Hello everyone. Just a very quick post to let you all know that the 2nd Serve it Forth Food History Festival will be on Saturday 17th October 2026. Like last year, it will be online, and also like last year, if you can’t make the whole day, all sessions will be available to watch again – and again if you like! – after the event.
We’re not quite ready to make any announcements, but tickets are already available at a special early bird price of £10 until 31st July, where the price will be £12.
We will start making announcements as to who our guests will be toward the end of July, so if you would like a grab yourself a ticket, please visit the Eventbrite page here.
Welcome to the second of a two-part podcast special all about Burns Night.
Burns Night, celebrated on Robert Burns’ birthday, 25th January, is a worldwide phenomenon and I wanted to make a couple of episodes focussing upon the night, the haggis, but also the other foods links regarding Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns.
So, if you’re readying yourself for a Burns supper, I hope this episode gets you even more into the celebratory spirit. If you’re not marking Burns Night? Well, hopefully after listening to this, you will be inspired to get yourself some haggis, neeps, tatties and a dram of whisky.
A tour of Dumfries (L-R): Burns’s statue; the Burns mausoleum (with Yours Truly); the exterior of Burns’s house; the fireplace within.
Today’s episode is a jam-packed one where I speak with three guests all about Robert Burns and his links with Dumfriesshire, Southwest Scotland. First of all, I speak with Jane Brown, Honorary President of the Robert Burns World Federation, and ex-manager of The Globe, Robert Burns’s favourite haunt when he lived in Dumfries during the last eight years of his life. Jane has attended and spoken at many Burns Nights all over the world, so there’s no one better to talk about with Burns’s life, which had several links with food and drink: there’s Burns Night and the Address to a Haggis, his time as an exciseman and as a farmer, and his time at the Globe. Then there’s the Globe itself and all of the precious artefacts contained within it that have been painstakingly conserved by owners Teresa Church and David Thomson.
The British Food History Podcast is available on all podcast apps and now YouTube. You can also stream it via this Spotify embed below:
1610 at The Globe Inn. Top row (L-R): The sign of the Globe Inn; the old kitchen; the chair from which I read out a Burns poem. Bottom row (L-R): A selection of the treasures in the old bar; the interior of 1610 at The Globe Inn; Jane Brown immortalised in the mural at the back of the restaurant
David and Teresa also own the Annandale Distillery, which produces a delicious and unique single malt whisky. It’s available unpeated and called Man O’Words, after Robert Burns, and the other is peated and called Man O’Sword, after the other local historical figure associated with Dumfries, Robert the Bruce. Like the Globe, the old distillery was saved, beautifully conserved and brought back to life by David and Teresa.
In today’s episode, we talk about Burns’s before and after graces, Burns’s penchant for scratching poetry on inn windows, the importance of cask size on the flavour of whisky, and just what exactly possessed David and Teresa to buy the Globe and a falling-down distillery in the first place – amongst many other things.
Don’t forget, there will be postbag episodes in the future, so if you have any questions or queries about today’s episode, or indeed any episode, or have a question about the history of British food, please email me at neil@britishfoodhistory.com, or leave a comment below.
Annandale Distillery (L-R): the beautiful, imposing main chimney; the fermentation and distillery room; David & Teresa stood in front of their many casks; Man O’Swords & Man O’Words single malt whiskies
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Chicken Balmoral is a modern British classic: a chicken breast stuffed with haggis, wrapped in bacon and then either oven-roasted or pan-fried. It’s served with a rich whisky cream sauce. You can’t stuff a great deal of haggis into a chicken breast, so I find it a great way of using up leftover haggis after a Burns supper. It’s also a great dish to serve up to those uninitiated in the pleasures of the Chieftain of the Pudding Race.
If you want to know more about Robert Burns, the first Burns suppers and the history of this haggis, listen to the first part of my two-part Burns Night specials on The British Food History Podcast:
Despite its name, chicken Balmoral isn’t particularly old; it sounds like it should be Victorian, it being named after Queen Victoria’s beloved Balmoral Castle, nestled in the beautiful Cairngorms. But, no, it is most definitely a 20th-century invention – the earliest mention I could find of a dish called chicken Balmoral is in the 1928 publication A Book of Empire Dinners (published by the Empire Marketing Board of Great Britain), but it is only a mention, not a description.1 It is also conspicuous by its absence from F. Marion McNeill’s The Scot’s Kitchen, which certainly tells us something about its position in traditional Scottish cuisine.2 As Ben Mervis put it in The British Cook Book ‘[it] seems a little too cute – a little too on the nose – to be a truly traditional Scottish dish.’3
Ben came on the podcast to talk about The British Cook Book. Stream it via this embed.
