Comfortably Hungry

Ahead of my discussion with Jennie Hood and Professor Giles Gasper at the Serve It Forth Food History Festival about how the Normans changed the way we eat, I had a chat with Kevin Booth, English Heritage’s Head Curator of Collections, about what the skeleton of ‘ Conquest Man ’ can tell us about the diet and health of the English at the time of the Norman invasion. Facial depiction by Face Lab , Liverpool John Moore’s University. Credit: English Heritage There’s also a little taster of the other courses my co-curators ( A Curious Appetite , Neil Buttery and Thom Ntinas ) are serving up during the festival which features Eleanor Barnett , Paul Couchman , Sally Grainger , Sudi Pigott and Alexandra Sills . Tickets for the online festival are available here . The Serve It Forth Food History Festival is made possible with the generous support of our sponsors ckbk , Steenbergs , Regency Fiction Writers , Replica , Blackfriars Restaurant and Lindisfarne Mead . If you happen to be in or near Barton on Humber in Lincolnshire on 20 September 2026 between 12pm and 4pm you can see Conquest Man’s skeleton and find out more about this project at St Peter’s Church. If you’d like to get a sense of what life was like for Conquest Man and his contemporaries during the Norman Conquest, Battle Abbey in East Sussex is hosting its annual reenactment of the Battle of Hastings on 10 and 11 October 2026, the week before Serve It Forth. Hundreds of reenactors take part, recreating Norman and Saxon camps and giving visitors an insight into everyday life for people almost 1,000 years ago. Tickets are now available from www.english-heritage.org.uk/battle If you enjoyed the podcast you can become a paid subscriber to the Comfortably Hungry Substack (which means you’ll receive additional content) or show your appreciation by leaving a small, one off tip here. Don’t forget you can follow me on Instagram or Bluesky @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. Sound effects and music provided by Zapsplat and Pond5 . Comfortably Hungry is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit comfortablyhungry.substack.com/subscribe

In this extra helping of the Comfortably Hungry podcast I chat to chef Jago Rackham and author of To Entertain: Instructions for a Dinner Party about the complexities (or not) of hosting a dinner party. We chat about stuffy Victorian etiquette manuals (which Jago’s book most definitely isn’t), his Grandmother’s account book and why plating up à la Russe is overrated. If you enjoyed the podcast you can become a paid subscriber to the Comfortably Hungry Substack (which means you’ll receive additional content) or show your appreciation by leaving a small, one off tip here. Useful Links To Entertain: Instructions for a Dinner Party is available now from lots of great independent booksellers (and the other usual suspects). You can find Jago on Substack and Instagram . I will be appearing at the Ludlow Food Festival (as will Jago) and the Gloucester History Festival later this month and will be one of the hosts of the Serve It Forth Food History Festival on 17 October 2026. Suggested Reading There are lots of Victorian etiquette manuals available online at Internet Archive if you want to see examples of the advice that used to be dished out, such as: * The Habits of Good Society (1859) * Host And Guest : A Book About Dinners, Dinner-Giving, Wines, And Desserts by A. V. Kirwan (1864) * Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens (1864) - not an etiquette book but his characters Mr & Mrs Veneering are perfect examples of the sort of people that these books were aimed at. Don’t forget you can follow me on Instagram or Bluesky @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. Sound effects and music provided by Zapsplat and Pond5 . Comfortably Hungry is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit comfortablyhungry.substack.com/subscribe

