In today’s baking themed episode, Alessandra looks into that classic piece of kitchen kit, the Aga, Neil investigates hyper-regional Welsh biscuits called Aberffraw cakes and Sam goes oh-so-retro with a deep-dive into angelica.

Books and other things mentioned in this episode:

Joanna Trollope A Village Affair (1989) Televised version (1995)

Book on Archive.org Television adaptation on YouTube

Mary Berry New Aga Cookbook (1999) Book on Archive.org

Ambrose Heath First Aga cookbook: Good Food on the Aga (1933) Book on Persephone Books

Sussex Pond Pudding Recipe on Neil Cooks Grigson blog

Cassel’s Dictionary Link on Wellcome Collection

Laura Mason and Catherine Brown The Taste of Britain (2010) Book on HarperCollins

Aberffraw Traditional Biscuit Company Website

Tale of Thormod and Thorarin translated in The Sagas of Kormak and The Sworn Brothers. Trans. Lee M Hollander, New York: Princeton University Press, 1949 pp179 

'Angelica: From Norwegian Mountains to the English Trifle' by Ove Fosså in Wild Food: Proceedings of the Oxford Food Symposium on Food and Cookery 2004. Totnes: Prospect Books, 2006, 13 PDF link

Edward Daniel Clarke Travels in Various Countries of Europe, Asia and Africa (1810-1823)Link on Wellcome Collection

John Parkinson Paradisi in sole paradisus terrestris (1629) Link on Wellcome Collection

Robin Weir Ices: The Definitive Guide (1995) Book on Amazon

Curnonsky La Table et l’Amour (1950) Book on Untje.com

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Things start to get fruity in this third episode. Neil chooses almonds, fuelling a historical debate that goes a bit nuts. Apricots are more Allie’s jam as she looks at their use in literature and Sam takes the less beaten track of the aubergine, sparking memories of the time she made a parmigiana…on TV!

Useful Links

Neil's recipe for - or, rather, interpretation of - medieval blanc mange and modern, sweet blancmange.

‘Almond trees in Ancient Greek lore’ on the Greek News Agenda website

History of the Bimberlot Festival. ‘A French Party 600 Years in the Making’ by Hugh Thomas on the Smart Mouth Substack.

‘The "pretty art" of detecting pregnancy in The Duchess of Malfi’ by Claire McEwen Duncan via University of British Colombia Open Collections.

‘Eggplant (aubergine) — A Mad Apple with a Dark Liaison’ on the Vegetarians in Paradise website

‘Eggplant (aubergine) Symbol Timeline in Love in the Time of Cholera’ on the LitCharts website

Suggested Reading

In Search of Lost Time (1913) by Marcel Proust

The Experienced English Housekeeper (1769) by Elizabeth Raffald

A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1605) by William Shakespeare

Apricot Jam and Other Stories (2008) by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book: Elizabethan Country House Cooking (1987) by Hilary Spurling (based on the late sixteenth century manuscript notebook belonging to Elinor Fettiplace)

The Duchess of Malfi (1613) by John Webster 

Pride and Pudding: The History of British Puddings, Savory and Sweet (2016) by Regula Ysewijn

Anything to add? Don’t forget we want to hear your suggestions for future topics.

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Ever wondered what the origins of the word jerk are? Or how you can tell whether your allspice is fresh? Sam, Neil and Allie seek answers to these questions in this mini bonus episode.

Suggested Reading

Hans Sloane, A voyage to the islands Madera, Barbados, Nieves, S. Christophers and Jamaica, with the natural history ... (Volume 1) (1707)

Hans Sloane, ‘A Description of the Pimienta or Jamaica Pepper-Tree, and of the Tree That Bears the Cortex Winteranus,’ in Philosophical Transactions (1686)

Melissa Thompson, Motherland: A Jamaican Cookbook (2022)

We’ve been fine tuning our olfactory organs and immersing ourselves in a cloud of wonderful scents. In this episode Neil explains why asafoetida is a substitute for garlic and onions by some religious groups; Sam chats to food writer and broadcaster Melissa Thompson about jerk seasoning (which includes allspice) and Allie has a gripe about a literary misappropriation of aniseed.

For more information on Melissa Thompson visit the FOWL MOUTHS: Food & Recipe Project website or Instagram. Melissa’s book Motherland is a great read as well as being packed with mouthwatering recipes.

Neil’s recipe for Yorkshire Curd Tart and Seed Cake

Dogs and anise

Pepper cake recipe on Traditional Yorkshire Recipes blog

‘The Wandering Womb’ article in the New Yorker

• The History and Natural History of Spices: The 5,000-Year Search for Flavour by Ian Anderson, (2023)
• ‘Christopher Columbus, Gonzalo Pizarro, and the Search for Cinnamon’ by Andrew Dalby. Gastronomica, (2001)1(2), 40–49. https://doi.org/10.1525/gfc.2001.1.2.40 
• The English Huswife (1615) by Gervase Markham
• Allspice Pepper Seasoning: Mexican Case by Miguel Angel Martinez Alfaro Virginia Evangelista Oliva, Myrna Mendoza Cruz Cristina Mapes and Francisco Basurto Peña
• ‘A Description of the Pimienta or Jamaica Pepper-Tree’ by Hans Sloane, in Philosophical Transactions (1686)
• A Natural History of Jamaica (1705) by Hans Sloane
• The Hobbit (1937) by JRR Tolkien
• Spice: The History of Temptation by Jack Turner. London: Harper Perennial (2004). Turner says that in Le Paradis sexuel des aphrodisiaques (1971) Marcel Rouet advocated rubbing your penis with pepper oil and allspice before intercourse (as an alternative to raw chillies) to drive your partner wild with excitement!

In this bonus episode, Allie interviews apple detective Tom Adams to discuss his work in uncovering forgotten and nearly extinct apple varieties, and why preserving them is crucial.

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In the very first episode, Neil is presenting and gives everyone a free choice as to what topic they want to talk about, as long as it begins with A of course. Alessandra goes for apples, Neil chooses absinthe and Sam looks into adulteration.

Links to things mentioned in this episode:

‘13 Magical Ways to Use Apples’

Glyn Hughes’ Alan Turin sculpture

‘Lancashire man poisoned after eating cherry seeds’ article on BBC News

‘How Did La Belle Époque Become Europe’s Golden Age?’ article on The Collector

‘Site of "The Absinthe Murders"’ article on Atlas Obscura

The Apple Tree (1952) by Daphne du Maurier

Hallowe’en Party (1969) by Agatha Christie

The July Ghost (1982) by A.S. Byatt

Join our free Substack to get extra bonus features: https://substack.com/profile/147444179-sam-bilton 

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