A History of Christmas Food

Dan Snow's History Hit

Porpoises, beaver tails, boar's head and puffins were just some of the exquisite dishes on medieval tables during the festive season. In this episode, food historian Annie Gray joins Dan in his kitchen to cook up some delicious Christmas fare from ages past. They make wassail - an ancient alcoholic punch - and mince meat pies as they talk about the Pagan rituals, Medieval feasts and Victorian traditions that dictate what we put on our Christmas dinner tables.


Did you know you can watch this episode on YouTube? Check it out at https://www.youtube.com/@DSHHPodcast


Annie's book is called 'At Christmas We Feast'


Produced by Mariana Des Forges and edited by Dougal Patmore


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More description

Porpoises, beaver tails, boar's head and puffins were just some of the exquisite dishes on medieval tables during the festive season. In this episode, food historian Annie Gray joins Dan in his kitchen to cook up some delicious Christmas fare from ages past. They make wassail - an ancient alcoholic punch - and mince meat pies as they talk about the Pagan rituals, Medieval feasts and Victorian traditions that dictate what we put on our Christmas dinner tables.


Did you know you can watch this episode on YouTube? Check it out at https://www.youtube.com/@DSHHPodcast


Annie's book is called 'At Christmas We Feast'


Produced by Mariana Des Forges and edited by Dougal Patmore


Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.


We'd love to hear your feedback - you can take part in our podcast survey here: https://insights.historyhit.com/history-hit-podcast-always-on.


You can also email the podcast directly at ds.hh@historyhit.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2025-12-18 31 min
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