The Old Foodie

I know I promised some vaguely Thanksgiving-related postings this week, but I seem to have been waylaid by my little grandsons the last coup...

Before I leave the subject of butter entirely, I want to briefly ponder on the nature of lemon butter. Where I grew up, we had a spread for ...

The mango season is just getting underway here in sunny Queensland, and if the early samples are anything to go by, a lusciously sweet and s...

I came across a new (to me) old word the other day. I was delighted, of course, as I love rediscovering old words. The fun was enhanced enor...

I bought a jar of chilli jam at the Farmer’s Market recently, from a new stallholder, and very good it is too. I can still remember the fir...

When I first started this blog, the theme was a very broad interpretation of “What Happened on this Day in Food History”. The source of i...

This week I want to have fun with ‘kitchen’ words – starting with ‘kitchen’ itself. I also intend, for no reason other than writer’s privile...

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

Yesterday’s story got me thinking about jam. Specifically, about the word “jam”. All sorts of versions of sugared fruit had been around for ...

Yesterday’s post got me thinking about the interpretation of Indian food by representatives of Her Majesty's Empire when they returned t...

I have never suffered from a chutney emergency, but in case I ever do, I will go immediately to The Truth and Mirror Cookery Book (Australi...

Here is a wonderful story about how we came to eat sweet preserves with meat. Is it true or not? who cares? I am saying it is story, not his...

Housekeepers and cookbook writers of olden times were much more pre-occupied with preserving food than they are today. Every item of food wa...

I think I will start a campaign to bring back lovely lost old food words. Yesterday's dunelm will be somewhere on the list, but the firs...

Today is Martinmas, the feast day of St. Martin – and in the northern hemisphere it is the official end of the harvest season. It was the d...

Yesterday’s story about preserving juice for use in Punch all the year round made me think of the other end of the olden-day preserving rout...

With the Big Election Race underway, a number of bloggers with a food history bent have been discussing Election Cakes (see a previous post...

The first mangoes are here in the shops in Queensland . I hope for a prolific local crop and therefore ridiculously cheap fruit as last year...

We do eat with our eyes, which is partly why cooks like to play with food colours. What our eyes perceive as delicious is however, to some e...

I am in Bath , in Somerset – an enchanting town with a rich Roman heritage and some beautiful Georgian architecture. Say ‘ Bath ’ and it i...