In Episode 6 I chat with Professor Rebecca Earle from the University of Warwick about the fascinating history behind the potato.

The potato is one of the most versatile vegetables we eat in the western world. To quote Rebecca from her book Feeding the People: The Politics of the Potato :

‘Today the potato is a remarkably successful global food. It ranks just behind wheat, maize and rice in terms of the volume harvested each year, and is the world’s fifth most valuable food crop. More potatoes are eaten per capita in Malawi than Peru itself. Overall, Europeans are now the world’s most assiduous eaters of potatoes consuming on average some 82 kilos per person each year.’

But it hasn’t always been plain sailing for this south America immigrant. It has been plagued by myths surrounding it’s edibility, such as links between its consumption and leprosy, leading some writers to assume that potatoes weren’t widely eaten in Europe by the working classes prior to the nineteenth century when in fact they were. Over the centuries it has been hailed as both a health food and as a nutritional pariah accused of making the working population lazy. At times the potato has been a source of social unrest yet during both world wars it was relied upon to feed allied and enemy nations. Although in Britain they don’t count as one of your five a day, potatoes are a source of potassium, vitamins C, B1 and B6 and their skins contain fibre. However, finally the potato’s importance to global food security has been officially recognised by the United Nations which declared 2008 the International Year of the Potato.

You can find out more about Rebecca on her website. Rebecca has written a number of books including:

Feeding the People: The Politics of the Potato, Cambridge University Press (2020).

Potato (Object Lessons), Bloomsbury (2019)

The Body of the Conquistador: Food, Race and the Colonial Experience in Spanish America, 1492-1700, Cambridge University Press (2012). Winner of the Conference on Latin America History 2013 Bolton-Johnson Prize.

The Return of the Native: Indians and Mythmaking in Spanish America, 1810-1930, Duke University Press (2008). Winner of the Conference on Latin American History's 2008 Bolton-Johnson Prize Honorable Mention.

Further Reading

Domestic Medicine by William Buchan (1801)

Rural Rides by William Cobbett (1822)

Cottage Economy by William Cobbett (1828)

I’m afraid there were a few Gremlins in the system when we recorded this session but there is a transcript available here.

It’s very easy to get carried away when chatting to my guests so I’ve collated a few of the bits that didn’t make it into the original pressure cooking episode. Given that we’re in the height of summer I thought it would be interesting to explore how nations with consistently hotter climates than Britain utilise pressure cookers and even slow cookers to great effect.

As an aside I was intrigued to discover that it wasn’t only Denys Papin who was convinced chicken would benefit from the pressure cooker treatment (listen to Episode 5 if you don’t know what I’m talking about). A certain ‘Colonel’ Harland Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame doctored a pressure cooker in 1939 so that he could fry chicken quickly and with less oil. This is dangerous in modern, domestic pressure cookers so don’t try it at home. Today’s fast food chains use specially designed pressure fryers. This ultimately helped Sanders (who was given the honorary title of ‘colonel’ by the state in 1935) grow his franchise and in 1964 sold his interest in the company for $2m.

You can find Catherine Phipps on Twitter @catlilycooks or Instagram @catherinephipps. Do subscribe to Catherine’s Substack newsletter Catherine is Under Pressure. Catherine has written several books including Modern Pressure Cooking, as well as Citrus, Leaf, Chicken and The Pressure Cooker Cookbook.

Further Reading

Taste of Life: When Punekars warmed up to introduction of Icmic cooker by Chinmay Damle, 10 November 2022

Indumadhab Mallick revolutionized the kitchen with the invention of ‘Icmic Cooker’, 7 May 2021 on GetBengal.com

Kentucky Fried Chicken Started With An Iron Pan, Dining Room Table & A Gas Station, Consumerist May 2015

Pressure cookers have been hailed as a saviour of the kitchen in these financially straitened times. They cook food quickly and efficiently thereby saving energy and money. BUT… I can’t get the idea of the pressure cooker being a steaming demon out of my head, ready to spew forth its contents like Regan MacNeil of The Exorcist fame being told she has to attend church on Sunday. Hence, my pressure cooker has been buried beneath a tower of boxes in the attic for many years.

Or at least it was until I read Modern Pressure Cooking by Catherine Phipps. She has a far more positive view of pressure cookers and chats to me in this episode about the history behind this device, how it works and the benefits of this mode of cooking. So if you’re a pressure cooking doubter be prepared to be converted.

