December 31st, 1705: Catherine of Braganza, widow of Charles II whom she had married in 1662, died in Lisbon, Portugal. Most notably,...

December 30th, 1945, a cold Sunday morning, saw the cargo ship Tilapa docked in Bristol. It was carrying the first bananas to be seen in...

Origins Exactly how and when coffee was discovered is uncertain. A legend of its stimulating effects being identified in Ethiopia is...

The humble sausage The humble sausage is popular the world over with many nations and individual regions having their own characteristic...

The Lemon (Citrus limon) is a species of small evergreen tree in the flowering plant family Rutaceae. Believed to be native to South...

In Britain, many of the foods we eat today, and perhaps take for granted, were actually introduced from further afield during the Roman...

The popular representation of Roman dining is that of reclining on benches enjoying a buffet style meal. This image, however, only really...

It may be reassuring to know that the wine gods continue to flourish. While many narcotics are now illegal, the Roman god of wine Bacchus...

In 'Kitchenalia' we introduce objects from different historical periods, discover a bit about their history and find out how each was...

Silphium may have looked unimpressive, with stout roots, stumpy leaves and bunches of small yellow flowers, but it was much prized in the...

Some friends of ours have made some sweet chestnut flour and, knowing that our first passion is for Roman history, asked us for some...

As mammals, humans are all supposed to be lactose intolerant and yet more than 70% of western Europeans have no problem drinking milk and...

The history of the humble chicken's arrival in Britain remains a bit of a puzzle. Found everywhere today, just where did these birds...

We keep hearing mention of pasta's ancient Roman roots, but as far as we can ascertain pasta in the form familiar to us today simply did...

Introduction  As the name implies, blood sausages [1] are sausages filled with blood that is cooked or dried and mixed with a filler...

The spice trade has a long and lucrative ancestry.As early as 2,000 BC cinnamon and cassia (or Chinese cinnamon) were being imported into...

The chilli pepper (from Nahuatl chīlli/ˈt͡ʃiːli/) is the fruit of plants from the genus Capsicum, members of the nightshade family,...

There was great excitement during Easter 2019 with the announcement of the first secure dating of a rabbit bone, found in Britain, to the...

In an earlier post (Daily Meals in Tudor England) mention was made of 'Collop Monday', the day before Shrove Tuesday, in connection with...

Tastes Of History started as experts in recreating Roman era cuisine. The history of food, however, is one of continuity and so our...