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Michael Walkden

was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow on the Before 'Farm to Table': Early Modern Foodways and Culture project, a Mellon-funded initiative at the Folger Shakespeare Library. He completed his PhD in History at the University of York, looking at the relationship between digestion and emotion in early modern English medicine. His project, "Eating the Inedible", explores the medical and religious underpinnings of dietary taboos in the early modern world.
The early modern precursor to turducken: Adapting an old recipe to make mini pies
Shakespeare & Beyond

The early modern precursor to turducken: Adapting an old recipe to make mini pies

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Author
Michael Walkden
Learn about the early modern precursor to turducken (a huge turkey pie with duck but no chicken) and make your own mini pies using this adapted recipe.
Eggs in moonshine and spinach toasts: Two early modern recipes for a sweet breakfast
Shakespeare & Beyond

Eggs in moonshine and spinach toasts: Two early modern recipes for a sweet breakfast

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Author
Michael Walkden
Even though the combination of eggs and sugar along with butter and flour forms the cornerstone of baking, the idea of poaching eggs in sweet wine, or adding sugar to your scrambled eggs, might seem heretical to many. But this is exactly how egg dishes were often prepared in the upper-class households of early modern England. In a time when sugar was still a luxury commodity, enmeshed in colonial trade networks, and purchased at the cost of countless human lives, its inclusion in practically every dish became a marker of wealth and status among elite households across Europe. The two recipes presented here will strike many modern readers as unusual.
“Ambiguous and dangerous meat:” Herpetophagy in the early modern world
Newts
Shakespeare & Beyond

“Ambiguous and dangerous meat:” Herpetophagy in the early modern world

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Author
Michael Walkden
Why was herpetophagy (eating reptiles and amphibians) linked with madness in Shakespeare's "King Lear"? Unpack the cultural anxieties involved in early modern English encounters with unfamiliar dietary norms.
“As luscious as locusts”: Othello and locust-eaters in the early modern world
locusts
Shakespeare & Beyond

“As luscious as locusts”: Othello and locust-eaters in the early modern world

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Author
Michael Walkden

Hiob Ludolf, Iobi Lvdolfi Dissertatio de locvstis anno praeterito immensa copia in Germania visis, 1694 (Wellcome Images, Public Domain) Folger 250379 (folio) In Act 1, Scene 3 of Othello, the manipulative Iago urges Roderigo, a wealthy Venetian recently disappointed in…

Much Ado About Stuffing: Recreating an early modern stuffing recipe
cutting open to the turkey and stuffing
Shakespeare & Beyond

Much Ado About Stuffing: Recreating an early modern stuffing recipe

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Author
Elisa Tersigni Jack Bouchard Julia Fine Michael Walkden

Photo credit: Brittany Diliberto, Bee Two Sweet Today, turkey and stuffing are central fare on the holiday table. But turkeys weren’t even known in England until the 1520s, when they were introduced by explorers returning from the Americas. Turkey was…

"Excrements of the earth": Mushrooms in early modern England
Illustration of mushrooms in a Czech herbal
Shakespeare & Beyond

"Excrements of the earth": Mushrooms in early modern England

Posted
Author
Michael Walkden
Attitudes towards mushrooms in Shakespeare’s England reveal deeply held cultural anxieties about groups perceived as threats to the social fabric.