It seems to me that it is a dish created for restaurant service; the use of a prime cut, the fact that most of the prep can be done well ahead of time, and that there is next to no waste, all certainly point to the fact. It does, however, make chicken Balmoral an excellent dish for a dinner party. You won’t be slaving over a hot stove making this meal, that’s for sure.
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Recipe
Chicken Balmoral is “traditionally” served with seasonal vegetables; however, for my version, I chose to eat it with the classic Burns Night supper companions of mashed neeps and tatties – i.e. mashed swede and potatoes.
Serves four, but it can be very easily proportioned for more or fewer folk.
For the chicken
3 tbs flavourless cooking oil, lard or bacon fat (or a mixture)
Around 160 g leftover haggis
4 chicken breasts
16 rashers of dry-cured streaky bacon
For the whisky sauce
30g butter
½ onion or the white part of a leek, thinly sliced
3 to 4 tbs whisky
150ml very hot chicken stock
100ml double cream
Salt and pepper
Preheat your oven to 200°C. Add the fats and/or oil to a roasting tin and place on the middle shelf to get really nice and hot.
Lay the chicken breasts smooth side down on a chopping board. Move the tender out of the way (it’s sometimes partially attached and can get in the way). Press a breast down firmly with the palm of your hand, and, using a small, sharp, pointed knife, cut into the thick end of the breast as far as you can without puncturing the breast as it tapers toward the end. Widen the hole slightly – it needs to be about 2 centimetres wide at the mouth. Repeat with the other three breasts.
Divide the haggis into four equal pieces and roll each piece into a sausage shape, thin enough to insert into the chicken. Some haggises are quite crumbly, but don’t worry if they are not pliable enough. Use your forefinger to force the haggis into the cuts in the breasts. You might find it easier to break the haggis into smaller pieces.
Prepping the chicken breasts
Take four rashers of bacon and lay them across your chopping board lengthways, so that they overlap just slightly. Lay the chicken breast perpendicular to the bacon rashers and roll it up so that the join is underneath the chicken breast. Trim away excess bacon. Repeat with the remaining chicken breasts.
By now, the fat or oil will have become very hot indeed. Take the tin out of the oven (careful!) and sit the breasts in the hot fat, thin ends pointing inwards (this ensures they don’t overcook). Place in the oven for the oven for 30 – 35 minutes, turning it down to 180°C after 15 minutes. Baste at least twice whilst they cook. Remove and allow to rest on a plate.
The cooked chicken straight out of the oven (notice the nice burnt bits in the tin); making the sauce
Meanwhile, make the sauce: melt the butter in a saucepan and fry the onion or leek until soft, but not browned (this will take around 8 minutes) before adding three tablespoons of the whisky. Pour the excess fat from the roasting tin and deglaze it with the chicken stock. Scrape all of the nice salty burnt bits with a wooden spoon and cast them into the saucepan. Simmer for a further five minutes before passing through a sieve into a clean saucepan. Add the cream, heat to simmering point and season to taste with salt, pepper and more whisky (if needed).
Serve the chicken with mashed neeps and tatties and pour the sauce into a warm gravy boat.
References
1. A Book of Empire Dinners. (Empire Marketing Board, 1928).
2. McNeill, F. M. The Scots Kitchen: Its Lore & Recipes. (Blackie & Son Limited, 1968).
3. Mervis, B. The British Cook Book. (Phaidon, 2022).
Welcome to the first of a two-part special all about Burns Night.
Burns Night, celebrated on Robert Burns’ birthday, 25th January, is a worldwide phenomenon and I wanted to make a couple of episodes focussing upon the night, the haggis, but also the other foods links regarding Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns.
The episode is available on all podcast apps, but can also be streamed here:
Burns was born in Alloway, Ayrshire on 25 January 1759 and he died in Dumfries on 21 July 1796 at just 37 years old.
