An Aperitif

Every moment that goes by instantly becomes the past. Things are misremembered or forgotten and through time things are eventually lost. Even our own histories lose some of their meaning as we cannot remember everything. How do we best remember our own history? For me, my strongest memories revolve around the sensual experience of food. The smell of the Sunday morning jam toasties whilst watching cartoons, the taste of my grans stew and dumplings and the revolting look of the amounts of cabbage my mum tried to get me to eat.

Through the sensual experience of food, we can visualise our past and recreate our childhood. With this in mind, why not increase the net and try to reconstruct different past eras. Using the staple dishes of various eras could we then get a grasp of that time. Recreating the flavours, textures and smells generating a revival of the past from medieval times to World War I. Could these dishes which best encompass the era be modernised and used in today’s kitchen?

Can these dishes be palatable today- or even tasty? Testing my recreation of the whole dining experience of the period on a set of tasters (or victims depending on the dish)who will judge the food according to their own palate. Using only the ingredients which would have been available in the day attempting to recreate the dish keeping the spirit alive. Will the staple dishes be adaptable or is there a reason they are lost in time? We shall see..

N.B I have tried to keep the original spelling of the recipes I have collected and as such they may not be written as we would expect.