The Cook and the Curator

Have you wondered what our Aussie ancestors put on their tables?  This new blog from Historic Houses Trust (HHT) that I discovered as I was preparing for my talk on History Blogs might just provide some clues (and recipes) for you.

The Cook and the Curator Blog

The site explains "The Cook and the Curator, brought to you by the Historic Houses Trust (HHT), invites you to explore our food heritage. Each month we’ll visit one of our extraordinary properties, introduce you to its past residents and look at what, where and how they ate. We’ll comb through old cookery books, decipher handwritten recipes, experiment with heirloom produce, rediscover lost culinary arts, and reveal family stories. We’ll also show you how to blend exotic spices, whip up apple snow, make gelatine from calves’ feet (if you dare!) and lay the perfect Regency table – and this is just a portion of what’s on our menu."

I'll be adding this to my RSS. How about you?

120th Carnival of Genealogy - Business and Commerce

Business and Commerce is the theme chosen by Jasia of Creative Gene for the Carnival of Genealogy,  120th Edition The challenge is:

Did someone in your family own a small business? Was there a favorite clothing store, ice cream shop, shoe store, restaurant, gas station, etc. that your family frequented? Did you operate a lemonade stand when you were a child? This time around we are going to be researching small businesses and recording family memories of such.

Unfortunately in spite of all of their toil none of my ancestors was rewarded with wealth from commerce. Rewards came in the form of happy lives and healthy families.


Frank Duncan, my maternal grandfather, was the subject of a post in 2009 for the 75th Carnival of Genealogy.  I cannot go past Frank and his efforts at making a quid for this post.


Frank's first job was in the copper mines in  Cobar , in outback NSW. I don't know how successful he was at this venture because he left the mines fairly soon after World War I broke out to join the Australian Army. After an unremarkable tour of duty in Europe Frank returned to Cobar.

On his return  Frank was able, through the Soldiers Settlement Scheme, to gain a grant of Crown land on which he built a house for his bride, Ethel. This plot was a station (very large farm) of 32,000 acres, Elsinore, outside of Cobar.  Elsinore was 40 miles west of Cobar NSW. In 2012 this is a remote area, nearly 90 years ago it was extremely remote. Cobar, the nearest town, was a long carriage ride over rutted, red, dusty roads. Sydney and the coast was 700 km away. Life was tough, there were droughts, bushfires and loneliness.

Frank Duncan at Elsinore

Frank ran sheep on his large property. In 1924 there were 3 horses, 2 cows and 916 sheep ; in 1926 there were 3 horses and 1200 sheep. From photos I have of the farm I can see that they also kept chickens.  Life was challenging on the property; my mother says her father wasn't suited to the hard work required "he was basically lazy". By the time my mother was old enough to go to school in around 1930 my grandmother and the girls moved into town and Frank worked the property and came to town on weekends. Some time after 1936 Frank gave up on being a grazier and gave the property away!

Elsinore wool being carted to town

Poddy lamb and chickens at Elsinore

An interesting venture of Frank's was his catering van, he was the Mr Whippy of the outback.  He drove this van around the countryside to feed the crowds at race meetings and other gatherings. From this van he sold his home made pies (I imagine that my grandmother cooked these - I remember that she made pretty good Cornish Pasties) and the ginger beer he brewed. Mum enjoyed the trips she made with her Dad to these far-flung events.

Franks catering van with Aunty Lil (now 83) behind the wheel

Together with my grandmother, Ethel Jane Pusell, Frank ran a cafe in Cobar; the family lived in a flat above the shop. I am not sure how long this venture lasted or if it was successful.  On my recent visit to Cobar I noted that the shop is now an antique store.

Frank certainly didn't make a killing from any of his business  pursuits. When he and the family moved to Sydney in the early 1940s he took a job driving a van for the Kensington Post Office.

This post first appeared on the Geniaus blog http://geniaus.blogspot.com

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories 2010 - December 8 - Christmas Cookies

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories 2010 - December 8 - Christmas Cookies

Christmas cookies are missing from the list of seasonal food I serve at Christmas time.

Cooking and Catering

A  biscuity item I bake each year is "Scotch shortbread" . The recipe comes via my husband's step-grandmother,Isabella Scott, and was published in "Cooking and Catering" compiled by the Arcadia Methodist Ladies sometime in the 1950s.

