The Old Foodie

I apologise in advance to my friends from the Indian subcontinent, for the information in this post. Please do not shoot the historical mess...

How is it that soy sauce became an important ingredient in nineteenth century English cookery? Englishmen had certainly developed a taste f...

Yesterday’s source - Pharmaceutical Formulas - A Book of Useful Recipes for the Drug Trade , published in 1898 – provides much other food f...

I never tire of the ‘food as medicine’ theme. It is an ancient theme indeed - and one which has been undergoing something of a revival over ...

In December 1911, King George V of England visited Nepal, and during the visit a shooting expedition was organised by the Maharajah and his ...

The “English” sauce today is Oxford Sauce , and it presents an interesting challenge. It is commonly said to be the “traditional” sauce for ...

Today we continue on our quest to unravel some of the secrets of “English Sauces” – that is, sauces apparently named for English towns and c...

An atmosphere of political correctness makes us shudder at some phrases – food phrases included – nowadays, doesn’t it? Ugly phrases with na...

Yesterday’s story suggested nasturtiums instead of capers to make a sauce to accompany mutton, so has given me an opportunity to address a n...

May 16 ... A reader has taken me to task (in the nicest possible way – thanks Sandra), for suggesting Dr Kitchener invented spice mixes. S...

May 15 ... Dr. William Kitchiner and his Magazine of Taste is our inspiration for the week. It proves that spice mixes are not a new id...