‘The Carp is a stately, a good, and a subtle fish, a fish that hath not (as it is said) been long in England’ Izaak Walton, The Complete Angler (1653)

In this episode I explore the history of carp in Britain, one of the most widely distributed freshwater fish of all the British species, with angler and author John Langridge.

By the seventeenth century carp recipes were frequently found in cookbooks of the period but it is seldom eaten now. As well as busting some myths about how the carp first came to Britain I try to find out why the carp leapt from the plate and back into the pond to become arguably the most popular coarse fish in the UK?

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Useful Links

John’s books Aphrodite’s Carp and Fishing for Spanish Barbel are available from Medlar Press.

Suggested Reading

* A Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle, by Dame Juliana Berners (1496)

* Natural history of British fishes by Frank Buckland (1883)

* The Accomplisht Cook by Robert May (1685)

* The Complete Angler by Izaak Walton (1653)

Don’t forget you can follow me on Instagram or Bluesky @mrssbilton or find out more about my work on sambilton.com.

A huge thank you to Thomas Ntinas of The Delicious Legacy for doing the sound mixing on this season of the podcast. Sound effects and music provided by Zapsplat and Pond5.

Comfortably Hungry is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

‘We do not know for how many millennia man has exploited the preservative properties of ice.’ Jill Norman in the introduction to Elizabeth David’s Harvest of the Cold Months (1996)

In this episode I’m joined by food historian, writer, photographer, and culinary practitioner Dr Nader Mehravari, to find out more about the yakhchals of ancient Persia and how they were used to make and store ice.

If you enjoyed the podcast you can become a paid subscriber to the Comfortably Hungry Substack (which means you’ll receive additional content) or show your appreciation by leaving a small, one off tip here.

Useful Links

You can follow Nader Mehravari on Instagram and find out more about his work with Persian food on his website.

Nader’s Faloodeh recipe on Serious Eats

Suggested Reading

Travels in Persia by John Chardin (a seventeenth century French born traveler who wrote about ice in Persia)

Harvest of the Cold Months by Elizabeth David (1996)

Don’t forget you can follow me on Instagram or Bluesky @mrssbilton or find out more about my work on sambilton.com.

A huge thank you to Thomas Ntinas of The Delicious Legacy for doing the sound mixing on this season of the podcast. Sound effects and music provided by Zapsplat and Pond5.

Comfortably Hungry is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.