It’s time for the fifth traditional postbag episode, where I (attempt to) answer your questions, read out your comments and mull over your queries.

In this edition: giant turkeys, great crisps we have known, burnt bread and Yorkshire puddings – plus much, much more!

Thank you for your support in this eighth season of the podcast. It shall return later in the year.

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

Things mentioned in today’s episode

Burnt cobs – BBC Leicester article

Pennyroyal

Tomato-Flavoured Snaps are not dead!

A Baghdad Cookery Book by Charles Perry

Kirkcudbright Book Week tickets

The 39th Leeds Symposium of Food Drinks & Traditions on Eventbrite

Neil’s appearance on That Shakespeare Life

Neil’s appearance on History Rage

The Accomplisht Cook by Robert May (1660)

Amuse Bouche by Carolyn Boyd

Plenti and Grase by Mark Dawson

Neil’s Country Life County Foods series

A is for Apple: An Encyclopaedia of Food & Drink

The Delicious Legacy

Comfortably Hungry: Bleeding Cows & Black Puddings

Podcast episodes pertinent to today’s episode

A History of Baking with Sam Bilton & Neil Buttery

Making Medieval Ale at Home with Alison Kay

Turkey with Tom Copas

An Irish Food Story with Jp McMahon

The Philosophy of Puddings with Neil Buttery, Peter Gilchrist & Lindsay Middleton

Crisps with Natalie Whittle

The School Meals Service with Heather Ellis

The History of Food Waste & Preservation with Eleanor...

Today I speak with food historian, podcaster and friend of the show Lindsay Middleton about arguably the first celebrity chef, Alexis Soyer, focusing mainly on two of his books: The Gastronomic Regenerator and The Modern Housewife.

We talk about the kitchens at the Reform Club, Soyer’s literary inspirations, cookery books as entertainment and his meta approach to writing The Modern Housewife, amongst many other things.

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

The Scottish Food History Podcast

Find Lindsay on social media: Insta/Threads lindsaymiddleton_ and Bluesky @drlindsaymiddleton.bsky.social

Things mentioned in today’s episode

The Reform Club

Charles Barry

The Gastronomic Regenerator

The Modern Housewife

William Kitchiner

Neil’s Country Life County Foods series

Podcast episodes pertinent to today’s episode

The Philosophy of Puddings with Neil Buttery, Peter Gilchrist & Lindsay Middleton

Tinned Food with Lindsay Middleton

Invalid Cookery with Lindsay Middleton

A is for Apple: B is for Banana, Banting & Berries

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

Knead to Know: a History of Baking

The Philosophy of Puddings

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

Today I am talking with podcaster and blogger Alison Kay of Ancestral Kitchen all about recreating medieval ale at home – and how one adapts the making of them to modern kitchens.

We talked about the difference between ale and beer; the process of ale-making; sterilisation versus good old cleaning; wild yeast; and (most importantly) what the ale tastes like – amongst many other things.

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

Ancestral Kitchen podcast

Ancestral Kitchen website – including those posts about medieval ale.

Ancestral Kitchen on Instagram: @ancestral_kitchen

Things mentioned in today’s episode

Ale, Beer & Brewsters in England by Judith M. Bennett

Christmas on the Croft, The Scottish Food History Podcast

My YouTube channel with my short video about haggis

Blog posts pertinent to today’s episode

A Trip to the Sarson’s Vinegar Factory

Happy New Year – a review of 2024

Previous podcast episodes pertinent to today’s episode

Recreating 16th Century Beer with Susan Flavin & Marc Meltonville

A is for Anchovy, Alewife & Avocado

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

Knead to Know: a History of Baking

The Philosophy of Puddings

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...

I'm on a break so to fill the gap here are some of my favourite episodes from the podcast's vaults.

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

I'm on a break so to fill the gap here are some of my favourite episodes from the podcast's vaults.

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

I'm on a break so to fill the gap here are some of my favourite episodes from the podcast's vaults.

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

I'm on a break so to fill the gap here are some of my favourite episodes from the podcast's vaults.

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/

Merry Christmas everyone! Welcome to the 2024 British Food History Podcast Christmas special.

Today I am talking with Tudor Food historian Brigitte Webster about what Christmasses were like in Tudor times – just what were the Tudors eating and drinking at this time of year?

We talked about harrowing Advent and its stockfish, food as gifts, the boar’s head, venison, frumenty and the similarities and differences between Christmasses then and now – amongst many other things.

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

Brigitte’s book Eating with the Tudors is available from all good book shops.

Brigitte’s website

You can find Brigitte on social media: Twitter @tudorfoodrecipe; Instagram/Threads tudor_experience; Bluesky @tudorfoodrecipe.bsky.social

Things mentioned in today’s episode

The work of Andrew Boorde

Don’t forget to check out the website on Christmas Day for my Irish coffee recipe

Listen to the Delicious Legacy Christmas special here

Blog posts pertinent to today’s episode

My recipe for roast venison

My recipe for medieval frumenty (subscribers only)

Previous podcast episodes pertinent to today’s episode

Lent Episode 2: The History of Lent

Tudor Cooking and Cuisine with Brigitte Webster

Christmas Feasting with Annie Gray

Christmas Special 2023: Mince Pies

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

Knead to Know: a History of Baking