‘A surfyte of cheese doth bringe payne’: Leeds University transcribes early book on cheese
They are 450-year-old words of wisdom but they will ring true with anyone rooting around the fridge for late night comfort: “A surfyte of cheese doth bringe payne,”The warning for people to curd their enthusiasm is contained in the earliest-known book on cheese in English, a publication that academics say is both fascinating and nauseating,The University of Leeds acquired it at auction in 2023 and it has now been transcribed and made available for everyone to read on its website,It includes a recommendation to use rancid cheese and bacon fat as a cure for gout: “Havinge his joynts full of knobbes or knottes, hit came in my minde to macerate that olde cheese with the decoction of fatte bacon, and to beate the same well in a mortar, and so to laye hit to his knotted joyntes, which done that man was greatly eased of the gowte,”No one at Leeds is urging people today to attempt rubbing such a foul mixture into their own knobbed and knotted joints but Alex Bamji, associate professor of early modern history at the university, said she was struck by the book’s contemporary resonance.
She pointed to the passage: “He that will judge whether cheese be a convenyent foode for him, must consider the nature of the body, and the disposicion and temperamente of the cheese and both considered he shalbe hable to judge whether he is like to take harme be cheese or not.”Bamji said: “The term ‘dairy intolerant’ might not have been used then, but there’s certainly an understanding here that cheese works better in some people’s bodies than others – although the author explains this through the system of the ‘humors’, and the idea that your body will be either hotter or colder and drier or more moist.”The book, titled A Pamflyt Compiled of Cheese, Contayninge the Differences, Nature, Qualities, and Goodness, of the Same probably dates from the 1580s and was unpublished and unknown until it surfaced at auction.It is 112 pages and bound in vellum.Its writer is not known.
Bamji said it could be best described as a treatise,“It’s a substantial piece of work,” she said,“As with other treatises from this period, the writer has woven together ancient knowledge with their own learning and experience,“It’s such a great fit with what we know about how people understood the role of diet in health in the period,Food was useful both to prevent and to respond to illness, and ordinary people had quite a complex understanding of that.
”The food historian Peter Brears said he thought the book was remarkable,“I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said,“It’s probably the first comprehensive academic study of a single foodstuff to be written in the English language,”Other passages in the book include affirming what most people think today – that the end of a meal is the best time to eat cheese,“Cheese doth presse downe the meate to the botome of the stomake,” it reads.
A less useful tip is that dog’s milk “doth cause a woman to be delivered of her childe before tyme”.The transcription was made by Ruth Bramley, part of a team of re-enactors at Kentwell Hall in Suffolk.Readings from the book can be heard on a special edition of Radio 4’s The Food Programme which includes an attempt to replicate one of the Tudor recipes.
It’s not poverty that’s breeding the new populism. It’s wealth | Phillip Inman
Steve Coogan wants people to see his new film, The Penguin Lessons, and think about how they might be living in a wealthy cocoon, disengaged from the world.The film’s central character – a Briton teaching expat children in Argentina – rescues a penguin and tries to help local people persecuted by the rightwing government. Re-enacting a true story, Coogan is showing how it’s possible to be involved in local communities even when the protagonist is an outsider.Coogan is concerned about a political shift to the right built on a more selfish outlook, one that focuses on close family and casts a cold eye on people less fortunate. We see it in the US, in the rise of Reform in the UK, and in France and Germany
Oat milk rises to top as Britain’s preferred plant-based drink
With white-suited operatives tapping buttons on huge machines and its walls a tangle of heavy-duty pipes, the sprawling complex in the Northamptonshire countryside could pass for a Bond villain’s lair, were it not for the comforting porridge smell.But rather than plotting world domination, the site’s owner, Navara Oat Milling, is piggybacking on Britons’ growing thirst for plant-based alternatives to dairy. At regular intervals, trucks loaded with up to 30 tonnes of oat flour trundle eight miles up the road to the Alpro factory in Kettering, which churns out over 200m litres of plant milk a year.The decision by Alpro’s French owner, Danone, to switch to using British oats rather than an imported syrup in its main oat drink range is the latest in a wave of innovations as plant-based food makers write a new chapter after the boom-and-bust story of the past 10 years.During the cost of living crisis, shoppers turned away from pricey dairy and meat alternatives
‘Don’t ask what AI can do for us, ask what it is doing to us’: are ChatGPT and co harming human intelligence?
Recent research suggests our brain power is in decline. Is offloading our cognitive work to AI driving this trend?Imagine for a moment you are a child in 1941, sitting the common entrance exam for public schools with nothing but a pencil and paper. You read the following: “Write, for no more than a quarter of an hour, about a British author.”Today, most of us wouldn’t need 15 minutes to ponder such a question. We’d get the answer instantly by turning to AI tools such as Google Gemini, ChatGPT or Siri
Italian opposition file complaint over far-right party’s use of ‘racist’ AI images
Centre-left parties slam ‘racist, Islamophobic and xenophobic’ faked images posted on social media by League partyOpposition parties in Italy have complained to the communications watchdog about a series of AI-generated images published on social media by deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini’s far-right party, calling them “racist, Islamophobic and xenophobic”, the Guardian has learned.The centre-left Democratic party (PD), with the Greens and Left Alliance, filed a complaint on Thursday with Agcom, the Italian communications regulatory authority, alleging the fake images used by the League contained “almost all categories of hate speech”.Over the past month, dozens of apparently AI‑generated photos have appeared on the League’s social channels, including on Facebook, Instagram and X. The images frequently depict men of colour, often armed with knives, attacking women or police officers.Antonio Nicita, a PD senator, said: “In the images published by Salvini’s party and generated by AI there are almost all categories of hate speech, from racism and xenophobia to Islamophobia
Kyren Wilson crashes out at Crucible as Lei Peifan leads Chinese charge
Kyren Wilson became the latest victim of snooker’s Crucible curse after a shock defeat on the opening day of the World Snooker Championship at the hands of Chinese sensation Lei Peifan – underlining the belief many have that this could finally be the year China crowns its first champion of the world.Not since snooker’s most prestigious event moved to Sheffield in 1977 has a first-time winner of the event gone on to successfully defend the title. Wilson is now the 20th man on that list after his defence came to a shuddering halt within hours of this year’s tournament beginning, after the world No 39 produced a magnificent comeback victory.Wilson led Lei 6-3 after the opening session on Saturday but crucially, it was Lei who won the final frame in the morning to ensure the deficit was just three frames, rather than five. The 21-year-old then won six successive frames to start the evening session, all with breaks of 50 or more, to move to the verge of victory
It’s a girl! Two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani of the LA Dodgers is now a father
Shohei Ohtani has added a new title to his already decorated résumé: father.The Los Angeles Dodgers’ two-way superstar announced the birth of his first child, a daughter, in an Instagram post Saturday. Ohtani, 30, shared a photo of the newborn’s tiny feet cradled in two hands, along with a message expressing his gratitude and wonder at becoming a parent for the first time.“Welcome to the Ohtani Family!” he wrote. “I am so grateful to my loving wife who gave birth to our healthy beautiful daughter
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