Manuscript 513D’ manuscript via The National Library of Wales: https://viewer.library.wales/4631573#?c=&m=&s=&cv=&manifest=https%3A%2F%2Fdamsssl.llgc.org.uk%2Fiiif%2F2.0%2F4631573%2Fmanifest.json&xywh=-193%2C-450%2C3844%2C5793

My post from the ‘Neil Cooks Grigson’ blog on Cawl (apologies for the terrible photo): http://neilcooksgrigson.blogspot.com/2008/12/98-cawl.html

My ‘Savouries’ blog post which includes my recipe for Welsh Rarebit: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2018/02/05/savouries/

The New York Times article about Dutch Babies: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/6648-dutch-baby

‘The Great Book of Yorkshire Pudding’ by Elaine Lemm is published by Great Northern Books: https://www.gnbooks.co.uk/product/great-book-yorkshire-pudding/

Elaine’s YouTube video about making Yorkshire Puddings: https://youtu.be/lQfMw0nbjKY

Podcast episodes referred to:

The Foods of England Project with Glyn Hughes

Lent Episode 6: Social Evolution and Lent

Cheddar and the Cheese Industry with Peter Atkins

Gingerbread with Sam Bilton

A Dark History of Sugar Parts 1 & 2

A Dark History of Chocolate with Emma Kay

British

Saffron with Sam Bilton

Yorkshire

Pudding with Elaine Lemm

Savouries

Neil’s 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

If you want to buy a signed copy directly from Neil for £18 + postage (£2.85 if within the UK, the going rate if outside!). Contact him via email or social media ifyou fancy it (see below). 

Remember, 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 dr_neil_buttery my DMs are open.

If you like my blog posts and podcast episodes, please consider a monthly subscription

or buying me a virtual coffee or a pint? Go to https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ for more details.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

Today’s guest is food writer and Yorkshire Pudding expert Elaine Lemm to discuss the good old Yorkshire Pudding.

They discussed many things including: the origins of the Yorkshire pudding, what links it to Yorkshire anyway, excellent cooking tips, including the importance of the vessel it is cooked in as well as the fat used; YP haters; and toad-in-the-hole.

‘The Great Book of Yorkshire Pudding’ is published by Great Northern Books: https://www.gnbooks.co.uk/product/great-book-yorkshire-pudding/

‘More Than Yorkshire Pudding: Food, Stories And Over 100 Recipes From God's Own Country’ is out in the UK on 21st October 2022, also published by Great Northern Books : https://www.gnbooks.co.uk/product/more-than-yorkshire-puddings/

Find Elaine on social media: @britishfood on Twitter and @foodwriting on Instagram

Elaine’s YouTube video about making Yorkshire Puddings: https://youtu.be/lQfMw0nbjKY

The raspberry vinegar, made by Womersley Foods, recommended by Elaine available here: https://youtu.be/lQfMw0nbjKY

Neil’s 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

If you want to buy a signed copy directly from Neil for £18 + postage (£2.85 if within the UK, the going rate if outside!). Contact him via email or social media if you fancy it (see below).

Also, don’t forget there is a postbag episode coming soon. 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 dr_neil_buttery my DMs are open.

If you like my blog posts and podcast episodes, please consider a monthly subscription or buying me a virtual coffee or a pint? Go to https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ for more details.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

Today Neil talks to journalist and author Sejal Sukhadwala about her new book The Philosophy of Curry. Her book charts the history of the curry, how it has changed over time, why it could be viewed as a British construct, and why some people reject the word completely. Some of the things we talked about were:  why the idea of the curry is for some a controversial one; the way Indian food changed with colonialism (and what it was like before then); when and how curries and curry houses came to Britain; the problems Indians had selling food to a sometimes racist clientele and how (or perhaps why) they kept their composure; and modern Indian food in Britain.

Sejal’s book The Philosophy of Curry is available from all bookshops including the British Library shop: https://shop.bl.uk/products/the-philosophy-of-curry#:~:text=The%20Philosophy%20of%20Curry%20offers,food%20writer%20based%20in%20London.

Find Sejal on social media: Twitter @SejalSukhadwala; Instagram sejalsukhadwala

Read some of Sejal’s recent articles:

Where to eat Indian food along London’s new Elizabeth Line: https://www.thegoodfoodguide.co.uk/editorial/features/where-to-eat-indian-food-along-londons-new-elizabeth-line

Why do Indian recipes always have to come from some mythic grandmother?: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/dec/29/indian-recipes-mythic-grandmother-burden-tradition

Neil’s 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

If you want to buy a signed copy directly from Neil for £18 + postage (£2.85 if within the UK, the going rate if outside!). Contact him via email or social media if you fancy it (see below).

Also, don’t forget there is a postbag episode coming soon. 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 dr_neil_buttery my DMs are open.

If you like my blog posts and podcast episodes, please consider a monthly subscription or buying me a virtual coffee or a pint? Go to https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ for more details.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

Neil talks to food writer, journal editor and now author of The British Cook Book, Ben Mervis, published by Phaidon on 22 September in the UK and 8 October the rest of the world. It’s quite possibly the most comprehensive book on British cooking ever published, so Neil just had to get him on.

They talk about just how one goes about writing a book with 550 recipes in it, and on what grounds should a recipe be included or excluded: delicacies such as sweet goose blood tart, and guga being cases in point. Tradition and innovation, the importance of women, and their writing, in compiling the book, the cultural significance of dippy egg and soldiers, amongst several other things.

The British Cook Book is available from all bookshops including Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/British-Cookbook-authentic-Scotland-Northern/dp/1838665285

You can order the book on Phaidon’s website: https://www.phaidon.com/store/food-cook/the-british-cookbook-9781838665289/

Find out more about Ben’s magazine, Fare here: https://www.faremag.com/

Follow Fare on social media: Twitter @FareMagazine; Insta @faremag

Follow Ben on social media: Twitter @bmervis; Insta @benmervis

Neil’s recent podcast appearances:

The Lubber’s Hole: https://lubbershole.podbean.com/e/ep-118-the-nutmeg-of-consolation-part-7-neil-buttery/

Bread and Thread: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0w2FvkdlcsE3YzFOzOzYjm?si=05e666e14ad04db0

Neil’s 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

If you want to buy a signed copy directly from Neil for £18 + postage (£2.85 if within the UK, the going rate if outside!). Contact him via email or social media if you fancy it (see below).

Also, don’t forget 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 dr_neil_buttery my DMs are open.

If you like my blog posts and podcast episodes, please consider a monthly subscription or buying me a virtual coffee or a pint? Go to https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ for more details.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

On the show today is author, food historian and returning guest Sam Bilton to talk about British Saffron – both growing it and eating it – Sam has a brand new book about to come out called Fool’s Gold A History of British Saffron, published by Prospect Books on 8th September 2022.

We talk about when, where and why saffron was grown in the country, how common it used to be in the British diet, it’s liberal use in the Forme of Cury, using saffron in your own cooking, Saffron as a dye and food colouring, how it was harvested and prepared, gilded chickens and the return of British saffron.

Sam’s book Fool’s Gold A History of British Saffron, published by Prospect Books on 8th September 2022: https://prospectbooks.co.uk/products-page/current-titles/2022-fools-gold-a-history-of-british-saffron-by-sam-bilton/

Sam’s website: http://www.sambilton.com/

Find Sam on social media: twitter @sjfbilton; Instagram @mrssbilton

Some UK Saffron producers

Sussex Saffron: https://www.sussexsaffron.co.uk/

The Cheshire Saffron Company: https://www.sussexsaffron.co.uk/

The Cornish Saffron Company: https://www.cornishsaffroncompany.co.uk/

Norfolk Saffron: https://www.norfolksaffron.co.uk/

Neil’s 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

If you want to buy a signed copy directly from Neil for £18 + postage (£2.85 if within the UK, the going rate if outside!). Contact him via email or social media if you fancy it (see below).

Also, don’t forget 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 dr_neil_buttery my DMs are open.

If you like my blog posts and podcast episodes, please consider a monthly subscription or buying me a virtual coffee or a pint? Go to https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ for more details.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

Neil’s guest today is Glyn Hughes, the man behind one of the most important resources for anyone interested in the history of food or traditional English dishes both common and forgotten.

We talked about how and why Glyn started up the project, why British food has gained its bad reputation, some examples of bad English foods, tripe and tripe restaurants, the bizarre and obscure chicken dish Hindle Wakes, the origins of beef Wellington, fake tea, haggis, Chorley cakes and Bakewell pudding.

All of the foods talked about in the episode have a page on the Foods of England website telling you about various aspects of their history. Have fun searching!

Things mentioned in today’s episode:

The Foods of England Project website: http://www.foodsofengland.co.uk/

All of Glyn’s books can be viewed here: http://www.foodsofengland.co.uk/Buybooks.htm

Follow Glyn on twitter @foodsofengland

Glyn’s salmagundi video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kB5ccxjHNY

Neil’s probably incorrect blog post about Brown Windsor Soup: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2012/02/13/how-the-british-royal-family-was-saved-by-soup/

One Dish with Andi Oliver can be heard as a podcast via BBC sounds: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0c625t7

Neil’s 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

If you want to buy a signed copy directly from Neil for £18 + postage (£2.85 if within the UK, the going rate if outside!). Contact him via email or social media if you fancy it (see below).

Also, don’t forget 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 dr_neil_buttery my DMs are open.

If you like my blog posts and podcast episodes, please consider a monthly subscription or buying me a virtual coffee or a pint? Go to https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ for more details.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

Neil’s guest today is historian and friend of the show Emma

Kay. Today we talk about Emma’s new book A History of Herbalism: Cook, Cure

& Conjure which was published in June 2022.

We talk about the importance of herbs in medicine, magic and

food, and how these things were interconnected, the four humours, Anglo-Saxon

medical texts, the double standards surrounding men and women who practised

magic and medicine, two female pioneers of botany and herbalism, and narcotic

garden vegetables.

Emma’s book is published by Pen &

Sword History: https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/A-History-of-Herbalism-Hardback/p/21395

Follow Emma on twitter @museumofkitchen

and Insta @emma_kay_author. Her website is www.museumofkitchenalia.com.

Things mentioned in today’s episode:

Marianne North’s edited biography: https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Recollections_of_a_Happy_Life/fdnVAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0

Elizabeth Blackwell’s A Curious

Herbal: https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/A_Curious_Herbal_Containing_Five_Hundred/ogHjFWeztJAC?hl=en&gbpv=0

Neil’s 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

If you want to buy a signed copy

directly from Neil for £18 + postage (£2.85 if within the UK, the going rate if

outside!). Contact him via email or social media if you fancy it (see below).

Also, don’t forget 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 me at

neil@britishfoodhistory.com, or find me on twitter @neilbuttery, or Instagram

dr_neil_buttery my DMs are open.

If you like my blog posts and podcast

episodes, please consider a monthly subscription or buying me a virtual coffee

or a pint? Go to https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ for more details.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

Today I am talking to three guests about the Scottish Salt Industry – returning guest Aaron Allen, and also Joanne Hambly and Ed Bethune

In today’s most enlightening discussion, we talk about the importance of the salt industry in Scotland from the early modern period, the uses of salt – beyond seasoning of food, the Cockenzie Saltworks Project, the social history of the site and some of the exciting archaeological finds uncovered there, how salt was made, and why Sunday salt is the best salt – amongst many other things.

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.

Salt: Scotland’s Oldest Newest Industry is out now and published by Birlinn.

Other things mentioned in today’s episode:

1722 Waggonway Project website

Salt Symposium 2021 on the SCAPE Trust website

Book your ticket for the 2024 Leeds Symposium on Food History and Traditions

Previous podcast episodes pertinent to today’s episode:

Cake Baxters in Early Modern Scotland with Aaron Allen

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 and BlueSky @neilbuttery, or Instagram and Threads dr_neil_buttery. His DMs are open.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

Welcome to episode one of the new fourth season of The British Food History Podcast.

Kicking us off is Neil’s guest Felicity Cloake. Neil & Felicity talk all things breakfast and Felicity’s new book Red Sauce, Brown Sauce, a celebration of the breakfast in all four home nations of the UK.

We talk about how breakfast might be the only thing uniting all 4 countries that make up the UK, the complexities of planning a nation-wide breakfast tour, injuries, why it’s okay to like both red and brown sauce, as well as neither, the importance of pudding on a fried breakfast, regional specialities and recipe writing.

Felicity’s book Red Sauce, Brown Sauce is published by Harper Collins: https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/red-sauce-brown-sauce-a-british-breakfast-odyssey-felicity-cloake?variant=39584484687950

Felicity will be appearing at the Abergavenny Food Festival 17 & 18 September 2022 (https://www.abergavennyfoodfestival.com/), Divizes Food Festival 24 Sept to 2 Oct 2022 (https://www.devizesfoodanddrinkfestival.info/category/events/) and the Dartmouth Food Festival 21 Oct to 23 Oct 2022 (https://www.dartmouthfoodfestival.com/).

Follow Felicity on twitter and Insta @felicitycloake.

Neil’s recent podcast appearances:

Season’s Eatings: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4GJlffoU9dVYCdGyJGOvDX?si=90285119f6644271

The Well-Seasoned Librarian: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5wps3FiGdVDynPQVl62G4M?si=b0e53ab4fe1c4c1b

That Shakespeare Life: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2w7xGGBye93jvO39IuntTO?si=e5bf9543b9794eaf

Neil’s 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

If you want to buy a signed copy directly from Neil for £18 + postage (£2.85 if within the UK, the going rate if outside!). Contact him via email or social media if you fancy it (see below).

