A Taste of History : 10.000 Years of Food in Britain, 1993, 352 p., 200 ill., rel. -

Dressed swan and milk-fed snails may have vanished from the British table, but the fine cauldrons found in Iron Age burials show that an appetising stew was a popular 4000 years ago as it is today. Even earlier, before the discovery of metalworking, we know from mounds of shell and fishbones that our ancestors enjoyed boiled crab and grilled haddock, with perhaps a dish of seaweed on the side. Five food historians have collaborated in this book to provide an authoritative survey of the history of British cooking, together with over 90 recipes adapted for the modern cook. The early recipes are based on archaeological discoveries and the later on manuscripts or cookbooks of the period. Whether your mood is for wartime austerity or Edwardian extravagance, for the syllabubs enjoyed by Charles I or medieval curd flan, you will find a recipe here.