I wrote this a few days ago:
There is a pile of books on the shelf beside me, ‘The Pasta Book’ by Simonetta Lupi Vada, ‘A View From Afar’ – Jewish Lives in Tasmania from 1804′ by Peter and Ann Elias, ‘The Cuisines of Mexico’ by Diana Kennedy, ‘Along the Cam and the Great Ouse with Briscoe Snelson’ edited by Peter Snelson, and ‘Good Housekeeping Colour Cookery’.
… and over the last few days I’ve written about these books which are such old favourites, for various reasons, and the last to comment on is the Good Housekeeping book, which dates itself by adding ‘Colour Cookery’, because these days we don’t expect most cookery books photos to be in black and white. The copy I have (which I got from a second-hand or charity shop) has no date of publication although the book was first published in 1967 by Michael Joseph.
The foreword, written by Carol Macartney (and I can find nothing about her – yet) starts:
Mention Good Housekeeping cookery books in any gathering of women and someone is bound to say, “Oh yes – all those lovely colour pictures of food…” and someone else will be sure to add that she’s cooked by Good Housekeeping recipes ever since she married. Here, for addicts of the famous Good Housekeeping recipes and the equally famous food photographs, is really practical and comprehensive cookery book with something for everyone, whether beginner or experienced cook. Turn to the list of contents and you will see that the sixteen chapters include ordinary branches of home cookery, plus some less ordinary items – “The Art of Curry Making”, “Buffet Party catering” and “Bed-sitter Cookery for One”, not to mention an invaluable chapter on “Home Preserving”.
The three chapters mentioned are interesting in themselves because they also date the book, even if you didn’t know it was a recent publication you’d be able to tell it was from a previous era! These days curry is almost a national dish, and although many – maybe most people would buy prepared spice mixes, they would definitely be after something other than an all-purpose flavour. Who these days has buffet parties? The last time I remember doing something even vaguely similar was when we had our dear Dutch friends to stay and we had a party and they were excited to join us in the kitchen getting everything ready. And then the third example, ‘Bed-sitter Cookery…” with the sad addition of “… for one” really is a throw-back to a different time.
I was going to share something about curry-making, but maybe I’ll save that until tomorrow except here is how you can make home-made curry powder, 1967 style:
1 oz turmeric
½ oz coriander seed
½ oz red chillies
½ oz black pepper
2 oz cummin seed
1 ½ oz fenugreek
½ oz powdered ginger
¼ oz poppy seed
Any ingredients which are not already powdered must be crushed by means of a pestle and mortar. Mix all well together, then sift to remove any imperfectly crushed seeds and pound these again before re-mixing. Store in an airtight jar. This gives a powder of medium strength, for hotter flavour, increase the quantities of chillies.
Lois Elsden 