Comfortably Hungry

Today is the 80th anniversary of VE Day, the day the second world war ended in Europe. To mark the occasion I had a chat with journalist and author Alex Johnson about the importance of tea to the British during this conflict. Alex’s latest book While There Is Tea, There Is Hope, published in conjunction with the Imperial War Museum, is packed with wartime ephemera, photographs and vintage recipes.

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Useful Links

You can find out more about Alex’s work and books on his website.

While There Is Tea, There Is Hope

Menus That Made History

You can also find Alex on Instagram

Imperial War Museum Collections holds a wealth of photographic material from the second world war.

Imperial War Museum

Donald Pleasance in The Great Escape

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.

Alas this day had to come - this is the last official episode of the DARK season!

In Episode 15 I delve into the historical culinary trials and tribulations of Russia with Darra Goldstein, Professor Emerita of Russian at Williams College (USA) and author of The Kingdom of Rye: A Brief History of Russian Food. We discuss the importance of ‘black’ rye bread which is at the heart of any traditional Russian meal; the folklore surrounding it and how Russians survived during periods of privation.

Useful Links

You can find out more about Darra and her work on her website which contains some mouthwatering sample recipes. You can also follow Darra on Instagram.

Darra’s books include:

* The Kingdom of Rye: A Brief History of Russian Food

* Beyond the North Wind: Recipes and Stories from Russia

* Fire and Ice: Classic Nordic Cooking: Classic Nordic Cooking

* Darra has written a range of books on preservation co-authored with Cortney Burns. Topics include vegetables, fruit and drinks.

* Darra is also Editor In Chief of the Oxford Research Encyclopaedia of Food Studies.

If you’re interested in ancient grains like rye you may also want to check out Ruth Nieman Substack and her book Freekeh, Wild Wheat & Ancient Grains: Recipes for Healthy Eating.

This is the last official episode of the season but there will be a few inter-season episodes dropping over the coming months to sustain you! Listen to the end of episode 15 to discover the theme for Season 4.

If you enjoyed this season please consider leaving a small tip to help support the podcast for future seasons.

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

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 paid subscriber.

In Episode 14 I get passionate about a particular type of pepper which was once so highly prized the Visigoths demand 3000lb of the stuff to leave Rome. Joining me to explore the history and usage of this spice are Giles Gasper, Professor of High Medieval History and Florence Swan from Durham University and food writer and author of Pepper, Christine McFadden

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

Useful Links

You can find Christine McFadden on Instagram and Facebook

Don’t forget to check out Christine’s book on Pepper

Blackfriars Restaurant in Newcastle where you will find details of their upcoming events and the Eat Medieval summer school

Professor Giles Gasper, Durham University

You can find Florence Swan on Instagram

Long pepper can be bought in the UK from Steenbergs and Seasoned Pioneers

Don’t forget to check out the episode on Anglo-Saxon food with historian Emma Kay.

Suggested Reading

* Forme of Cury

* Natural Histories - Pliny

* Apicius (this is just one of many translations)

* Le Menagier de Paris (or Goodman of Paris)

* Sir John Russell’s Book of Nurture

* Le Viander - Guilluame Tirrell

* John de Mandeville - Mandeville’s Travels

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.

Alice B Toklas reckoned that ‘food is far too pleasant to combine with horror.’ In Episode 13 I will be exploring how food is used in crime fiction with writer and host of the Shedunnit podcast Caroline Crampton and food writer and author of the Paul Delamare mysteries, Orlando Murrin.

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

Useful Links

* Orlando’s thrilling Paul Delamare Mysteries Knife Skills for Beginners and Murder Below Deck are available now.

* Orlando has written lots of delicious cookery books too including Two’s Company: The best of cooking for couples, friends and roommates

* Orlando’s website

* Caroline’s website

* Shedunnit podcast

* Caroline’s books include A Body Made of Glass: A History of Hypochondria (now available in paperback) and The Way to the Sea: The Forgotten Histories of the Thames Estuary

Suggested Reading

We talked about a lot of books in this episode so here are just a few that we mentioned:

* Alice B Toklas Cookbook

* The Pimlico Poisoning

* The Poisoned Chocolate Case by Anthony Berkeley

* ‘The Tuesday Night Club’ in The Thirteen Problems by Agatha Christie

* A Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie

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 the first part (Episode 10) of this investigation into the impact food has on our mental health I explored the renaissance fascination with melancholy with Professor Mary Ann Lund and food historian Ken Albala. In Episode 12 I want to find out how gardening and cooking in particular have helped two modern cooks deal with anxiety and depression.

