Fort Street Public School - [cookery class], 1 Jan 1910, State Archives NSW, Digital ID: 15051_a047_005338
Thanks to the generosity of family descendants of Jenny ‘Dolly’ Youngein, who lived at Susannah Place in the early 1900s, we’ve been able to take a closer look into Dolly’s school cookery homework book, from 1912. We had previously only had a tantalising glimpse…
Dinner bowl (reconstructed) used in the Hyde Park Asylum for aged and destitute women, 1862-1886, excavated from beneath the floorboards at Hyde Park Barracks. UF9831c. Photo © Jamie North
Archaeology Honours reasearcher Kim Connor joins us again with her recreation of a typical dinner served to women living in Hyde Park barracks in the Destitute Asylum and Immigration Depot in the 1880s. Continue reading
What is the best ever piece of table paraphernalia? Photo (c) Scott Hill for Sydney Living Museums
I may be slightly biased in this, but today I’m talking about the guaranteed, best-ever, most superb piece of dining accoutrements ever – grape scissors! Continue reading
Bee skep (detail) in Jeremy L Cross, ‘The true Masonic chart’ AS Barnes and Co, New York, 1855. Courtesy State Library of New South Wales call number T0402300
A hive of industry, and busy as a bee – the work of the humble ‘bumble’ and ‘honey’ bee is extraordinary – their efforts providing honey for sweet treats, such as the honey toffee (recipe below) and bees wax, highly coveted for candles in our colonial past. But more importantly, bees are integral to agriculture, and our own survival, globally.
Pickling workshop with Cornersmith at Elizabeth Farm Spring Harvest Festival Photo © James Horan for Sydney Living Museums
We’re gearing up for a fresh and tasty Spring Harvest Festival day at Elizabeth Farm this Sunday, September 25. From the basics of bread making and butter churning to planting, pickling and preserving garden produce, we draw on traditional artisan practices that filled pantries in the colony in the early 1800s. Continue reading
Kim Connor's homemeade bread and dripping made using 19th-century methods. Photo © Kim Connor
Kim Connor is currently undertaking an internship at Hyde Park barracks as part of her research project ‘Feeding the confined’ for her honours studies in archaeology at Sydney University. Kim’s particular interest is the diet of the women at Hyde Park barracks when it was the Immigration Depot and the Destitute Asylum between 1848 and 1886. Kim is our guest author this week, as with true gastronomic gusto, she not only reads about the types of food that the women ate, and how it was prepared, she attempts to recreate some of the food to support her thesis. What was the food like? Was it enough? And for today’s story – just how bad does bread and dripping taste? Continue reading
Hyde Park barracks intern, Kim Connors examining bones from the barracks archaeology. Photo © Fiona Starr Sydney Living Museums
Kim Connor is an Honours student in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Sydney. Her thesis, ‘Feeding the confined’ is an analysis of the animal bone from Hyde Park barracks in order to investigate the diet of the women of the Immigration Depot and the Destitute Asylum (1848-1886).
By studying the bones, I’m discovering other unofficial ways that the women supplemented and varied their diets. One of the big surprises has been how much evidence there is for meat that wasn’t on the official ration: rabbit, chicken and other fowl, oysters and even crab! Explaining why there is a difference between the archaeological record and the historical sources is key to understanding how these institutions worked, and the experience of the women who lived there.
Kim also writes about historical food for her blog Turnspit & Table with ‘an anti-miserablist approach to historical cooking’ and is a regular participant in the Historical Food Fortnightly.
Vibrant stems of ruby chard at Elizabeth Farm. Photo (c) Scott Hill for Sydney Living Museums
At Elizabeth Farm we’re gearing up for the Spring Harvest festival on the 25th of September, and the chard is putting on a fine show! Continue reading
Alpinia zerumbet. Detail from teh plate in Dr Thornton's 'Temple of Flora'. Image www.archive.org
While we’re on the subject of spices, this week I’m headed down the garden path to look at the decorative qualities of this culinary icon, ginger. Continue reading
Portrait of Elizabeth Macarthur (detail). State Library of NSW collection: DG 221
This Sunday marks the 250th birthday of one of Australian history’s most famous women – Elizabeth Macarthur! Continue reading