In this bonus episode I plunge into the history of the anchovy - the little fish with a big flavour with food writer Sudi Pigott . We discuss how Sudi became an anchovy evangelist, explore the lives of the women ( sobadoras ) who are vital to the anchovy industry and lots more. If you enjoyed the podcast you can become a paid subscriber to the Comfortably Hungry Substack (which means you’ll receive additional content) or show your appreciation by leaving a small, one off tip here. Useful Links Consider the Anchovy is available from all good independent bookshops (and the usual big book suppliers but they don’t need a plug here). Don’t forget to visit Sudi’s website for more details on her work and events plus follow her anchovy travels on Instagram and Substack . You’ll find Sudi at festivals in Abergevenny , Chiswick and Folkestone later this year. And I will be appearing at the Ludlow Food Festival and the Gloucester History Festival . You can find out more about the Serve It Forth Food History Festival on 17 October 2026 here . * Consider the Anchovy Dinner at Caldesi Restaurant in London * A nchovy Festival and the Anchovy Tapa Trail in L’Escala (Spain) * Museo Dell’acciuga in Aspra (Sicily) * Anchoas Hazas Don’t forget you can follow me on Instagram or Bluesky @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. Sound effects and music provided by Zapsplat and Pond5 . Comfortably Hungry is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit comfortablyhungry.substack.com/subscribe

In Part 2 of my deep dive into the history of macaroni and cheese with culinary historian Karima Moyer-Nocchi, author of The Epic History of Mac and Cheese, we chat about colonial FOMO, the macaroni fashion craze and debunk a stubborn gastro myth concerning Mac ‘n’ cheese’s popularity in the US. You can catch me at the Ludlow Food Festival on Friday 11 September where I’ll be discussing what foods were served in castles over the centuries in a live A is for Apple podcast with my co-hosts Alessandra Pino of A Curious Appetite and Neil Buttery of the British Food History podcast. If you enjoyed the podcast you can become a paid subscriber to the Comfortably Hungry Substack (which means you’ll receive additional content) or show your appreciation by leaving a small, one off tip here. Useful Links You can find Karima on Instagram and don’t forget to check out her website, The Eternal Table . Karima’s books include: * The Epic History of Mac and Cheese ( 2026) * The Eternal Table: A Cultural History of Food in Rome (Big City Food Biographies) with Giancarlo Rolandi (2019) * Chewing the Fat: An Oral History of Italian Foodways from Fascism to Dolce Vita (2015) Suggested Reading * A complete system of cookery by William Verrall (1759) - the White Hart inn in Lewes where he served as chef is still open today! * La cuisiniere bourgeoise by Joseph Menon (1771) - you can find a later English translation here . Don’t forget you can follow me on Instagram or Bluesky @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. Sound effects and music provided by Zapsplat and Pond5 . Comfortably Hungry is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit comfortablyhungry.substack.com/subscribe

July 14 is National Macaroni and Cheese day! To mark the occasion I thought it would be fun to delve into the history of Mac ‘n’ Cheese with culinary historian Karima Moyer-Nocchi, author of The Epic History of Mac and Cheese. In Part 1, Karima and I explore the antecedents of this iconic pasta dish and how it found its way to England to develop into a recipe fit for medieval kings complete with a liberal sprinkling of spices. Part 2 will follow soon! If you enjoyed the podcast you can become a paid subscriber to the Comfortably Hungry Substack (which means you’ll receive additional content) or show your appreciation by leaving a small, one off tip here. Useful Links You can find Karima on Instagram and don’t forget to check out her website, The Eternal Table . Karima’s books include: * The Epic History of Mac and Cheese ( 2026) * The Eternal Table: A Cultural History of Food in Rome (Big City Food Biographies) with Giancarlo Rolandi (2019) * Chewing the Fat: An Oral History of Italian Foodways from Fascism to Dolce Vita (2015) Suggested Reading Forme of Cury (1390) Don’t forget you can follow me on Instagram or Bluesky @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. Sound effects and music provided by Zapsplat and Pond5 . Comfortably Hungry is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit comfortablyhungry.substack.com/subscribe

