Comfortably Hungry

Sam Bilton
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Comfortably Hungry

Welcome to the comfortably hungry podcast where yesterday’s dinner is tomorrow’s history. If you’re a peckish person who is curious about the history of food and drink, then you’re in the right place. I’m Sam Bilton a food historian, writer and cook and each season I will be joined by some hungry guests to discuss a variety topics centred around a specific theme. As a former supper club host I’m always intrigued to know what people like to eat. So to whet everyone’s appetites I have invited my guests to contribute a virtual dish with them inspired by today’s topic. comfortablyhungry.substack.com

  1. 7 HR. AGO

    S3 E5: Bleeding Cows and Black Puddings

    In Episode 5 I am joined by my fellow A is for Apple podcast co-host and the author of The Philosophy of Pudding, Dr Neil Buttery, and award winning food writer Kate Ryan to discuss the merits of blood as food and in particular, the most democratic of puddings, the black pudding. Useful Links You can find more information about Kate’s work on her website flavour.ie including further details on her research into Ireland’s black pudding heritage. You can find Kate as @flavour.ie on Instagram and X Do check out Neil’s British Food History podcast as well his books on A Dark History of Sugar and Before Mrs Beeton: Elizabeth Raffald England’s Most Influential Housekeeper, and of course his latest releases Knead to Know: A History of Baking and The Philosophy of Pudding. You can find Neil on Instagram @dr_neil_buttery and X @neilbuttery Euro Toques in Ireland National Folklore Collection of Ireland The Cresswell Archive, Kinvara which includes images of Killing the Pig discussed by Kate in this episode. Some of the black pudding manufacturers mentioned in this podcast: * Bury Black Pudding * Clonakilty Black Pudding * Fruit Pig * Jane Russell Handmade Sausages * Sneem Black Pudding * Stornoway Black Pudding Suggested Reading Nose to Tail Eating: A Kind of British Cooking by Fergus Henderson Cattle in Ancient Ireland (Studies in Irish Archaeology & History) by A T Lucas Odd Bits: How to Cook the Rest of the Animal by Jennifer McLagan ‘I’m the last drisheen maker in all of Ireland’ on EchoLive.ie by Kate Ryan on 14 November 2022 ‘A drisheen recipe that Joyce recommended!’ on EchoLive.ie by Kate Ryan on 21 November 2022 ‘Recipes for drisheen, from Cork’s top chefs’ on EchoLive.ie by Kate Ryan on 28 November 2022 ‘Great Scotch! Manchester's take on the Scotch egg has become a snack sensation’ in The Independent by Paul Vallely, 19 November 2011 Comfortably Hungry is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Don’t forget you can follow me on Instagram or X @mrssbilton or find out more about my work on sambilton.com. Get full access to Comfortably Hungry at comfortablyhungry.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 1m

  2. NOV 7

    S3 E4: R.I.P. (Retail in Peril?)

    The British High Street is on its last legs - or is it? In Episode 4 I chat to historian, author and broadcaster Dr Annie Gray about her latest book The Bookshop, The Draper, The Candlestick Maker to find out how the British high street has evolved over the centuries. There’s talk of dodgy grocers, fear of prostitution, giant Christmas cheeses and big shop bashing. But is it all doom and gloom for the high street? Useful Links You can find out more about Annie’s books and events on her website anniegray.co.uk and follow her on Instagram or X. You can also hear Annie on the culinary panel show The Kitchen Cabinet. Heima homeware and hardware store in York is a great example of a thriving independent shop. Suggested Reading The Bookshop, The Draper, The Candlestick Maker: A History of the High Street is out now (buy it from an independent book shop!) Victory in the Kitchen by Annie Gray You can find a list of other titles by Annie on the Profile Books website. Eating to Extinction by Dan Saladino Don’t forget you can follow me on Instagram or X @mrssbilton or find out more about my work on sambilton.com. A huge thank you to Thomas Ntinas of The Delicious Legacy for doing the sound mixing on this season of the podcast. Get full access to Comfortably Hungry at comfortablyhungry.substack.com/subscribe

