My very kind friend gave me a wonderful gift today. Fortunately for me she is having a mass tidy and chuck-out at home, and she came across a very old, small item and instead of sending it to a charity shop she gave it to me. It’s a very small book, about 3″x7″, and on the front it says ‘Recipe Index’, and inside there is a message on the first page – ‘Mary from Amy 1932’. It was published by Walker, one of their Thumb Index Books. I thought that was a publisher’s idea for a series of small note books – but in fact a thumb index is –
A thumb index, also called a cut-in index or an index notch, is a round cut-out in the pages of dictionaries, encyclopedias, Bibles and other large religious books, and various sectioned, often alphabetic, reference works, used to locate entries starting at a particular letter or section. The individual notches are called thumb cuts.
(Wikipedia)
Back to my delightful little personal recipe book. In the back is a stamp – Mawson, Swan & Morgan Ltd. The Royal Exchange, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. This company no longer exists:
Publishers, printers, booksellers and stationers. The partnership began in 1878 but the association between Mawson and Swan began in the 1850’s when Mawson set up as a chemist and druggist and was joined by Joseph Swan (1828-1914 inventor of the incandescent light bulb); the business expanded to manufacture photographic collodions – the trade name Mawson, Swan and Morgan being well known in the photographic world. On Mawson’s death in 1867 his wife, Swan’s sister, joined the company together with Thomas Morgan, all partners in a book-selling company which became a limited company in 1900 until taken over in 1974 by Midland Education Co Ltd, closing in 1986.
(photographic collodions were an early form of photograph I think, I stand to be corrected of course!)
This has taken me away from my wonderful gift, my lovely and interesting little note-book which is full of handwritten recipes. I am never going to know who Mary and Amy were unless I find some clues when i go through it more carefully, but I am guessing they were friends or maybe sisters. On the inside of the cover, one of the pasted a cut out list of cooking times for vegetables, starting with artichoke globe and artichoke Jerusalem and listing twenty-eight items through to turnip tops and vegetable marrow. and including salsify, seakale and turnip tops. Next is a note or instruction on how to use the book – there are no printed headings which leave the cook able to organise how they wish. There is however a suggested list of sections, arranged in the order of a dinner menu:
- Soups
- Fish
- Entrées
- Meat, Game and Poultry
- Vegetables and Sauces
- Omelets, Puddings, and Sweets
- Cakes and Pastries
- Jellies, Creams, Ices &c
In fact, noting down recipes for first potatoe soup, then iced cucumber soup, we go to lobster mousse, paté and cream cheese balls, kidneys with rice and raspberry crunch! And yes, potato was spelled with an ‘e’!
As well as the handwritten recipes (in two hands as far as I have discovered) there are lots of recipes cut out from newspapers and magazines – which might give me a clue to the dates this delightful little treasure was so well-used.
As you can tell, I am utterly delighted with my gift – and the friend who gave it to me? The prize-winning writer, Fenja Hill!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=fenja+hill&crid=63W7F9TH8KEV
Lois Elsden 