In the last episode of Season 4 (sad but true) we plunge deep into the ‘underworld’, figuratively speaking, in our final quest for fresh water. I chat to Niyati Kukadia about Gujarat’s ancient vavs, or stepwells, once vital for supplying drinking water to communities in one of India’s most arid areas. I discover that these architectural wonders were so much more than a source of water. Historically the vavs provided women with a space and the freedom to socialise away from the patriarchal gaze. Although many vavs fell out of use during the British colonial era, they are once again being looked at as a potential solution to water scarcity in this region. Show Notes * Niyati runs adventure, wildlife and cultural tours through Soar Excursions , which include visits to the Rani ki Vav (Queen’s Well) mentioned in this podcast and pictured above. You can follow Soar Excursions on YouTube and Instagram . * Niyati also runs the Dang Forest Retreat in Gujarat. * You can read about Hyderabad’s newly restored Bansilalpet stepwell in this article on the Guardian website. * Rani Ki Vav (the Queen’s stepwell) at Patan, Gujarat * India’s Forgotten Stepwells by Victoria Lautman on the Arch Daily * Robert Macfarlane’s book Is A River Alive is a troubling but important read if you want to learn more about the pollution of India’s waterways. * Much Ado About Cooking event at the British Library Food Season Big Weekend on 13 June 2026. Even if in-person tickets have sold out you can buy an online ticket. If you enjoyed the podcast you can become a paid subscriber to the Comfortably Hungry Substack (which means you’ll receive additional content) or show your appreciation by leaving a small, one off tip here. Don’t forget you can follow me on Instagram or Bluesky @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. Sound effects and music provided by Zapsplat and Pond5 . Comfortably Hungry is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit comfortablyhungry.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode I head to the midlands town of Droitwich which was once a powerhouse in the English salt production industry (and arguably still is) on account of its brine springs. Helping me explore the town’s heritage are local historian Paul Jones LRPS and Steve from Churchfields salt works. If you enjoyed the podcast you can become a paid subscriber to the Comfortably Hungry Substack (which means you’ll receive additional content) or show your appreciation by leaving a small, one off tip here. Useful Links * For more details on the products produced by Churchfields visit their website * Paul Jones’ books include Droitwich Spa The Postcard Collection and Droitwich Through Time co-authored with Helen and Roger Peberdy. * Droitwich Heritage Centre * Droitwich Salt Festival * Ludlow Food Festival September 2026 * British Library Food Season 2026 (I’ll be taking part in a panel discussion on food in Shakespeare’s plays on 13 June at 4pm) Don’t forget you can follow me on Instagram or Bluesky @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. Sound effects and music provided by Zapsplat and Pond5 . Comfortably Hungry is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit comfortablyhungry.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode we’ll be journeying to pre-Colombian Mesoamerica with Dr Gabrielle Vail, Research Collaborator in the Department of Anthropology, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, to explore why the worship of rain gods like Chaak was so crucial to the Mayans and discover the role that food played in these ceremonies. You may also want to go back and listen to the first episode of Season 2 where I discuss the Day of the Dead celebrations with Maite Gomez-Rejón. If you enjoyed the podcast you can become a paid subscriber to the Comfortably Hungry Substack (which means you’ll receive additional content) or show your appreciation by leaving a small, one off tip here. Useful Links The Maya Hieroglyphic Codices website features a searchable translation and analysis of four codices (screenfold books) painted by Maya scribes before the Spanish conquest in the early 16th century. The codices contain information about Maya beliefs and rituals, as well as everyday activities, all framed within an astronomical and calendrical context. Gaby’s co-authored books include: The New Catalog of Maya Hieroglyphs, Volume Two By Martha J. Macri And Gabrielle Vail (2023) The New Catalog of Maya Hieroglyphs, Volume 3 By Matthew Looper, Yuriy Polyukhovych, Martha J. Macri And Gabrielle Vail (Out November, 2026) Madrid Codex: New Approaches to Understanding an Ancient Maya Manuscript (Mesoamerican Worlds: From the Olmecs to the Danzantes) Edited by Gabrielle Vail and Anthony Aveni (2009) Gaby also contributed a number of chapters to Chocolate: History, Culture, and Heritage edited by Louis Evan Grivetti, Howard-Yana Shapiro (2008) You can find out more about the Mayan Melipona Bee Sanctuary Project here . Suggested Reading * ‘ Water Rituals and Offerings to the Maya Rain Divinities ’ by Cristina Vidal Lorenzo and Patricia Horcjada-Campos in the European Journal of Science and Theology , April 2000, Vol.16, No.2, 111-123 * Chocolate in Mesoamerica : a cultural history of cacao ed. Dr Cameron McNeil (2006) * Water Beings: From Nature Beings to the Environmental Crisis by Veronica Strang (2023) * ‘Rain and Fertility Rituals in Postclassic Yucatan Featuring Chaak and Chak Chel’ by Gabrielle Vail and Christine Hernandez in The Ancient Maya of Mexico: Reinterpreting the Past of the Northern Maya Lowlands ed. Geoffrey E. Braswell Don’t forget you can follow me on Instagram or Bluesky @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. Sound effects and music provided by Zapsplat and Pond5 . Comfortably Hungry is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit comfortablyhungry.substack.com/subscribe

In episode 11, I visit Barry and Chris Flannaghan at the restored Burton watermill in Sussex. I discover how Burton Mill has evolved over the centuries but always using water as its source of power. The present 4 storey, 5 bay mill building dates from 1780 and was built on the foundations of an earlier forge or fulling mill (there is a record of a mill close to this site in the Domesday book). Today Burton Mill produces traditional stoneground flour and I get to taste the results! If you enjoyed the podcast you can become a paid subscriber to the Comfortably Hungry Substack (which means you’ll receive additional content) or show your appreciation by leaving a small, one off tip here. Useful Links * Burton Mill near Petworth is only open to the public a few times per year. Please check their website for details on their upcoming open days. * You can find Chris’ recipe for Irish tea bread here . * Mills Archive Trust * Sussex Industrial Archaeology Society Suggested Reading * Modern Cookery for Private Families by Eliza Acton (1845) * The English Bread Book by Eliza Acton (1857) * The Canterbury Tales by Geoffry Chaucer (Modern English Version, 1934) * English Bread and Yeast Cookery by Elizabeth David (1977) * Watermills, Kent and the borders of Sussex by Michael J Fuller and R J Spain1986 * Water in England by Dorothy Hartley (1964) * Puck’s Song by Rudyard Kipling (1906) * The English Huswife by Gervase Markham (originally published 1615) Don’t forget you can follow me on Instagram or Bluesky @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. Sound effects and music provided by Zapsplat and Pond5 . Comfortably Hungry is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit comfortablyhungry.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode I discover more about the role women played in the distilling of usquebaugh (or the water of life) and whisky in Scotland with Peter Gilchrist, food historian at the Tenement Kitchen and host of the Scottish Food History podcast. Peter and I are joined by Rosalind Erskine, Food and Drink Editor of the Scotsman and host of the Scran podcast. If you enjoyed the podcast you can become a paid subscriber to the Comfortably Hungry Substack (which means you’ll receive additional content) or show your appreciation by leaving a small, one off tip here. Useful Links Don’t forget to check out Peter’s website The Tenement Kitchen which explores Scottish folk cookery. You can also find him on Instagram , TikTok and YouTube . You can also listen to the Scottish Food History podcast which Peter hosts with Dr Lindsay Middleton here . You can find out more about Rosalind’s work on her website and also find her on Instagram . Ros is also the host of The Scotsman’s Scran Podcast . Walter Gregor Tonic Water who make the intriguing turnip tonic! Lots of whisky distilleries were mentioned in the podcast including Ardbeg which was run by early female distillers Flora and Margaret McDougall in the 1850s. You can listen to the talk I gave on the history of gingerbread at the 2025 Scottish Food History here along with Perilla Kinchen’s keynote talk on the influence of Catherine Cranston and her tearooms. Suggested Reading * Rebellious Spirits: The Illicit History of Booze in Britain by Ruth Ball (2015) * The English Housewife (1615) by Gervase Markham (ed. Michael R. Best, 1998) * With Faith and Physic: The Life of a Tudor Gentlewoman by Linda Pollock (1993) * ‘ The Early Use of Aqua Vitae in Scotland ’ in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (1916) * Water of Life: A History of Wine Distilling and Spirits 500 BC to AD 2000 by C. Anne Wilson (2006) Don’t forget you can follow me on Instagram or Bluesky @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. Sound effects and music provided by Zapsplat and Pond5 . Comfortably Hungry is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit comfortablyhungry.substack.com/subscribe

‘The Carp is a stately, a good, and a subtle fish, a fish that hath not (as it is said) been long in England’ Izaak Walton, The Complete Angler (1653) In this episode I explore the history of carp in Britain, one of the most widely distributed freshwater fish of all the British species, with angler and author John Langridge. By the seventeenth century carp recipes were frequently found in cookbooks of the period but it is seldom eaten now. As well as busting some myths about how the carp first came to Britain I try to find out why the carp leapt from the plate and back into the pond to become arguably the most popular coarse fish in the UK? If you enjoyed the podcast you can become a paid subscriber to the Comfortably Hungry Substack (which means you’ll receive additional content) or show your appreciation by leaving a small, one off tip here. Useful Links John’s books Aphrodite’s Carp and Fishing for Spanish Barbel are available from Medlar Press . Suggested Reading * A Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle, by Dame Juliana Berners (1496) * Natural history of British fishes by Frank Buckland (1883) * The Accomplisht Cook by Robert May (1685) * The Complete Angler by Izaak Walton (1653) Don’t forget you can follow me on Instagram or Bluesky @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. Sound effects and music provided by Zapsplat and Pond5 . Comfortably Hungry is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit comfortablyhungry.substack.com/subscribe

‘We do not know for how many millennia man has exploited the preservative properties of ice.’ Jill Norman in the introduction to Elizabeth David’s Harvest of the Cold Months ( 1996 ) In this episode I’m joined by food historian, writer, photographer, and culinary practitioner Dr Nader Mehravari, to find out more about the yakhchals of ancient Persia and how they were used to make and store ice. If you enjoyed the podcast you can become a paid subscriber to the Comfortably Hungry Substack (which means you’ll receive additional content) or show your appreciation by leaving a small, one off tip here. Useful Links You can follow Nader Mehravari on Instagram and find out more about his work with Persian food on his website . Nader’s Faloodeh recipe on Serious Eats Suggested Reading Travels in Persia by John Chardin (a seventeenth century French born traveler who wrote about ice in Persia) Harvest of the Cold Months by Elizabeth David (1996) Don’t forget you can follow me on Instagram or Bluesky @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. Sound effects and music provided by Zapsplat and Pond5 . Comfortably Hungry is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit comfortablyhungry.substack.com/subscribe

To celebrate International Women’s Day on 8 March 2026 in this episode we’ll be hearing the story of Eliza James, a remarkable woman who rose from poverty on the streets of Birmingham to become one of the most successful and wealthiest market traders at Covent Garden in London, all from selling bunches of watercress. So renowned was this woman that on her death in 1927 she was mourned as the watercress queen. Joining me to explore Eliza’s life are food historian Dr Alessandra Pino, food writer and former Director of London Farmers Markets Cheryl Cohen and Tom Amery, Managing Director of The Watercress Company. If you enjoyed the podcast you can become a paid subscriber to the Comfortably Hungry Substack (which means you’ll receive additional content) or show your appreciation by leaving a small, one off tip here. Don’t forget to rate and review the podcast on your preferred podcast platform as it will help other listeners discover Comfortably Hungry. Useful Links Find out more and follow my guests: Dr Alessandra Pino - website , Instagram and BlueSky . Don’t forget to check out our other podcast A is for Apple and Allie’s Fear Feasts . Also check out the fantastic Cheryl Queen of Markets on Substack. You can also find Cheryl on Instagram . Tom Amery is the Managing Director of The Watercress Company . You can find them on Instagram , YouTube and lots of delicious recipe ideas on their ‘foodie’ account @lovewatercress The annual Arlesford Watercress Festival takes place on 17 May 2026. You can travel to the event on part of the original Watercress Line (charges apply). Suggested Reading The Poor Watercress Sellers of London by John Groom (1872) London Labour and the London Poor - Henry Mayhew (1851) The Market Place And The Market’s Place In London, c. 1660 -1840 - PhD thesis by Colin Stephen Smith (1999) John Groom’s Flower (and watercress ) Girl Mission If you want to read the full story of Sarah Cackett’s tragic life you can find it in Pluckley: The Making and Faking of a Ghost Story Don’t forget you can follow me on Instagram or Bluesky @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. Comfortably Hungry is a reader-supported podcast and publication. To receive new posts and support my work, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit comfortablyhungry.substack.com/subscribe

Don’t miss the special episode on The Watercress Queen to celebrate International Women’s Day (8/3/26) - released on Thursday 5th March. If you enjoyed the podcast you can become a paid subscriber to the Comfortably Hungry Substack (which means you’ll receive additional content) or show your appreciation by leaving a small, one off tip here. Don’t forget you can follow me on Instagram or Bluesky @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. Comfortably Hungry is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit comfortablyhungry.substack.com/subscribe

Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries curious yellowish-white waxen lumps encased in the remnants of wooden containers have been unearthed from Irelands peat bogs by turf cutters and farmers. Some specimens weigh several kilos. Many are thought to date back thousands of years to the Bronze age, when the people of Ireland buried supplies of butter. Maeve Sikora, Keeper of Irish Antiquities and Isabella Mulhall Assistant Keeper of Irish Antiquities from the National Museum of Ireland (NMI) in Dublin join me in this episode to tell us more about bog butter. If you enjoyed the podcast you can become a paid subscriber to the Comfortably Hungry Substack (which means you’ll receive additional content) or show your appreciation by leaving a small, one off tip here. Useful Links National Museum of Ireland in Dublin Butter Museum in Cork ‘ A History of Bog Butter in Ireland ’ by Maeve Sikora and Isabella Mulhall in Irish Food History: A Companion (2025) Don’t forget you can follow me on Instagram or Bluesky @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. Comfortably Hungry is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit comfortablyhungry.substack.com/subscribe

In today’s episode we will be journeying back thousands of years to ancient Mesopotamia, the land between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. I will be exploring arguably the earliest beer culture in the world with Dr Tate Paulette archaeologist and Associate Professor of History at North Carolina State University. Tate is also the author of In The Land of Ninkasi: A History of Beer in Ancient Mesopotamia . If you enjoyed the podcast you can become a paid subscriber to the Comfortably Hungry Substack (which means you’ll receive additional content) or show your appreciation by leaving a small, one off tip here. Useful Links I n The Land of Ninkasi: A History of Beer in Ancient Mesopotamia by Tate Paulette (2024) You can watch a short video from Yale University about Babylonian cooking over on YouTube . There Are Rivers in the Sky - Elif Shafak (2025) Don’t forget you can follow me on Instagram or Bluesky @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. Comfortably Hungry is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit comfortablyhungry.substack.com/subscribe

