I've just found my mother's old recipe book (Lady M found it). Until she discovered Elizabeth David, this was her only cookery book.
As with all her other books, her driving licence, and address book, etc, the pages are filled with dried four-leafed clovers. The book also contains dozens of hand written or printed recipes that she had gathered over the years.
The poor book is falling to bits, and really needs some serious repair. I shall attempt to do this myself, as I don't think it's worth having it done professionally.
The book dates from 1936 and was issued to users of the Radiation 'New World' Regulo-Controlled Gas Cookers. (very modern)
It's actually a very good book, filled with very good standard recipes. When we were first married, my mother even gave a modern copy to Lady M, which she has used ever since.
I shall now be going through the book trying to work-out who wrote all the loose recipes.
And this (above) is what the 'New World' cooker looked like. I'm sure I can remember it in our kitchen in our Surrey village of Lingfield where I was born.
Having leafed through the book a bit, I seem to be finding lots of recipes for Flapjacks; it's almost obsessive! Hmmm.....
So many four-leafed clovers! I was lucky enough to find only one in my lifetime so far and at the time I pasted it into my husband's birthday card. The following year he was gone, left us to go and live with a woman half my age. I always felt sorry for the loss of any possible good luck, sould have kept it for myself.
ReplyDeleteMy Mother always said that she never looked for the 4-leaf clovers; it was they who looked up at her!
DeletePerhaps that was your good luck... but you will never know!
DeleteMy thenwife left me for a guy with a flash car and three divorces under his belt!!
I now have a fabulous wife, who reminds me every time we do something together.... that my thenwife and I had very little in the way of shared interests!
I have been looking for a second hand copy. My Mum had this book from the 50s and it had a wonderful recipe for shortbread. I made some for my boyfriend. He became my husband. I think the shortbread sealed the deal.
ReplyDeleteLady M made me an Estofat de Boeuf, followed by a Tarte Tatin; how could I have said no!!!
DeleteHow wonderful to find such a thing. Now I have a challenge, go out in the garden and look for a four leaf clover, I have never found any.
ReplyDeleteI can never find them either. My mother found them all the time.
DeleteMy MiL worked for Radiation in Birmingham... as a quality tester. She had to cook a batch of scones in each one sent for testing [One in ten I believe].... my FiL did all the cooking, because my wife's Mum hated the sight of anything to do with cooking.... and she refused to let Mac cook any scones, although he had pastry-makers hands [very long fingers and poor circulation, so always cold] but his short pastry was a marvel.... I can only get close by using a machine. Amongst our recipe books is a 1945 copy of the Radiation cookbook, well thumbed and with additions, comments and slipped in recipes.... but no four-leaved clovers!!
ReplyDeleteI suspect there are still a lot of them around. People seemed to like them, and the publishers did a good job. The cookers, of course, are all gone, or in museums.
DeleteCro, a lot of the more recent scribblings in the margins were my FiL writing in the temperatures rather than the Radiation cooker settings... he was a scientist working for Bakelite, so he used a thermometer from work to take a reading at each setting... so that he could use modern recipe books... !!
DeleteYes, it was all 'Gas Mark 2 or Gas Mark 7', that means nothing today.
DeleteActually I think it was 'Regulo 2 or Regulo 7'.
DeleteI still convert back in my head. If my husband is cooking pastry, he laughs when I say " put it on gas mark 6 ". I've never had a gas cooker in donkey's years. ( not allowed in flats anyway)
ReplyDeleteI bake/roast everything on 200 C, and cross my fingers. It's worked up till now!
DeleteMy mother always had an electric cooker and presumably it came instructions on how to use it. I don't remember her ever referring to a specific cookery book, but when I was clearing the house after she died, found lots of hand written recipés and pages from the Sunday colour supplements for quite exotic dishes. No idea if she ever actually cooked them - I'd left home by then.
ReplyDeleteI have at least two shelves of cookery books in the kitchen, but the last time I referred to delia was to make her shortbread biscuits. They turned out well - much to my surprise - as I'm a lousy cook! My scones would be very useful as
hardcore!
These days of course you can find any recipé online.
I have lots of cook books in France, and read them regularly almost as novels. Rick Stein books are my favourites. They are like foodie travelogues.
DeleteWhat an absolute treasure! Something to pass on to Kimbo and Susie when you pass on to the next life within the next thirty years.
ReplyDeleteYes, he's going to inherit a lot of 'stuff'.
DeleteHow absolutely wonderful. I have the 1946 edition of that book, but mine is not written in, there are no four leafed clovers and no handwritten recipe papers tumbling out when I open it. So it's just plain boring compared to yours. I LOVE old recipe books with notes, splashes and little scraps and cuttings tucked into the pages. What a treasure your book is.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing how many people have the book, it seems almost an English classic. Mine is more of a relic than a treasure!
DeletePlease, for the sake of an old bloggy pal, try not to mention 'flapjacks' to often. I can no longer cook and I have yet to discover a bought one that isn't either a soggy mass or a toothbreaker.
ReplyDeleteI thought they were ALWAYS home made. I've never seen any on sale.
DeleteI too cook everything on 200 and hope for the best. I tried your chicken in cider dish. I found it good but a bit too sweet for us so I did it again a week later with red wine instead. I really liked it this way and have hand written it into my own cookery book full of writings and cuttings. I have never been able to find a four leaf clover.
ReplyDeleteWith red wine it becomes Chicken Chasseur. I think I may have found my mother's recipe in her book.
DeleteFunnily enough I titled it in my book - cheats chicken chasseur.
DeleteI have one of my mother's cookbooks, my sister has the one with all of the handwritten entries.
ReplyDeleteMaybe yours will last longer!
DeleteNow I wonder, is it flapjacks for supper tonight or sometime tomorrow?
ReplyDeleteWe make homemade maple syrup ...tap the trees and cook the sap down.
How wonderful. We have bought Maple Syrup, but I've always wondered if it's anything like the real thing!
DeleteNo, I wouldn't even put it in the same category to be compared.
DeleteSimilar to comparing a fresh pea and a frozen pea cooked. Yes, they are the same thing but not at all comparable.
There would be some advantages to moving here. :)
70 acres to live in the middle of flat fields to grow garden/fruit. Privacy.
A creek runs through the middle. Deep well water.
We have also made sorghum , which is similar to treacle . A little milder. Great on fresh biscuits and fresh cows butter. Great memories. I miss him so.
That sounds idyllic; just my cup of tea!
DeleteThe cookbook was much-loved and used frequently by your mother. She had a fondness for 4-leaf clovers and collected many. Have you found any recipes that you will use to make something you have not had in a long time?
ReplyDeleteI haven't really had time to look through them yet, but I did have a quick look at the Irish Stew recipe just to see if I was missing something. I wasn't.
Delete