The Old Foodie

Some light was shed on the minor mystery of the Queen’s “mouth” in Friday’s story by a commenter who pointed out that the French term for th...

It goes without saying that colour is important in food. As far as vegetables are concerned, nutritionists tell us that the intensely-colour...

Next week I think we will hurtle back into the sixteenth century for some good food ideas (or at least interesting food ideas), but today is...

Today we go back in time to the seventeenth century – to 1674 to be exact, the year that the Treaty of Westminster recognised the inhabitant...

October 29 ... It may be true that you can judge a book by its cover, but what of the days before colour printing and graphic designers and ...

Today, April 4th … In 1658 Samuel Pepys was “cut for the stone” – that is, he had surgery for a bladder stone. It was a common medical probl...

Today, March 16th … The novelist Sybille Bedford was born on this day in 1911. Her surname was a legacy of her brief marriage to an Englishm...

Today, February 14th ... On this St Valentine’s day, for your reading (if not eating) pleasure, I give you a 16th century take on aphrodisia...

Today, January 25th … Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn were married secretly on this day in 1533 by the Bishop of Litchfield, which gives us an ex...

Today, January 11th… The novelist Thomas Hardy died on this day in 1928, and forty years later a commemorative ale was released in his honou...

Today, January 6th … Today is Twelfth Day, or Epiphany, or Three Kings Day, whichever you prefer. It is the end of the traditional Christmas...