For generations, families prepared jams, cakes, chutneys and pickles from recipes recorded by hand and kept close at home. Many of these dishes were made for Christmas or shared through the year, using ingredients from the garden, the pantry and the local stores of Queanbeyan and Canberra. These recipes survive in the collection today and offer a simple way to bring a little of the past into your kitchen. Try them at home and enjoy a taste of early Canberra cooking.

Christmas Cake

Commonsense Cookery Book, Christmas cake recipe with handwritten note by Silvia Curley, Mugga-Mugga Collection Photograph by Brenton McGeachie

Ingredients

½ lb. sultanas
½ lb. currants
½ lb. raisins
1 lb. citron peel
2 ozs. almonds
2 ozs. dates or figs (chopped)
6 eggs
Gill brandy or sherry
½ lb. butter
1 lb. sugar
10 ozs. flour
1 teaspoon caramel

Method

Attend to the oven. Grease the tin with butter.
Beat butter and sugar to a cream, and add caramel.
Add the eggs, one at a time; beat well.
Add the prepared fruit, a little at a time.
Add flour, and lastly brandy, mixing well.
Pour into the prepared tin.
Bake in a hot oven for the first 10 minutes, then gradually decreasing heat for about 3 hours.
To test, whether cooked, pierce with a skewer or straw, and if it is free from mixture when withdrawn, the cake is sufficiently cooked.

Silvia Curley's Dark Cake

Ingredients

Silvia Curley's handwritten dark cake recipe, 1918, Mugga-Mugga Collection

1 cup each of sugar, butter, milk and treacle 3 cups flour 2 teaspoons of B. powder 2 cups of raisins + currants candied peel 4 eggs 1 teaspoon cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves few drops vanilla

Method

Beat butter & sugar to a cream, add eggs, flour & milk, then other ingredients
Bake 2 hours in large tin

Commonsense Cookery Book Recipes

Tomato Jam

Ingredients

Eight pounds of tomatoes, 6 lemons, 7 lbs. of sugar.

Method

Cut the fruit into slices, peel the lemons as thin as possible, and cut up the peel into strips.
Squeeze the juice, and add, with the sugar, to the tomatoes.
Boil all together till sufficiently thick.
Green tomatoes may be used, and for oranges substitute for the lemons, using an orange to every pound of tomatoes.

Tomato and Pineapple Jam

Six pounds of tomatoes, 1 pineapple, 4 lbs. of sugar, 1 small spoon of tartaric acid.

Scald and peel the tomatoes; cut them up into large pieces, taking out the hard pieces near the core.
Scald the pineapple, peel and slice thin.
Slice the pineapple into small dice; boil together with about 1 lb. of the sugar for 20 minutes.
While boiling, heat the rest of the sugar in the oven, and add the warm sugar to the boiling jam.
Boil all quickly for 1 hour or longer. A few minutes before taking up, add the tartaric acid.

Pickles, Sauces and Chutneys

Sweet Chutney

Ingredients

Seven pounds of tomatoes, 1 lb. of apples, 1 lb. of onions, 1 lb. of sultanas, 1 lb. of dark sugar, 15 tablespoons salt, 1 oz. of ground ginger, 3 oz. of chilies, 3 pints of limejuice, 1 pint of vinegar.

Method

Put apples, sultanas, onions, and chilies through the mincing machine. Boil all the ingredients together slowly for 3 hours.

Tomato Chutney

Ingredients

Six pounds of tomatoes, 1 lb. of brown sugar, 3 large apples, 4 oz. of vinegar, 3 oz. of salt, 1 clove of garlic, 1 oz. of ginger, 1½ oz. of black pepper, 2 oz. of raisins, 3 oz. of chilies, 1 lemon, ½ pint of vinegar.

Method

Boil the tomatoes over a slow fire till soft; then press through a sieve.
Put back into the pan, add the other ingredients, and boil for 3 hours.

To Pickle Red Cabbage

Ingredients

One quart of whole pepper, wine vinegar, 1 knob of whole ginger, 1 teaspoon cayenne, a fine red cabbage, salt.

Method

Shred the cabbage; salt for 24 hours.
Wash in water and dry thoroughly.
Lay the cabbage in a dish, sprinkle with salt, and cover with vinegar.
Add the pepper, ginger and spices together and let it remain.
Pour off the moisture from the vegetables and let stand till cold. Then bottle.

Damson or Plum Pickle

Ingredients

Seven pounds of plums or damsons, 1 quart of vinegar, 2 oz. of cinnamon, 2 oz. of cloves, 1 lb. of brown sugar.

Method

Lay the plums in a jar with the cinnamon and cloves.
Boil the sugar and vinegar, and pour hot over the plums for 3 mornings.
Then dry the spiced fruit in the sun.
On the fourth day, boil all together for a few minutes.
When cold, put into jars, and cork.

Pickled Onions

Place the onions in warm water for five minutes; then skin, and throw them into strong salt and water for 12 hours.
Boil 2 quarts of vinegar with a tablespoon of whole pepper, cloves, mustard seeds, and a little salt.
Let boil for nearly an hour, and, while hot, pour over the onions, which have been previously bottled; but do not cork until quite cold. White wine vinegar is the best for this pickle.

Mushroom Ketchup

The very best of mushrooms allow about 1 lb. of salt.
Gather the mushrooms when they are dry.
Put a layer in a deep pan or large bowl; sprinkle with salt; then another layer, and so on.
Set in a warm place to drain thoroughly.
Let stand for three or four hours; then break a little, and stir with a wooden spoon.
Let them remain so for 3 days.
Shake down occasionally, and remove the scum.
To every 3 quarts of drained juice add 1 oz. black pepper, ½ oz. allspice, 1 oz. ginger, 1 blade of mace, a few shalots or onions.
Boil the mixture for 15 minutes. Strain.
To every quart of juice add ½ pint of vinegar; boil again for 15 minutes.
Remove the scum.
Pour the ketchup into bottles and cork securely.