The last thing to come out of the cupboard was a selection of about 6 tattered and torn cookbooks. I am being generous when I say that 2 of the books were in a state of disrepair…they were literally falling apart in my hands, single pages with little or no binding to hold them together, one of them secured together with a rubber band. The first was entitled “The Coronation Cookery Book”. The author was the CWA of NSI could find no year of publication but I assume it was written in celebration of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 1953.
The second book was covered in brown contact and was in a greater state of disrepair. When I asked mum the significance of these books I found out that they both belonged to my grandmother - Maisie, the second book having been given to her by mum. A shiver went through my spine when I saw on the inside the cover, my grandmother’s name handwritten in the script that I remember seeing on many occasions in my childhood, mostly on birthday and Christmas cards. On carefully flicking through the pages of the book, I discovered many handwritten recipes, hints and tips in mum’s handwriting. There were also loose pages folded and tucked in neatly which were handwritten recipes from known and unknown authors. I decided then that these samples must be part of our family recipe blog and set about scanning the documents to upload and to preserve for posterity.
Further reading of the cookbooks had mum and I giggling (and at times guffawin
g) about the format and content of the recipe book genre in the 1950s. For example, in the Hints and Tips section of the Coronation Cookery Book, there was a list of kitchen requisites that contained asbestos mat, flour dredge and 1 pair sandwich tins. Apart from the obvious knowledge of the danger of asbestos, I was bemused as to what a flour dredge was and what a sandwich tin looked like.Also, looking at the chapter on Convalescents and Children’s Cookery, I am pleased that I was neither a child or a convalescent in the 1950s or I would have found myself having to eat such culinary delights as Fricasseed and scalloped brains along with brain cakes, gruel, Beef Tea Custard, Raw Beef Tea and Clear Jelly!!!
A source of great laughter was when I found “Actal for wind’ written by Maisie on the back of a handwritten recipe for Fruit Cake. I remember Maisie often complaining about wind pains or the fact that she couldn’t eat certain food because it gave her too much wind. I also remember Maisie taking her daily dose of Mylanta because it helped settle her stomach from wind pains. Mum interjected saying that Maisie was always ‘popping off’ and because she was deaf and couldn’t hear it, she thought no one else could hear it either!!
What I discovered is too priceless not to preserve and share here on this blog...