Also, don’t forget 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 me at neil@britishfoodhistory.com, or find me on twitter @neilbuttery, or Instagram dr_neil_buttery my DMs are open.

If you like my blog posts and podcast episodes, please consider a monthly subscription or buying me a virtual coffee or a pint? Go to https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ for more details.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

Once more, Neil is a guest on his own podcast interviewed by friend of the show, and previous guest, author and food historian Emma Kay about the dark history of sugar.

In this episode we talk about the abolition of slavery from the British perspective, sugar consumption through history, dental health, the tobaccofication of sugar and how cooking from scratch is key to lower your sugar (and salt) intake. We also discuss ways to eat sugar that is kind to the workers growing it, and our planet and disagree about the virtues of artificial sweeteners.

Also: just a head's up, there are a couple of swear words used in this episode. They are comparatively mild, but perhaps not suitable for children.

Neil’s book A Dark History of Sugar is available now from all bookshops as well as from the publisher Pen & Sword; if you are quick you can still get an early bird 25% discount: https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/A-Dark-History-of-Sugar-Hardback/p/20481

If you want to buy a signed copy directly from Neil for £18 + postage (£2.85 if within the UK, the going rate if outside!). Contact him via email or social media if you fancy it (see below).

Listen to Neil interview Emma about the dark history of chocolate: https://player.captivate.fm/episode/0f3bd395-57ee-4436-a0cc-993aa3a0f8c4

Emma’s book A Dark History of Chocolate was published by Pen & Sword History in 2021: https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/A-Dark-History-of-Chocolate-Hardback/p/19247

Emma’s new book A History of Herbalism will be published by Pen & Sword History in June 2022: https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/A-History-of-Herbalism-Cure-Cook-and-Conjure-Hardback/p/21395

Follow Emma on Twitter @MuseumofKitchen and on Instagram @museumofkitchenalia, or visit her website: museumofkitchenalia.com

Also, don’t forget 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 me at neil@britishfoodhistory.com, or find me on twitter @neilbuttery, or Instagram dr_neil_buttery my DMs are open.

If you like my blog posts and podcast episodes, please consider a monthly subscription or buying me a virtual coffee or a pint? Go to https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ for more details.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

Neil is a guest on his own podcast talking about the dark history of sugar. He’s interviewed by friend of the show, and previous guest, author and food historian Emma Kay.

In part 1 of this 2 part interview, we talk about the evolutionary reasons about why we love sugar so much, sugar’s origins and subsequent spread by the Muslim Empire and then the Crusading knights, ending up finally in the New World. We focus on the English in the 17th century: how they got in on the sugar trade, their life on the sugar plantations, the sugar making process and the terrible conditions in which the slaves were forced to work. We also discuss how the English subjugated their sugar slaves and how the slaves found ways to empower themselves.

Neil’s book A Dark History of Sugar is out now, published by Pen & Sword; if you are quick you can still get an early bird 25% discount: https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/A-Dark-History-of-Sugar-Hardback/p/20481

It is available, of course, to buy at all other bookshops.

Emma’s book A Dark History of Chocolate was published by Pen & Sword History in 2021: https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/A-Dark-History-of-Chocolate-Hardback/p/19247

Emma’s new book A History of Herbalism will be published by Pen & Sword History in June 2022: https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/A-History-of-Herbalism-Cure-Cook-and-Conjure-Hardback/p/21395

Follow Emma on Twitter @MuseumofKitchen and on Instagram @museumofkitchenalia, or visit her website: museumofkitchenalia.com

Also, don’t forget 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 me at neil@britishfoodhistory.com, or find me on twitter @neilbuttery, or Instagram dr_neil_buttery.

If you like my blog posts and podcast episodes, please consider a monthly subscription or buying me a virtual coffee or a pint? Go to https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ for more details.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

Today, Neil talks with Emeritus Professor Peter J. Atkins about the history of Britain’s cheese industry. Britain had a diverse range of cheeses until cheddar came along and almost made artisan cheese extinct in the UK.

We talk about Roman and medieval cheese, the importance of women and girls to cheese and cheesemaking, Joseph Harding ‘the father of British cheddar’, cheddar in North America, Scottish cheddar, and the inevitable dumbing down of variety and flavour when food becomes industrialised.

Peter J. Atkins is a food historian and historical geographer with over 50 years of research experience. His specialization has been in perishable foods such as dairy products and he is now writing a history of British cheese. He has worked on dairy systems in South Asia and on general food history with colleagues in Europe. He is a past President of the International Commission for Research on European Food History (https://icrefh.hypotheses.org/).

