A couple of weeks ago I shared this article from The Conversation. The author, University of Wollongong’s Dr Lauren Samuelsson, was part of a recent More Than a Story Family History webinar called Food and Families, led by the University of Tasmania’s family history program. Lauren was joined by fellow food historian Dr Alison Vincent and they spoke about the intertwining of family history and food history across cultures and time periods.
Both historians have researched different areas of food history, looking at histories of cooking, eating and drinking. For her PhD, Lauren studied the Australian Women’s Weekly recipes and cookbooks from the 1930s to the 1980s to discover how they influenced Australian food and family culture. As a Women’s Weekly Cookbook family from the '70s and '80s, I am particularly drawn to Lauren’s research and findings.
Particularly interesting to me is Lauren’s observation that when handling a well-used cookbook, it will naturally open to the most popular page, and often have scribbled notes that give an insight into the food culture of the family at that time.
This prompted me to go to three of my most loved Women’s Weekly cookbooks to see which recipes I landed on. These books are all at least 40 years old and I still make these dishes today. They are marked by samples from the cooking process (which is a bit gross).
Cooking Class Cookbook, p83 – Salmon Croquettes
Best Ever Recipes, p36-7 – Tarragon Chicken
Chinese Cooking Class Cookbook, p80 – Sherried Beef with Spinach (pages were stuck together)
I am not in the habit of making notes on my recipes but I do remember my mother annotating the Crispy Fish in Chilli Sauce recipe from her copy of the Chinese Cooking Class Cookbook. Her note read: “Cut down on the chilli!” The exclamation mark says it all.
What does this say about me and my family? I’m not sure really, other than we were fairly adventurous in an era of eating, emerging from our colonial history. I am sorry to report that this love/obsession has not been passed on to my two sons, although they are both keen cooks.
I asked Lauren about her thoughts on cookbook annotations and their significance.
"I think that these little notations in the margins of the books are a really important historical source," Lauren said.
"I have a copy of the Chinese Cooking Class Cookbook where someone has written ‘Dad & Mum’ beside the recipe for Combination Chop Suey and ‘Bishops, Earkes, Byrnes, Thomases’ next to the Chicken Chow Mein. I don’t know who owned this book before me – it was an op shop find – but I love to imagine someone planning a dinner party for their friends and family, leafing through the cookbooks and choosing recipes they thought would suit.
"Both recipes have a big tick beside them, so perhaps we can assume they were a success," Lauren said.
"We are usually quite disconnected from the process of actually cooking when we are looking at old recipe books, so these scribbles and splatters help to connect us to people from the past."
And finally, I asked if Lauren had a favourite Women's Weekly cookbook. She said it's hard to choose, but no matter the recipe, she's never had one fail "aside from user error", which is why they were so popular.
"The A4 size softcover books (Chinese Cooking Class, Best Ever Recipes, Children’s Birthday Cake Book) are so accessible (and low cost), which allowed people to choose cuisines that they either loved or would like to try. I think this made for a lot of adventurous cookery, and probably promoted comments like the ‘cut down on the chilli!’ - as people adapted the recipes to their tastes," she said.
Have you got a family recipe book, or recipes that have been handed down through generations - either original family recipes or reproduced from cookbooks that are family favourites? Share them with me here.
You can watch the University of Tasmania Food and Families webinar featuring UoW’s Dr Lauren Samuelsson here.
