My recipes: Do I really need more?

The Sunday paper magazine had three delicious chocolate cake recipes with a thick, creamy icing that went with each. So tempting to pull them out and file! But wait, I rarely make chocolate cake these days. The decadent mud cake recipe on display can’t be better than the one my daughter brought home from university. It came from a well-known Canberra coffee shop where her friend worked. And the melt-and-mix cake, torn out of a newspaper long ago is so easy. I make a simple tray cake from the Nursing Mothers’ Cookbook – used to be great for school lunches. School lunches are well in the past! And my original Nursing Mothers’ Cookbook (first edition) got so stained my other daughter bought me a new one, which is now the source of ‘Grandma Biscuits’.

I don’t really need any more recipes! Still, I peruse magazines with interest.  I have a shelf of cookbooks and folders of tear-outs. I made myself a rule if I hadn’t tried a new recipe in a week I binned it. Every now and then I go through my folders, and realise that dietary requirements of recent years make the making of a particular dish unlikely. An increased fussiness has also others unlikely.

Another source is the internet to find recipes if I have a particular ingredient I’m not sure what to do with. I turned to it when my greengrocer got in pomegranates and persimmons. My youngest granddaughter has allergies and there is a wealth of recipes enabling me to cook her treats still.

The bookshelf groans with treasures: ‘100 Ways with Mince’, ‘Best Vegetarian’, Jamie Oliver, round the world cuisines, family treasures, classics, and recipe suggestions from appliances.

The appliance cookbooks were used till I got used to the appliances. There are books there for appliances I no longer have. I’ve never tried to cook cake in the frypan, which I’ve been assured can be done.

I have Margaret Fulton’s first cookbook which I inherited from my stepmother, the Sun-Herald Cookbook published in 1970, which could only be bought from the newspaper. Both were a revelation at the time of printing. The idea that ordinary cooks would produce splendid dinners and cater for parties was new and one which we brides of the 70s embraced with enthusiasm if not always success. The classics of those books are great standbys. I was reminiscing the other day about the time I bought 4lb of gravy beef to the puzzlement of my butcher. I was to make ‘French Onion Soup’.  It made a lot of French Onion Soup!

I have vegetarian cookbooks because my daughters once were vegetarians and one son-in-law still is. And there are some lovely vegetable and fruit recipes therein.

A subset in my collection are the ‘fundraises’. Books compiled by groups such as the CWA, school parents, church groups. Big on cakes and biscuits, the ones compiled in the 70s seem to have pineapple in every savoury dish.

Another subset, and quite a large one, is the books explaining how to cook the cuisines of other countries. Charmaine Solomon is the standard for Asia, though I have other Asian cookbooks. There are several Italian and Spanish books, but surprisingly no French.  These days exotic ingredients are easier to come by, but when some of these books were published Australians still mainly cooked English food – or that was what supermarkets catered to. Spending an afternoon preparing the cuisines of another country is tiring but relaxing. A very favourite is the cookbook from ‘Abla’s ‘ restaurant in Melbourne. When we ate there once I was able to chat with her. Making hommous Abla’s way spoils you for all others.

I have my mother’s schoolbook from the the late 30’s that she used at Bowen State School. It’s well worn and has the most amazing recipes – invalid cookery, the cooking of now endangered species, breakfast, cakes, menu suggestions. The instructions are suitably vague – cakes go into a ‘good oven’, meals are presented ‘nicely’.

In 1940 my mother left home and that Christmas her parents made her a cookbook. My grandmother drew on wood the family dog, Cobber, and my grandfather burnt the drawing into the wood. Family and friends contributed recipes – pickles, cakes, how to cook steak the way my grandfather liked it, jams, sweets. The entries are all hand written and it is one of my most treasured keepsakes.

A good-clean out of the shelf and folders would not go astray!