***** Tickets for the Serve It Forth Food History Festival now available to buy with a 25% discount here:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/serve-it-forth-food-history-festival-2025-tickets-1490885802569?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl *****

Hello my hungry archaeogastronomers!

Hope your summer is going well!

Here's another fantastic episode from the archives of The Delicious Legacy, 'Recipe Books Buried Under the Sand' where I unfold the exciting discovery of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri in the late 19th century by Grenfell and Hunt.

No one thought that these papyri -found in an ancient rubbish damp nonetheless- will unveil long lost classical literature and this was all very exciting!

In recent decades though, another area became the focus of the papyrologists and translators. The private and personal correspondence between the inhabitants of the city. Letters of love, desire, wishes and taxes, contracts plus lists all where made the focus of archaeologists. In them we have also discovered tiny tantalising morsels of ancient recipes, from famous chef of Antiquity, of the Classical Greek world.

What were their recipes, and what do they tell us about the people of ancient Hellenistic Egypt as well as their food, tastes and can we cook them today?

Let's find out on today episode!

Listen here.

Music by Pavlos Karpalos

Love,

Thom & The Delicious Legacy Podcast

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*** Exciting news announcement! ***

The first Serve it Forth Food History Festival will take place on Saturday 18th of October 2025.

Together with my food historians friends Dr Neil Buttery, Dr Alessandra Pino and Sam Bilton we have planned an exciting virtual day for you with talks inspired from past dinners, tables and places.

Join us by purchasing your tickets with 25% discount here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/serve-it-forth-food-history-festival-2025-tickets-1490885802569?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl

More info on our website here:

https://serveitforthfest.wixsite.com/info

*****

Hello!

Welcome back to another archaeogastronomical adventure!

On today's episode my guest is the author of the critically acclaimed books "Scoff" and "Stuffed" and part time food historian Pen Vogler, and she is taking us to an exciting journey through the history of breakfast in UK.

What was the first breakfast? When did we start eating it? Why? And how different is breakfast through different social classes?

Join me through this exciting journey with Pen Vogler!

You can get Pen's books here:

https://www.waterstones.com/book/scoff/pen-vogler/9781786496492

Enjoy!

The Delicious Legacy

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Hello!

I'm excited to tell you that I am part of the Serve It Forth Food History Festival together with food historians Dr Neil Buttery, Sam Bilton and Alessandra Pino!

Together we will be live and online only, on Saturday 18th of October 2025 for our very first food history festival! Stay tuned with news about the subjects we will cover, our fantastic guests and ticket info! Subscribe to our mailing list here: https://mailchi.mp/625319c96f80/serve-it-forth-food-history-festival

You can also find us on Instagram and Bluesky

https://www.instagram.com/serveitforthfest/

https://bsky.app/profile/serveitforthfest.bsky.social

OK today's episode is from the archives, and it's all about my interview with Culinary Historian Ursula Janssen.

A fascinating chat with archaeologist, culinary historian and historical cookbook author Ursula Janssen!

An all around brilliant talented human being then, that her passion is history and transmitting this through her ancient cooking!

Garum made of Barley. From middle east. In the Arab times.

Food of of Mesopotamia and Biblical Times.

The Arabic influence in European medieval cuisine.

And much more...!

Find some of her ancient recipes interpretation here:

https://www.youtube.com/@Ursulashistoricalrecipes

and all about the Trullo Cicerone experience here:

https://trullocicerone.com/

Happy listening!

The Delicious Legacy

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-delicious-legacy.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

*********** Sponsor The Delicious Legacy Podcast on KO-FI by visiting https://ko-fi.com/thedeliciouslegacypodcast ******************

She is a giant of the Spanish Food and Wine movement.... She probably single-handedly brought Basque Cuisine in the limelight of the English Speaking world...

María José Sevilla has worked for many years in the field of Food and Wine. She is a cook, a writer and a broadcaster who has been at the centre of the discovery of Spanish cuisine by chefs and food writers throughout the world. 

