Comfortably Hungry

In this episode I discover more about the role women played in the distilling of usquebaugh (or the water of life) and whisky in Scotland with Peter Gilchrist, food historian at the Tenement Kitchen and host of the Scottish Food History podcast. Peter and I are joined by Rosalind Erskine, Food and Drink Editor of the Scotsman and host of the Scran podcast.

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Useful Links

Don’t forget to check out Peter’s website The Tenement Kitchen which explores Scottish folk cookery. You can also find him on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. You can also listen to the Scottish Food History podcast which Peter hosts with Dr Lindsay Middleton here.

You can find out more about Rosalind’s work on her website and also find her on Instagram. Ros is also the host of The Scotsman’s Scran Podcast.

Walter Gregor Tonic Water who make the intriguing turnip tonic!

Lots of whisky distilleries were mentioned in the podcast including Ardbeg which was run by early female distillers Flora and Margaret McDougall in the 1850s.

You can listen to the talk I gave on the history of gingerbread at the 2025 Scottish Food History here along with Perilla Kinchen’s keynote talk on the influence of Catherine Cranston and her tearooms.

Suggested Reading

* Rebellious Spirits: The Illicit History of Booze in Britain by Ruth Ball (2015)

* The English Housewife (1615) by Gervase Markham (ed. Michael R. Best, 1998)

* With Faith and Physic: The Life of a Tudor Gentlewoman by Linda Pollock (1993)

* ‘The Early Use of Aqua Vitae in Scotland’ in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (1916)

* Water of Life: A History of Wine Distilling and Spirits 500 BC to AD 2000 by C. Anne Wilson (2006)

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. Sound effects and music provided by Zapsplat and Pond5.

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

‘The Carp is a stately, a good, and a subtle fish, a fish that hath not (as it is said) been long in England’ Izaak Walton, The Complete Angler (1653)

In this episode I explore the history of carp in Britain, one of the most widely distributed freshwater fish of all the British species, with angler and author John Langridge.

By the seventeenth century carp recipes were frequently found in cookbooks of the period but it is seldom eaten now. As well as busting some myths about how the carp first came to Britain I try to find out why the carp leapt from the plate and back into the pond to become arguably the most popular coarse fish in the UK?

If you enjoyed the podcast you can become a paid subscriber to the Comfortably Hungry Substack (which means you’ll receive additional content) or show your appreciation by leaving a small, one off tip here.

Useful Links

John’s books Aphrodite’s Carp and Fishing for Spanish Barbel are available from Medlar Press.

Suggested Reading

* A Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle, by Dame Juliana Berners (1496)

* Natural history of British fishes by Frank Buckland (1883)

* The Accomplisht Cook by Robert May (1685)

* The Complete Angler by Izaak Walton (1653)

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. Sound effects and music provided by Zapsplat and Pond5.

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

‘We do not know for how many millennia man has exploited the preservative properties of ice.’ Jill Norman in the introduction to Elizabeth David’s Harvest of the Cold Months (1996)

In this episode I’m joined by food historian, writer, photographer, and culinary practitioner Dr Nader Mehravari, to find out more about the yakhchals of ancient Persia and how they were used to make and store ice.

If you enjoyed the podcast you can become a paid subscriber to the Comfortably Hungry Substack (which means you’ll receive additional content) or show your appreciation by leaving a small, one off tip here.

Useful Links

You can follow Nader Mehravari on Instagram and find out more about his work with Persian food on his website.

Nader’s Faloodeh recipe on Serious Eats

Suggested Reading

Travels in Persia by John Chardin (a seventeenth century French born traveler who wrote about ice in Persia)

Harvest of the Cold Months by Elizabeth David (1996)

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. Sound effects and music provided by Zapsplat and Pond5.

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

To celebrate International Women’s Day on 8 March 2026 in this episode we’ll be hearing the story of Eliza James, a remarkable woman who rose from poverty on the streets of Birmingham to become one of the most successful and wealthiest market traders at Covent Garden in London, all from selling bunches of watercress. So renowned was this woman that on her death in 1927 she was mourned as the watercress queen. Joining me to explore Eliza’s life are food historian Dr Alessandra Pino, food writer and former Director of London Farmers Markets Cheryl Cohen and Tom Amery, Managing Director of The Watercress Company.

