SC - Re: Oat cakes

[ChannonM@aol.com]

I'm home sick today so I'm actually seeing all this information fall from my
server in real time instead of facing a 15 min download at the end of the
day and being out of the loop before I start (my employer has strict rules
about personal Emails at work and taking a list at work is a serious no do)


Re Mr Bannnermans book, Adamantius posted:

> I thought perhaps the people of Lochac might have some interest in this.
>
> Last weekend I found, on the 75% off remainder table at a local Barmy &
> Ignoble, a copy of Colin Bannerman's "A Friend In The Kitchen: Old
> Australian Cookery Books" (Copyright 1996 Colin Bannerman, pub. Kangaroo
> Press, NSW, Australia, ISBN 0 86417 805 0), which deals with the
> culinary evolution of Australia over the Federation period, roughly from
> the colony's centennial in 1888, until the First World War, as
> chronicled in cookbooks.
>
> I've only skimmed through the thing, but it's a pretty fascinating read,
> if you can handle Bannerman's constant snobbish sniping at the British
> culinary traditions that have survived in Australia. He addresses some
> interesting social issues concerning a colony founded largely by the
> lower socio-economic classes trying to impose the cuisine of their old
> homeland on a massively different climate, economy, and agricultural
> structure. Yum. Mutton chops and eggs for breakfast,
> steak-and-kidney-pudding for lunch in a climate that's often described
> as semi-tropical, and then to vary things you have roast beef for
> dinner. (Part of me asks, hey, what's wrong with that?)

Is this focussed on New South Wales only? The social foundations of the east
coast are significantly different to those of the Middle (ie South
Australia) or the West (Western Australia).

Here in SA we had no convicts and were founded by free settlers persuing
their own agricultural and mining interests.  we have an extremely rich
Cornish and German heritage, and from that large geographic pockets of very
different, and more diverse cuisine.  Of course our city dwelling middle
class still had designs on an  lifestyle based in English culture, but that
was endemic to the Empire.

His sniping at British culture is pretty normal for most social historians
of the 90's: its very fashionable to belittle the English culture, partly
because it was held as the ideal for so long.

The relationship of the Australian culture to the British one didn't
radically change at Federation, despite the best efforts of some trend
setters to stir up national fervour.  That got as far as architecture and
public events, but didn't change the underlying thinking.  That took longer
to change.

Our climate in SA could never be described as 'semi tropical' (were too far
South), but it is Mediterranean in the coastal bits, wereas the exteme North
is truly tropical.

> The book deals, to a great extent, with the attempts of various culinary
> reformers to quantify and identify the emerging Australian cuisine as a
> separate entity, and to bring it more in line with the climate and the
> economic structure of the country.
>
I have seen current opinion state that the Australian cuisine didn't really
emerge until after the European migrant influx following WW2.  Even now we
have a 'fusion' cuisine that is diverse, not narrow and rigid. This makes
living in a foodie city like Adelaide a real joy, because I can eat just
about anything from the rest of the world, plus some interesting crossovers.

> And, there are some kewl recipes.
>
> A while back (probably when most of the continental US SCAdians were at
> Pennsic), there were some interesting discussions on this list about
> Australian food; Bannerman has a few rather offhand notes about some
> recent developments which he finds interesting, but not really part of
> what he is writing about, in the closing of the book:
>
> " The meat pie has a history much longer than that of white settlement
> in Australia. The particular thing now known as the Australian meat pie
> probably began as it has remained -- a commercial product. It has never
> been a significant part of our household cookery tradition, and bears
> little resemblance to the meat pies described in Federation recipes,
> some of which were excellent.

This is an oversimplification (or, as you say a parting snipe): there are
excellent, commercial meat pies out there, and always have been. Was this
mentioned in the same phrase as 'popular culture' or 'football, meatpies,
kangaroos and Holden cars' (an advertising jingle of the 1970's)

> " The pavlova does not belong to Federation cookery; it came much later.
> Lamingtons had their origin in the Federation period but, again, their
> popularity came later. Queensland's 'Schauer Cookery Book' [1909] gave a
> recipe for 'Lamington cake', a plain slab cake spread with chocolate
> icing and sprinkled with coconut, presumably named after Lord Lamington,
> appointed Governer of Queensland in 1896. Very similar recipes appeared
> in New South Wales and Victoria about the same time. In 1916 a Western
> Australian book gave, under the same name, the small squares with which
> we are now familiar. It has been said that the chocolate and coconut
> coating was intended to keep the delicate Victoria sponge from drying
> out in the hot climate.
> " Australians whose roots on this continent go back to Federation might
> expect to find some favourite or hated dishes from their individual
> family traditions. Savoury mince, sweet curry, condensed milk salad
> dressing, gramma pie, stewed rhubarb, and the dreaded choko are all
> there. But while their origins may lie a hundred years ago, or more, the
> dishes are not real Federation food. Their popularity came later; they
> belong to the traditions of people still living. Good luck with your own
> list."
>

Did he discuss city vs bush? My husband is 7th generation South Australian,
and they were all farmers or miners in the mid north of this state. His
mother, and her late mother have excellent collections of recipies that are
complex and diverse, but they are country food and as such don't waste
anything. In fact David and I are making a point of collecting a lot of
these old recipies from his many relatives, as most of the family is now
'off' the land and the books are of little practical use to most of his
cousins.

> Well, _I_ thought it was interesting ... ;  )

I do, too, especially since I'm an English import, and what my parents eat
and do fascinates my father in law no end, highlighting a real difference
between 'Australian Rural' and 'English' culture.  Needless to say he finds
David's interest in Medieval European food via the SCA even more
fascinating!

Esla
Innilgard, Lochac
mka Sue Carter,