Heritage Malta’s Inquisitor’s Cookalong Sessions will resume on May 27 with a webinar focusing on honey in 17th and 18th century Malta, and a recipe fit for a pope.

The session is being held in conjunction with Taste History and its multidisciplinary team of food historians, chefs and curators who have, in the past years, seen Heritage Malta present unique historic culinary experiences.

This seventh cookalong session will start with a feature on the history of honey in Malta, followed by the recipe and an opportunity for participants to ask questions to a panel of experts.

Noel Buttigieg, who lectures on the heritage and culture of food at the University of Malta, and Kenneth Cassar, senior curator for ethnography and the arts at Heritage Malta, will give a brief overview of the history of beekeeping in Malta and the various uses of honey along the centuries.

Chef Joseph Cassar will then use an 18th-century recipe to create Pan Papato, a sweet made with several luxurious ingredients for aristocratic tables, and possibly the precursor of today’s Christmas cake.

All cookalong recipes are based on archives in Malta and, in this case, a 1748 recipe manuscript was consulted. It is also known that Pope Alexander VII, formerly Inquisitor Fabio Chigi residing at the Inquisitor’s Palace in Vittoriosa, had a recipe book written by his chef during his papacy that included a Pan Papato recipe.

Following the recipe, participants may put their questions to Buttigieg, Cassar and chef Joseph Cassar.

The cookalong session will be in English and starts at 7pm. Participants must register beforehand via this link: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_U_jBwCdASBCZTlIPmf9cSA