https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook Eat Your History Mon, 09 Mar 2020 01:39:32 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/annual-eel-festival/ https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/annual-eel-festival/#respond Wed, 26 Feb 2020 23:00:45 +0000 https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/?p=21082 Each autumn we celebrate Darug culture at our annual Eel Festival at Elizabeth Farm at Parramatta. This family-friendly event honours Parramatta’s namesake, the eel, and its significance to the local Burramattagal people, who would gather in autumn to trade goods and share stories and food. Darug people have been harvesting eels from local waterways for […]]]> https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/annual-eel-festival/feed/ 0 https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/spring-harvest-festival-elizabeth-farm-2/ https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/spring-harvest-festival-elizabeth-farm-2/#respond Wed, 09 Oct 2019 05:45:22 +0000 https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/?p=19724 “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  Our annual Spring Harvest […]]]> https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/spring-harvest-festival-elizabeth-farm-2/feed/ 0 https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/a-cheese-fondu/ https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/a-cheese-fondu/#comments Thu, 02 May 2019 04:08:56 +0000 https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/?p=20129 No, it’s not a spelling error… One of my favourite indulgences from our colonial past is a cheesey ‘fondu’. This is not to be confused with the northern European ‘fondue’ that was (re)discovered by Australians in the 1970s, but a dish from The English and Australian Cookery Book for the many and the Upper Ten Thousand (my […]]]> https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/a-cheese-fondu/feed/ 1 https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/slippery-business/ https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/slippery-business/#comments Thu, 14 Feb 2019 23:00:09 +0000 https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/?p=20134 As we gear up for this year’s Eel Festival at Elizabeth Farm on Sunday 3 March, we are exploring the various ways that eels were cooked and eaten in the past. We have no indication of what became of the eel in the above image from the early 1900s – was it grilled, stewed, crumbed and […]]]> https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/slippery-business/feed/ 1 https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/mourning-food/ https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/mourning-food/#respond Tue, 11 Sep 2018 23:59:09 +0000 https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/?p=19693 Cake seems synonymous with parties and celebration – for birthdays, weddings, in fact, quite a pleasure and a treat.  We have fairy cakes, angel cakes, red velvet… but what about funeral cakes?  Grieving the death of her father, Frances Cox in June 1831, Sarah Wentworth of Vaucluse wrote to advise her aunt of his passing: […]]]> https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/mourning-food/feed/ 0 https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/hearth-fire-cookery/ https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/hearth-fire-cookery/#respond Thu, 23 Aug 2018 00:00:44 +0000 https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/?p=19557 If you frequent colonial-era house museums you will be quite familiar with seeing all manner of heavy cast iron pots, pans and tools crammed or clustered in kitchen fireplaces, sometimes sitting on iron ‘dogs’ on the floor of the fireplace or suspended from ‘cranes’ fitted into the brick work. But rarely do we see these seemingly rudimentary set-ups […]]]> https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/hearth-fire-cookery/feed/ 0 https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/looking-further-back-in-time-for-dinner/ https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/looking-further-back-in-time-for-dinner/#comments Thu, 09 Aug 2018 00:10:15 +0000 https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/?p=19554 While our TV’s have recently been taking us ‘back in time for dinner’ from the 1950s, yours truly, ‘the Cook’ has been on a quest to learn more about the way we cooked before the 1850s. Living history With the assistance of Sydney Living Museums’ Ruth Pope Bequest research grant I visited Old Sturbridge Village, a […]]]> https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/looking-further-back-in-time-for-dinner/feed/ 1 https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/take-5/ https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/take-5/#respond Thu, 17 May 2018 00:30:03 +0000 https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/?p=19489 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! The program was part of the 2018 Heritage Festival, and ran in conjunction with the exhibition Tales from the East: India and New South Wales, which is on now […]]]> https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/take-5/feed/ 0 https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/red-flannel-hash-and-other-wartime-cookery-solutions/ https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/red-flannel-hash-and-other-wartime-cookery-solutions/#comments Mon, 23 Apr 2018 07:19:39 +0000 https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/?p=19384 While World War II battled on across the globe, Australians at home responded to a call for arms in a more localised sense to do ‘their bit’ for the war effort. People were encouraged to be as self sufficient as possible, by growing their own fruit and vegetables and being prudent with imported products, and locally […]]]> https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/red-flannel-hash-and-other-wartime-cookery-solutions/feed/ 4 https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/the-icing-on-the-cake/ https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/the-icing-on-the-cake/#comments Fri, 09 Feb 2018 01:16:55 +0000 https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/?p=18909 With love in the air for Valentine’s Day and the flurry of ‘yes’ responses to marriage throughout the community, Sydney Living Museums’ Unlocked magazine (circulated to SLM Members) has a strong focus on romantic unions. Unsurprisingly, our interest in weddings turns to celebratory breakfasts and cake. Tot Thorburn’s wedding cake Known as ‘Tottie’, Kennina Thorburn, who lived at […]]]> https://blogs.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/cook/the-icing-on-the-cake/feed/ 1