Historian's Cookbook

A History of Salt Cod

The origin of bacalhau, the Portuguese national dish with a global past of ingenuity and exploitation.

A History of Chop Suey

A dish which arrived with the Gold Rush, spread with the railway and endured prohibition was Chinese by origin, but claimed by America.

A History of Börek

From Turkish börek to Balkan burek, the celebrated dish of the Ottoman Empire spread far and wide.

The History of the Picnic

The first picnics were a favourite pastime of the aristocracy, and purely indoor affairs. In the 19th century, the emergent middle classes moved lunch outdoors.