Like so much kitchen gadgetry the pressure cooker has its origins in the depths of history. A French protestant refugee called Denys Papin (1647-1713) is credited with designing a prototype for the pressure cooker. Papin’s steam digester cooked meat under pressure to produce tender, tasty and nutritious morsels. So intense was this process that even after a short period of time bones were rendered as soft as cheese. He published his results in A New Digester Or Engine For Softening Bones, Containing The Description Of Its Make And Use in 1681. Papin’s aim was that the digester could be used to make portable meat jellies for use at sea (these he argued would be more nutritious than the salted meat usually served on board ships). He concluded that when the jelly was seasoned with sugar and lemon juice he ate it with much pleasure.

The Fellows of the Royal Society were seemingly not put off by the device looking and sounding like a contraption designed for torture and were astounded by the results. Seventeenth century diarist John Evelyn exclaimed:

‘I went this afternoon with several of the Royal Society to a supper which was all dressed, both fish and flesh, in Monsieur Papin’s digester, by which the hardest bones of beef itself, and mutton, were made as soft as cheese, without water or other liquor, and with less than eight ounces of coals, producing an incredible quantity of gravy; the best for clearness and good relish, and the most delicious that I had ever seen, or tasted.’ (12 April 1682)

In the twentieth century the pressure cooker was tamed and additional safety features mean that the risk of explosion has been nullified so kitchen worktops and walls do not run the risk of being sullied by any sudden pressurised outbursts. I’m a convert, how about you?

You can find Catherine Phipps on Twitter @catlilycooks or Instagram @catherinephipps. Do subscribe to Catherine’s Substack newsletter Catherine Phipps . Catherine has written several books including Modern Pressure Cooking, as well as Citrus, Leaf, Chicken and The Pressure Cooker Cookbook.

Further Reading

Castro Opts For Steam Power, Associated Press in The Guardian, 10 March 2005

The Diary of John Evelyn, Volume 2 (M.W. Dunno, 1901)

A New Digester Or Engine For Softening Bones, Containing The Description Of Its Make And Use by Denys Papin, (1681)

Papin’s Digester by Andrea Sella and Thony Christie in Chemistry World, 1 October 2019

In this week’s episode I will be exploring the benefits of using a haybox or Wonder Bag to prepare meals and cut down on energy costs. My guest is Liz Trigg (liztrigg_), one of the hosts of the Original Home Economist, who has had first hand experience of this mode of cooking.

As the name suggests haybox cookery involves placing partially cooked food in a box lined with hay although other materials with similar insulating properties can be used. A dish is prepared on a hob then brought up to boiling point and usually cooked for a short period at a highish temperature before being transferred to the haybox. The hay helps harness the residual heat in the cooking vessel. It’s a great way to prepare things like stews and porridge that benefit from slow cooking. Hay boxes were particularly popular during the world wars, although as I discovered the idea of cooking with residual heat may go back to the medieval era.

Interest in this form of ‘automatic’ cooking appears to have been sparked by an exhibit at the World’s Exposition in Paris in 1867:

The twentieth century would see a number of authors praise the virtues of this mode of cooking although it has to be said that not everyone was convinced. Margaret Johnes Mitchell (1869–1952) was an American writer and a dietician at the Manhattan State Hospital, New York. She published The Fireless Cook Book in 1909 which includes details on how to build a haybox. As well as saving energy, she believed the haybox eliminated excessive heat and odours from the kitchen, improved the flavour of food and could even dispense the need for servants. She also offers the following tips:

* Cooking depends on the retention of heat so the larger quantity of food/liquid the more likely the heat will be retained.

* The cooking vessel should be full in order to maximise the benefits of this style of cooking.

* The cooking vessel should fit into its nest snugly.

* Make sure the haybox is close to the stove so that you can transfer hot food quickly.

* The box should be tightly closed once the food has been put in.

* All food needs to be cooked for a certain amount of time before being moved to the haybox. This is vital to ensure that the contents cook correctly.

* Hardness of water can affect cooking times i.e. food will take longer.

Useful Links & Further Reading

Liz’s recipe for Fabada Asturiana can be found in Instagram

Oatmeal porridge in a haybox (Ministry of Information film, 1940)

The Self-Acting Norwegian Cooking Apparatus - New York Medical Journal Vol X 1870

A fragment of a mediaeval fireless cooking pot, found in Monmouth Castle grounds

The Great War Cook Book by May Byron (1918)

Haybox Cookery by Ambrose Heath (1961)

“Two Anglo-Norman Culinary Collections Edited from British Library Manuscripts Additional 32085 and Royal 12.C.Xii.” Speculum 61, no. 4, by Hieatt, Constance B., and Robin F. Jones. (1986)

The Fireless Cook Book by Margaret Johnes Mitchell (1909)

Wonderbag

Welcome to Episode 3 where Dr Neil Buttery and I continue our exploration of the curious world of tripe. This time we’re keeping our feet firmly in Britain.

