Spring Harvest Festival at Elizabeth Farm, Parramatta. Photo © James Horan for Sydney Living Museums
“It is now Spring, & the Eye is delighted with a most beautiful variegated Landscape – Almonds – Apricots, Pear and Apple Trees are in full bloom. The native shrubs are also in flower, & the whole Country gives a grateful perfume.”
Elizabeth Macarthur to her friend Miss Kingdon, Parramatta, 1798 Continue reading
Spoons and ladles from Francatelli's Cook's Guide and Advertiser. Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection
While we’re mainly looking at the pots and pans in this series on the colonial batterie de cuisine, it’s a good time for a diversion into all the miscellaneous bits and pieces in a kitchen – all those things we keep in the ‘third drawer down’.
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Delicious chicken curry at Elizabeth Farm. Photo (c) Scott Hill for Sydney Living Museums
Last week the air at Elizabeth Farm was rich with the aroma of Indian curries cooked on the wood stove. Continue reading
The plundered punchbowl at Sweetness and Light at Elizabeth Farm. Photograph (c) Scott Hill for Sydney Living Museums
Last Friday at Elizabeth Farm we celebrated the connections between Australia’s oldest European house and India with a night of Bengal sugar – and rum punch! Continue reading
Detail of a table setting at Elizabeth Bay House. Photograph ©Nicholas Watt for Sydney Living Museums
We’re all familiar with recipes that call for ‘a tablespoon’ of an ingredient – but what exactly does that mean? Continue reading
Detail of an advertisement for steam kitchens from Paxtons Philadelphia Annual Advertiser, 1819.
The sweltering days we’ve had recently have put me in mind of a cook standing in front of a roaring open fire. So with that in mind, (drum-roll please) – it’s time to introduce “The most compact, clean, and best cooking apparatus in the whole world!” Continue reading
The kitchen and servery at Rose Seidler House Photo © Nicholas Watt for Sydney Living Museums (detail)
We’re ‘thoroughly modern’ here at SLM, with The Morderns: European designers in Sydney and Marion Hall Best: interiors exhibitions in full swing at Museum of Sydney. Modernism came into its own on our shores with European émigré architects, interior designers and furniture makers working in the 1930s to 1960s. Not only did modernism change the way we live, it changed the way we cook and eat. Continue reading
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
Margaret Ross Steel and the family cow at the Presbyterian Manse, Young, NSW. Photo James Barnet Steel c1918 © Caroline Simpson Library and Research Collection 41289 2
“Where are you going to, my pretty maid? I’m going a milking sir, she said” Continue reading
Devilled bones made from an 1850s recipe in the Rouse Hill House and Farm collection. Photo © James Horan for Sydney Living Museums
If you’re celebrating Halloween this weekend, add some devilishly simple ‘devilled bones’ to the menu (recipe below). They make a nice change from the now ubiquitous honey-soy chicken legs and winglets, and are great for kids and adults alike.