If you enjoyed the podcast you can become a paid subscriber to the Comfortably Hungry Substack (which means you’ll receive additional content) or show your appreciation by leaving a small, one off tip here.

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Useful Links

Find out more and follow my guests:

Dr Alessandra Pino - website, Instagram and BlueSky. Don’t forget to check out our other podcast A is for Apple and Allie’s Fear Feasts.

Also check out the fantastic Cheryl Queen of Markets on Substack. You can also find Cheryl on Instagram.

Tom Amery is the Managing Director of The Watercress Company. You can find them on Instagram, YouTube and lots of delicious recipe ideas on their ‘foodie’ account @lovewatercress

The annual Arlesford Watercress Festival takes place on 17 May 2026. You can travel to the event on part of the original Watercress Line (charges apply).

Suggested Reading

The Poor Watercress Sellers of London by John Groom (1872)

London Labour and the London Poor - Henry Mayhew (1851)

The Market Place And The Market’s Place In London, c. 1660 -1840 - PhD thesis by Colin Stephen Smith (1999)

John Groom’s Flower (and watercress ) Girl Mission

If you want to read the full story of Sarah Cackett’s tragic life you can find it in Pluckley: The Making and Faking of a Ghost Story

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 podcast and publication. To receive new posts and support my work, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Don’t miss the special episode on The Watercress Queen to celebrate International Women’s Day (8/3/26) - released on Thursday 5th March.

If you enjoyed the podcast you can become a paid subscriber to the Comfortably Hungry Substack (which means you’ll receive additional content) or show your appreciation by leaving a small, one off tip here.

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.

Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries curious yellowish-white waxen lumps encased in the remnants of wooden containers have been unearthed from Irelands peat bogs by turf cutters and farmers. Some specimens weigh several kilos. Many are thought to date back thousands of years to the Bronze age, when the people of Ireland buried supplies of butter.

Maeve Sikora, Keeper of Irish Antiquities and Isabella Mulhall Assistant Keeper of Irish Antiquities from the National Museum of Ireland (NMI) in Dublin join me in this episode to tell us more about bog butter.

If you enjoyed the podcast you can become a paid subscriber to the Comfortably Hungry Substack (which means you’ll receive additional content) or show your appreciation by leaving a small, one off tip here.

Useful Links

National Museum of Ireland in Dublin

Butter Museum in Cork

‘A History of Bog Butter in Ireland’ by Maeve Sikora and Isabella Mulhall in Irish Food History: A Companion (2025)

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.

In today’s episode we will be journeying back thousands of years to ancient Mesopotamia, the land between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. I will be exploring arguably the earliest beer culture in the world with Dr Tate Paulette archaeologist and Associate Professor of History at North Carolina State University. Tate is also the author of In The Land of Ninkasi: A History of Beer in Ancient Mesopotamia.

If you enjoyed the podcast you can become a paid subscriber to the Comfortably Hungry Substack (which means you’ll receive additional content) or show your appreciation by leaving a small, one off tip here.

Useful Links

In The Land of Ninkasi: A History of Beer in Ancient Mesopotamia by Tate Paulette (2024)

You can watch a short video from Yale University about Babylonian cooking over on YouTube.

There Are Rivers in the Sky - Elif Shafak (2025)

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.

In Episode 4 I chat to food writer Di Murrell about her experiences with her husband Tam of living and working on canals in Britain and France. Canals were played an essential part in how food and fuel was transported around Britain but it is a way of life that has all but disappeared. Among their various roles Di and Tam were involved in transporting limes in the depths of winter to cordial manufacturer Roses on what was known as the ‘lime run’. Forget messing about on the river - working life on the canals was truly hard graft.

If you enjoyed the podcast you can become a paid subscriber to the Comfortably Hungry Substack (which means you’ll receive additional content) or show your appreciation by leaving a small, one off tip here.

Useful Links

You can find out more about Di and Tam’s canal adventures on the A Foodie Afloat website or on her more recent blog Written In My Kitchen.

Petits Propos Culinaires the journal which gave Di her first break in food writing is now published by Equinox (and edited by me!). Di has published several articles in the journal over the years.

The Sophie Coe Prize is the longest-running and most generous prize for writing in food history in the English language, given once a year for an essay or article of up to 10,000 words on any aspect of the history of food. Entries for this year’s award close on 24 April 2026.

