The Delicious Legacy

A Greek Gourmand, travels through time...Imagine yourself dining with Socrates, Plato, or Pythagoras! What tasty morsels of food accompanied the conversations of these most significant minds in Western philosophy?Now picture yourself as you sat for a symposium with Cicero, or Pliny the Elder or Julius Caesar. The opulent feasts of the decadent Romans!Maybe, you're following Alexander the Great during his military campaigns in Asia for ten years. Conquering the vast Persian empire, while discovering new foods. Or try and picture the richness of fruits and vegetables in the lush Hanging Gardens of Babylon.What foods did our ancestors ate?How did all begin? Who was the first to write a recipe down and why? Sauces, ingredients, ways of cooking. Timeless and continuous yet unique and so alien to us now days. Staple ingredients of the Mediterranean world -as we think now- like tomatoes, potatoes, rice, peppers, didn't exist. What did they eat? We will travel far and wide, reconstructing the diet, the feasts, the dishes of a Greek Philosopher in a symposium in Athens, or a Roman Emperor or as a rich merchant in the last night in Pompeii.....Lavish dinners, exotic spices, so-called "barbaric" traditions of beer and milk, all intertwined...Stay tuned and find out more here, in 'The Delicious Legacy' Podcast!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-delicious-legacy.

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The forgotten ingredient of our modern kitchens

May 12 55m

*If you want to listen to the whole conversation with Jenny Linford, with the extra bits, please go to my Patreon page and subscribe from $3 dollars a month: https://www.patreon.com/thedeliciouslegacy?l=en-GB *

Hello! Brand new episode is out for your delightful ears!

It is obvious given that I often explore historical food themes, that I usually talk about food in time. But what about time IN food?

In the 60s the average US house-wife would spend 112 minutes per day in the kitchen. In 2008 this figure was down to 66 minutes per day. A survey in 2022 in the UK found that “the most time consuming chore is cooking. The average Brit spends 253 minutes per week in the kitchen cooking meals. That’s the equivalent of 219 hours per year” and also went on “On top of this, we spend an average of 98 minutes a week washing up, which equates to 85 hours a year and 170 days in our lifetime. That’s a lot of time spent in the kitchen.”

Feelings of time scarcity are increasingly widespread in industrialised societies. People are fulfilling a multitude of roles, possess an array of material goods, and want to get the most out of their leisure time, all of which influence feelings of not having enough time to get everything done. Time scarcity, or lack of time, is one of the major drivers of ultra-processed food consumption. This time crunch forces people to rely on ultra-processed foods that are ready to heat or ready to eat to buy back time. Overall, this time scarcity is an issue faced by the primary food shoppers, preparers and givers, who are disproportionately women across the globe.

My guest today Jenny Linford is a food writer, author and passionate advocate of many many artisanal food producers, cooks, farmers and so on. People who put all their time to create some amazing food for us, to feed us and keep us alive but also for something more important I think. Because food, eating together and eating well is part of what we are. So today, we are discussing these themes from Jenny's past book, "The Missing Ingredient -The Curious Role of Time in Food and Flavour" which is of course -as the title suggests!- about the role of time in food. And time is crucial, not just in the home kitchen…but throughout the whole process of growing, maturing, fermenting, distributing the food. She explores through a series of essays the interconnected and important nature of this underappreciated ingredient from seconds to years. Together we will try and bring a much needed appreciation of the patience that is required and perhaps have a pause and bring time to cooking and eating. We had a fascinating discussion which I hope you’ll enjoy!

You can buy Jenny's book here: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/17049/9780141982816

"Everything that we eat is part of a cultural legacy that we've inherited" - Sandor Katz, Fermentation revivalist

Love,

Thom

Producers, cooks and artisans mentioned on this episode:

England Preserves: https://englandpreserves.co.uk/pages/about-us

The Wasabi Company: https://www.thewasabicompany.co.uk/

Claire Clark: https://claire-clark.com/about/

Mrs. Kirkham's Lancashire Cheese: https://www.mrskirkhamscheese.co.uk/

CJ Jackson: https://www.kentseafood.com/

https://www.waterstones.com/book/great-british-seafood-revival/cj-jackson/steve-lee/9781913159856

Friis Holm: https://friisholmchokolade.dk/?srsltid=AfmBOoqomjPiETgdr3pM0wV93pZnJQb5y_byfo-IG04kMinDxfD9RToO