Subscribers: don’t forget to check out the Easter Egg tab on the website to listen to the many extras from this episode: http://britishfoodhistory.com/easter-eggs/

Neil’s book A Dark History of Sugar is available to preorder from the publishers with a 25% discount. It is available, of course, to preorder at all other bookshops https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/A-Dark-History-of-Sugar-Hardback/p/20481

Also, don’t forget 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 me at neil@britishfoodhistory.com, or find me on twitter @neilbuttery, or Instagram dr_neil_buttery.

If you like my blog posts and podcast episodes, please consider a monthly subscription or buying me a virtual coffee or a pint? Go to https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ for more details.

Links to things mentioned in this episode:

Work published by Peter complementing this episode:

 Vabre, S., Bruegel, M. and Atkins, P.J. (Eds)(2021) Food

History: A Feast of the Senses in Europe, 1750 to the Present London: Routledge  https://www.routledge.com/Food-History-A-Feast-of-the-Senses-in-Europe-1750-to-the-Present/Vabre-Bruegel-Atkins/p/book/9780367515584

Atkins, P.J. (2016) A History of Uncertainty: Bovine Tuberculosis in Britain, 1850 to the Present Winchester: Winchester University Press ISBN: 9781906113179 https://www.amazon.co.uk/History-Uncertainty-Tuberculosis-Perspectives-Veterinary/dp/1906113173

Harvey & Brockless range of British Cheeses: https://www.harveyandbrockless.co.uk/category/artisan-cheese/british-cheese

Neil’s new blog post ‘The Return of Traditional Cheesemaking’ with toasted cheese recipe: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2022/04/26/the-return-of-the-british-cheese-industry/

Neil on 'Table Talk' podcast with Stefan Gates via Food Matters Live: https://foodmatterslive.com/discover/podcast/the-dark-history-of-sugar-food-podcasts/

A post about clotted (or clouted) cream from Neil’s blog: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2019/10/11/clotted-cream/

Two more cheese recipes: Welsh Rarebit & Locket’s Savoury: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2018/02/18/welsh-rarebit-lockets-savoury/

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

Neil has a most enlightening chat with Kevin Geddes about the fabulous television cook Fanny Cradock (1909-1994). Fanny has a reputation for being difficult to work with, cruel and monstrous, and that she was a fake. In this chat Kevin upturns SOME of those preconceptions. We talk about her way into radio and television, her manner and presenting style, the fantastic Christmas special, as well as her decline and fall from television cookery. Much of her life is fabricated and it is difficult to see where the real Fanny stops, and the celebrity Fanny begins.

Subscribers: don’t forget to check out the Easter Egg tab on the website to listen to the many extras from this episode: http://britishfoodhistory.com/easter-eggs/

Kevin’s book Keep Calm and Fanny On! The Many Careers of Fanny Cradock is published by Fantom https://www.fantompublishing.co.uk/product/kevin-geddes-fanny-cradock/

It’s All in the Booklet: Festive Fun with Fanny Cradock is also published by Fantom https://www.fantompublishing.co.uk/product/kevin-geddes-its-all-in-the-booklet-festive-fun-with-fanny-cradock/

Follow Kevin on Twitter and Insta @keepcalmandfannyon

Neil’s book A Dark History of Sugar is available to preorder from the publisher with a 25% discount. It is available, of course, to preorder at all other bookshops https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/A-Dark-History-of-Sugar-Hardback/p/20481

Links to things mentioned in this episode:

British Pathe reel: Fanny and Johnnie’s savouries and cooking tips (YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgrtXKcmeyU

Fanny and Johnnie at the Albert Hall (YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHGSJbPz2e8

Adventurous Cooking with Fanny Cradock (YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EQJ8GnDsiw

Fanny Cradock Invites… (on BBC iPlayer) https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p05rv2m9/fanny-cradock-invites-you-to-a-cheese-and-wine-party

Fanny Cradock Cooks for Christmas (on BBC iPlayer) https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p05jvgzw/fanny-cradock-cooks-for-christmas-series-1-1-fanny-cradock-cooks-for-christmas

The Big Time: Fanny’s downfall? (YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW-2fclfRpI&t=1s

Fanny on TV chat show Wogan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z82EYek2-xs

Also, don’t forget 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 me at neil@britishfoodhistory.com, or find me on twitter @neilbuttery, or Instagram dr_neil_buttery.

If you like my blog posts and podcast episodes, please consider a monthly subscription or buying me a virtual coffee or a pint? Go to https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ for more details.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

Today Neil chats with Alessandra Pino, co-author of ‘A Gothic Cookbook’, about food in gothic literature. They talk about the inspiration behind the book, the function of food (or the lack of it) in gothic fiction and how crowdfunding platform Unbound has helped with the project. They look at Frankenstein’s monster and his vegetarianism and delve a bit deeper into Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.

