"Kitchenalia" introduces objects from different historical periods, discovers a bit about their history and how each was made. We look at how, through our practical experiments, we have learnt to best use them, and offer some recipes for you to try at home. Today's object is the Roman testum.

"Kitchenalia" introduces objects from different historical periods, discovers a bit about their history and how each was made. We look at how, through our practical experiments, we have learnt to best use them, and offer some recipes for you to try at home. Today's object is the Roman mortarium.

Discover the origins of the tradition of wassailing, typically celebrated on Twelfth Night.

Recipes for a medieval feast.

What to do with leftover lamb from Sunday's roast? Obviously, make an 18th-century curry. The version below is a variation of one by Hannah Glasse (1708-1770) for a mild chicken curry. Our recipe uses a delicious curry mix from The Copper Pot, purveyors of fine historic foods.

Tastes Of History recently purchased a new toy: The Spring Oven. With ancient Greco-Roman forebears, and looking very much like a North African tajine, this [slip cast] terracotta creation is designed to steam bake bread at home for 'bakery style results'.

Placenta cake is not what you might at first think. To the ancient Romans, placenta, like its erstwhile fellow, libum, were cakes made with honey to be used in important religious services. Here's a recipe to recreate this delicious dish.

What have the Romans ever done for us? How about they created the earliest known recipe for burgers.

In another first for Tastes Of History, we travelled to Osborne House on the Isle of Wight to support English Heritage's "Victorian Christmas" in 2019. Our aim was to provide a sampling menu of food and drink of the period for visitors to try. Here, then, are the recipes.

Each year English Heritage remember the pivotal battle that took place on October 14th, 1066 and changed the course of English history. Here are some Anglo-Saxon recipes fit for any warrior. 

Tastes Of History was delighted to be part of the Bosworth Medieval Festival in 2019 at the brilliant Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre. Here, then, are the recipes visitors could sample.

In an earlier post ("Daily Meals in Tudor England") mention was made of "Collop Monday", the day before Shrove Tuesday, in connection with the origins of breakfast.  More recently we produced "Scotch Collops" for English Heritage's "Elizabethan Pageant" at Kenilworth Castle, but what is a "collop"?

The first episode of Britain's Most Historic Towns aired on April 8th, 2018 on Channel 4.  We had the pleasure of working alongside the team from IWC Media to produce the Roman dining experience for host, Prof. Alice Roberts, and West Cheshire Museums curator, Liz Montgomery.

Although World War II began in September 1939, it was not until January 1940 that rationing in Britain began. Cooks had to become increasingly inventive so here are some wartime recipes you might wish to recreate.

For the large majority of people living in the Bronze Age to the middle Iron Age, meals were commonly stews, porridges and soups cooked in open pots, probably accompanied by bread. Here, then, are some recipes fit for communal feasting.

There are many recipes from Georgian Britain that could be adapted to recreate your very own pirate banquet. We have selected just a few to whet your appetite. So, eat up m'hearties and try some Tastes Of History from the Golden Age of Piracy...Yo Ho!

Hosting your own medieval feast may require some effort, but creating the right atmosphere and dressing the table need not be too difficult. Light some candles, let the wine, beer or mead flow freely, add a little background mediaeval music, and enjoy these recipes.

Many of the Roman recipes we have reproduced have been taken from “De re coquinaria” (“On the Subject of Cooking”). This is a collection of menus, dishes and ingredients attributed to a Roman author (or authors) known to us as “Apicius”.

Given their Mediterranean roots, Roman cuisine was influenced by, and in turn influenced, the ancient Greeks.

In October 2017 and again in February 2018, we stretched our culinary expertise further back in time to the Neolithic period to support English Heritage’s “Feast Exhibition” at Stonehenge. Here are the recipes.