Who best then, to tell me all about the long history of Spanish food and cuisine other than her?

We caught up into a chat in her home, discussing her new book "Delicioso: A History of Food in Spain" which you can order here:

https://reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/delicioso

This is the first book in English to trace the history of the food of Spain from antiquity to the present day. 

From the use of pork fat and olive oil to the Spanish passion for eggplants and pomegranates, María José Sevilla skilfully weaves together the history of Spanish cuisine, the circumstances affecting its development and characteristics, and the country’s changing relationship to food and cookery.

Enjoy!

Thom & The Delicious Legacy

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-delicious-legacy.

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******* TW ****** THIS EPISODE DEALS WITH DEATH, VIOLENCE AND THEMES OF WAR THAT SOME PEOPLE MIGHT FIND UPSETTING!!! ****

Hello,

New episode is out.

I hope you have a listen to a rather longer episode than normal, and please let me know your thoughts!

Some Palestinian Dishes: Maqluba, Musakhan, Ka’ak, Maamoul, Knafeh

Cookbooks by Palestinian authors or about Palestinian food that Angela Zaher Recommends.

Bethlehem by Fadi Kattan

https://www.waterstones.com/book/bethlehem/fadi-kattan/9781958417287

Falastin by Sami Tamimi (and also Boustany)

https://www.sami-tamimi.com/cookbooks/falastin

Yasmin Khan: Zaitoun: Recipes and Stories from the Palestinian Kitchen

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zaitoun-Recipes-Stories-Palestinian-Kitchen/dp/1408883848

aitoun-Recipes-Stories-Palestinian-Kitchen/dp/1408883848

Joudie Kalla: Palestine on A Plate:

https://www.palestineonaplate.com/

Thank you, much love and see you on the flip side!

Thom & The Delicious Legacy

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-delicious-legacy.

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Hello!

It's heating up this summer!

And what better way to cool down other than learning about the history of ice cream and sorbets?!

Resources and further reading:

"Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat" by Bee Wilson

ISBN: 9780141049083

How Ice Cream Got Its Cone

https://www.seriouseats.com/2019/06/ice-cream-cone-history.html 

The Delicious History of Ice Cream:

https://medium.com/@andersoncuellar/the-delicious-history-of-ice-cream-6a75938630f0 

Martini Fisher Ancient History of Ice Cream: https://martinifisher.com/2020/10/30/the-ancient-history-of-ice-cream/ 

Saltpetre: Regency Refrigeration:

https://regencyredingote.wordpress.com/2013/08/09/saltpetre-regency-refrigeration/

Thanks for listening!

If you enjoy the content why don't you buy me a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/thedeliciouslegacypodcast

Much Love

Thom

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Hello!

New episode for your archaeogastronomical delights , is out now!

Today I have author, chef and food historian Jay Reifel in this episode as my guest, and we muse about all things "Baghdadical"!

10th century Baghdad the capital of the Islamic world in a sense it was a sensuous place.

And it produced perhaps a cookbook, more than mere recipes something extremely modern in some senses, and something that didn't exist in the West (if we want to put labels on things) for another 400 years or so!

This cookbook, "The Annals of the Caliph's Kitchen" contained a treasure of information and it was more than 500 pages long!

What's Jay's favourite recipes, what did the Abbasids loved to cook and eat and what were the ingredients that we might not know today?

Anyway I hope you'll enjoy today’s musings!

Love,

Thom & The Delicious Legacy

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Hello!

On this exclusive episode for you, I'm discussing the music of the podcast, the themes written by my friend and musician Pavlos Kapralos. Over the past five years of the podcast I used a few of Pavlos's compositions, for my ancient Greek food themed episodes and for the Byzantium ones.

Here we talk about his approach in creating the songs, his inspiration and what do we know of ancient Greek music: how it sounded, what instruments the ancients had and how do we recreate it today!

Plus what is the Byzantine music? Both secular and church hymns, and how its the link between the ancient and modern folk music in the East.

I hope you'll enjoy this different episode today!