Subscribers: don’t forget to check out the Easter Egg tab on the website to listen to a couple of extras from this episode: http://britishfoodhistory.com/easter-eggs/

Visit Alessandra and Ella’s page on Unbound here to see page samples and Lee Henry’s wonderful illustrations: https://unbound.com/books/a-gothic-cookbook/

To receive 10% off your pledge use the code GOTHICPOD10

Follow A Gothic Cookbook on Twitter and Insta @AGothicCookbook

Links to things mentioned in this episode:

Wikipedia entry for Jane Eyre: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Eyre

Neil’s Hot Toddy blog post: http://britishfoodhistory.com/2021/12/24/a-hot-toddy/

Neil’s Christmas Pye posts: https://neilcooksgrigson.com/2021/12/18/445-to-make-a-yorkshire-christmas-pye-part-1/

Also, don’t forget 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 me at neil@britishfoodhistory.com, or find me on twitter @neilbuttery, or Instagram dr_neil_buttery.

If you like my blog posts and podcast episodes, please consider a monthly subscription or buying me a virtual coffee or a pint? Go to https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ for more details.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

In the podcast’s first Christmas Special Neil delves into the history, origins and folklore surrounding the good old Christmas Pudding: the cornerstone of the Christmas Day dinner. He cooks up a proper cannonball shaped Victorian pudding that was written by Sam Bilton’s Great Aunt Eliza (Sam is a friend of the show). Neil also looks at Stir Up Sunday, superstitions and how to flambé a pudding properly.

Links to things mentioned in this episode:

Neil’s Christmas Pudding post part 1: http://britishfoodhistory.com/2021/11/21/christmas-pudding-part-1-stir-up-sunday/

Neil’s Christmas Pudding post part 2: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2021/12/19/to-make-a-christmas-pudding-part-2-the-big-day/

Sam Bilton’s post about her Great Aunt’s pudding: http://www.sambilton.com/plum-pudding/

Neil’s Christmas Pottage post: https://neilcooksgrigson.com/2021/12/18/445-to-make-a-yorkshire-christmas-pye-part-1/

See Neil make the pottage on the Channel 5 show Amazing Christmas Cakes & Bakes here (UK only): https://www.channel5.com/show/amazing-christmas-cakes-and-bakes

Neil’s first post about the Yorkshire Christmas Pye: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2020/12/17/christmas-pottage/

Also, don’t forget 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 me at neil@britishfoodhistory.com, or find me on twitter @neilbuttery, or Instagram dr_neil_buttery.

If you like my blog posts and podcast episodes, please consider a monthly subscription or buying me a virtual coffee or a pint? Go to https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ for more details.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

In the first episode of the third season Neil chats to food historian, Emma Kay about her new book ‘A Dark History of Chocolate’. They talk about several aspects of chocolate’s chequered past including: the way chocolate was exported from South America to Europe, Britain’s chocolate houses, chocolate & decadence, and the exploitation of workers and consumers, and chocolate as an excellent vehicle for poison.

Emma’s book on Pen & Sword History’s website: https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/A-Dark-History-of-Chocolate-Hardback/p/19247

Emma’s twitter handle: @museumofkitchen; Emma’s Instagram: @museumofkitchenalia

Neil’s new book ‘A Dark History of Sugar’ is out on 30 March 2022 and is available to preorder.

See Neil on the Channel 5 show Amazing Christmas Cakes & Bakes here (UK only): https://www.channel5.com/show/amazing-christmas-cakes-and-bakes

Also, don’t forget 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 me at neil@britishfoodhistory.com, or find me on twitter @neilbuttery, or Instagram dr_neil_buttery.

If you like my blog posts and podcast episodes, please consider a monthly subscription or buying me a virtual coffee or a pint? Go to https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ for more details.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

In part 3 of his Eel special, Neil looks at the more recent history of the eel, focussing upon the conservation of our new favourite slimy fish. In this episode Neil talks to his guest this week Andrew Kerr of the Sustainable Eel Group about the loss of the eels’ habitat, the success of the elver rewilding programme, how the SEG help adult eels find their way back to the Sargasso Sea, why elver trafficking is the biggest wildlife crime in history, and how Brexit may mess up the conservation effort.

