Monday 18 June 2012

Thrifty Find


I do not live in a farmhouse but I couldn't resist the recipes Alison Uttley remembered from her childhood.

According to me, the signs of a good cookery book are...
  • hurriedly scrawled notes in pencil alongside favourite recipes
  • the numerous splodges of mistakenly dropped food-stuffs
  • a broken spine and some loose pages (even perhaps opening automatically at a previously favoured page...?)
This book has all those wonderful badges of honour and it was a real bargain too.

Last night, in bed, I read & dreamt of my future culinary conquests. With such fantastical sounding recipes as Thor's Cake, Spanish Flummery, Hasty Pudding, Carsington Pikelets, Tennis Cake, Wakes Cakes, Exeter Stew and Slackers, what can I do but get cooking?

15 comments:

Marigold Jam said...

Love it and I'd also be thinking of Little Grey Rabbit making those things for the feckless Hare and Squirrel being as it is written by Alison Uttley! Do let us know what you make and how it turns out.

Su said...

What a find - look forward to reading about some of those recipes turn out. I remember the name 'flummery' but can't for the life of me remember what one is, off to google it now!

Ali said...

I'm with you - the best cookbooks show their worth in food stains!

Morgan said...

Is this the same Alison Uttley who wrote the children's books? I remember those very fondly!

Gillian Roe said...

What a find! Please get baking and share the results - I for one am dying to know what Thor's Cake and Slackers look and taste like!

Rachel said...

Please report on the Thor's cake - I'm sure Gillian and I are not the only ones dying to know about it!

BadPenny said...

How wonderful. Mum's Mrs Beatons was like that well used & loved.
Thanks for your comment about the potato thingy plant !!! I never know its name.

menopausalmusing said...

I am SO with you re splodgy books. My Good Housekeeping book didn't even have the covers at the end of its life.........

tea with hazel said...

what a great book and interesting recipe names..i love buying old books like that too and i like the idea of making recipes that have been forgotten..jane

Frances said...

I'm old enough now to have had access to so many decades of cookbooks, starting with the basics I grew up with, The Joy of Cooking, Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook, Fannie Farmer.

Then came the new basics, via Craig Claiborne's New York Times Cookbook, those of Martha Stewart, Marcella Hazan, Julia Child, etc., etc. All these books trying to share wisdom, all of us trying to prepare dishes, or meals or even baking, that will please evolving tastes.

The internet has expanded access to all such information beyond any earlier decade's imagination.

Isn't it still fun to explore new ingredients, techniques, and see what we might produce to feed ourselves, our families and our friends?

xo

Anonymous said...

What a good find - I love that period in publishing. And please post any recipes that you try.

Calico Kate said...

Oh please do post your dishes, if only to make us drool! I love used cookery books too, new ones often leave me cold esp if they are very shiny!
CKx

Calico Kate said...

It's just occurred to me that the best sort of cookery book is one that has been used and dripped so often that you feel as though if you boiled it up it would produce something delicious! :D
CKx

Annie Cholewa said...

I have this too, and a number of other old cookbooks with Farmhouse in the title. I just can't resist books like these and having a friend who runs a second hand book store is very bad for book shelves, they're groaning!

Do please let us know what you make :D

Mrs. Micawber said...

I can't wait to hear what "Tennis Cake" is. (Hasty pudding I do know.)

My cookbooks tend to fall open to the cake chapter. Can't think why.

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