As a young bride I was given a copy of this book by Isa who religiously baked shortbread for the extended family each year. When Isa moved from the family home at Arcadia to a retirement village I started baking multiple batches of  shortbread for the family and continue to do so each year.

Isa's recipe was a little short on instructions so I annotated her recipe in the book with cooking instructions dictated to me by Isa.

The book contains many recipes that are still useful in today's climate. I have reproduced another of my favourites below.

A Favourite Recipe

Until I started writing this post I hadn't thought much about the little cookbook that features quite a number of Isa's recipes. I am now going to copy the little book and store the original with my genealogy files as it is a printed resource that gives information about Isa and her activities.

This post was first published for the Advent Calendar Calendar of Christmas Memories in 2010

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories 2010 - December 2 - Holiday Foods

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2010

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories 2010 - December 2 - Holiday Foods

Christmas Pudding (made by Geniaus) - 1984

Why do we do it to ourselves?  TRADITION!

Preparing the Christmas poultry - 2003

 A Sydney Christmas is typically hot and humid  but we continue to cook a traditional English hot Christmas lunch each December 25th. Slaving over a stove in a steamy kitchen is not my idea of a perfect Christmas morning but I still do it.  My 87 year old mother, although she eats like a bird, would be saddened if I served up something other than roast turkey with all the trimmings followed by plum pudding and brandy custard.


Other  traditional goodies that grace our table over the Christmas break include dark fruit cake, shortbread made to an old family recipe, rum balls and fruit trifle. Locally grown strawberries and homegrown stone fruits togehter with cherries and mangoes provide a healthy element to our menu. We usually reserve glazed ham to have with yummy salads for Boxing Day lunch.

Now that our home is air-conditioned the discomfort has been somewhat alleviated. Cooking the meat outside in the Webber and BBQ has also relieved the strain on our domestic oven.

Roast Christmas Lunch - 1995

Will we change our menu when my mother is no longer with us? As I think my children really enjoy it I feel that this crazy tradition will survive.

Pass the  gravy and cranberry sauce - 2007

This post was written for the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories and first published  in 2010

A Boring and Unbalanced Diet

To recognise the "EAT History" theme of last week's NSW History Week Michelle Nichols chose a food related topic for her lecture at The Hawkesbury Family History Group meeting today.

In her well researched paper "Dining in the 19th Century" Michelle discussed the food eaten at various times during  the century. In the early part of the century the food was scarce, the diet boring and unbalanced and the people malnourished, she gave examples of the rations given to convicts, women and children in the early days of the colony. The main activities at this time were milling, baking, brewing and salting. As the colony grew local crops and herds of stock were developed and diets improved..

Michelle described the development of kitchens and food technology through the century using historic images on her slides. She shared some recipes, some of which like roasted and preserved emu sounded quite unappetising. Michelle used Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management, the 1864 Colonial Cookbook and recipes published in early newspapers to give us an idea of what would be in a mid to late19th century menu.

I learnt a lot from Michelle's talk. Most importantly it caused me to reflect on the challenges my earliest convict ancestors would have faced and added to my knowledge of the conditions under which they lived.

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories 2010 - December 2 - Holiday Foods

Christmas Pudding - 1984

Why do we do it to ourselves?  TRADITION!

Preparing the Christmas poultry - 2003

 A Sydney Christmas is typically hot and humid  but we continue to cook a traditional English hot Christmas lunch each December 25th. Slaving over a stove in a steamy kitchen is not my idea of a perfect Christmas morning but I still do it.  My 87 year old mother, although she eats like a bird, would be saddened if I served up something other than roast turkey with all the trimmings followed by plum pudding and brandy custard.


Other  traditional goodies that grace our table over the Christmas break include dark fruit cake, shortbread made to an old family recipe, rum balls and fruit trifle. Locally grown strawberries and homegrown stone fruits togehter with cherries and mangoes provide a healthy element to our menu. We usually reserve glazed ham to have with yummy salads for Boxing Day lunch.

Now that our home is air-conditioned the discomfort has been somewhat alleviated. Cooking the meat outside in the Webber and BBQ has also relieved the strain on our domestic oven.

Roast Christmas Lunch - 1995

Will we change our menu when my mother is no longer with us? As I think my children really enjoy it I feel that this crazy tradition will survive.

Pass the  gravy and cranberry sauce - 2007

This post was written for the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories