Fish, Flesh and Good Red Herring

From the cooking methods of Ulysses to Victorian nursery fare, from Biblical food facts to modern food fads, Alice Thomas Ellis takes delight in all things gastronomical, and generously seasons her gallimaufry with anecdote and wit. Fish, Flesh and Good Red Herring is a delectable culinary history catering to all tastes - as well as revealing some unusual ones: we learn that Charles Darwin proclaimed roast armadillo 'a most excellent dish'; that Elvis Presley adored cooked squirrel; and that British infants once devoured sugared mice - real ones! Garnished throughout with extracts from famous food writers including Brillat-Savarin, Mrs Beeton, and Elizabeth Craig, there are recipes to relish and historical titbits to savour: we are taken from the sumptuous eighteenth-century banquet to the gossipy literary lunch, from the misery of rationing to the gluttony of the Roman feast. And cooking practices of some of the most celebrated chefs are shared with us -- as well as the grisly fates of those not so highly favoured: King Henry VIII boiled two of his cooks, whereas Ivan the Terrible preferred his fried.