Heston Blumenthal – do try this at home

Britain’s most scientific chef Heston Blumenthal is back on tv this week, with his new Channel 4 seriesinspired by historic recipes. This week he recreated an amazing array of dishes, including mock turtle soup, Alice’s ‘Drink Me’ potion from her Adventures in Wonderland and an eye-popping absinthe jelly recipe.

Heston used some very intersting source material for his creations. As well as Lewis Carroll, he has found inspiration from a number of Victorian recipe books. The Wellcome Library holds a number of historic cookbooks, including the one he uses for his crispy edible insects, Vincent M. Holt’s Why Not Eat Insects? If you are inspired to find out what the Victorians did for us, then feel free to visit the Library and check the recipes out for yourself.

Next week’s episode will cover Medieval cookery, with a pie containing four and twenty blackbirds – well, pigeons actually – a fruit dish made from bull’s testicles, and some nicely fried nerves. Later weeks will cover Tudor England and Ancient Rome. Fabulous.