My guest today is food historian Jennie Hood, who has written an excellent article for the most recent edition of food history journal Petit Propos Culinares, entitled ‘A History of Haggis and the Burns Night Tradition’, so she is the perfect person to speak with on this topic.
Jennie’s experiments in haggis: It shows (clockwise from top left) Richard Bradley’s 1732 hackin, Mrs MacIver’s 1774 haggis, Henry Blaxton’s 1659 liver pudding and a franchemoyle from Liber Cure Cocorum, English c. 1440. Images: Jennie Hood
Jennie Hood hails from Ayrshire, just like Robert Burns, and we talk about the origin of Burns Night, but we also talk about the medieval origins of the most important food item on the Burns supper plate – the haggis.
Things covered include the first English recipes for haggis, what makes a haggis a haggis (not as easy a thing as you might expect), Burns’s poem Address to a Haggis and what it tells us about haggises in Burns’s day and how the first Burns suppers started and gained such popularity, amongst many other things.
If you can, support the podcast and blogs by becoming a £3 monthly subscriber, and unlock lots of premium content, including bonus blog posts and recipes, access to the easter eggs and the secret podcast, or treat me to a one-off virtual pint or coffee: click here.
Don’t forget, there will be postbag episodes in the future, so if you have any questions or queries about today’s episode, or indeed any episode, or have a question about the history of British food please email me at neil@britishfoodhistory.com, or on twitter and BlueSky @neilbuttery, or Instagram and Threads dr_neil_buttery. My DMs are open.
It’s time for my annual Yuletide boozy drink post. This year: lambswool, a drink very much associated with the Wassail on Twelfth Night (the night before Epiphany, 6 January, and the last day of Christmastide). It has been drunk since at least Tudor times – I cannot find any descriptions prior to the late 16th century. It’s a type of mulled ale, and this description by Robert Herrick in his poem Twelfth Night: Or King and Queen (1648) is a very good one:
Next crowne the lowle full with gentle lamb’s wool; Adde sugar, nutmeg and ginger; with a store of ale too; and thus ye must doe to make the wassaille a swinger.[1]
What Henrick doesn’t tell us is that there is cooked apple floating on the top which break apart, hence the name lambswool. These apples are, in the early modern period, generally roasted crab apples, so very sour in flavour, though in later recipes such as the lambswool described by Peter Brears in Traditional Food in Yorkshire, made in Otley, West Yorkshire in 1901, dessert apples are used. They were cored and cooked and floated in the drink, then fished out and eaten separately.[2] Spiced cakes and mince pies were also eaten.[3]
Have a fantastic Christmas – all TWELVE days of it!
Many drinks were laced with rum or brandy and often enriched with eggs, cream or both,[4] such as this one here for ‘Royal Lamb’s Wool’, dated 1633: ‘Boil three pints of ale; – beat six eggs, the whites and yolks together; set both to the fire in a pewter pot; add roasted apples, sugar, beaten nutmegs, cloves and ginger; and, being well brewed, drink it while hot.’[5] Before the lambswool was poured into the Wassail cup sliced of well-toasted bread sat at the bottom. With the apple floating on top, this was basically a full meal. Nice and full, it was then passed around, everyone taking a sup from the communal bowl. I prefer to ladle it into separate glasses or mugs – and I am sure my guests would be pleased with this decision.
Lambswool drinking was not restricted to Twelfth Night, or even Christmastide, as this entry from Samuel Pepys’ diary dated the 9th of November 1666 informs us: ‘Being come home [from an evening of dancing], we to cards, till two in the morning, and drinking lamb’s-wool. So to bed.’[6]
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Recipe
I have to admit, I was unsure about the lambswool, but it was delicious. I think that it should come back, and it is certainly much, much nicer than bought mulled wine. Recipes don’t necessarily specify the type of sugar, but I think light brown sugar really complements the maltiness of the beer well.
A note on the beer: trendy IPAs and other craft beers are far too hoppy for this recipe – I think there’s a flavour clash, so make sure you go for a low-hop traditional brown ale. I used Old Speckled Hen (which is available to buy gluten-free, by the way). The best – and, dare I say it – most authentic choice would be an unhopped ale, but I have never come across one! Add cream and eggs if you think it matches your own tastes: I have to admit that as an eating/drinking experience, the creamy texture worked better with the pureed apple than the version without.
