The British Food History Podcast

It’s the end of the current run so that means it is time for the now traditional end-of-season special postbag edition.

Thank you to everyone who has listened, downloaded, donated and spread the good…

Neil’s guest is Diane Purkiss and they talk about just some of the topics covered in her book English Food a People’s History published by William Collins. Diane is Professor of English Literature at…

 S06E09 The School

Meals Service with Heather Ellis: shownotes

Neil’s guest today is Heather Ellis from Sheffield University. Helen is a historian of Education and she, along with academics from the Un…

Neil talks to returning guest Kevin Geddes. He told us all about the wonderful, fabulous Fanny Cradock, but today he is talking to me about Television Cookery Shows and their cookbook tie-ins. Kevin …

Esteemed food historian Marc Meltonville returns to the podcast to talk about taverns, 18th century dining and the cook and author Richard Briggs, the focus of his new book The Tavern Cook: Eighteent…

Today Neil talks with Brigitte Webster about her new book Eating with the Tudors which has just been published by Pen & Sword History.

We talked about how she came to live in her Tudor house; how the …

Today Neil talks to food historian and returning guest Lindsay Middleton about the history of tinned food –something one doesn’t really think about, tinned food being just so every day.

We talked abou…

In this week’s episode, Neil talks to medlar expert Jane Steward. Jane has done sterling work in the area of medlar awareness, and now the medlar is not the forgotten fruit it once was. She has a med…

Today Neil talks to Susan Flavin and Marc Meltonville about recreating as close as possible beer from the accounts of Dublin Castle right at the end of the 16th century. This investigation is part of…

We kick off the new season with a fascinating chat with Aaron Allen at Edinburgh University about cake baxters in Early Modern Scotland – usually women – who were unfree, and how they fit into societ…

In a special bonus of the podcast, Sam Bilton and Neil Buttery have combined forces to make a whole episode about all things tripe. We discuss our experiences, and why it is viewed rather differently…

Neil’s polishing off season 5 with a postbag edition of news, readers’ questions, comments and queries, special events and other miscellany.

Previous Episodes discussed in this episode:

Invalid Cookery…

Today the tables are turned, and Neil is the guest on his own podcast and is interviewed about his new book Before Mrs Beeton, Elizabeth Raffald, England’s Most Influential Housekeeper, about c18th c…

In this episode, Neil talks to chef and food writer Rachel Green about the traditional foods of Lincolnshire. Rachel is a chef, author, TV presenter, demonstrator, food campaigner and passionate amba…

In this episode, Neil talks to food historian Lindsay Middleton about invalid cookery – an important part of cookery books of the 18th to early 20th centuries. Lindsay has produced an excellent onlin…

In this special episode Neil’s guest is esteemed food historian Ivan Day. Ivan is a social historian of food culture and a professional chef and confectioner. He has contributed to dozens of tv and r…

Happy New Year! In the first episode of 2023 Neil talks to historian Charlie Taverner about London’s street food sellers. Charlie’s book ‘Street Food: Hawkers and the History of London’ is published …

Today Neil talks with Paula McIntyre about Hogmanay and her BBC TV show, the excellent Hamely Kitchen. Paula is an Ulster-Scots chef who lives on the north coast of Northern Ireland and she specialis…

Neil kicks off the season with a Christmas special, talking Christmas feasting – and cooking – with scholar and author Dr Annie Gray. Annie is author of books such as the excellent The Greedy Queen: …

Welcome to the first postbag edition of ‘The British Food History Podcast’.

On this episode: memories of Glyn Hughes; listeners letters; Yorkshire puddings; and new book news.

Links to things mentione…