Category Archives: science

24/01/2026 · 9:23 am

Robert Burns, the Globe Inn & Annandale Distillery with Jane Brown, Teresa Church & David Thomson

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

The Globe Inn website

Annandale Distillery website

The Robert Burns World Federation

Follow 1610 at the Globe on social media: Instagram @theglobeinn1610; Facebook https://www.facebook.com/theglobeinn/?locale=en_GB; X @The GlobeInn1610

Follow Annandale Distillery on social media: Instagram: @annandale_distillery; Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/annandaledistillery/?locale=en_GB; X: @AnnandaleDstlry

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.

This episode was mixed and engineered by Thomas Ntinas of the Delicious Legacy podcast.

Things mentioned in today’s episode

Article: Local whisky maker hailed for its ‘world class’ and ‘immaculate’ malt at top awards. From in-Cumbria

Annandale Distillery on Visit Scotland website

MMR website (David and Teresa’s day job!)

The Burns House Museum

David’s article about the importance of cask size when maturing whisky

My ‘Taste of Britain’ series in Countrylife Magazine

Robert the Bruce

My upcoming online talk with Paul Crane as part of the Museum of Royal Worcester’s Winter Talk series on 4 March at 6pm

Previous pertinent blog posts

Chicken Balmoral

Previous pertinent podcast episodes

Haggis and the First Burns Suppers with Jennie Hood

Neil’s blogs and YouTube channel

‘British Food: a History’

The British Food History Channel

‘Neil Cooks Grigson’

Neil’s books

Before Mrs Beeton: Elizabeth Raffald, England’s Most Influential Housekeeper

A Dark History of Sugar

Knead to Know: a History of Baking

The Philosophy of Puddings

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26/07/2011 · 8:06 pm

Charles Darwin and the Owl

When I am not writing blog entries, I actually work for a living – believe it or not. I am an evolutionary biologist at the wonderful Washington University in St Louis, Missouri. Now it goes without saying that, as an evolutionary biologist I have a huge amount of respect for a certain Charles Darwin who came up with his theory of evolution by natural selection.

However, before he made his amazing discovery whilst floating about the oceans upon the HMS Beagle, he spent four years at Christ College, Cambridge, cutting his scholarly teeth and collecting beetles. He also spent alot of time getting drunk on port. But don’t think that Darwin was a conservationist. Such a concept did not exist in his day, oh no.

For what you may not know is that Charles Darwin had a huge interest in food, and during his time in Cambridge he was the President of the  infamous Glutton Club. The main objective of the club was to seek and eat ‘strange flesh’ and chow down upon the rarest ‘birds and beasts which were before unknown to human palate’. The club met weekly and was a roaring success. They ate such beautiful birds as the bittern and hawk. The club eventually came to an abrupt end when a tawny owl was served up. The meat was disgusting and stringy and was described as, er, “indescribable”.

‘Indescribable’: the tawny owl

Rarity and beauty of the animals aside, I don’t think I could eat an owl or a hawk. There is something very disagreeable to me about eating carnivores. I want to tackle animals that have fed upon dewy grasses and juicy leaves or whatever.

Anyway, all this Gluttony put old Charlie in good stead for his voyages: for he had no qualms about eating animals like ostrich and armadillo, which he said ‘look and taste like duck’. I like duck. The next time I see some armadillo roadkill I should pick it up and have it for my dinner, no? He also had some unknown mystery 20 pound rodent that he declared to be ‘the best meat I have ever tasted’. Maybe it was a capybara?

Capybara: the mystery meat?

The best story I have found about Darwin’s dinners occurred during a Christmas feast where he realised the bird was dining upon was a very rare small species of rhea (later named Darwin’s rhea). He rose abruptly from his chair and quickly scraped the remaining parts of the carcass together so that he could study them much to the shock of the other guests.

Always the scientist, our Chuck D was.

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Darwin’s Rhea by Diane Sudyka

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