Old cookbook

    I love going to used book stores, as you never know what you are going to find.

Stor kokebok

    About a month ago I went to a Lion club’s book sale, there was thousand’s of book piled on tables, shelves and boxes on the floor. I looked around a bit, browsed through a few volumes of no interest, but then this large book caught my eyes. Stor Kokebok.

    I like vintage cook books, so I picked it up and right away knew I had to have it. It was stuffed with handwritten recipes and newspaper clippings. 

    The book is Norwegian, and called ‘ The big cookbook’, originally written in  1914, but my edition is the 1946 reprint. These are the sort of cookbooks you do not find anymore, for example  starting on page 335 you learn how to kill and clean your rabbit, followed by pages of rabbit recipes.

    ‘ Rabbits are killed by a hard blow to the neck with a blunt instrument…..hold it by the back legs while you drain the blood…. Rabbit meat is ready to use 1 or 2 days after slaughter….’

    It also has such useful information, like how old a dove should be before you eat it, and that you should count on having  one bird per guest.

    A duck should hang for about 2 days in the summer, but 6 days in the winter…..etc….

    Now, most of us would prefer to avoid altogether the whole slaughter, cleaning and hanging  meats for days in our kitchen before cooking them. But it is an interesting insight into another era when most women were homemakers, cooking took longer, and family meals were an important part of the daily routine. Nowadays we all too often look for easy, quick, simple slap-it-together types of recipes. Of course the times have changed and many of us mothers are also working and do not have as much time as we might like, but it is important to try to make a little tradition to sit together as a family at least once in a while, set the table nicely and enjoy a meal together.

Lot's of odds and ends.....

Some of the papers are regretfully indecipherable

There was a little recipe writen on the back of Helen Werner's telephone and telegraph bill for 1951. She paid only 11.45,- NOKs the month of August.

    I tried out one of the handwritten recipe for rolls, changing just a couple little details for example using real butter instead of margarine and baking at 220 degrees instead for 250 degrees.

Boller ( Buns, about 32 pieces )

200 g butter

6,5 dl milk

2 pk yeast

2 dl sugar

1 ts salt

2 ts kardemon

About 1,8 - 2 kilos flour

-          -Warm up the milk with the butter till finger warm, add the yeast.

-        -  Mix in other ingredients and add enough flour to make an smooth elastic dough.

-         - Let it rise till double in size, punch down, shape into buns, let it rise again.

-         - Pencil with milk, bake in 220 degrees oven for about 10 minutes.

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1940's suggestion for a children party

Desert table