An Antipodean Airmail

For a while now, I’ve been reading Carole’s Chatter – a blog written by a New Zealander who shares my love of crosswords, and wordplay. She recently mentioned The Edmonds Cookery book – it has sold over 3 million copies- in a nation that has only 4 million people. How popular is that? Amazon UK are currently charging £19 for used copies.

Carole kindly sent me a copy of the book [along with a pretty card]

As is right and proper, my copy is from a charity shop, having previously belonged to Liz H. It is spiral bound [how sensible, it opens flat for ease of use in the kitchen]

The story began in 1879 when young grocer Thomas J Edmonds [aged just 20] developed his own baking powder in response to dissatisfied customers who complained about the unreliability of most brands on the market. His was ‘sure to rise’ – and soon all NZ was buying the powder and in 1907 the first cookery book was produced. It has become the biggest selling book in NZ That's all books, not just cookbooks.

My copy is clearly well used, judging by stains on certain pages!

With 224 pages, and 29 chapters, and over 1000 [yes 1000] recipes, I am going to have such fun with this book. It covers basic recipes, nutrition, preserving, party food, confectionery…the lot. And there are few colour plates to whet your appetite further. This one was printed in 1992, the 33rd edition.

I am intrigued by some titles – Neenish Tarts, Tosca Cake and Munchkin Bars sound fascinating. I am not so sure about Uncooked condensed milk salad dressing though.

In the meat section is one of those glorious charts showing the cuts of meat from a cow and a pig, and another chapter is full of helpful conversion tables.

There are recipes for kiwifruit jam and chutney – and next to them in the index, Kumara salad and kumara soup. I had to look that up – it is sweet potato.

I shall try out some of these recipes when I can, and blog about them. Thank you Carole for this lovely gift – I feel very privileged.