Although food historians can rely on written evidence to provide them with early recipes and references to dishes that might have been, the only other sources available to them are archaeology (which never preserves a trifle intact), art history (which doesn’t go back that far) or the history of language – for the names of things will often tell much about their origins. Food enthusiasts will, therefore, spend much time recounting how a dish got its name, but often they will be peddling nonsense or mythology.

William Sayers is a specialist in medieval European languages with an interest in the vocabulary of trades, crafts, and culinary arts, and in this this essay collection he explores the possible origins of a variety of culinary words and others which may be associated with them.

His broad grasp of languages and their literatures allows him to cover more than simply the culinary terms on which he focuses, whether it be scullion or cod, haggis or frumenty.

His endnotes and bibliography reinforce this further, citing Irish legal tracts on beekeeping, studies of the prevalence of Basque words in pidgin languages of the Atlantic coast of North America in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and a collection of Anglo-Saxon riddle songs.

Food history is a tremendously rich area of enquiry and this book explores nooks and crannies that have not been properly mapped up to now. The author's careful explorations highlight the difficulties of unraveling etymologies at centuries-long remove, making book provides a reliable and endlessly interesting resource for scholars and food enthusiasts alike.

William Sayers