‘So home and dined there with my wife upon a most excellent dish of tripes of my own directing, covered with mustard, as I have heretofore seen them done at my Lord Crew’s, of which I made a very great meal.’ Samuel Pepys, Friday 24 October 1662

Perhaps one of the reasons tripe has declined in popularity is that we’ve forgotten how to prepare it? Neil tracks down a tripe seller (yes, they do still exist) and tries some historic recipes to see why this meat was once popular.

Do you eat tripe? If so, tell us your favourite recipe!

You can tag me on Instagram: @mrssbilton or Twitter: @sjfbilton (Neil’s details are below) or drop me an email at [email protected]

Don’t forget to check out Neil’s website British Food: A History loaded with fascinating historical recipes. His books include The Dark History of Sugar and Before Mrs Beeton. And if you haven’t done so already, do give his British Food History podcast a listen.

You can find Neil on Instagram: @dr_neil_buttery and Twitter: @neilbuttery

If you enjoy the podcast please don’t forget to rate it to help other listeners discover the Comfortably Hungry series.

Useful Links/Further Reading

In 2016 the Oxford Food Symposium had Offal: Rejected and Reclaimed Food as its theme. The proceedings of the symposium contains some fascinating papers on tripe and other offal.

For a history of tripe in Britain try Tripe: A Most Excellent Dish by Marjory Houlihan

For further culinary inspiration try:

The Talisman Cookbook by Ada Boni (1975 - English Version)

The Cook and Housewife’s Manual by Margaret Dods (1827)

Nose to Tail Eating: A Kind of British Cooking by Fergus Henderson

Offal: The Fifth Quarter by Anissa Helou

The Accomplisht Cook by Robert May (1678)

The Experienced English Housekeeper by Elizabeth Raffald (1786)

Welcome to Episode 2 and the first part of my journey to find out more about the alien like substance called tripe. Assisting me in this quest is food historian and host of the British Food History podcast Dr Neil Buttery.

Tripe refers to the stomachs from cows, sheep, pigs and other animals. It was once widely eaten across Britain by all levels of society and was regarded as a nutritious and economical meat. But tripe has gradually fallen out of favour in Britain since the mid twentieth century making it quite tricky to source.

‘Tripe called by any other name would achieve the popularity it undoubtedly deserves. It is one of the most digestible of foods - indeed, a doctor of my acquaintance puts all his patients suffering from indigestion upon a diet in which tripe stewed in milk, figures largely - while it can be most palatable and is undeniably cheap.’ Majorie Swift, Feed The Brute (1925)

In other parts of the world there is a fondness for this curious white flesh. Tripe soup is popular in both Mexico and Turkey. In Rome there is an area called Testaccio which is renowned for its offal based cuisine. In this episode British food writer and Guardian columnist Rachel Roddy shares some insights into how modern day Romans prepare tripe.

Rachel’s books include Five Quarters: Recipes and Notes from a Kitchen in Rome, Two Kitchens: 120 Family Recipes from Sicily and Rome and the An A-Z of Pasta: Stories, Shapes, Sauces, Recipes. You can find more of her recipes and musings in her Guardian column or on her blog Rachel Eats.

You can find Rachel on Instagram: @rachelaliceroddy or Twitter: @racheleats

Don’t forget to check out Neil’s website British Food: A History loaded with fascinating historical recipes. His books include The Dark History of Sugar and Before Mrs Beeton. And if you haven’t done so already, do give his British Food History podcast a listen.

You can find Neil on Instagram: @dr_neil_buttery and Twitter: @neilbuttery

If you enjoy the podcast please don’t forget to rate it to help other listeners discover the Comfortably Hungry series.

You can follow me on Twitter @sjfbilton and Instagram @mrssbilton or discover more about my work and books at sambilton.com.

Useful Links/Further Reading

In 2016 the Oxford Food Symposium had Offal: Rejected and Reclaimed Food as its theme. The proceedings of the symposium contains some fascinating papers on tripe and other offal.

The tripe recipe Rachel mentions can be found in The Talisman Cookbook by Ada Boni originally published in the 1930s but link above is for English version published in 1975.

For a history of tripe in Britain try Tripe: A Most Excellent Dish by Marjory Houlihan

For further culinary inspiration try:

The Cook and Housewife’s Manual by Margaret Dods (1827)

Nose to Tail Eating: A Kind of British Cooking by Fergus Henderson

Offal: The Fifth Quarter by Anissa Helou

The Accomplisht Cook by Robert May (1678)

The Experienced English Housekeeper by Elizabeth Raffald (1786)

In Episode 1 Sam discusses a nineteenth century food protest with freelance writer and illustrator Josh Sutton.

