Contents
List of Illustrations xiii
Introduction xvii
PARTI
Chapter One 3
In which it is fish day on the Mary Rose, anchored in Portsmouth harbour (Saturday 18July 1545)
How the trade in Newfoundland salt cod laid the foundations of the Empire
Chapter Two 15
In which John Dunton eats oatcake and hare boiled in butter in a Connaught cabin (1698)
How Ireland was planted with English, became a centre of
the provisions trade and fed the emerging Empire
Chapter Three 29
In which the Holloway family eat maize bread and salt beef succotash, Sandwich, New England (June 1647)
How the English chased the dream of the yeoman
farmer but were forced to compromise
Chapter Four 41
In which Colonel James Drax holds a feast at his sugar plantation on the island of Barbados (1640s)
How the West Indian sugar islands drove the growth of the First British Empire
Chapter Five 57
In which la Belinguere entertains Sieur Michel Jajolet de la Courbe to an African-American meal on the west coast of Africa (June 1686)
'How West Africa exchanged men for maize and manioc
Chapter Six
In which Samuel and Elizabeth Pepys dine on pigeons a 71
l' esteuve and boeuf a la mode at a French eating house in Covent Garden (12 May 1667)
How pepper took the British to India, where they discovered calicoes and tea
PARTII
Chapter Seven 85
In which the Latham family eat beef and potato stew, pudding and treacle, Scarisbrick, Lancashire (22January 1748)
How the impoverishment of the English rural labourer gave rise to the industrial ration
Chapter Eight 97
In which a slave family eat maize mush and possum on Middleburg plantation, South Carolina (1730s)
How the American colony of South Carolina was built on African rice
Chapter Nine 113
In which Lady Anne Barnard enjoys fine cabin dinners ona voyage to the Cape of Good Hope (February to May 1797)
How the Empire stimulated the growth of the provisions industr,y
Chapter Ten 129
In which Sons of Liberty drink rum punch at the Golden Ball Tavern, Merchants Row, Boston (a cold evening in January 1769)
How rum brought the American colonies together and split Britain's First Empire apart
PARTIII
Chapter Eleven 145
In which Kamala prepares a mealfar herfamily, near Patna, Bihar (February 1811)
How the East India Company turned opium into tea
Chapter Twelve 159
In which Sarah Harding and her family grow fat eating plenty of good food in Waipawa, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand (29July 1874) How hunger drove the explosion of European emigration in the nineteenth century
Chapter Thirteen 171
In which Frank Swannell eats bean stew, bannock and prune pie in British Columbia (15 November 1901)
How the industrial ration fed those who pushed out the boundaries
of empire and processed foods became magical symbols of home
Chapter Fourteen 187
Iri which the Reverend Daniel Tyerman and Mr George Bennet attend a tea party in Raiatea, the Society Islands (4 December 1822)
How the spread of European provisions colonised taste
PARTIV
Chapter Fifteen 199
In which diamond miners cook up an iguana curry at a rum shop in Guyana during the rainy season (1993)
How non-Europeans migrated to work on plantations producing
tropical foods for the British
Chapter Sixteen 213
In which the Bartons entertain the Wilsons to tea in the London Road slum district of Manchester (May 1839)
How the wheat for the working-class loaf came to be grown in America and the settler colonies
Chapter Seventeen 225
In which Prakash Tandon enjoys a Sunday roast with his landlady's family in a Manchester council house (1931)
How foreign food imports improved the working-class diet and made Britain dependent on its Empire
Chapter Eighteen 239
In which the recipe for irio changes (Kenya, 1900-2016) How the Empire impacted on subsistence farming in East Africa and introduced colonial malnutrition
Chapter Nineteen 249
In which infantryman R. L. Crimp eats bully beef and sweet potatoes in a forward camp in the North African desert (September 1941)
How the Empire supported Britain during the Second World War
ChapterTwenty 261
In which Mr Oldknow dreams of making an Empire plum pudding (24 December 1850) and Bridget Jones attends Una Alconbury's New Year's Day Turkey Curry Buffet Lunch (1 January 1996) How Christmas fare took the Empire into British homes
Acknowledgements 277
Notes and References 279
Bibliography 321
Index 355