Useful things:

Andrew’s twitter handle @SEGandrewK

The Sustainable Eel Group’s website: https://www.sustainableeelgroup.org/

Neil’s blog post about the paradox of why eating elvers could save them: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2013/02/01/the-eel-paradox/

All of Neil’s eel posts from ‘British Food a History’: https://britishfoodhistory.com/tag/eels/

All of Neil’s eel posts from ‘Neil Cooks Grigson’: https://neilcooksgrigson.com/tag/eel/

Also, don’t forget if you have any questions or queries about today’s episode, or indeed any episode, feel I missed something important, or have a question about the history of British food please email neil@britishfoodhistory.com, or find me on twitter @neilbuttery, or Instagram dr_neil_buttery.

If you like my blog posts and podcast episodes, please consider a monthly subscription or buying me a virtual coffee or a pint? Go to https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ for more details.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

In part 2 of his three-part Eel Special, Neil looks at adult eels – yes our little elvers from last week have all grown up. In this episode he looks at the folklore of eels, as well as how they were caught and cooked, and he talks to his guest this week John Wyatt Greenlee, medieval eel historian and maker of eel memes, about the importance of eel in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period.

Useful things:

John’s twitter handle @greenleejw

John’s excellent website: https://historiacartarum.org/

The infamous eel scene from ‘The Tin Drum’ (not a clip for the squeamish!):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFSstdnfqjk

Neil’s blog post about eel, pie and mash houses: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2012/01/22/eel-pie-and-mash/

Neil’s traumatic eel encounter: https://neilcooksgrigson.com/2009/10/13/next-simply-prepare-your-eels/

All of Neil’s eel posts from ‘British Food a History’: https://britishfoodhistory.com/tag/eels/

All of Neil’s eel posts from ‘Neil Cooks Grigson’: https://neilcooksgrigson.com/tag/eel/

Also, don’t forget if you have any questions or queries about today’s episode, or indeed any episode, feel I missed something important, or have a question about the history of British food please email neil@britishfoodhistory.com, or find me on twitter @neilbuttery, or Instagram dr_neil_buttery.

If you like my blog posts and podcast episodes, please consider a monthly subscription or buying me a virtual coffee or a pint? Go to https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ for more details.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

In today’s episode, I am talking with author and food historian Pen Vogler about her book Stuffed: A History of Good Food and Hard Times in Britain which was published toward the end of last year 2023.

We discuss how precarious our food supply was and is, the Enclosure Acts and their effect upon our relationship with food, allotments, havercakes, adulteration and malnutrition, school dinners and Hannah Woolley’s pumpkin pie, amongst many other things.

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.

Pen’s book Stuffed: A History of Good Food and Hard Times in Britain is out now.

Oxford Literary Festival

Hexham Book Festival

Hay Festival

Find Pen on social media: Twitter & Instagram @PenVogler

Books and other things mentioned in today’s episode:

Scoff: A History of Food and Class in Britain by Pen Vogler

My interpretation of Hannah Woolley/W.M.’s pumpkin pie recipe

Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken

Previous podcast episodes pertinent to today’s episode:

The School Meals Service with Heather Ellis

English Food, a People's History with Diane Purkiss

A History of Herbalism with Emma Kay

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 and BlueSky@neilbuttery, or Instagram and Threads dr_neil_buttery. His DMs are open.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

In part one of his three-part Eel Special, Neil focusses on eel fry – elvers, or glass eels – once a very important source of seasonal protein the south east and west of England. He visits a traditional elver fisherman to watch him haul in his catch and to find out why, paradoxically, to save this critically endangered species, we may have to eat it. Neil also looks at the ecologist who discovered that eel migrate back and forth to the Sargasso sea, the folklore surrounding elvers and provides some serving suggestions should you get your hands on some.

Useful things:

Elver Dave’s twitter handle: @elverdave

Life cycle of the European eel video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBRnNk_uo9Y

Neil’s blog post about the Eel Paradox: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2013/02/01/the-eel-paradox/

Elvers numbers are on the increase: https://www.sustainableeelgroup.org/endangered-elvers-have-made-a-dramatic-comeback-in-british-waters-following-a-year-of-perfect-conditions/

‘Elvers in the Gloucester Style’ recipe: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2013/02/10/elvers-in-the-gloucester-style/

The ‘Neil Cooks Grigson’ project. Will he ever complete it? https://neilcooksgrigson.com/

Also, don’t forget if you have any questions or queries about today’s episode, or indeed any episode, feel I missed something important, or have a question about the history of British food please email neil@britishfoodhistory.com, or find me on twitter @neilbuttery, or Instagram dr_neil_buttery.

If you like my blog posts and podcast episodes, please consider a monthly subscription or buying me a virtual coffee or a pint? Go to https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ for more details.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

In this episode Neil looks at the rise and fall of the now largely forgotten savoury course, once a mainstay of Victorian and Edwardian dinners. He focusses upon some classics: Scotch woodcock, devilled chicken livers and, probably the most famous, Welsh Rarebit/Rabbit.

