Seren Charrington Hollins

Revolting Recipes From History by Seren Charrington-Hollins is a delightful trip through the less delightful side of food history. From dangerous to disgusting, it is covered here.

First, no, this is not full of recipes, and I have no problem with that. I have no intention of trying any of the ones that are included and I prefer to read about the ingredients that my contemporary mind finds disgusting rather than see a recipe that illustrates how that item was used. The description of a dish is sufficient for the purpose of this book.

A fair part of the book discusses canning, which might at first seem off topic. But some of the examples of what was canned and how they were used was, wait for it, revolting. To know that military members almost received canned goods that were disgusting and putrid qualifies, as far as I'm concerned, for revolting food. It actually highlights how we can sometimes forget that ways of preserving food have their limitations. My personal mistakes usually fall into thinking that because I froze something it will be good when I decide to use it. Well, there is such a thing as too long.

I would recommend this to readers who enjoy looking back at how things were and how things are. I know that when teaching medieval history courses my students were always fascinated by the culinary differences and on several occasions we had a potluck with medieval dishes (though the ingredients were fresh). Food historians will enjoy this as well even if there is not much new in it for them, sometimes looking at a topic as a whole is refreshing.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (meer)