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Frederick Nutt's Millefruit Biscuits
Frederick Nutt's Millefruit Biscuits on a small English bobbin stemmed salver from the 1760s. The raised edge around the top of the salver is perfect for stopping small sweetmeats from slipping, making...
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Lattice Top Tarts and Their Precursors
John Thacker's 1758 Marrow Pudding or Poudin de Mouëlle formée with its ornate cut coverA few days ago a researcher working on a TV bakery programme rang to say that she wanted 'to pick my brains'...
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More Edible Artistry
The images on this page are of food produced by attendees on my two most recent courses, with a little help from me! I do try to convey to my students that standards of food and presentation in the...
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Block Gingerbread
Recreating a Nineteenth Century Dundee GingerbreadHalfpenny (above) and penny (below) wooden gingerbread blocks formerly belonging to Dundee baker John Scrymgeour (1827-1881). Scrymgeour, who founded...
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Jaune Mange
Charlotte Mason's 1773 Jaune Mange made in the form of the sunWhen I was a child in the 1950s, a common sweet served at our school dinners was blancmange, a milk pudding thickened with cornflour, or...
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White Currants and Elderflowers
Some Culinary FootnotesIn my Northern garden the white currants are just ripening as the last of the elderflowers are openingFor those of you who research the history of food these days, you have a...
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Of Lumbard Pies, Green Puddings and Pennyroyal Dumplings
Pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium L.) has been used as a culinary and medicinal herb since antiquity. One of its popular English synonyms 'Pudding Grass' clearly indicates that this mint-like herb was a...
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A Swan Supper on the Thames
A swan pie I made for the exhibition 'London Eats Out' held at the Museum of London in 2000.I have just listened to a BBC radio news item about the remains of a mute swan discovered a few days ago on...
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Toad-in-a-Hole Biscuits and Friends
Some English biscuits from a recipe book published in the year of the French Revolution. Left: Toad in a Hole Biscuits, Top: Judge's Biscuits, Right: Fine Almond Faggots, Bottom: Yarmouth...
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Banqueting Stuffe To Go
I have just finished making a table full of early modern period sweetmeats for a BBC production which will chart the arrival of Renaissance culture in England. It will all be dispatched in some...
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Towards A True Twelfth Cake
A group of sugar cavalry officers parade round the Prince of Wales Feathers on top of a Regency period twelfth cakeIt seems ages since I had enough spare time to post on this blog. Since we are...
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My 2014 Cookery Courses
Learn to make a Yorkshire Christmas Pie on my A Taste of Christmas Past CourseBelow is the course diary for the period cookery courses I am offering in 2014. Click on the individual links to read more...
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2014 - Some Interesting Food History Conferences and Lectures
Twenty-Eighth Leeds Symposium on Food History and TraditionsSaturday 17th May 2014JACKS AND JAGGERSKitchen Technology in England from 1600 to the Second World War A Selection of Early Modern Period...
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Eat the Entire Creation if you dare ....
...but Beware of the Fatal Effects of GluttonyI have often thought that if the great biblical deluge had taken place in the eighteenth century and Noah had been an Englishman, all those creatures which...
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From Jardiniere to Satyr Pie
A copper jardiniere with a hidden historyNew insights into Britain's extraordinary culinary history sometimes turn up in quite unexpected ways. A few weeks ago a great friend of mine, the sharp eyed...
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Henry VIII's Jely Ypocras?
Some spices commonly used in the preparation of hippocras - starting in the left hand bottom corner and rotating clockwise - grains of paradise (referred to in the recipes quoted here as grains),...
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Eating Egypt
Pharaonical Feasts and a Regency GhostWilliam (Gugliamo) Jarrin (1784-1848). Stipple engraving (1820). I have not posted an article on this blog for ages. A number of demanding TV and museum projects...
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Mrs Agnes Marshall's Cucumber Ice Creams
Agnes Marshall's Parisian Cucumber Cream served on a base of nougat paste and pistachios glazed with boiled sugar. The highly realistic cucunber is flavoured with finely chopped angelica, pistachios...
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An Early Modern Christmas Party
Or The Pastry KunstkammerThe Burghley Nef. Nautilus shell with parcel-gilt silver mounts, raised, chased, engraved and cast, and pearls. France 1527-1528 Courtesy Victoria and Albert MuseumChristmas is...
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Some Christmas Night Caps
My favourite Christmas tipple - Punch Royal - but why the orange peel? Recipe and explanation below.I was recently given a small job by a television production company to check the historical accuracy...
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