    51 min

  3. OCT 31

    S3 E3: Come Die with Me

    In Episode 3 I explore how food and death have been intrinsically linked over the centuries focusing on two extraordinary funeral feasts. First of all, I am joined by food historian and chef Jay Reifel to dissect the Emperor Domitian’s famous black banquet complete with tombstone party favours. Then historian Giles MacDonogh and I visit pre-Revolutionary France where a young gourmand, Grimod de la Reynière, hosts his own dark repast much to his parent’s chagrin. Useful Links You can find Jay Reifel on Instagram @jayreifel or visit his website https://jayreifel.com for more information on his work and his book A History of the World in 10 Dinners: 2000 years, 100 recipes (2023) which features his take on Domitian’s feast including the spectacular chicken dish at the top of this post. You can find Giles McDonogh on X @GilesMacDonogh or you can find him on Susbtack at Giles MacDonogh. Details of Giles’ 15 books are available on his website http://www.macdonogh.co.uk/books.htm including Grimod de la Reynière’s biography A Palate in Revolution (1987) You may also want to check out A Question of Death, a newsletter and podcast from Rachel Mosses which explores our relationship with death through respectful enquiry. Suggested Reading * ‘Dio Cassius’ Roman historian see the entry on Britannica * An Alphabet for Gourmets by MFK Fisher (Fisher deals with funeral food in the chapter ‘S is for Sad’) * Almanach des Gourmands by Grimod de la Reynière (this is a digitised version of the 1904 reprint of the 1803 edition) * ‘Parentalia - Festival of the Ancestors’ by Lesley Laws on the Vindolanda Charitable Trust website * Feast by Nigella Lawson (2006) * ‘Black Banquets and Funeral Feasts’ in Gastronomica, The Journal of Food & Culture 12:4 (Berkeley, California: University of California Press, Winter 2012), pp 96-103. * The Rituals of Dinner by Margaret Visser (1991) Don’t forget you can follow me on Instagram or X @mrssbilton or find out more about my work on sambilton.com. A huge thank you to Thomas Ntinas of The Delicious Legacy for doing the sound mixing on this season of the podcast. Get full access to Comfortably Hungry at comfortablyhungry.substack.com/subscribe

    55 min

  4. OCT 17

    S3 E2: Burnt Cakes and the (not so) Dark Ages

    In Episode 2 I am joined by Emma Kay a Historian and Archaeologist, who specialises in food history. We discuss Emma’s book on Anglo-Saxon culinary history, Fodder & Drincan, and discover why the so called ‘dark ages’ between the Romans quitting Britain in the 5th century CE and the Norman conquest in 1066 are not as gloomy on the food front as people once thought. Useful Links Emma is the author of numerous books on culinary history including Fodder & Drincan: Anglo Saxon Culinary History. You can find her on Instagram and X. She is currently digitising her vast collection of antique kitchen equipment which will soon be available on museumofkitchenalia.co.uk. Emma is also on YouTube: Food & Histo-Archaeology with Emma Kay Emma’s next book Wortes and All: Medieval Cooking will be available from Amberley Publishing in April 2025. Anglo Saxon sites in the UK include Sutton Hoo or West Stow Village, in Suffolk. Or visit the British Museum to see the famous Sutton Hoo helmet pictured above. Vikings, all episodes streaming on Prime. Suggested Reading If you want to find out more about this era Emma recommends the following books: * Anglo-Saxon Chronicle * Monasteriales Indicia: The Anglo-Saxon Monastic Sign Language and Anglo-Saxon Farms and Farming by Debby Banham * Beowulf * Cambridge University Press have a number of books available in their Anglo Saxon Studies series. * Wortcunning and Starcraft (3 Vols) by Oswald Cockayne * Christine Fell specialised in Anglo-Saxon and Viking history and was an Old English specialist * The Roman Cookery Book (a translation of De re coquinaria, aka Apicius) by Barbara Flower and Elizabeth Rosenbaum * Anglo Saxon Food and Drink by Ann Hagen * Cooking Apicius: Roman Recipes for Today by Sally Grainger * Constance Hieatt has written many books on medieval food including Pleyn Delit: Medieval Cookery for Modern Cooks * Baghdad Cookery Book by Charles Perry * A variety of translated works by the Icelandic poet and historian Snorri Sturluson can be found on Project Gutenberg * In Search of the Dark Ages by Michael Wood Don’t forget you can follow me on Instagram or X @mrssbilton or find out more about my work on sambilton.com. A huge thank you to Thomas Ntinas of The Delicious Legacy for doing the sound mixing on this season of the podcast. Get full access to Comfortably Hungry at comfortablyhungry.substack.com/subscribe

