A Rare Early Modern Cheese Manuscript with Alex Bamji
- Author
- Neil Buttery
- Published
- Wed 20 Aug 2025
- Episode Link
- https://the-british-food-histor.captivate.fm
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 at the Brotherton Library which is home to a fantastic collection of cookery books and manuscripts. We talk about cheese, health and humoral theory; what makes a good cheese; the early modern cheese landscape; cheese as a cure for gout; and cheese haters – plus many other things.
Those listening to the secret podcast: Alex and I talk about why cow’s milk is the best milk, and I wonder whether there any clues as to where their microbes are coming from.
Follow Alex on Twitter, Bluesky and Instagram @alexbamji
Alex’s page on the University of Leeds website
A piece from Leeds University about the ‘pamflyt’ featuring Peter Brears
The Brotherton Library’s cookery collection
Remember: Fruit Pig are sponsoring the 9th season of the podcast and Grant and Matthew are very kindly giving listeners to the podcast a unique special offer 10% off your order until the end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout at their online shop, www.fruitpig.co.uk.
The Serve it Forth Food History Festival website is now live and tickets are available on Eventbrite.
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This episode was mixed and engineered by Thomas Ntinas of the Delicious Legacy podcast.
Things mentioned in today’s episode
Serve it Forth Eventbrite page
Listen to a sample of the Knead to Know audiobook
My recipe for an Early Modern white pudding
Pertinent previous podcast episode:
Cheddar & the Cheese Industry with Peter J. Atkins
Tudor Cooking & Cuisine with Brigitte Webster
Neil’s blogs and YouTube channel:
The British Food History Channel
Neil’s books:
Before Mrs Beeton: Elizabeth Raffald, England’s Most Influential Housekeeper
Knead to Know: a History of Baking
Don’t forget, there will be postbag episodes in the future, so if you have any questions or queries about today’s episode, or indeed any episode, or have a question about the history of British food please email me at [email protected], or on twitter and BlueSky @neilbuttery, or Instagram and Threads dr_neil_buttery. My DMs are open.
You can also join the British Food: a History Facebook discussion page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/britishfoodhistory
