Enlightening, entertaining and often surprising, Irish Food History: a companion takes you on an unforgettable and expert journey through Ireland’s culinary past.Beginning at the end of the Ice age, before reindeer, brown bears, and the giant Irish deer became extinct; this vital and brilliantly researched collection brings us forward from the introduction of farming and livestock, to the delicious world of medieval honey, banqueting, bog butter, whiskey distilling, to eighteenth century feasts, famines, and on to the modernisation, industrialisation, and eventual globalisation of food. Through analysis, storytelling, and mouth-watering descriptions, every dish and moment in time reveals ancient techniques, hidden gems, and innovative cooking seemingly far beyond its time, all of which have shaped Ireland’s culinary landscape for centuries. Irish Food History: a companion brings the reader on a gastronomic odyssey from earliest times and the start of the hunter-gatherer community, all the way to the abundant world of modern Irish cooking, safe in the hands of the world’s most highly regarded food historians.