    42 min

  5. OCT 3

    S3 E1: Dark Food

    In Episode 1 I’m joined by my fellow A is for Apple podcast host Dr Alessandra Pino who is an expert on the intersection of the Gothic, food and cultural memory. We talk about her theory on ‘dark food’ in literature, an original concept that provides an insight into the legacies of slavery and its relationship to capitalism, in the context of Cristina Garcia’s novel Dreaming in Cuban (1992). We also chat about the long awaited A Gothic Cookbook, which is finally out of its ‘coffin’. Useful Links You can find Allie on Instagram @sasacharlie and X @foodforflo or discover more about her work on her website. Allie also co-hosts the Fear Feasts podcast. A Gothic Cookbook is published by Unbound and can be ordered direct from their website. For more information on Allie’s theory of dark food see her essay on the subject in The Palgrave Companion to Memory and Literature. Professor Lorna Piatti Farnell founded the Gothic Association of New Zealand and Australia. Roland Barthes was a French essayist and social and literary critic. Suggested Reading * Babette’s Feast by Isak Dinesen * Dark Tourism by Malcolm Foley and J. John Lennon * Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia * Sweetness & Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History by Sidney Mintz * ‘Exploring the Role of Food in Gothic Literature’ by Alessandra Pino in Petits Propos Culinaires 129, Autumn 2024 * Mind in Society: Development of Higher Psychological Processes by L. S. Vygotsky Don’t forget you can follow me on Instagram or X @mrssbilton or find out more about my work on sambilton.com. A huge thank you to Thomas Ntinas of The Delicious Legacy for doing the sound mixing on this season of the podcast. Get full access to Comfortably Hungry at comfortablyhungry.substack.com/subscribe

    43 min

  6. SEP 21

    Welcome to Season 3: DARK (Trailer)

    Season 3 of the Comfortably Hungry podcast will be launching on 3 October 2024 in which my guests and I will be taking a walk on the dark side of the culinary realm. Here’s a little preview of what’s coming up. The first ‘course’ of episodes will feature: * Dr Alessandra Pino on the meaning of dark food. * Emma Kay on the (not so) dark ages. * Jay Reifel and Giles MacDonogh on funeral banquets. * Dr Neil Buttery and Kate Ryan on black puddings * Dr Lindsay Middleton and Peter Gilchrist on a Hogmanay favourite. * Thomas DuBois on fermented beans. Plus lots more! A second ‘course’ of episodes will follow in the new year. Get full access to Comfortably Hungry at comfortablyhungry.substack.com/subscribe

    3 min

  7. MAY 9

    S2 Episode 8: A Chocolate Horror Story

    Roald Dahl’s second children’s book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory celebrates its 60th birthday this year. In this episode I’m joined by Dr Alessandra Pino and Vanessa Baca from the Fear Feasts Podcast . We’re delving into the wicked side of chocolate and how this is represented in Dahl’s book and its movie adaptations. Useful Links Fear Feasts Podcast that analyses the horror genre in films and literature through the use and symbolism of food. You can find Fear Feasts on Instagram and Twitter/X. Vanessa is also one of the hosts of the Sharing the Flavor podcast. You can find Vanessa on Instagram and Twitter/X. Allie is a co-host of the A is for Apple Podcast (along with myself and Dr Neil Buttery). You can find Allie on Instagram and Twitter/X. Her book A Gothic Cookbook, co-authored with Ella Buchan, will be out this autumn. Allie was also a guest on Episode 4 of this season in which we looked at murderous chocolate. You can find the chocolate aubergine ‘parmigiana’ recipe we talked about at the end of this episode over on the A is for Apple Substack. Suggested Reading/Viewing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl (2000) The Witches by Roald Dahl (2022) James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl (2024) The Twits by Roald Dahl (2016) Marvellously Revolting Recipes by Roald Dahl (2023) Complete Short Stories by Roald Dahl (2013) - this contains many of the stories which became the television series Tales of the Unexpected. The Gremlins : The Lost Walt Disney Production : A Royal Air Force Story by Roald Dahl (2006) Neil Gaiman author of books such as American Gods, Good Omens and Coraline. Struwwelpeter: Merry Stories And Funny Pictures by Heinrich Hoffman (1845) ‘Candy Boys And Chocolate Factories’ by Catherine Keyser in Modern Fiction Studies Vol. 63, No. 3 (Fall 2017), pp. 403-428 ‘The 19th-Century Book of Horrors That Scared German Kids Into Behaving’ by Sarah Laskow on Atlas Obscurer 14 June, 2014 Consuming Gothic: Food and Horror in Film by Lorna Piatti-Farnell (2017) Sibéal Pounder author of the Witch Wars and the novelisation of Wonka ‘Roald Dahl And Danger In Children's Literature’ by Barbara Basbanes Richter in The Sewanee Review Vol. 123, No. 2 (Spring 2015), pp. 325-334 Tales of the Unexpected Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory trailer (1971) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory trailer (2005) Wonka trailer (2023) Get full access to Comfortably Hungry at comfortablyhungry.substack.com/subscribe

