Collecting recipes with Miss Muirhead
HANDWRITTEN COOKERY BOOK, 1950S, REFERENCE: NRO 11108/2
FAMILY RECIPE BOOKS
Many of us will have in our family handwritten recipes which have been copied out into a book and passed down through different generations. This book contains various recipes for sweet and savoury dishes, biscuits and cakes. It belonged to Miss Muirhead from Hexham and was compiled in the 1950s.
Throughout the centuries, people have written out recipes
they have liked and passed them on to others. They might
even write who has given them. For example, Miss Muirhead‘s book contains a recipe for Cheese Rings from her Aunt D and Ladies Delight from L. Lee.
💡 Do you have a family recipe book?
💡How do people find and collect recipes today?
💡Does your family have any special recipes?
🔍Can you find where or who your family recipes came from?
✏ Can you make a recipe book like this using your family’s favourite recipes?
COOKING VEGETABLES
On this page Miss Muirhead notes the times for boiling various vegetables including cabbage, carrots, celery, spinach, leeks, Brussel sprouts and cauliflower. By today’s standards, these vegetables would have been very well cooked – 90 minutes for cabbage, 45 minutes for Brussel sprouts and 20 minutes for spinach.
However, tastes change, and people are more aware of preserving the nutritional content of these vegetables in our diet.
💡How long do you cook your vegetables for?
💡Are you surprised by how long Miss Muirhead boiled her vegetables?
💡What colour and texture do you think Miss Muirhead’s vegetables were?
💡Why do you think the vegetables were cooked for so long?
💡Why do you think we cook vegetables for less time now?
💡What do you think happens to the nutritional content of vegetables when they are cooked for so long?
✏ Can you make an updated guide for how long to boil vegetables?
👩🍳Can you make a dish showcasing the different textures and colours of vegetables? You could think about which vegetables are currently in season too. Can you write a recipe for your dish?
LEE’S UNCOOKED CHOCOLATE CAKE
Miss Muirhead’s book includes a recipe for uncooked chocolate cake from Lee.
💡 Have you ever eaten an uncooked cake? Can you think of any other names it might be known by?
👩🍳Have a go at making uncooked chocolate cake. How does it taste?
✏ Are there any changes you did, or would, make to the recipe? Can you rewrite a new recipe?
💡 Can you think of any other ‘uncooked’ cakes or other dishes?
👩🍳Have a go at making your own version of uncooked cakes or other dishes.
👩🍳Can you make and rewrite any more of the recipes from Miss Muirhead’s book?