The British Food History Podcast Neil Buttery

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:
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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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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...

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...

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


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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"...