@neilbuttery.bsky.social blogged about Toad-in-the-Hole and I thought ah but that's English, we never ate that growing up in Scotland. Then, Him Indoors tells me he really likes it. 27 years and this is first I've heard about it. So I followed Neil's recipe and made it for our tea. How did I do?

Purely in the interests of cultural food research, of course. When in Newcastle, this is is a "breakfast stottie". I'm out here doing all the important work so you don't have to.

Homemade haggis for Burns Night. Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, indeed.

Tipsy Laird for our Burns Night dinner tomorrow. Essentially a Scottish trifle, with sponge cake at the bottom with orange juice and whisky, then a layer of raspberries, then custard, then whipped cream, topped with raspberries and toasted flaked almonds. No jelly in the Scottish version. /1

What makes haggis haggis and how do you describe haggis without making it sound awful? 🤣

Have you listened to the first of my podcast specials about Burns Night? This episode looks into the history of haggis & the first Burns Nights with the fantastic @medievalfoodjennie.bsky.social The BritishFood History Podcast is available on all podcast apps: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/h...

A few people have mentioned Seville orange marmalade over the last week, then I was in Cranstons Cumbrian Food Hall this morning on my way back to Scotland and they had seville oranges, lemons, sugar and jars all in the one display so I figured the universe was telling me to make marmalade.

It's here! I'm on the British Food History Podcast talking to @neilbuttery.bsky.social about the history of haggis and Burns Night! Listen at this link, or wherever you get your podcasts. britishfoodhistory.com

Just me talking about Burns Night on the British Food History Podcast! Interesting fact - the first ever Burns Supper was organised by an ancestor of mine. You'll have to listen to find out more!

It's his birthday today and he got three loaf cakes instead of a birthday cake because my baking style is "rustic" and not fancy. Banana, carrot and rum with orange icing, red wine and chocolate. That last one is for me, not gonna lie.

Gave a talk on Scottish Food History to Troon Probus Club today. It's a lunch club for retired men and 2 people warned me not to worry if anybody fell asleep, because my talk was after lunch and it does happen. I'm delighted to report they all stayed awake and they all laughed in the right places! 🎉

Happy Cheese Week to all who celebrate!

Irn Bru ham coming out the oven. Simmered in Irn Bru and apple juice with allspice, pepper, bay leaves, coriander seeds, cloves, then some of that liquid was reduced with marmalade, honey, mustard, brown sugar, the ham was basted and baked. It's now in the fridge for tomorrow's Xmas Eve spread.

It's Christmas, Glasgow style. Taking inspiration from recipes on the Scottish Scran website and @rovinghaggis, I'm doing an Irn Bru ham this year. With the lovely 1901 Irn Bru too, so I've got high hopes. Watch this space!

In the Special Collections reading room of the National Library of Scotland. This afternoon, I'm off to Register House for more research. Having a lovely day. 😍

Throwback to the time I thought it'd be funny to put eyes on Martin's food. Grumpy sandwich did not find it funny.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Everybody knows the order to decorate your tree goes lights, tentacles, baubles. (Baubles still to come!)

Today, I found out that my nearly-90-year old dad still has his postwar clothing ration book, my granny's wartime National Identity card and his Suez Crisis petrol rationing book from 1956, when he was a dashing young RAF air gunner racing all round Lincolnshire in his convertible Hillman Minx.

You wait ages and then two come along at once! 😆 My article on the history of haggis and the tradition of Burns Night has been published in the international food history journal Petits Propos Culinaires! 🎉

And homemade apricot pastries 🧡

My sister sent me German baking book, so here are the German Christmas biscuits I baked. Never made them before, and I don't do much icing, but they'll do for a first attempt. I like the trees best. 🎄🎄

I'm in the Brontë Society Gazette with an interesting food reference I spotted in Wuthering Heights. Appropriately, I was in Haworth at the time, where I was lucky enough to meet @sharonwrightauthor.bsky.social, the fantastic editor of the Gazette. Thank you to her for suggesting I write about it!

Happy weekend! -4C here this morning, so Granny Dunlop's stovies with oatcakes are the perfect winter warmer for this evening. Plus Valpolicella, because Friday.

