Published in 1994, these (free) booklets and I quote - 'can turn your dreams into a glorious techni- colour reality.....If you are snookered by cooking, this book will put you on splendid form.'
Steve's Top Tips include: 'Microwaves are brilliant. You can cook things faster and there's less to wash up. So you've got time for a couple of extra frames.'
Also 'If you spill red wine on your carpet, sprinkle it with salt, remember - it's the 'white' that puts the 'red' away!'
Oh dear !
My Bible -pre Internet - was Delia Smith's Complete Illustrated Cookery Course, bought for me when I got married, by my sister in law ("Updated for the Nineties!"). But as I say, now when I want to be reminded how best to cook a paella, say, I'll just Google it, or go to my binder on the BBC food website.
I also still have - somehow after all these years - my grandmother's cookery book.
It must have come with the brand new state of the art oven she had installed on her marriage in 1931, when she was barely twenty. (She didn't have my Dad til 1938 , her only child, Dad thinks he was only born because she knew war was coming, possibly, she wasn't a pleasant woman, but that's a whole other story).
It's falling apart now, sadly; it was first published in 1927, by September 1931 it had reached its fourteenth edition, and that's the one I have so it is 82 years old.
It's falling apart now, sadly; it was first published in 1927, by September 1931 it had reached its fourteenth edition, and that's the one I have so it is 82 years old.
The first chapter extols the virtues of the 'RADIATION "New World" Regulo Controlled Gas Cooker'. To be fair, it is very concerned with gas wastage. It has 'Vertico Taps - they do NOT leak!' . There are pages of advice on how to use and how to clean. You see, "Ordinary ovens have two burners , one at each side; the NEW WORLD has only one at the back ! ". We are also reminded of The Importance of The Bottom Flue Outlet -the oven is thus kept free from dust. And that pesky browning shelf you've been using ? Not necessary with the RADIATION 'New World' oven. And don't forget, wipe the oven down every time you use it, while still hot.
Not sure about that one.
Not sure about that one.
When I open the book it defaults to the pages I used as a child back in the Seventies, after Grandma's early death aged just 66. We lived with her and Granddad until I was four and my parents could get a mortgage (it is a fact that until the Eighties and the Thatcher years, mortgages were rationed; you had to wait for one). I was an avid baker as a pre-teen. Buns and sponges, Christmas Cakes and even a baked Alaska aged just 11 that my Mum still waxes lyrical about. The Cherry Cake recipe was my favourite and that is where the book opens. It's a standard recipe:
1/2 lb butter
1/2 lb castor sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 lb flour
3 eggs
6 ozs. glace cherries
a little grated lemon rind
Method- Beat the butter and sugar to a cream, add each egg separately and beat well in. Sift the flour and baking powder together and stir lightly into the creamed mixture. Lastly, add the cherries and lemon rind. Transfer to a tin lined with greased paper and bake for 2 hours with the "Regulo" at mark 3.
TWO hours ?
But it's the 'Meat' section that I find particularly interesting. It shows us that no matter how much we think we cook 'from scratch' nowadays our Thirties forebears had so much more to do in the kitchen ! Be warned, some of this isn't pretty reading !
Calf's Brain Fritters anyone ? 'Wash the brain in salt water. Skin, put in cold water and bring to the boil. When cold, cut into slices 1/2 inch thick. Dip in egg and breadcrumbs and fry in deep fat.'
Don't fancy that ? Try Calf's Sweetbreads (with green peas) ; just boil , cut in half , breadcrumb them and fry. Yum.
Then we get to Sheep's Head Broth
'Split the skull lengthways and remove the brains carefully; place them in cold salted water. Chop off the nose and well clean the head all over with salt. Remove the tongue. Tie the head together and place in a saucpan with the tongue. Cover with hot water, ad 2 tsp salt, and, as the water boils, skim well. Cook for 1 hour. Wash the brains, tie in muslin and cook in the broth for 20 mins. Cut the vegetables into small pieces, add these with the barley and spice to the broth. Simmer for 2 hours. Season, add parsley and the meat from the head cut into small pieces. The head can be served separately with brain sauce.'
Delicious ...
I don't know how people sourced their poultry in 1931 but it seems the butcher had little input aside of actually selling it to you. All the poultry recipes talk about cutting off heads and necks , and trussing.
Roast Pheasant
Ingredients
1oz butter
1 pheasant
1/2 oz flour
1/2 pint good stock
Bread sauce
Fried breadcrumbs
Method - Cut off the head and neck without removing the feathers, and set aside for decoration when the bird is cooked; the tail feathers also should be preserved. Pluck, singe, draw and truss the bird leaving the feet on. Cover the breast with fat bacon. Put a good piece of butter inside and roast for 1 hour. Just before the end brown the bird after removing the bacon . Stick the feathers in the tail and if the head and neck are used for decoration , put a wire through them and arrange as naturally as possible. Serve with fried breadcrumbs.
Yum.
There's lots more in this elderly treasure - Jugged Hare anyone ?
I certainly have a real appreciation of just how different being a housewife was in the 30s - and why it was (is) certainly, a full time job !
