The British Food History Podcast

Happy 4th of July to my listeners in the USA…and all of those around the world who also celebrate the day! It’s a big one because the US is celebrating 250 years of independence this year. And to mark this special day, I have a special guest, Professor Nancy Siegel, and we are going to talk about the roles food and drink – especially tea and cake – played. Nancy Siegal is Professor of Art History...

Today I am speaking with Maureen Kilpatrick of Guard Archaeology, a Scottish archaeology firm that has dug sites all over Scotland, but today we are focusing on one site called Guardbridge, in Fife, where the timespan the finds ranged from is astounding: from the Stone Age to the 13th century. Several finds were food-related. The site is amazing – there’s an Iron Age fort, there are field demarcat...

In this week’s episode I am speaking with Adam Crymble and Rachel Rich about a really exciting piece of research looking at the complexities of feeding the households of King George III and his eldest son George who was Prince Regent whilst George III suffered from his “madness”, and eventually succeeded him as George IV. The focus of the research is the ledgers that still exist, listing the ingre...

Today I am talking with returning guest Peter Ross who was, until recently, the Principal Librarian at the City of London's Guildhall Library. His fantastic book called Insatiable Appetites, Eating Out in Georgian London , published by the Bodleian Library was published last month, May 2026. Today we are talking about the collections in the Guildhall Library, which is a staggering 600 years old. W...

Welcome back to The British Food History Podcast . Today I am talking with Deborah Albon and Amy Palmer about the history of children’s food. Deborah Albon is a former early years professional and Amy Palmer is a former infant teacher, and both are lecturers at the University of Roehampton, London. They have written a book called First Helpings: A History of Children’s Food . It’s comprehensive, w...

Welcome back to The British Food History Podcast . In this episode, I am speaking with Peter Ross. Peter was, until recently, the Principal Librarian at the City of London's Guildhall Library. He is an historian of both food and crime in Georgian London, an Arts Society lecturer, and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. He has also written a fantastic book called Insatiable Appetites, Eating Ou...

Welcome back to the British Food History Podcast. In this episode of the podcast, I am speaking with fish and seafood cookery expert CJ Jackson, author of The Great British Seafood Revival, published by Merlin Unwin We talk about cod alternatives like coley and hake; the loss of the street fishmonger; sustainability; fish farms, and whether they are a good thing; the future of Billingsgate Market;...

I received the sad news of the death Joanna Crosby when I was at the Leeds Symposium of Food History and Traditions in April. Joanna was a talented food historian specialising in the history of apples and orchards, and she came on the podcast in 2024 to talk about her research and excellent book Apples and Orchards since the Eighteenth Century. I thought I would put out the episode we recorded tog...

Welcome back to the British Food History Podcast. In today’s episode, I am speaking with Great British Bake Off alumnus Briony May Williams about retro foods. She’s on a mission to bring back some of the foods of the 21st century that are maybe not being enjoyed as much as they should be in the 21st. I am very much in agreement with this – obvs. We talk about how Briony became interested in retro...

Today, we are going on an excursion to the Netherton Foundry workshop, nestled in the Shropshire countryside, to find out about spun iron cookware – something that was essentially extinct in this country until owners Neil and Sue Currie brought it back. Neil and Sue are very kindly sponsoring season 10 of The British Food History Podcast makers of high-quality kitchen and outdoor cookware. Nethert...

My guest on The British Food History Podcast today is Mark Dawson, a food historian specialising in the food and social history of the early modern period, but also on the regional food of the Midlands. Today we are talking about the traditional food and drink of his home county of Derbyshire. You may remember he was on last season talking about Derbyshire Oatcakes, well, since then he has written...

Welcome to a brand new season of The British Food History Podcast ! On the podcast today is medieval scholar Katherine Harvey, a scholar specialising in medieval and early modern history. Kathryn’s new book The Medieval Guide to Healthy Living is out now, published by Reaktion Books. We talk about humoral theory and health, the dangers of eating fresh fruit and fish, the importance of sauces, drin...

Welcome to the second of a two-part special all about Burns Night. Burns Night, celebrated on Robert Burns’ birthday, 25th January, is a worldwide phenomenon and I wanted to make a couple of episodes focussing upon the night, the haggis, but also the other foods links regarding Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns. So, if you’re readying yourself for a Burns supper, I hope this episode gets you...

Welcome to the first of a two-part special all about Burns Night. Burns Night, celebrated on Robert Burns’ birthday, 25th January, is a worldwide phenomenon and I wanted to make a couple of episodes focussing upon the night, the haggis, but also the other foods links regarding Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns. Burns was born in Alloway, Ayrshire on 25 January 1759 and he died in Dumfries on...

It’s time for the now traditional end-of-season postbag episode of The British Food History Podcast , where I (attempt to) answer your questions, read out your comments and mull over your queries. Several photos and illustrations are mentioned in this episode: to see them, visit the accompanying blog post on British Food: A History : www.britishfoodhistory.com I’ll be disappearing for a couple of...

My guest on The British Food History Podcast today food historian and friend of the show Sam Bilton, podcaster and author of Much Ado About Cooking Delicious Shakespearean Feasts for Every Occasion , published by Headline and commissioned by Shakespeare’s Globe. It was, of course,  a great opportunity to talk about the food of Shakespearean England as well as the food and drink references in...

My guest today is food historian Carwyn Graves, a specialist in the foodways and traditions of Wales, and we are talking about Welsh Sheep and Cattle – and their products. Carwyn has written a wonderful book called Welsh Food Stories , published in 2022 by Calon, which explores more than two thousand years of history to discover the rich but forgotten heritage of Welsh foods – from oysters to cide...

My guest on The British Food History Podcast today is historian Mark Truesdale, scholar of the fifteenth-century King and Commoner tradition and its early modern afterlife and author of The King and Commoner Tradition: Carnivalesque Politics in Medieval and Early Modern Literature , published by Routledge. We talk about medieval carnival, the plot of a king and commoner tale, spying foresters, rud...

In today’s episode, I speak with Peter Brears, a world-leading food historian. He was director of both York and Leeds City Museums, and is a consultant to the National Trust, English Heritage and Historic Royal Palaces. He is the winner of the André Simon award for his book, Cooking and Dining in Medieval England, published in 2012, which is a must-have, as are his other books in the series that f...

In this episode, I talk with ceramics expert Paul Crane FSA about the early years of Worcester porcelain. Paul is a consultant at the Brian Haughton Gallery, St James’s, London, and a specialist in Ceramics from the Medieval and Renaissance periods through to the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. He presently sits as a Trustee of the Museum of Royal Worcester and is also a Fellow of the Society...

In this episode, I speak with Christina Wade, a beer historian specialising in the UK and Ireland, with a particular focus on women. She has written an excellent book, Filthy Queens: A History of Beer in Ireland , which was published by Nine Bean Rows earlier this year (2025). We talk about ale and beer in Ireland, and how colonisation by the English, and then the British, affected beer production...

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 coordinators Sam Bilton, Thomas Ntinas and Alessandra Pino and I are here to tell you more about it: how the day will work, what the sessions will be like, the topics and the guests – including my guest To...

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 oatcakes. Mark and I talk about the oatcakes of Britain, doshens and sprittles, the usefulness of probate inventories, oatcakes as penance, and oatcake goblins – amongst many other things Those listening t...

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 l...

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 of bread making, milling grain into flour, the anatomy of a grain, roller mills, the Chorleywood process and why gluten can be compared to Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito. Those listening to t...