60 episodes
The British Food History Podcast Neil Buttery
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- History
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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Welcome to 'The British Food History Podcast': British food in all its (sometimes gory) glory with Dr. Neil Buttery. He'll be looking in depth at all aspects of food with interviews with special guests, recipes, re-enactments, foraging, trying his hand at traditional techniques, and tracking down forgotten recipes and hyper-regional specialities. He'll also be trying to answer the big question: What makes British food, so...British?
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy
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Historical Cookery with Jay Reifel
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
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Ormskirk Gingerbread with Anouska Lewis
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: a... -
The History of Food Waste & Preservation with Eleanor Barnett
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... -
The Scottish Salt Industry with Joanna Hambly, Aaron Allen & Ed Bethune
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
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy -
Stuffed with Pen Vogler
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: a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/britishfoodhistory"... -
The Leeds Symposium on Food History & Traditions with Ivan Day
In today’s episode, I am talking with renowned food historian, chef and confectioner Ivan Day.
The 38th Leeds Food Symposium of Food History and Traditions is coming up – 27 April 2024 to be exact – Ivan is the Chair of the Symposium, so we had a good talk about the history and influence of this most important annual event on the study of food history.
We talked about a pioneer of food history study C. Ann Wilson who was the librarian at the Brotherton Library at the University of Leeds, who, with Peter Brears, Lynette Hunter and Jennifer Staid, created the Symposium in 1986. We also talk about this year's Symposium on 27 April 2024. The topic of this year being ‘Presenting the Food of the Past in Museums and Historic Houses’.
Also discussed: the excellent work of Peter Brears, the speakers of this year’s symposium, the social side of the symposium – including the excellent buffet – and why the Leeds symposium is held in York, 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.
The Leeds Symposium on Food
History & Traditions website
The Symposium’s Eventbrite page
Find Ivan on Instagram @ivanpatrickday
Books and other things mentioned in today’s episode:
Brotherton Library cookery collection, University of Leeds
Food & Drink in Britain from the Stone Age to Recent Times by C. Anne Wilson
Over a Red-Hot Stove edited by Ivan Day
Fairfax House, York
York Castle Museum
Shibden Hall, Halifax
Cooking & Dining in the Victorian Country House by Peter Brears
The Food Museum
Elizabeth Raffald, England’s Most Influential Housekeeper by Neil Buttery
Previous podcast episodes pertinent to today’s episode:
18th Century Dining with Ivan Day
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