English Food: A Social History of England Told Through the Food on Its Tables

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I think we’ve come to your final history of food book recommendation. This is The English Housewife by Gervase Markham, dating from 1615. I mean, it’s a horrible illness. Not only is it physically incredibly painful, and unbelievably exhausting—like a dreadfully bad Covid—but the worst thing about it is that healed wounds open up again. So it has this spectral quality in a military outfit. The leg that got shot suddenly reopens and starts bleeding again. Things like that. What a delectable banquet of a book this is… This magnificently readable and engaging book (which is also very generously illustrated) sets the record straight and should whet appetites for the attentive, seasonal cooking and gamier flavours of the past” - Literary Review Basically, Canadian wheatbelt flour is a shortcut. And like all shortcuts, it has its disadvantages. It’s been argued that the higher gluten content is one of the reasons that we’re seeing so much celiac disease and so much gluten intolerance. People’s systems have just been overloaded with gluten that they are not genetically equipped to handle—in the way that many Asians can’t tolerate dairy. Three Tragedies by Renaissance Women, an edition of Iphigeneia at Aulis, by Lady Jane Lumley, The Tragedie of Antonie, by Lady Mary Sidney, The Tragedy of Mariam, by Elizabeth Cary, Viscountess Falkland ( Penguin, 1998)

Let them eat prawn cocktail crisps - UnHerd Let them eat prawn cocktail crisps - UnHerd

Purkiss uses food to chart changing views on class, gender and tradition. She looks at historical quirks such as trial by ordeal of bread, a fondness for ‘small beer’ and a war-time ice-cream substitute called ‘hokey pokey’ made from parsnips. And she explores the development of the coffee trade and coffee houses where views were exchanged on politics and culture, looks at the first breeders of beef and how they triggered the Glencoe Massacre, and explains why toast is as English as the chalk cliffs. Lulah Ellender and Marc Hamer Chaired by Matthew Stadlen Finding Home in the Garden: Grounding and Spring Rain Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 12:00pm Thu 30 Thursday, 30 March 2023 See this eventSo that kind of story about marginal subsistence and starvation got me really interested in food history. Which I thought was dispiritingly top-down.

Diane Purkiss’s fantasy dinner: chefs from history show off Diane Purkiss’s fantasy dinner: chefs from history show off

I have a story that explains this, although it’s not from the book. I had an acquaintance, who used to be senior in the Food Commission. She taught an adult cookery class in England, and at the end of the course, she said to the women: ‘To celebrate we will make a cake next week, so everyone remember to bring in a tin.’ Nothing more than that. The next week, they all came in with their idea of a tin. One brought a beer can, another brought a washed-out tin of sardines. They didn’t really know what a cake tin was, nor did they have the money to go and buy one. This was only in the 1990s. Your latest publication is English Food: A People’s History. I found it interesting that you are a professor of English literature, but you write history books. My undergraduate degree was dual English and History. In various ways, so was my doctorate. The short answer is that teaching English literature is really interesting, because the answer is always different, while in history a thorough look at what’s available to you could lead you to the same answer every time. I find that less interesting than teaching Shakespeare. Every literary festival stays in an author’s mind for slightly individual reasons. I shall remember the Oxford festival for:If you do nothing, you will be auto-enrolled in our premium digital monthly subscription plan and retain complete access for 65 € per month. Diane Purkiss is a Professor of English Literature at Oxford and fellow of Keble College. She is the author of the much-admired The Witch in History, Troublesome Things, and the acclaimed history, The English Civil War.