What’s this book? (Food & History)

Lizzie I’m in the same boat as you. And I’m still not sure how to do it.
I’ve only just learnt how to post images from the net.
I had to have a tutorial on here (thanks Lucca and Callistemon)
The other day my phone (brand new, all singing etc) wouldn’t send texts.
The advice was to turn it off and on again; but I didn’t know how to turn the blessed thing off

MaizieD

^not sure how to do links)^

Copy the page's address from the address bar and post it into your message. Gnet automatically publishes it as a clickable link . It's easy.

Thanks - I’ll give that a go next time

Vegetables boiled to extinction, anybody?
With a pinch of bicarbonate of soda to keep cabbage or sprouts green.

I'm sure I read years ago that we can absorb more Vit A from carrots if they're well cooked.
But don't quote me.

I remember James Herriott wrote in one of his books that a grateful farmer's wife offered him a good meal of bacon after he'd been to treat their animals.
She put a plate of thick white fat in front of him.
(It turned my stomach to type that!)

I seem to remember Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall doing something like this a few years ago.

Loads of copies of ‘Swindled’, both new and used, for sale on Abe Books.

It certainly did used to depend on where you lived. One of my favourite books is "A star called Henry" by Roddy Doyle. It's about a young boy who gets involved in the Easter Risings of 1916 and runs away to the country. He had never been out of Dublin before and found a bolthole in a farmhouse where the people were friendly to the cause. He was given a simple meal of cabbage and bacon or similar and was amazed at how tasty it was.

I would have recommended the Dorothy Hartley, but everyone got in before me!

I'm sure that the tastiness of your diet depended a lot on where you lived.
Even in the 60s, when I went to London, I was aware of how miserable a lot of the 'fresh' food seemed. People seemed to have mostly tinned fruit & veg - and I was astonished at how many made their tea with condensed milk!
Strangely, by the 70s, as supermarkets became established, it then felt as if the countryside was lagging behind.
Now, it feel more even.

Oops. Proof reading fail.. wasn't the norm...
{blush}

While food history is interesting I don't think we should forget that lovely tasty well cooked food was the norm in the past. There were a lot of poor people around with very restricted diets and limited access to foods that could well be adulterated.

When we're thinking of 'traditional' cookery there are strands we might like to forget.

Vegetables boiled to extinction, anybody?

I was watching food historian Ivan Day a few years ago he was preparing food from this book. It s very interesting A Boke of Gode Cookery James Matterers a history of food. It is the correct spelling from the time of publication.

Sorry, 'paste', not 'post'.

not sure how to do links)

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Sorry, the link doesn't work

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

I'm sure I remember a TV programme on a similar theme FannyCornforth

If only I could remember it

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202108/medium-98594-b13227cb-fd82-4640-9e39-aace4c122157.jpeg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202108/medium-284138-ff62788d-946e-45c1-9c9d-62badae842f7.jpeg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202108/medium-986704-82a827ee-52cb-4603-a691-2a9ff4c8348f.jpeg

I found these interesting (I’ll put pics / not sure how to do links)

FannyCornforth

Thank you for your recommendation nannarose.
I will look for the Florence White book.

Keep the food / history book ideas coming please!

Oh dear, despite my resolution I just bought it. It's available second hand from lots of outlets. I bought it from World of Books, £7.99 + free postage. Site said it had 3 copies (only 2 now!)

I’m wrong - it is still in print (a more palatable- geddit?- £9.99)

Bee Wilson is the daughter of AN Wilson

Thank you for your recommendation nannarose.
I will look for the Florence White book.

Keep the food / history book ideas coming please!

I think that I’ve found it!

‘Swindled: The Dark History of Food Fraud, from Poisoned Candy to Counterfeit Coffee’ by Bee Wilson.

It was first published in 2008.
It seems that it isn’t in print anymore, and it’s not available on kindle. I was even expecting it to be on Audible…
I’m very surprised as it won lots of awards.
There is only one second hand copy available, and it’s £26.59!

Actually, I think I had better stay away from this thread as I will Want To Buy all the recommended books and I have far too many already ?

Good Things in England sounds very tempting

I too, love Food in England (as my copy is called). I suggest contacting Books for Cooks. They don't do an 'online' catalogue, but if you speak to them they will usually find what you are looking for.

www.booksforcooks.com/
I also have Good Things in England by Florence White (1932) that I think was referenced both by Dorothy Hartley and the book that Fanny is talking about - I heard it on the radio, but can't remember its title.

Thank you M0nica that looks excellent.
Yes, it is Maizie, in paperback and on kindle, but I think that I might buy a secondhand hardback. It’s a huge tome!

M0nica

FannyCornforth not the book you are looking for. But I would highly recommend 'Food in Britain' by Dorothy Hartley. It was first published in 1954 and hasn't been out of print since.

Hartley wrote wonderful stuff about the agriculture, husbandry, cooking, homemaking, and eating of England from the Neolithic Age onwards, concentrating mostly on medieval and early modern food practices that continued and/or were adapted, mostly in country foodways, through the 19th and 20th centuries. This is from a quote from a review and I couldn't put it better, so haven't tried to.

I read and reread this regularly. One part that stays with me is the instructions and diagrams of how the bargees would cook the whole family meal, main course and pudding, in a bucket, carefully layering it so no one part contaminates another. The book is full of such revelations.

When he was staying with us my DF, then in his 90s, picked the book up and read it cover to cover.

More agreement, MOnica. It's a wonderful book. I cherish my copy. But is it still obtainable?

Looking forward to seeing Ladyleftfieldlover's list..