Old cookery books are a joy.
I’m lucky enough to have ended up with a few editions of a book called Farmhouse Fare, which was first published in 1940 and reprinted many times over the decades that followed.
It was originally brought out by Farmers Weekly – the recipes supplied by farmers’ wives - these were the days when men rarely went into the kitchen (some still don’t enough, a lot of you might say!)
It shows how much our eating habits and tastes have changed. I can’t, for example, imagine too many people rushing to make "pig’s head pudding" or "‘braised sheep’s tongue" these days.
It’s a rare treat, flicking through copies of this book – so I’d like to share a few with you. I’m going to start running a recipe every Saturday on Field Day, beginning this weekend.
Some, hopefully, will be ones that you might like to try; others will simply be of curiosity value.
Just to get your taste buds working: this Saturday's will be a chutney, a relish and a sauce.
Oh I've got an old paperback copy of this, it's brilliant, I keep it in my bedtime reading book pile. Every recipe for brawn you can imagine!
Hi PG,
Welcome to my blog, thanks for visiting.
Yes, lost of brawn. Not sure about the calf's head pie though!
Tim
Have you seen a copy of WMW Fowler's Countryman's Cooking? It is a hilariously chauvinistic cookbook written in 1965, and republished last year.
I haven't seen a copy, Mopsa, but I did read about it in one of the papers a while back. Looks hilarious.
If you didn't see it, you can read the article here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/portal/main.jhtml?xml=/portal/2007/02/17/ftcountryman.xml&page=2
Tim
Thank you, what an useful idea. I am grateful for what you said. What you said was true. You created a few super useful insights. This is especially an aspect in these tough times. I couldn't have written it any better myself. You did a good job, although it wasn't all that comprehensive.