Whodunnit Dinners podcast #24 S3 Ep5 Agatha Christie - The Pale Horse: spooky slaughtering, beatnik beauties and pub grub

We’ve made it to our 24th Whodunnit Dinners podcast, and for this one, Katie introduces Helen to Agatha Christie’s 59th piece of mystery fiction, published in 1961: The Pale Horse. It’s a proper dark and spooky tale, set around a house in an English village that has been converted from an old inn called The Pale Horse. The house is now inhabited by three modern ‘witches’... is it a coincidence that this book was published in November around the time of darker evenings and All Hallows Eve, or was it timed perfectly? Agatha knew what she was doing...

What’s the story of The Pale Horse? 

It starts with Mark Easterbrook, the main narrator, witnessing a fight between two girls in London. Soon afterwards, he finds out that one of the girls has died. The plot thickens when Mark learns her name was included on a list found in the shoe of a murdered priest called Father Gorman. It turns out that an elderly lady called Mrs Davis has given him her last confession, as she was dying. At the same time, she gave him a list of names and a dreadful secret. Father Gorman is struck dead in the fog before he is able to do anything with this information. And this is all in the first few chapters! It’s quite a complex and gripping tale and Katie rated it pretty highly, as you will hear in the podcast.

A brief history of pubs in the UK

Unsurprisingly, considering the story’s title refers an old inn, Katie’s food challenge for Helen was to share some food that you might find served in a typical English pub. 

As Helen explains in more detail in the podcast, pubs or ‘public houses’ find their roots way back in the Roman Empire, who having built road across the British Isles, needed refreshments during the long journeys. Ale was a native British drink before the Roman arrival in the first century, but it was with the construction of the Roman road network that the first pubs, called tabernae (the origin of modern English word tavern), began to appear.

Following various different incarnations over the centuries, by the mid 1500s so-called ‘public houses’ had arrived. English common law required public houses to shoulder certain social responsibilities for the well-being of travelers, in that they should receive all travelers in reasonable condition who were willing to pay the price for food, drink, and lodging.

The rise of pub grub

In the podcast, Helen goes into more detail about the rise of the humble potato in pubs and the evolution of finger food and snacks at the start of the 20th century, and how it was the 1970s when evening pub meals started to become mainstream. However, in the end she decided that the dish she would share was one that would sit comfortably in a Roman tavern, a Saxon alehouse or a modern pub. For a pub meal you can do no better than a simple, satisfying ploughman’s lunch. 

What is a ploughman’s lunch? 

A ploughman's lunch is a very simple cold meal based around fresh, crusty bread, a local range of cheese, and fresh or pickled onions. Additional items can be added, such as ham, salad, hard-boiled eggs or an apple. Usual accompaniments are butter and a sweet pickle or chutney. As its name suggests, it is most commonly eaten at lunchtime. The saltiness of the cheese was noted to increase thirst and enhance the "relish of the beer".

How to Make a Ploughman’s Lunch

To be honest, you can play with the concept of a ploughman’s lunch as much as you want, but here are some ideas for ingredients. Pick and choose whatever takes your fancy, as long as there’s cheese, bread and chutney or pickled onion in there, as non-negotiables! 

Ploughman's Lunch Ingredients

• English Cheddar cheese, sliced / Stilton cheese

• Crusty white rolls or thick slices of country bread with butter

• English chutney (such as Branston or apple & ale chutney)

• Pickled onions, halved

• Cornichons or small gherkins

• Tomato, sliced

• Cucumber, sliced

• Apple cored and sliced

• Watercress 

• Thinly sliced smoked ham (optional for extra flavor)

• Whole grain mustard

• Honey (to drizzle over cheese)

• Black pepper

• Maldon sea salt flakes

• Extra virgin olive oil (to drizzle over vegetables)

• Red wine vinegar (to splash over salad greens)

Ensure all your chosen elements are attractively arranged, with contrasting colours and textures side by side, and serve! 

Listen to the podcast

If you’d like to hear more about the history of pubs, you should take a listen to the full Whodunnit Dinners podcast, which will also take you through the many delights of the book ‘The Pale Horse’ and why it was such a cracking read. To hear the full Whodunnit Dinners podcast, click here.