The early years of the nineteenth century were marked by social and economic upheaval caused by war, rising inflation and the loss of access to common land due to the The General Enclosure Act of 1801. As a result, many agricultural labourers during this period struggled to support themselves and their families and were forced to rely on parish relief to supplement their meagre earnings. Even this did not prevent huge numbers of people living in a state of poverty where hunger was a daily reality.

The Ely and Littleport riots took place in April and May 1816 as a response to hunger, poverty and unemployment. The protestors’ slogan was ‘bread or blood’ which was inscribed on their banners. They also brandished a loaf on a stick as they marched.

Hundreds of people were involved in this demonstration. For a short while it appeared their demands for higher wages would be met but their protest ended in tragedy. Listen to the podcast to find out what happened.

If you enjoy the podcast please don’t forget to rate it to help other listeners discover the Comfortably Hungry series.

Josh explores the Ely and Littleport riot and many other food protests in his book Food Worth Fighting For, (Prospect Books, 2016). Other titles by Josh include:

Outdoor Ovens – if you can’t stand the heat, go al fresco (Prospect Books, 2017)

Food from Childhood (Prospect Books, 2019)

For details on his other books visit joshsutton.co.uk or follow Josh on Twitter @BooksFez and Instagram @redfezbooks

This podcast features the song Bread or Blood by The Commoners Choir which is available to download here.

You can follow Sam on Twitter @sjfbilton and Instagram @mrssbilton or discover more about her work and books at sambilton.com.

Further Reading

Besides Food Worth Fighting For you may find these other publications and websites of interest:

John Burnett - Plenty & Want: A Social History of Diet in England (1979)

William Cobbett - Rural Rides (1830)

JL & Barbara Hammond - The Village Labourer (1920)

Trussell Trust

You may be aware from my posts on social media that this inaugural series of Comfortably Hungry has been somewhat delayed. So far 2023 hasn’t gone according to plan. The best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry as they say and in my case spectacularly so.

I spent the first few months of the year wallowing in chocolate history like a veritable Augustus Gloop researching a book for the British Library which will be published later this year. However, two days after I submitted the manuscript I discovered I have detached retinas in both eyes and required emergency surgery. Recovery is going to be slow but I am getting there.

Fortunately, I had recorded a few episodes before the proverbial hit the fan, so while this season will be shorter than originally planned and perhaps not as slickly produced as I would like it to be, it should get the ball rolling. Due to the ongoing cost of living crisis I have chosen ‘austerity’ as the theme for this season. What I plan to do with my guests this season is look at how people have coped or reacted in times of austerity in the past. We’ll be exploring everything from food riots, heroic ingredients and the origins of some popular energy saving devices.

Having said that ‘I'm back’, my next round of surgery takes place on 11 May. So while I have scheduled some posts to come out over the coming weeks please forgive me if I don’t respond to any questions or comments immediately.

Hopefully, (and I really mean this) I’ll SEE you soon!

Welcome to the very first episode of Comfortably Hungry with food historian and author of First Catch Your Gingerbread Sam Bilton! I will be discussing this delectable treat with fellow food historian, podcaster and author of A Dark History of Sugar, Dr Neil Buttery. Joining us is Dr Alessandra Pino writer and researcher on how cultural memory, food and the Gothic intersect and co-author of A Gothic Cookbook which will be released in 2023. As it's 5th November (also known as Bonfire Night in the UK) we'll be chatting about parkin, dragons and gothic food. Keep listening to find out what spicy delights Neil and Allie are contributing to our virtual pot luck supper.

More gingerbread history and recipes are available in my book First Catch Your Gingerbread. If you are a fan of spices you may also like my book Fool's Gold: A History of British Saffron.

You can find Neil's recipe for parkin here https://britishfoodhistory.com/2011/11/04/yorkshire-parkin/ and more details on the knucker can be found here https://britishfoodhistory.com/2019/11/09/how-to-kill-a-dragon-with-pudding-or-parkin/

Neil's book A Dark History of Sugar is available from all good bookshops (physical or online) now.

Do give Neil's podcast British Food: A History a listen https://britishfoodhistory.com/support-the-blog-podcast/ particularly the episodes he recorded with myself on gingerbread and Allie on her forthcoming book.

Further details on A Gothic Cookbook are available here https://unbound.com/books/a-gothic-cookbook/

You can follow all of us on Twitter:

Sam Bilton (@sjfbilton)

Dr Neil Buttery (@neilbuttery)

Dr Alessandra Pino (@foodforflo)

And Instagram

Sam Bilton (@mrssbilton)

Dr Neil Buttery (@dr_neil_buttery)

Dr Alessandra Pino (@sasacharlie)

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