The British Food History Podcast

Welcome to the second of a two-part special all about Burns Night.Burns Night, celebrated on Robert Burns’ birthday, 25th January, is a worldwide phenomenon and I wanted to make a couple of episodes focussing upon the night, the haggis, but also the other foods links regarding Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns.So, if you’re readying yourself for a Burns supper, I hope this episode gets you even more into the celebratory spirit. If you’re not marking Burns Night – well, hopefully after listening to this, you will be inspired to get yourself some haggi...

Welcome to the first of a two-part special all about Burns Night.Burns Night, celebrated on Robert Burns’ birthday, 25th January, is a worldwide phenomenon and I wanted to make a couple of episodes focussing upon the night, the haggis, but also the other foods links regarding Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns.Burns was born in Alloway, Ayrshire on 25 January 1759 and he died in Dumfries on 21 July 1796 at just 37 years old.My guest today is food historian Jennie Hood, who has written an excellent article for the most recent edition of food hist...

It’s time for the now traditional end-of-season postbag episode of The British Food History Podcast, where I (attempt to) answer your questions, read out your comments and mull over your queries. Several photos and illustrations are mentioned in this episode: to see them, visit the accompanying blog post on British Food: A History: www.britishfoodhistory.comI’ll be disappearing for a couple of months, unless of course, you are a monthly subscriber, where there will be a bonus episode coming up for you to listen to via the website: Keeping Food Traditions Alive with...

My guest on The British Food History Podcast today food historian and friend of the show Sam Bilton, podcaster and author of Much Ado About Cooking Delicious Shakespearean Feasts for Every Occasion, published by Headline and commissioned by Shakespeare’s Globe. It was, of course,  a great opportunity to talk about the food of Shakespearean England as well as the food and drink references in Shakespeare’s plays, and what they meant to those watching the plays at the time they were first performed.We talked about lots of cookery manuscripts, the importance of keeping histo...

My guest today is food historian Carwyn Graves, a specialist in the foodways and traditions of Wales, and we are talking about Welsh Sheep and Cattle – and their products. Carwyn has written a wonderful book called Welsh Food Stories, published in 2022 by Calon, which explores more than two thousand years of history to discover the rich but forgotten heritage of Welsh foods – from oysters to cider, salted butter to salt-marsh lamb. Despite centuries of industry, ancient traditions have survived in pockets across the country among farmers, bakers, fisherfolk, brewers and growers who are taking Welsh food back to i...

My guest on The British Food History Podcast today is historian Mark Truesdale, scholar of the fifteenth-century King and Commoner tradition and its early modern afterlife and author of The King and Commoner Tradition: Carnivalesque Politics in Medieval and Early Modern Literature, published by Routledge. We talk about medieval carnival, the plot of a king and commoner tale, spying foresters, rude monks, the love of eating tiny birds, who the audience might be, and the ridiculousness of baking a venison pasty in Sherwood Forest – amongst many other things.Those listening to the secret podcast can he...

In today’s episode, I speak with Peter Brears, a world-leading food historian. He was director of both York and Leeds City Museums, and is a consultant to the National Trust, English Heritage and Historic Royal Palaces.He is the winner of the André Simon award for his book, Cooking and Dining in Medieval England, published in 2012, which is a must-have, as are his other books in the series that focus on upper-class cooking and dining in the Tudor and Early Stuart periods, and most recently in the Victorian country house.He is also a fou...

In this episode, I talk with ceramics expert Paul Crane FSA about the early years of Worcester porcelain. Paul is a consultant at the Brian Haughton Gallery, St James’s, London, and a specialist in Ceramics from the Medieval and Renaissance periods through to the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. He presently sits as a Trustee of the Museum of Royal Worcester and is also a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, an independent historian and researcher and a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Art Scholars.Our conversation was recorded in person at the Museum of Royal Wo...

