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 agri ..read more

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 subsc ..read more

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 vi ..read more

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’ i ..read more

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 abou ..read more

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 ..read more

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 ..read more

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 ..read more

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 a ..read more

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 exp ..read more