Food in England: A Complete Guide to the Food That Makes Us Who We are

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For the surest way to gain an understanding of a nation is to appreciate the history of that nation's food. The old Welsh dog power churn wheel ("It is no hardship, the dogs turn up their job as gladly as their fellows turn up for their job with the sheep"). It's one of my favourite books in the world, I've read it cover to cover more than once, but it's also a great book to dip into.

The Museum of English Rural Life at the University of Reading curates the Dorothy Hartley collection. According to historian Lucy Worsley, Food in England is a "curious mixture of cookery, history, anthropology, folklore and even magic .

The text switches repeatedly from instructions ("To prepare mutton fat for a mutton piecrust, melt it over a bowl of hot water") to historical asides ("Mutton fat was used in the mountain-sheep districts for the same purposes as suet or goose-grease in the valleys"). Hartley records how apple tarts were made with wide lattices of pastry ("less likely to sink into the juicy pulp"), whereas treacle tarts were made in a gable pattern, like castle windows. I don’t think a sparrow could make a meal off a Welsh trotter, but in the larger breeds of sheep, the trotters are almost as meaty as a pig’s).

Fascinating in its detail, broad in scope, and precious to anyone who is interested in how people lived - and their ways of obtaining and preparing food - in the last century in this country. The emphasis on local, seasonal food chimes well, Worsley suggests, with the modern trend for just those things.It has been extremely difficult to put my finger on what exactly makes the British different, or rather what part of it is endearing for me.