In this episode, I speak with Christina Wade, a beer historian specialising in the UK and Ireland, with a particular focus on women. She has written an excellent book, Filthy Queens: A History of Beer in Ireland, which was published by Nine Bean Rows earlier this year (2025). We talk about ale and beer in Ireland, and how colonisation by the English, and then the British, affected beer production and consumption. Topics include: ale in early medieval Ireland, the man who inspired the title of her book, ale consumption during the Irish Rebellion and the Potato Famine, and...

Hello there everyone!Here’s a quick special bonus episode for you – the lowdown on the Serve it Forth Food History Festival 2025 sponsored by the excellent Netherton Foundry.My fellow festival coordinators Sam Bilton, Thomas Ntinas and Alessandra Pino and I are here to tell you more about it: how the day will work, what the sessions will be like, the topics and the guests – including my guest Tom Parker Bowles.We have a brief discussion about our own interests and how we all got into food history. We also talk about our bigges...

My guest today is Mark Dawson, food historian, specialising in the food of the Tudor period, but also the food of Derbyshire. We met up at Mark’s home in Derbyshire to talk all things Derbyshire oatcakes. Mark and I talk about the oatcakes of Britain, doshens and sprittles, the usefulness of probate inventories, oatcakes as penance, and oatcake goblins – amongst many other thingsThose listening to the secret podcast can hear about other Derbyshire foods made from oats; a discussion about why oatcake is better than porridge; and I grill Mark on one very impo...

My guest today is Alex Bamji, Associate Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Leeds, and we are talking about a rare treatise on cheese dating from the Early Modern Period.We met up at the Brotherton Library which is home to a fantastic collection of cookery books and manuscripts. We talk about cheese, health and humoral theory; what makes a good cheese; the early modern cheese landscape; cheese as a cure for gout; and cheese haters – plus many other things.Those listening to the secret podcast: Alex and I talk about why co...

My guest today is third generation baker, writer and teacher David Wright author of the excellent book Breaking Bread: How Baking Shaped our World published by Aurum.We talk about the social benefits of bread making, milling grain into flour, the anatomy of a grain, roller mills, the Chorleywood process and why gluten can be compared to Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito.Those listening to the secret podcast: you get a little over 15 minutes of bonus material that includes additives that don’t have be named on ingredients lists, flatbreads, the National Lo...

My guests today are archaeologists Chris Wakefield from the Cambridge Archaeological Unit of Cambridge University Rachel Ballantyne from McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, and they are here to tell me about an absolutely amazing site close to Peterborough that tell us a huge amount about daily life in a late Bronze Age settlement. Prepare to have your minds blown!We talk about the unique circumstances of how and why the site is so well preserved, kitchen clutter, animal husbandry, querns, frumenty, pike sushi, and whether the English’s love of mustard goes back 3 millennia – among many other thin...

My guest today is food writer, podcaster and cheese enthusiast Jenny Linford and we are going on a bit of a regional food tour across the UK.We talk about her new book The Great British Food Tour published by the National Trust. It’s beautifully illustrated and contains recipes too. Also discussed: our mutual appreciation of Jane Grigson, Welsh cakes, English fish dishes, marmalade, champ and Tunnock’s teacakes at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games – amongst many other things.The Great British Food Tour by Jenny LinfordJenny’s website (include information about all thre...

Welcome to the first episode of season 9 of The British Food History Podcast!Today I am talking with Matthew Cockin and Grant Harper of Fruit Pig – the last remaining commercial craft producer of fresh blood black puddings in the UK.We talk about how and why they started up Fruit Pig, battling squeamishness, why it’s so difficult to make fresh blood black puddings, and serving suggestions – amongst many other thingsFruit Pig are sponsoring the 9th season of the podcast and Grant and Matthew are very kindly giving listeners to the...

Hello there everyone! Exciting news: the ninth season of the British Food History Podcast will return on 9th July 2025.I have been busy collecting an eclectic range conversations for a baker’s dozen of episodes on topics such as bread and bakers, black and white pudding, Irish beer, Derbyshire oatcakes, dining and porcelain, and Bronze Age food and foodways.If you have any comments questions or queries regarding  any episode please contact me or leave a message on social media. There will be a postbag episode at the end of season, so please contact me: ema...

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 co...

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: cli...

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.Anc...