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Swan is the animal we most associate with culinary high treason 鈥� but it was actually widely eaten at the time of the Gunpowder Plot. (Only mute swans are protected by .)听听 However you could really get in trouble for eating hares, partridge and pheasants; they all somehow 鈥榖elonged鈥� to the King. The punishment for poaching had been severe in Tudor times 鈥� hanging or having your hands cut off 鈥� then reduced to a more reasonable public whipping, fines and imprisonment.

We all know that Cromwell would do you for during the Civil War. But later in the 17th century the country was once more on the point of rebellion, all hopped up on caffeine from coffee houses where treasonous talk was rife. King Charles II issued an order banning coffee houses in 1675, but it was quickly rescinded - presumably because they all started getting those caffeine-withdrawal headaches.

Even now if food doesn鈥檛 exactly make one a traitor, it can be decidedly unpatriotic. The doesn鈥檛 just mean that Americans can鈥檛 bring a bottle of rum back from holiday鈥撎� they are technically forbidden from purchasing Cuban products even when abroad.听

So while we don鈥檛 wish Guy Fawkes had succeeded with his plot, I think Bonfire night is a time for a bit of outlaw cooking.听 If Halloween is a frenzy of sweetness for the听kids, now鈥檚 the time for some grown-up autumnal treats.

If you鈥檙e staying at home, why not cook dinner over your own little bonfire or resurrect the barbecue. Throw a few jacket potatoes, wrapped in foil, into the coals for forty-five minutes and top with beans or chilli.听 While you鈥檙e waiting, pop a foil-wrapped box of Camembert in there as well.听 Serve the molten cheese with chunks of bread and pass the flask.

Don鈥檛 live dangerously when cooking sausages over the open flames鈥撎� I boil sausages for about ten minutes so they鈥檙e already cooked, then pop them onto sticks to build up a caramelised veneer over the fire. Char, to taste. Follow with marshmallows.

If you鈥檙e out for the fireworks, make some homemade cinder toffee for the trip 鈥� ooh and ahh and stand back as the bicarb fizzes in the boiling sugar. Pack a thermos of mulled wine or cider 鈥� even Gunpowder green tea 鈥� and a box full of parkin.

Toffee apples are always on offer in the supermarket, but I think to be really authentic, we should be eating our golden toffee in a sticky pudding or cake loaded with dried fruits. Why? Because as they say, 鈥溾��.

Love to know what outlaw food you'll be cooking up over the bonfire, or indeed any criminal food factoids. I may have exhausted Wikipedia.