I had a chat with Ami Bouhassane, co-director of the Lee Miller Archives and Farley’s House and Gallery in Sussex. Ami’s grandmother was model, photographer, writer and cook Lee Miller who battled with depression in the later years of her life.

Food writer Kathy Slack reveals how gardening and cooking helped her overcome anxiety and depression in her latest book, Rough Patch.

This is a bumper episode so a bit longer than usual. Full length interviews with both Ami and Kathy will be released later in the year.

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

Also, I will be speaking at the annual Scottish Food Heritage Symposium on 28 March 2025. You can find more details here.

Useful Links

To see examples of Lee Miller’s photography visit the Lee Miller Archives online.

Farleys House & Gallery and on Instagram

Books on Lee’s work including her cookbook A Life with Food, Friends and Recipes can be found here.

Chloe Edwards of Seven Sisters Spices runs cookery workshops at Farleys often using Lee’s recipes.

You can find out more about Kathy on her website and follow her on Instagram. Kathy has published two books:

* From the Veg Patch: 10 favourite vegetables, 100 simple recipes everyone will love

* Rough Patch: How a Year in the Garden Brought Me Back to Life

* You can find out more about the French Field to Fork Experience 19-23 June 2025 in France that Kathy is involved in here.

Suggested Reading

The Lives of Lee Miller by Antony Penrose

Lee Miller: Photographs by Antony Penrose and Kate Winslet

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 11 I am investigating a fruit with a bit of an image problem. Carob (Ceratonia siliqua) is the fruit of an evergreen tree native to the Mediterranean. The view of carob as a subsistence food has perhaps tarnished this fruit’s reputation. Yet despite this, the carob grown in the Ragusa district of Sicily has earned a place in the Slow Food Ark of Taste where it is described as having ‘a taste similar to cocoa with hints of honey and caramel, so much so that in ancient times in Sicily it was considered the “poor persons chocolate”.’ In recent years carob has been praised for its healthy credentials being a good source of dietary fibre and antioxidants. However, today it is more likely to be fed to animals than used in a kitchen. So why is it not more widely used in cookery? To help me answer this question I chat to historian Mary Taylor Simeti and food writer Angela Zaher.

Useful Links

Angela Zaher’s website. You can also follow Angela on Instagram.

Mary Taylor Simeti’s books include:

* Pomp and Sustenance: Twenty-five Centuries of Sicilian Food

* Bitter Almonds: Recollections and recipes from a Sicilian girlhood (with Maria Grammatico)

* On Persephone's Island: A Sicilian Journal

* Travels With a Medieval Queen

You can also find Mary on Instagram.

Suggested Reading

* Slow Food on Carob

* ‘How Carob Traumatized a Generation’ by Jonathan Kauffman for the New Yorker

* I Malavoglia by Giovanni Verga (1881) was translated by Mary A Craig and published in English as The House by the Medlar-Tree (1890)

* ‘Carob: The “Poor Man’s Chocolate”’ by Jo Vraca for Italy Segreta

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.

They will act, conceive all extremes, contrarieties, and contradictions, and that in infinite varieties…Scarce two of two thousand concur in the same symptoms. The Tower of Babel never yielded such confusion of tongues, as the chaos melancholy doth variety of symptoms. - Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, 1621

In Episode 10 I take a look at the perplexing affliction of melancholy in the first of two episodes exploring the relationship between food and mental health.

Early in the seventeenth century a Leicestershire clergyman Robert Burton set out to untangle complex yet bizarrely alluring renaissance disease of melancholy and its effects on mental and physical well being. His research culminated in The Anatomy of Melancholy, a lengthy treatise on how to identify and treat this illness.

Joining me to discuss what melancholy was, Burton’s work and the role food played in exacerbating or treating the condition are Professor Mary Ann Lund of Leicester University and author of A User’s Guide of Melancholy and food historian Ken Albala and author of Eating Right in the Renaissance.

Useful Links

Ken has written many books over the years including:

* Opulent Nosh: A Cookbook

* Beans: A History

* A Cultural History of Food in the Renaissance

* Nuts: A Global History

You can also find Ken on Instagram.

Mary Ann’s books include:

* A User’s Guide to Melancholy

* Melancholy, Medicine and Religion in Early Modern England: Reading 'The Anatomy of Melancholy

Suggested Reading

* The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton

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 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.