The Old Foodie

One of the cookery books I recently quoted from used the term avoirdupois in relation to a quantity of some staple ingredient. It reminded ...

Today is my birthday, so birthday food is my topic. On Thursday I am off to the beach for ten days with my grandsons (and their parents), so...

December 8th in 1542 was the birthday of Mary, Queen of Scots. Mary Stewart, as we know, became Queen of Scotland at the age of six days upo...

A while back we considered ambrosia , the mythical Food of the Gods, as interpreted by earthly mortals in a variety of recipes across histor...

Once upon a time, I used to think that a ‘stew’ was a utilitarian family dish that was cooked on the top of the stove, and a casserole was a...

Onions have been human food for millennia, and perhaps familiarity has bred, if not contempt, then disinterest. Food fashions come and go –...

My current favourite phrase for using up leftovers is ‘repurposing food’ (my previous favourite was ‘secondary cookery.’) A large part of t...

Any cheese that is not intended to be eaten very fresh (eg ricotta), is, therefore, by startlingly obvious definition, matured for some time...

In the spirit of the theme for the week, I have searched hard for a historic contribution from male family members. In previous posts we hav...

There is one in every circle, isn’t there? The hostess-with-the-mostess whose mission in life is to out-manoeuvre and over-impress all her w...

I doubt if anyone would call oatmeal ‘exciting’, but it is certainly interesting – if only in a historic and linguistic sort of way. Oatmeal...

Those of you who read this blog regularly will be fully aware that I love words – particularly odd food words. I have an interesting and mys...

Today is the third birthday of The Old Foodie. How Amazing. It started off as a little experiment for fun, and here we all are, 863 posts la...

Before I fold away this idea of more meals in the day (temporarily that is, I have more meals for you yet) – I want to talk about second sup...

The Oxford Symposium is over for another year, and a fantastic event it was indeed. It manages the most egalitarian atmosphere of any 'c...

I haven’t started a story with ‘On This Day’ for a while, which is a bit remiss of me as that was the daily theme when this blog started...

July 14 ... Just a simple little story today, friends. A little musing on the naming of dishes. Once upon a time, when the language of m...

July 3 … The Old Foodie Spouse often comments, in response to one of my stories, that I am “having a go at” (that is, “taking the mi...

June 12 ... A young Scot called James Anderson McLauchlan was bound for Australia aboard the good ship City of Adelaide on this ...

April 24 … Clement Freud, grandson of Sigmund, politician, celebrity chef, restaurateur, and food writer was born on this day in 1924. H...