At Rouse Hill House appearances can be deceptive, especially in this tale of a dining chair. Continue reading
A chair’s tale
Detail of carver chair. Photo (c) Scott Hill for Sydney Living Museums
Monthly archives: April 2017
Museum marmalade: preserving the past in the colonial kitchen at Vaucluse House
The preserves pantry at Vaucluse House. Photo © James Horan for Sydney Living Museums
Adding some flavour to their labour, the staff at Vaucluse House have been adding some colour to the pantry under the stairs in the colonial kitchen. Museum guide, Nicole Sutherland takes us through the process: Continue reading
Smashing!
Detail of plate fragments from Rouse Hill House excavations. Photo (c) Scott Hill for Sydney Living Museums
At Rouse Hill House the stories of food and dining are told in oral histories, recipe books and manuscripts, stacks of plates and shelves of glassware – and in the site’s rich archaeological remains. Continue reading
A gourmet in the gold mines
Butcher's shamble, nr. Adelaide Gully, Forrest Creek. S.T.Gill.National Library Australia. Rex Nan Kivell Collection ; NK586/15
If I was going to do a ‘Julie and Julia’, the book I’d want to work through is Modern cookery for private families, first published 1845 by Eliza Acton’s (1799-1859). It is written with eloquence and grace, and with practical descriptions of mid-1800s English cookery.
It was sold in bookshops in the colony, and was the ‘go to’ cook book for prospector William Howitt, in the Ballarat goldfields in 1853. Continue reading