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Binging on period dramas is so yesterday. If you want to watch the world unfold in another era and judge the dramatic rights and wrongs of history, jump online and flick through the historically stained pages of Australia’s oldest, accessible cookbook.
is considered to be Australia’s oldest cookbook that we can read in-full today.
It’s the kind of book that will fascinate your food senses and take you to a place of utter historical disbelief.
Written for the wealthy (otherwise known as the ‘upper ten thousand’), the book was published in the 1860s when a housewife's value was related to how well she made bread (according to the author).
Electric freezers did not exist. So ice was hand-made following a chemical recipe. Offal was celebrated and meat pies contained oysters (which used to be a cheap, common food).
Celebrity cook and TV host, Adam Liaw, discovered a copy of the old cookbook on a trip to Tasmania during an episode of the new SBS series,
This is Australia's oldest cookbook that we can all access and read today.
“It’s a little odd. He is writing the book – as you read in the foreword – basically so that his wife can cook better meals for him.”
The book’s author, Abbott, calls himself an Australian 'aristologist'. That means he is a self-proclaimed expert in the science of cooking and the art of eating or dining.
What's in the cookbook (besides recipes)?
This old cookbook contains the light, darkness and drama of Australian history told through a food lens.
"All books capture a moment in time, don’t they?" says Dr Susanah Helman, rare books specialist at . "This recipe book is very much a product of its time."
Throughout the book’s 115 chapters, there are delightful literary references, poems, mentions of Napoleon, and highly informed insights into food production. The reader learns about the different kinds of beer and wine, their origins and history. We’re presented with an insight into the hardships of cooking before electricity and the fascinating social instructions people had to follow when conversing over dinner (specifically, how to continue a conversation if your drunk friend interrupts you). We’re even reminded: “hot plates are a positive necessary to a dinner”.
In one part of the book, ugly people are advised not to go to parties (we aren’t making this up). Men, who can’t be as handsome as Adonis, “may at least endeavour not to appear uglier than they can help”.
Through the pages of this book, you can see the world of Australia in the 1860s.
The book also contains culturally diverse recipes (there’s a chapter on macaroni and vermicelli, and a recipe for Passover cake), alongside hundreds of fascinating sweet and savoury dishes.
There are chapters on pickles, salads, sausages, bread and dessert cakes, preserves and conserves, apples, cakes, eggs, ice, soy and breakfast. It provides recipes for crumpets, eggs a l'Ardennaise, ginger and lemon cakes, and kangaroo brains.
Mutton, whole pig and tongue aren't forgotten either. Credit: imaging
The author also discusses dinners for bachelors, digestion, yeast, tablecloths and napkins, presidency at dinner, smoking, servants and cookery for the destitute.
Being a historical text, it also contains some discriminatory food beliefs and patronising statements from the past.
It also paints a different picture to life today. That’s what makes it really interesting.
So what can we learn from reading this book? Dr Helman believes that by observing Australia’s culinary and social past, we can better appreciate the features of our modern life and consider what we want for our future. Perhaps we can even learn a few tips for making crumpets or macaroni along the way?
“Through the pages of this book, you can see the world of Australia in the 1860s,” says Dr Helman. “It looks quite different to recipe books that we read today. It also paints a different picture to life today. That’s what makes it really interesting.”
To access a digitised copy of the book, visit the