I used dessert apples for the wool, but you can use crap apples if you want to be true to the early modern period, or Bramley’s Seedlings, which do have the benefit of breaking down to a nice fluff. I discovered that it’s very difficult to get your apples to float on top, but this is not of great importance. Sam Bilton has an ingenious way of getting her apple puree to float though, and that is to fold a whipped egg white into the cooked apple puree.[7]
Makes 6 to 8 servings
6 small to medium-sized dessert apples
Caster sugar to taste (optional)
2 x 500 ml bottles of brown ale
120 – 140 g soft dark brown sugar
2 cinnamon sticks
8 cloves
1 tsp ground ginger
120 ml dark rum or brandy
4 eggs (optional)
300 ml cream (any kind will do; optional)
To serve: freshly-grated nutmeg
Start by making the apple purée: peel, core and chop the apples and place in a small saucepan with a few tablespoons of water, cover, turn the heat to medium, and cook until soft. If the apples don’t break down naturally, use the back of a wooden spoon. Add caster sugar to taste – if any is needed at all.
Whilst the apples are cooking down, pour the beer into a saucepan, add 120 g of soft dark brown sugar if making the non-creamy/eggy version, or add 140 g if you’re intrigued by it! Snap the cinnamon sticks and chuck those in along with the other spices. Turn the heat to medium and let it all get nice and steaming-hot; you don’t want it to boil, otherwise you’ll lose a lot of the alcohol. Leave for 10 minutes so the spices can infuse, then add the rum or brandy. Let it come back up to heat for another five minutes. If you don’t want to make the custardy version, the lambswool is ready, and it can be ladled out into glasses or mugs and top with a couple of spoons of the warm apple purée and a few raspings of freshly-grated nutmeg.
For the custardy version: after you add the brandy or rum, whisk the eggs and cream in a bowl, take the lambswool off the heat, and pour three or four ladlefuls of it into the cream and egg mixture, whisking all the time. Now whisk this mixture into the lambswool, and stir over a medium-low heat until it thickens. If you want to use a thermometer to help you, you are looking to reach a temperature of 80°C. Pass the whole lot through a sieve and into a clean pan, and serve as above.
Notes
[1] Herrick, Robert. Works of Robert Herrick. vol II. Alfred Pollard, ed., London, Lawrence & Bullen, 1891.
[2] Brears, P. (2014) Traditional Food in Yorkshire. Prospect Books.
[3] Brears (2014); Crosby, J. (2023) Apples and Orchards since the Eighteenth Century: Material Innovation and Cultural Tradition. Bloomsbury.
[4] Hole, C. (1976) British Folk Customs. Hutchinson Publishing Ltd.
[5] Though quoted in many places, I could not find the source of this recipe – but the reigning monarch was Charles I
I thought you might be interested in getting tickets for this special Serve it Forth Christmas event on 11 December called A Christmas Feast of the Uncanny. Tickets are just £5 (plus Eventbrite booking fee) and the event runs from 7:00pm to 8:45pm.
If you can’t make the whole event, the evening will be recorded and shared soon after.
In case you didn’t know, but Sam Bilton, Alessandra Pino and me are all big horror fans, and Christmas is associated with spooky, ghostly tales. We would love to see you there.
Serve it Forth Food History Festival invites you to an evening exploring the eerie side of Yuletide food traditions.
Step beyond the cozy glow of twinkling holiday lights and into a Christmas world where the shadows tell their own tales. A Christmas Feast of the Uncanny is an immersive online event that explores the eerie, strange, and deliciously dark side of Yuletide traditions through the lens of food.
Join the Serve It Forth team at this live virtual gathering to discover:
Why ghost stories are so popular at Christmas as we explore the food references in some of the lesser-known ghoulish tales from Charles Dickens and his like.
The significance of otherworldly beings like elves, witches and monsters at this time of the year and their relationship to food.
The origins of traditional Christmas foods and the old customs that linked them to fortune-telling and other forms of the supernatural.
Hello everyone – I do hope you are all having a great weekend.
This is just a super-short post just to remind you that the first Serve it Forth Food History Festival is just one week away – it’s online and on Saturday 18 October!
