View of an 'Australian Kitchen' (detail) showing a bottle jack in use, in Mrs Isabella Beeton, Mrs Beeton's book of household management, London, circa 1880. Sydney Living Museums R89/80
During one of the floor talks for Eat Your History: a Shared Table a conversation started at the curio wall regarding a piece of kitchenalia you never see anymore, the bottle jack, and a very old question indeed: do you bake, or do you roast? Continue reading
Handmade Meroogal sponge cake. Photo © Sydney Living Museums
Today is #MusCake museums’ cake day! And there is plenty of cake to go around at Sydney Living Museums! The number of cakes consumed on our properties – historically and today – is countless! And there are dozens of cake recipes in our house museums and Caroline Simpson Research library collections – so the cry today is ‘let us eat cake!’ Continue reading
Eat your history recipe testing volunteers with Meroogal sponge cakes. Photo © Sydney Living Museums
We’re very excited to introduce our fabulous recipe testing volunteers – Charmaine, Margot and Paula, as part of our Eat your history heirloom recipe project. The team has been working their way through manuscript recipes from family collections at Meroogal and Rouse Hill House and Farm. Continue reading
Children in front of whitewashed house with bark roof, Hill End by the American & Australasian Photographic Company, 1870-1875. State Library of NSW ON 4 Box 10 No 70167
This month we’re celebrating the versatile goat with a special Colonial Gastronomy program at Vaucluse House, complete with butchering and cheesemaking workshops with guest presenters Grant Hilliard from Feather and Bone and artisan goats-cheese maker Karen Borg from Willowbrae chevre cheese. Continue reading
Blancmange mould at Rouse Hill House and Farm. Photo Anna Corkhill © Sydney Living Museums
Our ‘Marching on’ post included an introductory video for Rouse Hill House and Farm and its rich food heritage. In it we talk about blancmange, a chilled milk-based dessert dish that Nina Rouse used to make for her children and later, her grandchildren. Continue reading
A dairymaid at work.
We’ve all heard the expression ‘there’s no use crying over spilt milk’ but there were more than tears on June 5, 1788 when a somewhat catastrophic event occurred. Continue reading
Convict Barrack Sydney N.S. Wales by G W Evans (attrib), c1820. State Library of NSW: PX*D 41
June 4, the King’s birthday was a big day in the diary in the Georgian and Regency period. The day traditionally brought a great level of feasting and revelry, even in far-flung Sydney. But there was double celebration on this day in Sydney 1819, when Governor Macquarie presided over the official opening of Hyde Park Barracks, putting on a feast for its new ‘house mates’. Continue reading