Neil’s ‘Savouries’ post and devilled chicken livers recipe from his blog: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2018/02/05/savouries/

Angels & devils on horseback recipe: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2012/03/08/angels-and-devils-on-horseback/

Scotch woodcock recipe: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2021/08/08/scotch-woodcock/

Welsh rarebit & Locket’s savoury recipes: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2018/02/18/welsh-rarebit-lockets-savoury/

Neil’s version of Gentlemen’s Relish: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2012/04/24/the-gentlemans-relish/

The Infamous English Rarebit incident: https://neilcooksgrigson.com/2010/03/08/230-english-rabbit-1747/

Reading List:

‘Good Savouries’ by Ambrose Heath: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14472345-good-savouries

‘Savouries’ by Theodora FitzGibbon: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9382578-savouries

‘The English Savoury Course’ article from Global Food

History by P. Freedman and J. Evans: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Joshua-Evans-11/publication/344364561_The_English_Savoury_Course/links/5f6c9dfa299bf1b53eee0eaf/The-English-Savoury-Course.pdf

Also, don’t forget if you have any questions or queries about today’s episode, or indeed any episode, feel I missed something important, or have a question about the history of British food please email neil@britishfoodhistory.com, or find me on twitter @neilbuttery, or Instagram dr_neil_buttery.

If you like my blog posts and podcast episodes, please consider a monthly subscription or buying me a virtual coffee or a pint? Go to https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ for more details.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

Forme of Cury with Christopher Monk

In episode two of the second season Neil chats to food

historian, chef and scholar Dr Christopher Monk about the first cookbook

written in the English language: Forme of Cury. We talked about –

amongst other things – who wrote it and use it in the first place, the familiar

ingredients and recipes inside the manuscript, blancmange and how to approach

cooking ‘authentic’ medieval cuisine.

Christopher’s website and blog Monk's Modern Medieval

Cuisine: https://modernmedievalcuisine.com/

Christopher’s YouTube channel of the same name: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClOt8UgoRHFIFcCD7ibGibw

Christopher’s twitter handle: @MonkCuisine

Neil’s blog posts about, and recipes from, Forme of Cury:

https://britishfoodhistory.com/?s=forme+of+cury

Neil’s attempt at Blanc Mange: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2019/06/08/mediaeval-blanc-mange/

Neil’s frumenty post (subscribers only): http://britishfoodhistory.com/2021/08/01/to-make-frumenty-furmenty/

Medieval recipes from Neil’s Jane Grigson blog: https://neilcooksgrigson.com/tag/medieval/

Also, don’t forget if you have any questions or queries

about today’s episode, or indeed any episode, feel I missed something

important, or have a question about the history of British food please email neil@britishfoodhistory.com, or find

me on twitter @neilbuttery, or Instagram dr_neil_buttery.

If you like my blog posts and podcast episodes, please

consider a monthly subscription or buying me a virtual coffee or a pint? Go to https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/

for more details.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.

Gingerbread with Sam Bilton

In the first episode of the second season Neil chats to food historian, cook and chef, Sam Bilton, author of gingerbread cookbook ‘First Catch Your Gingerbread’. We talked about – amongst other things – the origins of gingerbread, gingerbreads that do not contain ginger, gingerbread’s close ties with Victorian fairgrounds and the difficulties surrounding cooking historical foods. Then, Neil talks a little bit more on the best of all the gingerbreads: parkin (this is not an opinion, but a true fact).

Sam’s book ‘First Catch Your Gingerbread’ is published by Prospect Books: https://prospectbooks.co.uk/products-page/current-titles/first-catch-your-gingerbread/

Sam Bilton’s excellent website and blog: http://www.sambilton.com/

Sam’s twitter handle: @sjfbilton; Sam’s Instagram: @mrssbilton

Neil’s parkin recipe: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2011/11/04/yorkshire-parkin/

Neil’s blog post about Golden Syrup: https://britishfoodhistory.com/2012/02/01/golden_syrup/

Gingerbread recipes can be found on both of Neil’s blogs: ‘British Food: a History’ (www.britishfoodhistory.com) & ‘Neil Cooks Grigson’ (www.neilcooksgrigson.com)

Also, don’t forget 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 me at neil@britishfoodhistory.com, or find me on twitter @neilbuttery, or Instagram dr_neil_buttery.

If you like my blog posts and podcast episodes, please consider a monthly subscription or buying me a virtual coffee or a pint? Go to https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ for more details.

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 end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.