Christmas Feasting with Annie Gray

<p>Neil kicks off the season with a Christmas special, talking Christmas feasting – and cooking – with scholar and author Dr Annie Gray. Annie is author of books such as the excellent <em>The Greedy Queen: Eating with Victoria</em> and <em>Victory in the Kitchen: The Life of Churchill’s Cook</em>. Her new book <em>At Christmas We Feast: Festive Food Through the Ages</em>, published by Profile Books, is out now in paperback, and she kindly came on the podcast to tell me about it. </p><p>We talked about many things including the myths and misconceptions about the food we eat at Christmas, why and we feast, and how the feast of Christmas has changed through time, what the Victorian’s DIDN’T invent, jelly, wassail, the ancient Christmas centrepiece the boar’s head, trifle, Yorkshire Christmas Pye, and the recipes contained within the book.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><em>At Christmas we Feast</em> is published by Profile Books: <a href="https://profilebooks.com/work/at-christmas-we-feast/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://profilebooks.com/work/at-christmas-we-feast/</a> </p><p>Find Annie on social media: @DrAnnieGray on Twitter and Instagram. Her website is <a href="http://www.anniegray.co.uk/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">www.anniegray.co.uk</a> </p><p><u>Things mentioned in today’s episode:</u></p><p>View Francatelli’s book <em>The Modern Cook</em> here: <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Modern_Cook/F68_6rvpwdsC?hl=en&amp;gbpv=0" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Modern_Cook/F68_6rvpwdsC?hl=en&amp;gbpv=0</a> </p><p>Neil’s disastrous Yorkshire Christmas Pye: <a href="http://neilcooksgrigson.com/2021/12/22/445-to-make-a-yorkshire-christmas-pye-part-2/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">http://neilcooksgrigson.com/2021/12/22/445-to-make-a-yorkshire-christmas-pye-part-2/</a> </p><p>Neil’s Smoking Bishop recipe: <a href="https://britishfoodhistory.com/2018/12/14/smoking-bishop/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">htt