I love
going to used book stores, as you never know what you are going to find.
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| 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.
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| Lot's of odds and ends.....
Some of the
papers are regretfully indecipherable
|
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| 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 |
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| Desert table |
