Anglo-Saxon society has in recent years proceeded by leaps and bounds in its appreciation and adoption of foreign cuisines, and the more exotic the better. By contrast the long but much-maligned tradition of English cookery--which, to most people, including the Anglo-Saxons themselves, consists mainly of steak and kidney pie, roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, fish and chips, lamb and mint sauce, tripe and onions, and suet pudding--has been largely ignored, or at best dismissed as too bland.

This book is a triumphant vindication of 7 centuries of English gastronomy. It corrects the commonplace conception of what the English culinary tradition represents. It enables readers to recognize their inherited attraction towards (among many other things) saffron, mace, nutmeg, cinnamon and sharp sauces; to understand the progress of certain dishes through various foreign influences to their final anglification; to try their hand at a medieval royal banquet, an Elizabethan nursery breakfast or an 18th century tavern lunch. The recipes are divided into 5 chronological sections, each section preceded by an introduction which gives an account of the fashions and changes in the food and drink of the period. Many of the dishes are simple to make; others have been included for the imaginative cook who will not balk at the thought of re-creating a dish from Henry IV's coronation feast or the Prince Regent's table at Brighton.