The British Food History Podcast
Welcome to 'The British Food History Podcast': British food in all its (sometimes gory) glory with Dr. Neil Buttery. He'll be looking in depth at all aspects of food with interviews with special guests, recipes, re-enactments, foraging, trying his hand at traditional techniques, and tracking down forgotten recipes and hyper-regional specialities. He'll also be trying to answer the big question: What makes British food, so...British?
- Update frequency
- every 10 days
- Average duration
- 44 minutes
- Episodes
- 87
- Years Active
- 2021 - 2025
BONUS EPISODE: Serve it Forth Food History Festival Special
Hello there everyone!
Here’s a quick special bonus episode for you – the lowdown on the Serve it Forth Food History Festival 2025 sponsored by the excellent Netherton Foundry.
My fellow festival coordi…
Derbyshire Oatcakes with Mark Dawson
My guest today is Mark Dawson, food historian, specialising in the food of the Tudor period, but also the food of Derbyshire. We met up at Mark’s home in Derbyshire to talk all things Derbyshire oatc…
A Rare Early Modern Cheese Manuscript with Alex Bamji
My guest today is Alex Bamji, Associate Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Leeds, and we are talking about a rare treatise on cheese dating from the Early Modern Period.
We met up …
Bread & Bakers with David Wright
My guest today is third generation baker, writer and teacher David Wright author of the excellent book Breaking Bread: How Baking Shaped our World published by Aurum.
We talk about the social benefits…
Bronze Age Food & Foodways with Chris Wakefield & Rachel Ballantyne
My guests today are archaeologists Chris Wakefield from the Cambridge Archaeological Unit of Cambridge University Rachel Ballantyne from McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, and they are h…
A Regional Food Tour with Jenny Linford
My guest today is food writer, podcaster and cheese enthusiast Jenny Linford and we are going on a bit of a regional food tour across the UK.
We talk about her new book The Great British Food Tour pub…
Black & White Pudding with Matthew Cockin & Grant Harper
Welcome to the first episode of season 9 of The British Food History Podcast!
Today I am talking with Matthew Cockin and Grant Harper of Fruit Pig – the last remaining commercial craft producer of fre…
Season 9 of the British Food History Podcast coming soon!
Hello there everyone! Exciting news: the ninth season of the British Food History Podcast will return on 9th July 2025.
I have been busy collecting an eclectic range conversations for a baker’s dozen …
Special Postbag Edition #5
It’s time for the fifth traditional postbag episode, where I (attempt to) answer your questions, read out your comments and mull over your queries.
In this edition: giant turkeys, great crisps we hav…
Alexis Soyer with Lindsay Middleton
Today I speak with food historian, podcaster and friend of the show Lindsay Middleton about arguably the first celebrity chef, Alexis Soyer, focusing mainly on two of his books: The Gastronomic Regen…
Making Medieval Ale at Home with Alison Kay
Today I am talking with podcaster and blogger Alison Kay of Ancestral Kitchen all about recreating medieval ale at home – and how one adapts the making of them to modern kitchens.
We talked about the …
From the Vaults: Breakfast with Felicity Cloake
I'm on a break so to fill the gap here are some of my favourite episodes from the podcast's vaults.
Welcome to episode one of the new fourth season of The British Food History Podcast.
Kicking us off i…
From the Vaults: Recreating 16th Century Beer with Susan Flavin & Marc Meltonville
I'm on a break so to fill the gap here are some of my favourite episodes from the podcast's vaults.
Today Neil talks to Susan Flavin and Marc Meltonville about recreating as close as possible beer fro…
From the Vaults: Fanny Cradock with Kevin Geddes
I'm on a break so to fill the gap here are some of my favourite episodes from the podcast's vaults.
Neil has a most enlightening chat with Kevin Geddes about the fabulous television cook Fanny Cradock…
From the Vaults: Hogmanay & Hamely Kitchen with Paula McIntyre
I'm on a break so to fill the gap here are some of my favourite episodes from the podcast's vaults.
Today Neil talks with Paula McIntyre about Hogmanay and her BBC TV show, the excellent Hamely Kitche…
A Tudor Christmas with Brigitte Webster
Merry Christmas everyone! Welcome to the 2024 British Food History Podcast Christmas special.
Today I am talking with Tudor Food historian Brigitte Webster about what Christmasses were like in Tudor …
The Philosophy of Puddings with Neil Buttery, Peter Gilchrist & Lindsay Middleton
The tables are turned today for I am being interviewed by Lindsay Middleton and Peter Gilchrist of The Scottish Food History Podcast about my book The Philosophy of Puddings, published by the British…
An Irish Food Story with Jp McMahon
Today I talk about Irish food, food history and identity with Michelin-starred chef Jp McMahon.
Jp is the culinary director of the EatGalway Restaurant Group and runs the restaurant Aniar in Galway, …
Turkey with Tom Copas
It’s December, Advent has begun, and we can officially start discussing Christmas so I have put together an episode about turkey that is very much of two halves. There’s an interview with Tom Copas, …
The English Table with Jill Norman
Today I am in conversation with Jill Norman – author of several books, and editor at Penguin. She very kindly talked to me about Jane Grigson and the book English Food at the start of this season. We…