In Episode 9 I chat to Professor Thomas David DuBois of Beijing Normal University and author of China in Seven Banquets: A Flavourful History about the alchemy of fermentation and the importance of fermented foods (especially beans) in Chinese cuisine.

Don’t forget to check out the Comfortably Hungry Substack!

Useful Links

You can find out more about Thomas on his website.

China in Seven Banquets: A Flavourful History

Don’t forget you can follow me on Instagram or Bluesky @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.

Comfortably Hungry is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

I thought it was about time I faced my own bête noire. So Episode 8 is devoted to my sweet shop nemesis liquorice. Helping me overcome my dislike of this confectionery is ScandiKitchen founder Brontë Aurell.

Don’t forget to check out the Comfortably Hungry Substack!

Useful Links

Find out more about Brontë on her website or follow her on Instagram.

ScandiKitchen cafe and deli in London (also on Instagram)

Brontë’s next cookbook Smorrebrod: Scandinavian Open Sandwiches is out on 8 April 2025.

Brontë’s cookbooks include:

* The ScandiKitchen Cookbook: Recipes for good food with love from Scandinavia

* ScandiKitchen: Fika and Hygge: Comforting cakes and bakes from Scandinavia with love

* ScandiKitchen: The Essence of Hygge

* ScandiKitchen Summer: Simply delicious food for lighter, warmer days

Suggested Reading

* Adam in Eden, or, Natures paradise by William Coles, 1657

* The History of Pontefract, in Yorkshire by George Fox, 1827

* The herball, or, Generall historie of plantes by John Gerard, 1636

* Mr Halley’s description of liquorice cultivation around Pontefract can be found in The review and abstract of the county reports to the Board of Agriculture; from the several agricultural departments of England. by Mr. Marshall v. 1

* Delights for ladies: to adorne their persons, tables, closets, and distillatories. With beauties, banquets, perfumes, and waters by Hugh Platt, 1602

* Chronicles of Old Pontefract by Lorenzo Radgett, 1905

Don’t forget you can follow me on Instagram or Bluesky @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.

Comfortably Hungry is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Currant-loaf is now popular eating in all households. For weeks before the great morning, confectioners display stacks of Scotch bun — a dense, black substance, inimical to life – Robert Louis Stevenson, Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes, 1878

In Episode 7 I chat with Peter Gilchrist and Dr Lindsay Middleton about a Scottish cake traditionally served at Hogmanay and the role this plays in preserving Scotland’s food heritage.

Useful Links

The Tenement Kitchen where you can also download a copy of the Scottish Food Heritage Report. You can find Peter on Instagram and X.

You can read more about Dr Lindsay Middleton’s thesis here. You can find Lindsay on Instagram and X.

If you want to see how black bun’s were originally made check out this post by my fellow A is for Apple Podcast host Dr Neil Buttery.

Yu-lade is available from some branches of Co-op in Scotland.

Suggested Reading

You read more about the origins of Simnel cake in my book Fool’s Gold: A History of British Saffron

Glasgow Cookery Book

The cook and housewife's manual : a practical system of modern domestic cookery and family management (1828) by Christian Isobel Johnstone (aka Meg Dods)

The Scots Kitchen: Its Lore and Recipes (1929) by F Marion McNeill

A Scottish Feast: An Anthology of Food and Eating by Hamish Whyte and Catherine Brown

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.

In Episode 6 I chat with Dr Peggy Brunache, Lecturer in Public History and Archaeology as well as the founding Director of the Beniba Centre for Slavery Studies at the University of Glasgow, to discover how the culinary creativity of the enslaved people served as a form of resistance.

Useful Links

You can find Peggy on Instagram @negroshire

Beniba Centre for Slavery Studies

Peggy is also one of the women featured the 100 Black Women Who Have Made A Mark exhibition at the Leicester Gallery at de Montfort University from 1 October 2024 – 4 January 2025.

Britain's Forgotten Slave Owners on BBC iPlayer. David Olusoga shines a light on Britain's dark past - how it was built on the profits of slavery. The acclaimed series that inspired frank conversations on our colonial history.

Suggested Reading

Bayley, F.W.N. (1830). Four Years’ Residence in the West Indies. London: William Kidd.

Coleridge, Henry Nelson (1825) Six Months in the West Indies. London: John Murray Albermarle Street.

Hearn, Lafcadio (1903) Two years in the French West Indies (Martinique)

Moreton, J.B. (1793). West India Customs and Manners: containing Strictures on the Soil, Cultivation, Produce, Trade, Officers, and Inhabitants; with The Method of Establishing and Conducting a Sugar Plantation. To Which is Added The Practice of Training New Slaves. London: J. Parsons; W. Richardson; H. Gardner; and J. Walter.

Schaw, Janet. (1921) Journal of a Lady of Quality; Being the Narrative of a Journey from Scotland to the West Indies, North Carolina, and Portugal, in the Years 1774 to 1776. Edited by Evangeline Walker Andrews, in Collaboration with Charles McLean Andrews, Farnam Professor of American History in Yale University NEW HAVEN: Yale University Press, LONDON: Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press.

Tryon, Thomas (1684) Friendly advice to the gentlemen-planters... Indies.

Don’t forget you can follow me on Instagram or Bluesky @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.

STIR up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

On the Sunday before advent Anglican congregations across Britain will hear this collect, a short prayer to bring together or “collect” their thoughts on a topic. The matter at hand originally had nothing to do with food preparations for Christmas but by the early twentieth century the faithful took this collect as a sign that they should go forth and stir up their Christmas pudding. So, this is where the term Stir Up Sunday originates and as it happens today is that very day.

I had a chat with my fellow A is for Apple Podcast host Dr Neil Buttery about the origins of this ritual and our enduring love for plum pudding at this time of the year.

Useful Links

You can find Great Aunt Eliza’s Victorian plum pudding recipe here.

Neil has written four books (all of which I can highly recommend) including:

* The Philosophy of Pudding

* Knead to Know

* Before Mrs Beeton: Elizabeth Raffald, England’s Most Influential Housekeeper

* A Dark History of Sugar

Don’t forget to check out Neil’s The British Food History Podcast. You can find Neil on X @neilbuttery and Instagram @dr_neil_buttery

Suggested Reading

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.