If you wanna listen to the whole episode, without adverts, then please subscribe to Supercast or Patreon:

https://thedeliciouslegacy.supercast.com/#episodes

https://www.patreon.com/thedeliciouslegacy

Pavlos's channel: https://www.youtube.com/@pavloskapralos3969

Love,

Thom & The Delicious Legacy

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-delicious-legacy.

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Hello my curious & hungry archaeogastronomers!

What is "oinos tethalassomenos" ? Where does one find the best eels?

What was a highly regarded game meat?

Let's discover a few of the many unknown delicacies of the ancient Greek world. What was in vogue? What was considered tasty, healthy and accessible to eat for the average citizen of the wider Greek world, two and a half thousand years ago?

Ancient Greeks were quite the foodies.

They recognised local specialities, and local food excellence appears to be an ancient Greek innovation, balanced by the equally novel idea that food preferences, also, vary from place to place. Several lists of local fine produce are quoted by Athenaeus, in Deipnosophistai, from texts of the sixth to fourth centuries BC.

Moreover, importantly, they were also practical; the food was seasonal obviously, in the age before the huge global networks of fast transportation and just 2000 years shy of electrical refrigeration!

So wine that needed to be sold and transported should be preserved and should taste good. As well as other perishable goods and foods too. So many innovations and styles were discovered.

What unusual herbs, salads, pickles, fish and meat, were in vogue, beyond the standard ones of olive oil, olives, grapes, figs, sheep and goat? What were they and how these were consumed in ancient world?

Enjoy!

Thom & The Delicious Legacy

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Hello my hungry archaeogastronomers!

Humans always wondered why food spoils, what makes it go off, and how to preserve it for longer, and keep it nutritious and healthy. Along the millenia we devised many ingenious ways to make fresh food last, and taste good but also provide us with calories and nutrients.

Nicolas Appert was not a scientist, but a former brewer who became steward to the duke Christian IV of Zweibrücken, then to the Duchess of Forbach, and thereafter became a confectioner. As he made the sweets that were preserved with sugar, he became obsessed with an idea: research into the keeping of foods that until now were considered highly perishable, such as milk, meat and green vegetables.

A native of Chalons-Sur-Marne 1749 -1841 Appert is considered to have discovered the process of preservation by sterilization. No man is a prophet in his own country as the saying goes and so it was the Americans who were the first to call the process ‘appertizing’. He was at least officially declared a benefactor of humanity in 1822 by the Société d’Encouragement pour l’Industrie Nationale, but nonetheless died in poverty and was buried in a communal grave, like Molière before him. 

He made his methods common knowledge so that everyone could preserve food at home, and never bothered to take out a patent (which the Americans and English did not scruple to do on their own accounts). Preserving was basically a very simple business, once you had the idea. All you had to do, said Appert, was

This method was to be the basis for all the preserved food produced on the planet, from industrial conveyor-belt lines to housewives bottling jars of garden produce in a home sterilizer. The drawback to glass was its fragility, and it was soon replaced by cans of welded tin-plate, used first by the Dutch for fish and then by the British for fruits preserved in syrup.

Without him the history of canning and tinned food, would be perhaps a lot different, and the subject of today’s episode not possible...

So on today’s episode I have a very special guest to tell me all about the history of one very specific, iconic and somewhat perhaps misunderstood tinned food: SPAM! 

Yes Spam! Dr Kelly Spring is the author of a brand new book that it is coming out this June in UK and July in the US about Spam, called “Spam - A global history”

Kelly is a food historian and consultant and you can find more about her work and her services at theforkfront.com where they bring the past to life through food. She also has a food history podcast called Hungry Historians which you can find on Spotify. I’ll put a link in the show notes with the podcast as well as her new book.

Enjoy!!!

Get a copy of the book here:

https://reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/spam

Listen to Kelly's podcast here:

https://open.spotify.com/show/2dd70WM8rXd2rMKepkbjwu?si=708838ac72d549c6

Love and cheese

Thom & The Delicious Legacy

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-delicious-legacy.

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