'Supper table' (detail) in Mrs Isabella Beeton, Beeton's every-day cookery and housekeeping book, Ward, Lock & Co., London, [ca.1895]. Caroline Simpson Library and Research Collection, Sydney Living Museums
Servant ‘butchers’ dinner guest!
In putting on the dishes and taking them off, I shall observe to you a few things, as many accidents have occurred through inattention and want of care. Thomas Cosnett, The Footman’s Directory, and Remembrancer; or, The Advice of Oneimus to His Young Friends. (London, 1835)
In the cellars at Elizabeth Bay House. Photo Scott Hill © SLM
One of Elizabeth Bay House’s most evocative spaces is its wine cellar, built under the mud-stone floor of the entry hall and saloon. Faint impressions of painted labels – sauternes, Teneriffe, port, claret, sherry, brandy, are still evident on the arched storage bays designed to hold casks and bottles. The wine cellars were connected to the house with an internal staircase, giving the butler – who was entrusted with the keys – access to the wine store. Continue reading
Cooking over the fire at 'Redcoats and Convicts' at the Hyde Park Barracks. Photo © Leo Rocker
While Sydney’s ‘toffs’ tucked into a leisurely breakfast – anything from freshly laid eggs to kedgeree, smoked ham or cured tongue, sometimes as late as 11am, the convicts at the Hyde Park Barracks would have had to settle for a dish of dreaded hominy, a porridge made from maize, or corn meal, doled out in the mess halls just before dawn (see recipe below). Continue reading
Cooking at 'Redcoats and Convicts' at Hyde Park Barracks. Photo © Leo Rocker
While we continue fine dining with the Macleays at Elizabeth Bay House, other activities at Sydney Living Museums this month whet the appetite with a chance to experience convict life at Hyde Park Barracks, a glimpse of Sydney’s domestic underbelly at the Justice & Police Museum, and a taste of early Parramatta and colonial gastronomy at Elizabeth Farm. Continue reading
Ready and waiting: a dessert course at Elizabeth Bay House. Photo © Leo Rocker
With the second course finished, it’s time for some precision table acrobatics as we re-set the table for dessert. Continue reading