Bread

It seems strange that it's taken me a year of blogging - and 800 years or so of English literature - to write about bread when it is such a staple food. In the Bible story of Adam and Eve, the first human beings, God punishes Adam with hard work, saying, "By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground" (Genesis 3: 19). Bread, the most basic of foodstuffs, will only be earned through back-breaking labour.

In English literature, an early reference to bread occurs in an Anglo-Saxon riddle (one of the more than 90 included in the Exeter Book, a 10th century anthology of Old English poetry). Whilst the answer to the riddle is bread, this riddle, like many of the period, is intentionally ambiguous with a sexual subtext. Scholars have estimated that approximately one third of the riddles - all composed by monks - could be solved as penis (whilst also having a more mundane solution). The riddle reads:

A Christmas Interlude

As Christmas approaches, I thought it would be fitting to take a break from my chronological journey through literature and come up with something a little festive.  Obviously Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (1843) has the Christmas meal par excellence, but with the school term having only ended on Friday I don’t think I really have time to roast a goose or make a plum pudding in order to replicate the meal enjoyed by Bob Cratchit and his family. 

But I was pleased to find a much simpler idea when I was teaching Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813) to my Year 10s.  In chapter 9 Mrs Bennet and her two youngest daughters, Kitty and Lydia, have come to visit Jane and Elizabeth who are staying at Netherfield, guests of Mr Bingley, whilst Jane recovers from a heavy cold caught when she rode over to visit the Bingleys in a rainstorm.  During a rather awkward conversation, in which Mrs Bennet frequently makes digs at Mr Darcy’s pride (having not forgiven him for refusing to dance with Elizabeth at the Meryton assembly), Elizabeth attempts to change the subject by enquiring whether Charlotte Lucas has visited the Bennets at their home, Longbourn.  On hearing that Charlotte called on the previous day, Elizabeth enquires whether she stayed for dinner, only for Mrs Bennet to say: “No, she would go home.  I fancy she was wanted about the mince pies.” 

The Civilizing Effects of Food

When I first blogged about food in Robinson Crusoe I promised that I would - like the eponymous protagonist - try cooking with goat, as soon as I sourced some goat meat - see http://pagetoplate.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/food-survival-manual.html  Well, goat meat has arrived at my local farmers' market, so I couldn't resist the opportunity to try it out. 

Goats provide Crusoe with his main protein source on the island.  And not only does he consume their flesh, but he also drinks their milk and uses it to make butter and cheese, all part of Crusoe's attempts to plant an area of Western civilization on this uninhabited desert island in the southern part of the Caribbean. 

The link between food and civilization is developed further when Crusoe encounters Man Friday on the island, rescuing him from his captors who are on the point of killing and eating him.  Realising that Friday himself is also a cannibal - he suggests to Crusoe that they eat his dead captors - Crusoe embarks on a mission to civilize and Christianize Friday.  He does this through teaching him how to cook, thereby persuading him of the tastiness of non-human flesh.   

Robinson Crusoe and Man Friday by Carl Offterdinger (1829-1889)

Pea Soup

One of the starters at the First World War Supper Club - see http://pagetoplate.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/first-world-war-supper-club.html - has a fairly long and distinguished history in literature.  Pea soup - which appears in May Byron's Pot-luck, our source recipe book for our 1914-inspired menu - is mentioned in the Ancient Greek play, The Birds, by Aristophanes (first performed 414BC).  The servant of Tereus, an Athenian prince who has been turned into a bird, explains how he must serve his master and bring him all types of food:  "Again he wants some pea-soup; I seize a ladle and a pot and run to get it." 

Tereus's pea soup was probably made from dried peas, as it is only really since the Early Modern period that people have been eating fresh garden peas - Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat notes in A History of Food that fresh peas in their pods were introduced to the court of Louis XIV in January 1660. 

First World War Supper Club

If you're heading out for dinner in the rather exclusive North London area of Primrose Hill, a church might not be your most obvious choice of venue.  However, last night my friend Lou and I took over the kitchens of St Mary-the-Virgin, Primrose Hill, to hold our first ever supper club.  Taking the First World War as our theme, we served up 3 courses - all inspired by dishes eaten widely in 1914 - to 21 paying guests, with all the profits going to the church's youthwork.   

About a year ago, Lou and I began discussing the idea of trying something a little more ambitious in the kitchen than just cooking for family and small groups of friends; so BeckyLou's supper club was born!  Having decided to structure our menu around a theme, in this centenary year 1914 was an obvious choice.  Scouring the internet for inspiration we found an online edition of a cookery book first published in 1914: May Byron's Pot-luck; or, The British home cookery book; over a thousand recipes from old family ms. books.  This book provided a helpful reference point for recipes that would have been eaten in the war-time period, but rather than sticking slavishly to the dishes as they would have been made in 1914 we updated them and added a modern twist to create 1914-2014 fusion-style dishes.