If you want to get hold of a ticket, visit the Eventbrite page, but remember to use the offer code SERVE25 at the checkout to get 25% off the ticket price.
So, come and join my and my cohosts – Sam Bilton, Thomas Ntinas and Alessandra Pino for an educational and fun day with guests such as Tudor food expert and author Brigitte Webster and food writer, journalist and author Tom Parker Bowles. Check out the full Bill of Fare here.
If you didn’t catch it, here’s a podcast episode we made to let you know more about the day, but also to get to know us all a little better.
At the Awards! L-R: Nina Lewis, Neil Buttery, Kate Travers, Martin Driscol and Kirsty Hopkinson
I have some very exciting news to share! The project that I worked on with the Museum of Royal Worcester in 2023-2024 won the Food on Display award at the inaugural British Library Food Season Awards on the 9th of June.
The judges were chef, writer and television presenter Nadiya Hussain, Food Historian and Curator at the Library, Polly Russell, Scent Designer and Food Historian Tasha Marks and Elly Magson, Senior Interpretation Manager at the Library. A big thank you to all of them, and we’re so glad the project has been recognised in this way.
The judges were all drawn to the detail and creativity of Dr Wall’s Dinner at the Museum of Royal Worcester. The display and accompanying programme explored several interesting narratives around Georgian Dining, in a way that was both educational and visually striking. It was a wonderful example of how food can be used to animate a collection and reach different audiences.
Judges (L to R): Polly Russell, Elly Magson and Tasha Marks
There were several elements to the project, including the recreation of an 18th-century dining table, one that the founder of Worcester Porcelain – Dr Wall – might have enjoyed, including some very realistic fake food made by Kerry Samantha Boyes of the Fake Food Workshop in Kirkcudbright, Scotland. I also delivered some historical food workshops, making junkets with Key Stage 2 pupils; historical pies and pasties with the Hospitality & Catering students at the Heart of Worcester College; and plum pudding workshops with adults. A heady mix!
There was too the Worcestershire LitFest & Fringe, who, as a group, took inspiration and created original poems celebrating the ‘Language of porcelain and food’. Many of these are on display in the museum.
A huge thank you to everyone who was involved, especially Natasha Wilcockson who put in so much groundwork bringing together so many different people and keeping us all driving it forward.
The aim of the project wasn’t to show off the lovely porcelain – the museum was already a fantastic job – the aim was to explore the ways in which the porcelain was used and who was interacting with it: from the cooks in the kitchen to the guests sat around the table itself.
To kick off the project, I gave an online talk on the subject which can be watched here:
Last Hallowe’en I hosted an online event with food historian and expert in Gothic food Alessandra Pino called Monsters and Their Meals. The discussion focused upon the function of food and drink in Gothic stories, Dracula and Frankenstein, stories that contain two of horror’s most iconic monsters. We also talked about the more subtle monsters and the food in Jane Eyre and Rebecca. To top everything off, we talked about some real-life grotesque foods from history that are stranger than fiction. I’ve just uploaded it to my YouTube channel for your viewing pleasure.
I hope you enjoy it. We hope to host another event this Hallowe’en, so watch this space for announcements. In the meantime, give the channel a follow, I’ll be adding more videos over the coming months.
If you like the blogs and podcast I produce and would to start a £3 monthly subscription, or would like to treat me to virtual coffee or pint: follow this link for more information.Thank you.
Hello there folks. A very quick post just to let you all know that I am giving two free talks this December.
The first is taking place at Manchester Central Library at 6pm on 5 December and is entitled The History of Pies & Puddings. Because it’s December I shall be looking at some festive examples but also a few other favourites. There will also be some of the library’s antiquarian cookery books to view as part of it. Book your spot here.
The second is a free Zoom talk on 17 December at 7pm (GMT) called The Philosophy of Puddings where I will look at the history of this very British food in the kitchen and in our culture. Will any of your favourites be mentioned?Book your spot here.
There are new events cropping up all of the time so make sure that you check the Upcoming Events tab regularly.
Looking forward to seeing some of you there!
If you like the blogs and podcast I produce and would to start a £3 monthly subscription, or would like to treat me to virtual coffee or pint: follow this link for more information.Thank you.
British Food: A History 