28 October 2012

An tribute to my trusted Good Housekeeping Cookery Book

I'm only a few weeks behind schedule, but this morning I finally got the Christmas cake into the oven!  It has previously featured on the blog as Week 39 in my year of cakes, so I wasn't planning on writing another post about it, but as I reached for my trusty cook book, I thought would share the story of where it comes from.


The recipe comes from The Good Housekeeping Cookery Book which my parents received as a wedding present & Mum has since passed onto me.  The book was first published in 1944, my edition I think is from 1976, it is a fabulous book & and I think a piece of foodie history.  I'm not sure cook books of today provide guidance on purchasing whelks or a recipe for creamed brains?  It is not an all glossy cook book, but instead has 64 pictures scattered throughout the book to showcase some of the recipes.  I think this is my favourite part of the book, the pictures really capture the styling of the 70's. 
 
From the vegetable section, Grapefruit & Prawn Salad, Tomato Salad, Green Salad, Cucumber Salad, Mushroom Salad & Cream Cheese & Celery Salad


 Buttercup Scrambles - Scrambled egg & sausage in a bread case

Celebration Cake
There is even a section on entertaining with this fantastic menu suggestion for a wedding breakfast...

Melon & Grape Cocktail
Cucumber Soup
Boned Duck with Orange Stuffing
Salomon Trout
Salads:  Tossed Green, Dressed Mushroom, Potato & Chive, Tomato with Onion
Lemon Souflee or Strawberry Flan
Wedding Cake & Coffee

I have built up a collection of lovely cook books with mouth watering pictures & recipes from all over the world, but I always fall back to my battered green book for all my cooking basics.  When I forget how to make pancake batter, need to work out cooking time for a joint of meat or just fancy making a classic pud, this is what I reach for.  I'm pretty sure Good Housekeeping still publish a traditional cook book that is more relevant for today, but would I want to swap mine for a shiny new one...no.  As well as being a piece of cooking history it's a piece of family history that I wouldn't want to part with.

So back to where we started and the main legacy of this book for the Hodgson household, the Christmas Cake!  It's still in the oven (& will be for a while yet) filling the house with the most amazing smell, M has already complained that we'll have to wait another 2 months before we can eat it.  We've had this cake every Christmas for as long as I can remember & now the responsibility of making it falls to me (no pressure), I hope we'll enjoy it for many more years to come. 

Isn't it strange how you can become attached to a cookery book?  Till next time, Rebecca x  

1 comment:

  1. Hello Rebecca! I'm resurrecting an old post with my comment, but this is my mums cookbook also and it was lost during a move across the pond to the US. Could you perhaps tell me the ISBN so I can try to hunt down a copy for an amazing Christmas gift?

    ReplyDelete

28 October 2012

An tribute to my trusted Good Housekeeping Cookery Book

I'm only a few weeks behind schedule, but this morning I finally got the Christmas cake into the oven!  It has previously featured on the blog as Week 39 in my year of cakes, so I wasn't planning on writing another post about it, but as I reached for my trusty cook book, I thought would share the story of where it comes from.


The recipe comes from The Good Housekeeping Cookery Book which my parents received as a wedding present & Mum has since passed onto me.  The book was first published in 1944, my edition I think is from 1976, it is a fabulous book & and I think a piece of foodie history.  I'm not sure cook books of today provide guidance on purchasing whelks or a recipe for creamed brains?  It is not an all glossy cook book, but instead has 64 pictures scattered throughout the book to showcase some of the recipes.  I think this is my favourite part of the book, the pictures really capture the styling of the 70's. 
 
From the vegetable section, Grapefruit & Prawn Salad, Tomato Salad, Green Salad, Cucumber Salad, Mushroom Salad & Cream Cheese & Celery Salad


 Buttercup Scrambles - Scrambled egg & sausage in a bread case

Celebration Cake
There is even a section on entertaining with this fantastic menu suggestion for a wedding breakfast...

Melon & Grape Cocktail
Cucumber Soup
Boned Duck with Orange Stuffing
Salomon Trout
Salads:  Tossed Green, Dressed Mushroom, Potato & Chive, Tomato with Onion
Lemon Souflee or Strawberry Flan
Wedding Cake & Coffee

I have built up a collection of lovely cook books with mouth watering pictures & recipes from all over the world, but I always fall back to my battered green book for all my cooking basics.  When I forget how to make pancake batter, need to work out cooking time for a joint of meat or just fancy making a classic pud, this is what I reach for.  I'm pretty sure Good Housekeeping still publish a traditional cook book that is more relevant for today, but would I want to swap mine for a shiny new one...no.  As well as being a piece of cooking history it's a piece of family history that I wouldn't want to part with.

So back to where we started and the main legacy of this book for the Hodgson household, the Christmas Cake!  It's still in the oven (& will be for a while yet) filling the house with the most amazing smell, M has already complained that we'll have to wait another 2 months before we can eat it.  We've had this cake every Christmas for as long as I can remember & now the responsibility of making it falls to me (no pressure), I hope we'll enjoy it for many more years to come. 

Isn't it strange how you can become attached to a cookery book?  Till next time, Rebecca x  

1 comments:

SquishMomma said...

Hello Rebecca! I'm resurrecting an old post with my comment, but this is my mums cookbook also and it was lost during a move across the pond to the US. Could you perhaps tell me the ISBN so I can try to hunt down a copy for an amazing Christmas gift?

Post a Comment