Episode Details

Welcome, friend, to the Three Ravens Christmas Feast - we're still at 'Meal Prep' stage, but come inside and warm up by the fire!

To begin our six episode Yuletude binge in style we're going to head to the kitchens deep beneath Three Ravens HQ to have a chat with Dr Neil Buttery, the award-winning food historian and host of the British Food History Podcast.

Because what should be included in a traditional English Christmas lunch? As Neil explains, it's not straightforward to work it out, and along the way we discuss why Mince Pies used to have meat in them, what prompted Medieval and Tudor monarchs to start baking absolutely everything in pastry, the surprisingly late arrival of the potato on English dinner plates, and much more besides!

Oh, and don't mind the spectral hands floating about the place.

They're a gift from Baba Yaga...

About Three Ravens 🔮

Three Ravens is a completely independent English myth and folklore podcast where we share stories, celebrate folk culture, and fall backwards through the hedgerows of history.

Hosted by real-life couple Eleanor Conlon and Martin Vaux, and mostly recorded at our home in rural Sussex in southern England, Three Ravens is rated 4.8/5 from over 500 reviews and has grown by word of mouth care of our lovely listener community ‘The Conspiracy of Ravens.’

We release three episodes a week, on Mondays, Thursday and Saturdays, through which we explore folktales, folkways, fairy stories, folk songs, mythology, local heritage, seasonal customs and traditional beliefs.

Our research inspires our retellings of stories from across history and culture, with episodes standing alone but connected together across over 500 chatty, mostly light-hearted, swear-free installments driven by passion, kindness and curiosity.

Now ranked as an all-time Top 5 podcast across several categories by Goodpods, charting in the Spotify, Apple and Rephonic UK Fiction Top 10 across 2024, 2025 and 2026, if you’re interested in ghosts, monsters, regional beliefs, and the things that unite us all, then join us round the campfire and listen in…

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