Seven new books in English Heritage’s Cooking Through the Ages series, revised since their first publication in 1985, look at the history of cooking in Britain from the Roman and Medieval periods, to the Tudor, Stuart and Georgian eras, ending with Ration Book cookery. These concise histories tour the kitchens of the ordinary peasant, the gentry and royalty, peer into their larders, watch their cooks at work, see the table being laid, the dinner guests arrive, the meal being served and cleared away. As well as discussing the different types of food that were available, how they were prepared and the dishes that were created, the authors examine the kitchen itself, the utensils used, methods of cooking and how these changed in line with advances in technology, agriculture, overseas travel and culinary preferences.

One of the best things about these books is the inclusion of incidental facts that make the subject so fascinating. When the medieval clergy decreed that fish should be eaten on Fridays, I don’t think they meant to include barnacle geese, puffins and beavers – well, they live on or near the water don’t they? When sugar became more readily available in Henry VIII’s time it was welcomed onto the dinner table at court, but at a price, since blackened teeth and tooth decay were soon to follow. It was only in Georgian times that men and women were arranged alternately at the dinner table, putting an end to the boisterous and bawdy behaviour of the segregated men (unless you count the modern curry house). It was during the late 17th and 18th century that our love for French cuisine began in earnest, although this admiration was somewhat stifled by the fact that Britain was at war with France for much of the 18th century!

So what was on the menu? Both the weird and wonderful, and the rather mundane appeared on the menu. In Roman Cookery Jane Renfrew discusses the Roman’s great fondness for a sauce made from fish entrails... sounds like a ‘Bush-Tucker’ trial to me! The renowned cookery writer and historian Maggie Black covers the medieval period in Medieval Cookery and reveals how medieval England coped without potatoes or tomatoes and why fruit was approached with such suspicion. Peter Brears is in charge of the Tudor and Stuart period with Tudor cookery, and Stuart Cookery, when overseas exploration and the colonisation of the New World had a huge impact on diet and people’s perceptions of food. It is difficult to imagine how the humble kidney bean or the potato were welcomed into the Elizabethan court – unless of course you have seen the episode of Blackadder where the dashing Sir Walter Raleigh tries to win the Queen’s favour with a rather unappealing-looking potato. New and more sophisticated tastes were to continue under the Stuarts where the invention of the fork brought improved table manners to the intimate dining rooms of the gentry.

Between 1747 and 1803, seventeen editions of Mrs Glasse’s The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy were published signalling the onset of the Delia Smith phenomenon. Jennifer Stead discusses how the Georgians (Georgian Cookery) were also responsible for starting Britain’s predilection for pudding, and drinking tea and coffee, which is something we are all grateful for. And so to the Second World War and an extraordinary period in Britain’s culinary history and also a time during which the population were at their most healthy. The cook’s ingenuity in creating a satisfying meal out of very little was truly put to the test, but they rose to the challenge admirably. Relying on home-grown produce and shortages of pretty much everything, many of the recipes of the time are truly inspired and inspiring. Gill Corbishley, in Ration Book Cookery: Recipes and History, reveals the history behind rationing and describes how Britain coped.

Other books of interest:

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