In Episode 4 I chat to food writer Di Murrell about her experiences with her husband Tam of living and working on canals in Britain and France. Canals were played an essential part in how food and fuel was transported around Britain but it is a way of life that has all but disappeared. Among their various roles Di and Tam were involved in transporting limes in the depths of winter to cordial manufacturer Roses on what was known as the ‘lime run’. Forget messing about on the river - working life on the canals was truly hard graft. If you enjoyed the podcast you can become a paid subscriber to the Comfortably Hungry Substack (which means you’ll receive additional content) or show your appreciation by leaving a small, one off tip here. Useful Links You can find out more about Di and Tam’s canal adventures on the A Foodie Afloat website or on her more recent blog Written In My Kitchen . Petits Propos Culinaires the journal which gave Di her first break in food writing is now published by Equinox (and edited by me!). Di has published several articles in the journal over the years. The Sophie Coe Prize is the longest-running and most generous prize for writing in food history in the English language, given once a year for an essay or article of up to 10,000 words on any aspect of the history of food. Entries for this year’s award close on 24 April 2026. You can discover more about Britain’s waterway history at a number of canal museums across the country such as London , Stoke Bruerne and Ellesmere Port or by visiting the Canal & River Trust Suggested Reading * Barges & Bread: Canals & Grain to Bread & Baking * A Foodie Afloat The following aren’t about working life on the rivers but are fun reads to get you in the mood: * The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Graham (1908) * Three Men and a Boat - Jerome K Jerome (1889) * An Inland Voyage - Robert Louis Stevenson (1878) Don’t forget you can follow me on Instagram or Bluesky @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. Comfortably Hungry is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit comfortablyhungry.substack.com/subscribe

In Episode 3 I discuss what borsch means to Ukrainians with activist, chef and author Olia Hercules who recently published her family memoir Strong Roots . We chat about how water has shaped Ukraine and why it is so important for this proud nation to reclaim their national dish. If you enjoyed the podcast you can become a paid subscriber to the Comfortably Hungry Substack (which means you’ll receive additional content) or show your appreciation by leaving a small, one off tip here. Useful Links You can find out more about Olia and her events on her website and follow her on Instagram and Bluesky . Olia’s books include: * Strong Roots (2025) * Home Food: Recipes to Comfort and Connect (2022) * Summer Kitchens (2020) * Kaukasis (2017) * Mamouska (2015) Chef Louis P de Gouy, quoted at the start of this episode, trained under August Escoffier and had a sterling career working in luxury hotels before becoming the in-house chef for Gourmet magazine. In his Soup Book was published posthumously in 1949, two years after his death. Don’t forget you can follow me on Instagram or Bluesky @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. Comfortably Hungry is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit comfortablyhungry.substack.com/subscribe

