Ever wondered why a carrot is orange? Or whether orange is even a carrot’s natural colour? Can you tell your friends why Marmite tastes bitter? Or which fruit was originally thought to have scales? From the humble sardine to the seemingly unremarkable peanut, discover the extraordinary origins of our very ordinary ingredients in this witty, vivid blend of pioneering cultural history and gastronomic primer celebrating the wonderful variety of everyday British ingredients.

Ranging from the planes of sixteenth-century Afghanistan to the sludge-filled oak caskets of Victorian England, John Oldale delves into the bizarre and unexpected histories of the ingredients we thought we knew so well, inviting us to better imagine the strange and fantastic world we inhabit.