Comfortably Hungry

By: Sam Bilton
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  • Summary

  • Welcome to the comfortably hungry podcast where yesterday’s dinner is tomorrow’s history. If you’re a peckish person who is curious about the history of food and drink, then you’re in the right place. I’m Sam Bilton a food historian, writer and cook and each season I will be joined by some hungry guests to discuss a variety topics centred around a specific theme. As a former supper club host I’m always intrigued to know what people like to eat. So to whet everyone’s appetites I have invited my guests to contribute a virtual dish with them inspired by today’s topic.

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Episodes
  • S3 E3: Come Die with Me

    S3 E3: Come Die with Me
    Oct 31 2024
    In Episode 3 I explore how food and death have been intrinsically linked over the centuries focusing on two extraordinary funeral feasts. First of all, I am joined by food historian and chef Jay Reifel to dissect the Emperor Domitian’s famous black banquet complete with tombstone party favours. Then historian Giles MacDonogh and I visit pre-Revolutionary France where a young gourmand, Grimod de la Reynière, hosts his own dark repast much to his parent’s chagrin.Useful LinksYou can find Jay Reifel on Instagram @jayreifel or visit his website https://jayreifel.com for more information on his work and his book A History of the World in 10 Dinners: 2000 years, 100 recipes (2023) which features his take on Domitian’s feast including the spectacular chicken dish at the top of this post.You can find Giles McDonogh on X @GilesMacDonogh or you can find him on Susbtack at Giles MacDonogh. Details of Giles’ 15 books are available on his website http://www.macdonogh.co.uk/books.htm including Grimod de la Reynière’s biography A Palate in Revolution (1987)You may also want to check out A Question of Death, a newsletter and podcast from Rachel Mosses which explores our relationship with death through respectful enquiry.Suggested Reading* ‘Dio Cassius’ Roman historian see the entry on Britannica* An Alphabet for Gourmets by MFK Fisher (Fisher deals with funeral food in the chapter ‘S is for Sad’)* Almanach des Gourmands by Grimod de la Reynière (this is a digitised version of the 1904 reprint of the 1803 edition)* ‘Parentalia - Festival of the Ancestors’ by Lesley Laws on the Vindolanda Charitable Trust website* Feast by Nigella Lawson (2006)* ‘Black Banquets and Funeral Feasts’ in Gastronomica, The Journal of Food & Culture 12:4 (Berkeley, California: University of California Press, Winter 2012), pp 96-103.* The Rituals of Dinner by Margaret Visser (1991)Don’t forget you can follow me on Instagram or X @mrssbilton or find out more about my work on sambilton.com.A huge thank you to Thomas Ntinas of The Delicious Legacy for doing the sound mixing on this season of the podcast. Get full access to Comfortably Hungry at comfortablyhungry.substack.com/subscribe
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    55 mins
  • S3 E2: Burnt Cakes and the (not so) Dark Ages

    S3 E2: Burnt Cakes and the (not so) Dark Ages
    Oct 17 2024
    In Episode 2 I am joined by Emma Kay a Historian and Archaeologist, who specialises in food history. We discuss Emma’s book on Anglo-Saxon culinary history, Fodder & Drincan, and discover why the so called ‘dark ages’ between the Romans quitting Britain in the 5th century CE and the Norman conquest in 1066 are not as gloomy on the food front as people once thought.Useful LinksEmma is the author of numerous books on culinary history including Fodder & Drincan: Anglo Saxon Culinary History. You can find her on Instagram and X. She is currently digitising her vast collection of antique kitchen equipment which will soon be available on museumofkitchenalia.co.uk.Emma is also on YouTube: Food & Histo-Archaeology with Emma KayEmma’s next book Wortes and All: Medieval Cooking will be available from Amberley Publishing in April 2025. Anglo Saxon sites in the UK include Sutton Hoo or West Stow Village, in Suffolk. Or visit the British Museum to see the famous Sutton Hoo helmet pictured above.Vikings, all episodes streaming on Prime.Suggested ReadingIf you want to find out more about this era Emma recommends the following books:* Anglo-Saxon Chronicle* Monasteriales Indicia: The Anglo-Saxon Monastic Sign Language and Anglo-Saxon Farms and Farming by Debby Banham* Beowulf* Cambridge University Press have a number of books available in their Anglo Saxon Studies series.* Wortcunning and Starcraft (3 Vols) by Oswald Cockayne* Christine Fell specialised in Anglo-Saxon and Viking history and was an Old English specialist * The Roman Cookery Book (a translation of De re coquinaria, aka Apicius) by Barbara Flower and Elizabeth Rosenbaum * Anglo Saxon Food and Drink by Ann Hagen* Cooking Apicius: Roman Recipes for Today by Sally Grainger* Constance Hieatt has written many books on medieval food including Pleyn Delit: Medieval Cookery for Modern Cooks* Baghdad Cookery Book by Charles Perry * A variety of translated works by the Icelandic poet and historian Snorri Sturluson can be found on Project Gutenberg* In Search of the Dark Ages by Michael WoodDon’t forget you can follow me on Instagram or X @mrssbilton or find out more about my work on sambilton.com.A huge thank you to Thomas Ntinas of The Delicious Legacy for doing the sound mixing on this season of the podcast. Get full access to Comfortably Hungry at comfortablyhungry.substack.com/subscribe
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    42 mins
  • S3 E1: Dark Food

    S3 E1: Dark Food
    Oct 3 2024

    In Episode 1 I’m joined by my fellow A is for Apple podcast host Dr Alessandra Pino who is an expert on the intersection of the Gothic, food and cultural memory. We talk about her theory on ‘dark food’ in literature, an original concept that provides an insight into the legacies of slavery and its relationship to capitalism, in the context of Cristina Garcia’s novel Dreaming in Cuban (1992). We also chat about the long awaited A Gothic Cookbook, which is finally out of its ‘coffin’.

    Useful Links

    You can find Allie on Instagram @sasacharlie and X @foodforflo or discover more about her work on her website. Allie also co-hosts the Fear Feasts podcast.

    A Gothic Cookbook is published by Unbound and can be ordered direct from their website. For more information on Allie’s theory of dark food see her essay on the subject in The Palgrave Companion to Memory and Literature.

    Professor Lorna Piatti Farnell founded the Gothic Association of New Zealand and Australia.

    Roland Barthes was a French essayist and social and literary critic.

    Suggested Reading

    * Babette’s Feast by Isak Dinesen

    * Dark Tourism by Malcolm Foley and J. John Lennon

    * Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia

    * Sweetness & Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History by Sidney Mintz

    * ‘Exploring the Role of Food in Gothic Literature’ by Alessandra Pino in Petits Propos Culinaires 129, Autumn 2024

    * Mind in Society: Development of Higher Psychological Processes by L. S. Vygotsky

    Don’t forget you can follow me on Instagram or X @mrssbilton or find out more about my work on sambilton.com.

    A huge thank you to Thomas Ntinas of The Delicious Legacy for doing the sound mixing on this season of the podcast.



    Get full access to Comfortably Hungry at comfortablyhungry.substack.com/subscribe
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    43 mins

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