You can discover more about Britain’s waterway history at a number of canal museums across the country such as London, Stoke Bruerne and Ellesmere Port or by visiting the Canal & River Trust

Suggested Reading

* Barges & Bread: Canals & Grain to Bread & Baking

* A Foodie Afloat

The following aren’t about working life on the rivers but are fun reads to get you in the mood:

* The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Graham (1908)

* Three Men and a Boat - Jerome K Jerome (1889)

* An Inland Voyage - Robert Louis Stevenson (1878)

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.

In Episode 3 I discuss what borsch means to Ukrainians with activist, chef and author Olia Hercules who recently published her family memoir Strong Roots. We chat about how water has shaped Ukraine and why it is so important for this proud nation to reclaim their national dish.

If you enjoyed the podcast you can become a paid subscriber to the Comfortably Hungry Substack (which means you’ll receive additional content) or show your appreciation by leaving a small, one off tip here.

Useful Links

You can find out more about Olia and her events on her website and follow her on Instagram and Bluesky.

Olia’s books include:

* Strong Roots (2025)

* Home Food: Recipes to Comfort and Connect (2022)

* Summer Kitchens (2020)

* Kaukasis (2017)

* Mamouska (2015)

Chef Louis P de Gouy, quoted at the start of this episode, trained under August Escoffier and had a sterling career working in luxury hotels before becoming the in-house chef for Gourmet magazine. In his Soup Book was published posthumously in 1949, two years after his death.

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.

If you’re a fan of Jane Austen you’ll be familiar with the concept of ‘taking the waters’. In fact the title of today’s episode comes from a letter Jane wrote to her sister Cassandra who was staying in the spa town of Cheltenham in September 1816. People have been visiting places renowned for their mineral rich waters for centuries. These special wells, streams and pools were believed to cure all manner of ailments either by drinking or bathing in the water.

In the first part of today’s episode I’m joined by multidisciplinary artist Gaylene Gould and local historian and guide Emanuela Aru Kay to tell me more about the Mary Woolaston, a Black woman who managed a healing well in seventeenth century London. Then Chris Jones of the Tunbridge Wells Civic society chats to me about the rise and fall of the Kentish spa town Tunbridge Wells.

If you enjoyed the podcast you can become a paid subscriber to the Comfortably Hungry Substack (which means you’ll receive additional content such as recipes or extra audio) or show your appreciation by leaving a small, one off tip here.

Useful Links

Find out more about Gaylene Gould on her website or follow here on Instagram. You can also find an essay on Black Mary in Thirst. Black Mary also features in the exhibition of the same name at the Wellcome Collection.

Follow Emanuela Aru Kay on Instagram and more about the tours she runs through History from Below (which includes a tour uncovering hidden waters). You can also read Emanuela’s essay on ‘Reviving London’s Hidden Healing Legacy: The Black Mary Project And The Story Of Black Mary’s Well’ which includes images of where Black Mary’s Well was located (spoiler alert – the area has been densely built up over the years so the well and the stream that feeds it are no longer visible.)

For a more tranquil idea of a healing well visit the Calthorpe Community Gardens (find out more via their website or Instagram) where you can view Marcia Bennett-Male’s statue of Mary. Find out more about Marcia who is the UK’s only black female sculptor on her website and Instagram.

The Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration opens in May 2026

The Tunbridge Wells Civic Society produces are number of books on the history of the area including The Pantiles: A Brief History by Philip Whitbourn & Chris Jones.

The Chaleybeate Spring in The Pantiles

Suggested Reading

For a list of nineteenth century spas and their purported benefits take a look at B. Bradshaw’s dictionary of mineral waters, climatic health resorts [&c.] ... of the world (1882)

Cures and Curses: Ritual and Cult at Holy Wells by Janet Bord (available to download as a free pdf)

Holy Wells in Britain: A Guide by Janet Bord (available to download as a free pdf)

You can find out more about St Winefride’s Holy Well here or in this short YouTube video.

The Journeys of Ceilia Fiennes (1947) available via Internet Archive.

A Medical topography of Tunbridge Wells by Dr Robert Powell (1846)

The History and Description of the Parish of Clerkenwell by Thomas Cromwell (1828)

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.