April, 2024

While April may be the cruellest month in the Northern hemisphere, in the Antipodes it’s the heart of autumn, and instead of new growth the mind turns to preservation.  The last of the stone fruit, vine-ripe tomatoes, figs, feijoas, peppers and lemons suddenly seem over-abundant. Preserving, and making chutneys and relishes, while not as necessary as in past generations, still makes sense in current trying times, and has its pleasures.

Where else to look than in old cook books?  We have a number for sale.  Mrs Beeton of course, with her more than ‘sixteen hundred and fifty practical receipts’ with its good share of dealing with pickles and preserves.

If you go back a little earlier, you will find more emphasis on economy and good sense in 1830 from Maria Rundell’s A New System of Domestic Cookery: formed upon Principles of Economy; and adapted to the use of private families, its flavour found in the author presenting herself as ‘by a Lady’. 

You can combine frugality with comfort and elegance, and learn how to set a table with Esther Copley’s The New London Cookery and Complete Domestic Guide of 1827, and in 1800, William Henderson’s The Housekeeper’s Instructor takes us back to the time of the Romantics, Napolean, Jane Austin and hearty domestic skills such as the art of carving and the making of soups and hashes.

 Put aside Uber eats, and get hold of some cookbooks and fresh produce and prepare for Winter.