    52 min

  8. MAY 2

    S2 Episode 7: Brownie Angles

    THE FOLLOWING EPISODE FOCUSES ON THE MEDICINAL USES OF CANNABIS WITH OCCASIONAL REFERENCES TO RECREATIONAL USE. In the early days of chocolate, before we started stuffing it full of sugar, it was hailed as something of a health food. Chocolate was recognised as a suitable vehicle for all manner of medicines such as laxatives and vermifuges. In the twentieth century chocolate confections like brownies were adapted to convey cannabis as an alternative to smoking it. In this episode I’m joined by Dr. Bradley Borougerdi Professor of History from Tarrant County College in Arlington, Texas and drug historian Emily Dufton. We will be exploring the history of hash or weed brownies and how they have been used to alleviate the symptoms of critical diseases like AIDS. In particular we discuss Meridy Volz and Mary Jane Rathbun who achieved notoriety by selling these chocolate delicacies in the 1980s. Potpourri a la Liberté Mix, in a big country, a magic herb, a blend of people (do not separate), and lots of chutzpah. Pour off prohibition, strain out and discard unjust laws. Use no DEA. Whip media into a frenzy. Smoke remainder for several decades. Serve. (Brownie Mary's marijuana cookbook, Dennis Peron's recipe for social change) Useful Links Commodifying Cannabis: A Cultural History of a Complex Plant in the Atlantic World by Dr Bradley Borougerdi (2020). Reaktion Books will be publishing a Global History of Cannabis by Bradley in 2025. Grass Roots: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Marijuana in America by Emily Dufton (2017). Her new book, tentatively titled Addiction, Inc: Medication-Assisted Treatment and America’s Forgotten War on Drugs will be published by the University of Chicago Press in 2025. You can find out more about Emily on her website or follow her on Instagram or Twitter/X. You can find Meridy Volz on Instagram and Facebook where you can see examples of her artwork. The recipe for Brian Gysen’s Haschich (sic) Fudge originally published in the UK edition of the Alice B Toklas Cookbook (1954) can be found online in a collection of Alice’s writing called Murder in the Kitchen (2011) Ann Arbor Hash Bash Shanti Project Suggested Reading/Viewing ‘Go Ask Alice: The History of Toklas’ Legendary Hashish Fudge’ by Layla Eplett, Scientific American, 20 April 2015 ‘Activist Preserves Legacy Of Husband Who Won Right To Medical Marijuana Grown By The Feds 45 Years Ago’ by Kyle Jaeger on the Marijuana Moment website, 8 May 2023 Brownie Mary's Marijuana Cookbook, Dennis Peron's Recipe For Social Change by Mary Jane Rathbun and Denis Peron (1996) Home Baked: My Mom, Marijuana, and the Stoning of San Francisco by Alia Volz (2020) ‘My Mom Secretly Made Pot Brownies For AIDS Patients And It Changed My Life’ by Alia Volz on the Huffington Post website, 5 August 2020 ‘Activist Robert C. Randall Dies’ by Graeme Zielinski in the Washington Post, 7 June 2001 ‘Brownie Mary’ Robert Dunes Video on YouTube ‘I love you Alice B Toklas - Best Brownie Recipe’ (clip from Peter Sellers’ movie via YouTube) Bong Appetit on YouTube ' Get full access to Comfortably Hungry at comfortablyhungry.substack.com/subscribe

    57 min
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About

Welcome to the comfortably hungry podcast where yesterday’s dinner is tomorrow’s history. If you’re a peckish person who is curious about the history of food and drink, then you’re in the right place. I’m Sam Bilton a food historian, writer and cook and each season I will be joined by some hungry guests to discuss a variety topics centred around a specific theme. As a former supper club host I’m always intrigued to know what people like to eat. So to whet everyone’s appetites I have invited my guests to contribute a virtual dish with them inspired by today’s topic. comfortablyhungry.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    Sam Bilton
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2024
  • Episodes
    29
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Sam Bilton
  • Show Website
    Comfortably Hungry

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