Tonight Lucullus dines with Lucullus

When dining alone, we should all be a bit more like Lucullus. Lucullus was an ancient Roman general known for his extravagant hospitality. One night, his chef presented Lucullus with a small and inexpensive dinner, because he was not expecting any guests. The general exploded with rage. ‘What? Does thou not know that tonight Lucullus dines with Lucullus?

B. Wilson, The secret of cooking (2023), 325

Can I bear to wash it up?

Go through every item in your kitchen and ask yourself six question

1. Do I find it beautiful?
2. Is it useful?
3. Do I like the way it makes me feel when I use it?
4. Can I bear to wash it up?
5. Does it do anything I can’t do better with a knife and my bare hands?
6. Do I have room for it?

Anything that gets all or mostly ‘Nos’ needs to go. Yes. Even if it was given to you as a wedding present.

B. Wilson, The secret of cooking (2023), 122

What does ‘from scratch’ really mean, anyway?

What does ‘from scratch’ really mean, anyway? It is all relative. We do not tell ourselves we are cheating when we buy packs of ready churned butter and bags of ready-ground sugar and flour, even though to cooks of earlier generation these would have seemed unimaginable luxuries. If a Victorian cooks wished to make a dish involving sugar, he or she would first have to chisel off a lump of hard sugar from a larger loaf and then grind this into a powder before finally pushing it through a series of sieves until it was fine enough to use

B. Wilson, The secret of cooking (2023), 13

She would have enjoyed cooking, if only it weren’t for her children

I got chatting to a woman who said she would have enjoyed cooking, if only it weren’t for her children. They were picky about eating lots of things, including onions, and this put her off trying new recipes because ‘what recipe doesn’t start with an onion?’

B. Wilson, The secret of cooking (2023), 4

Leave thy preaching, for it is not worth a fart

Dissent could come into church itself. Michael Maunford of St Botolph without Aldgate, London, in 1497 shouted ‘Leave thy preaching, for it is not worth a fart’, after which he was hauled before a Church court.

N. Orme, Going to church in medieval England (2021), 252

Thomas Lipton gave his potential customers a circus elephant parading a massive block of Cheddar through the streets

Modern British towns might start Christmas with a vaguely heard of ex-celebrity switching on the civic light display. Thomas Lipton gave his potential customers a circus elephant parading a massive block of Cheddar through the streets. The promotion of cheese as a Christmas food has continued ever since. Sadly cheese parades are no longer part of it

A. Gray, At Christmas we feast (2022), 93

Mince Pies were Reliques of the Whore of Babylon

Plumb-pottage was mere Popery, that a Collar of Brawn was an abomination, that Roast Beef was Antichristian, that Mince Pies were Reliques of the Whore of Babylon, and a Goose, a Turkey, or a Capon, were marks of the Beast

John Taylor (1652) on Puritans. Cited in A. Gray, At Christmas we feast (2022), 56