Fields of the Nephilim at the O2 Academy in Glasgow. Jolly good stuff. 🖤

Chocolate and fudge sourdough bread sounds odd until you say 'chocolate and fudge bread and butter pudding'. With raisins, cinnamon and nutmeg. It's a small loaf, so the slices aren't as big as they look, although I should probably have cut them a bit smaller. The taste though, my goodness. 🤎

It's the time of year for spooky baking! Inspired by a recipe on @joyfulhomecooking on Instagram but made with shortbread instead of linzer biscuits. 👻👻

What an experience learning all about roasting meat in the amazing Baroque kitchen of Ĉeský Krumlov castle. I have loved every second of it! With food historian Ivan Day, castle director Pavel Slavko and a whole team of experts from the castle.

Today, I'll be cooking (with a group of food historian friends) in the baroque kitchen of the Bellaria Summer Palace in Český Krumlov castle. Will hopefully have time to get some photos!

After lunch in Salzburg, we drove to Czechia and ended up in the beautiful medieval town of Český Krumlov.

What a day. Breakfast in Bavaria, lunch in Austria, dinner in Czechia. This is our midday stop in Salzburg.

Mrs Frazer arrived in the post today. I'll just be over here chilling with my Edinburgh ladies 🥰

Not me deliberately making too much mashed potato for dinner on Friday night so we can have homemade tattie scones for breakfast on Saturday...🤭

Visited the Georgian House in Edinburgh. Really lovely, and the kitchen was a treat! When I visit places like this, I always get a strong sense of how much my place would have been below stairs. I don't think any of my past lives involved society dances or genteel dinner parties. 🤷‍♀️

In a change from historical cookery, I went over to a friend's house today and helped out with some historical costume making. How lovely is this material? 🥰

Making my granny's stovies and thinking about how much I loved her. A traditional Scottish stew, originally just onion and potato with the dripping off roasting meat. Then, people started to add leftover meat. Scottish people can be opinionated about what goes into stovies, but I like it all ways.

It's "Jennie can't resist Halloween tat" season again. This bottle of wine doesn't just have Frankenstein's monster on the label - it animates when you scan the QR code! Sold!

Tasty vegetarian food isn't always the first thing people think about when they think about medieval cookery. Join me from Oct 1st for a week of (hopefully tasty) medieval vegetarian recipes for National Vegetarian Week 2025.

Tonight's tea spans centuries. Mrs MacIver's late 18th-century recipe for rice-covered lamb served with funges, leek and mushroom from the Forme of Cury, c.1390. Not the best food photo ever, it's literally just my dinner.

There's not much better than being sent a photo of your homemade apple jelly and apple cheese out in the wild and being enjoyed by friends. Love this 🥰

Surely one of the biggest lies in all of food history...

Found the site of Mrs MacIver's Cookery School which was in Stephen Law's Close on the High Street in Edinburgh in the 1770s. They have a thing marking the site and it has two of her recipes!

Recreating the crab apple cheese mentioned in letters by the Brontë sisters. In Oct 1847, Anne Brontë wrote to Ellen Nussey to thank her: "The crab-cheese is excellent." In Dec 1848, Charlotte Brontë did the same: "The crab cheese arrived safely, Emily has just reminded me to thank you for it."

Doodling labels is half the fun! 🍎

Got given crab apples. Jelly and cheese plans are afoot.

Who knows what these are? Spotted at my local fruit and veg shop. I had to ask, and then I bought one to try. His hand in the first pic, mine in the second. I bought a big one! 😆

Some pictures from yesterday's entertaining talk on Yorkshire food, but especially gingerbread, by Ivan Day at Ryedale Folk Museum. With tasting samples! 😋

Spotted in Ryedale Folk Museum today. Symington's Ideal Table Cream "contains neither milk nor cream." Looked it up, it's a sort of blancmange/Angel Delight dessert that was around until quite recently, although I don't recall ever seeing it in Scotland. 1/2

Been a busy week, but now I'm sitting outside a village pub in the sun, doing my bit for the North Yorshire Moors economy. Just the ticket.

From Mrs MacIver's Cookery and Pastry from 1789. Apple and potato pie, with orange and lemon zest. Looks amazing, tastes okay, but a mouthful of potato when you're eating apple pie is definitely weird. I think more sugar next time and maybe smaller bits of potato. Even medieval food isn't this odd.