If you’re a fan of Jane Austen you’ll be familiar with the concept of ‘taking the waters’. In fact the title of today’s episode comes from a letter Jane wrote to her sister Cassandra who was staying in the spa town of Cheltenham in September 1816. People have been visiting places renowned for their mineral rich waters for centuries. These special wells, streams and pools were believed to cure all manner of ailments either by drinking or bathing in the water. In the first part of today’s episode I’m joined by multidisciplinary artist Gaylene Gould and local historian and guide Emanuela Aru Kay to tell me more about the Mary Woolaston, a Black woman who managed a healing well in seventeenth century London. Then Chris Jones of the Tunbridge Wells Civic society chats to me about the rise and fall of the Kentish spa town Tunbridge Wells. If you enjoyed the podcast you can become a paid subscriber to the Comfortably Hungry Substack (which means you’ll receive additional content such as recipes or extra audio) or show your appreciation by leaving a small, one off tip here. Useful Links Find out more about Gaylene Gould on her website or follow here on Instagram . You can also find an essay on Black Mary in Thirst . Black Mary also features in the exhibition of the same name at the Wellcome Collection. Follow Emanuela Aru Kay on Instagram and more about the tours she runs through History from Below (which includes a tour uncovering hidden waters). You can also read Emanuela’s essay on ‘ Reviving London’s Hidden Healing Legacy: The Black Mary Project And The Story Of Black Mary’s Well’ which includes images of where Black Mary’s Well was located (spoiler alert – the area has been densely built up over the years so the well and the stream that feeds it are no longer visible.) For a more tranquil idea of a healing well visit the Calthorpe Community Gardens (find out more via their website or Instagram ) where you can view Marcia Bennett-Male’s statue of Mary. Find out more about Marcia who is the UK’s only black female sculptor on her website and Instagram . The Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration opens in May 2026 The Tunbridge Wells Civic Society produces are number of books on the history of the area including The Pantiles: A Brief History by Philip Whitbourn & Chris Jones. The Chaleybeate Spring in The Pantiles Suggested Reading For a list of nineteenth century spas and their purported benefits take a look at B. Bradshaw’s dictionary of mineral waters, climatic health resorts [&c.] ... of the world (1882) Cures and Curses: Ritual and Cult at Holy Wells by Janet Bord (available to download as a free pdf) Holy Wells in Britain: A Guide by Janet Bord (available to download as a free pdf) You can find out more about St Winefride’s Holy Well here or in this short YouTube video. The Journeys of Ceilia Fiennes (1947) available via Internet Archive . A Medical topography of Tunbridge Wells by Dr Robert Powell (1846) The History and Description of the Parish of Clerkenwell by Thomas Cromwell (1828) Don’t forget you can follow me on Instagram or Bluesky @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. Comfortably Hungry is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit comfortablyhungry.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome back! In Episode 1 of this new season I’m joined by Cass Gardiner, an Anishinaabe Algonquin filmmaker, curator, and writer from Kebaowek First Nation to discuss manoomin, or wild rice, and its importance to First Nation people in North America. We talk about its spiritual and economic significance and how this aspect of the Anishinaabe way of life is under threat from environmental pollution, displacement and climate change. As well as a new season of Comfortably Hungry, there’s also Serve It Forth festive event to look forward to called A Christmas Feast of the Uncanny (think of it as a spookier version of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol without the schmaltz!) If you enjoyed the podcast you can become a paid subscriber to the Comfortably Hungry Substack (which means you’ll receive additional content) or show your appreciation by leaving a small, one off tip here. Useful Links Cass Gardiner’s website and on Instagram . The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University ’s new exhibition: Botany of Nations opens on March 28, 2026 and runs until February 14, 2027. It aims to inspire civic dialogue and reshape the historic Corps of Discovery (1804 – 1806) tale of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark with Indigenous perspectives against the backdrop of the United States’ 250th anniversary. Cass’s film of the same name will form part of the exhibition. Cass will also be acting as Guest Editor for the autumn ‘26 edition of Petits Propos Culinaires which will explore similar perspectives. Winona LaDuke’s TEDx talk Seeds of Our Ancestors, Seeds of Life Winona LaDuke: Return to Rice Lake: Anishinaabe celebration welcomes runners honoring — and protecting — the sacred manoomin Photo essay on wild rice harvest via Canada’s History Owamni Restaraunt in Minneapolis, Minnesota restaurant where the entire menu is pre-colonial foods only. Sean Sherman’s first cookbook, The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen , was published in 2017 and his latest cookbook Turtle Island is out now. Chef Crystal Wahpepah restaurant, Wapepah’s Kitchen is in Oakland, California. Crystal released a new cookbook this year, A Feather and a Fork: 125 Intertribal Dishes from an Indigenous Food Warrior. Chef Pyet DeSpain, who is a caterer and also has a cookbook that is coming out soon, Rooted In Fire Suggested Reading To be a Water Protector - Winona LaDuke (2020) Don’t forget you can follow me on Instagram or Bluesky @mrssbilton or find out more about my work on sambilton.com . You can also listen to the podcast and see short cookery videos on the new Comfortably Hungry YouTube channel. A huge thank you to Thomas Ntinas of The Delicious Legacy for doing the sound mixing on this season of the podcast. Comfortably Hungry is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit comfortablyhungry.substack.com/subscribe