#cookery — Public Fediverse posts

Out #running this evening along the Loxley valley in Sheffield. It's a route I like, even though it has 100m of ascent in the first two kilometres...

I've got some sweet chilli beef going in the slow cooker that I'm going to have with udon noodles shortly. Rather looking forward to that :)

#runnersOfMastodon and also a little bit of #cookery

Out #running this evening along the Loxley valley in Sheffield. It's a route I like, even though it has 100m of ascent in the first two kilometres...

I've got some sweet chilli beef going in the slow cooker that I'm going to have with udon noodles shortly. Rather looking forward to that :)

#runnersOfMastodon and also a little bit of #cookery

Grumpasaurus makes fun short videos about cooking and enjoying food (and occasionally other topics). You can follow their account at:

➡️ @grumpasaurus

Don't worry if their account looks blank to you, that just means no one from your server follows it yet. Follow the account and its videos will start gradually showing up on your server too.

#FeaturedPeerTube #Food #Cooking #Cookery #FoodAndDrink #Illinois #Chicago #PeerTube

Grumpasaurus makes fun short videos about cooking and enjoying food (and occasionally other topics). You can follow their account at:

➡️ @grumpasaurus

Don't worry if their account looks blank to you, that just means no one from your server follows it yet. Follow the account and its videos will start gradually showing up on your server too.

#FeaturedPeerTube #Food #Cooking #Cookery #FoodAndDrink #Illinois #Chicago #PeerTube

Rudy Gardea makes cheerfully relaxed videos about cooking food, gardening, travelling, playing music and other topics. You can follow the account at:

➡️ @rudy_gardea

Don't worry if the account looks blank or outdated, it just means no one from your server has followed it yet. Follow the account and its latest videos will start gradually showing up on your server too.

You can also follow their Mastodon account at @rudygardea

#FeaturedPeerTube #Food #Cooking #Cookery #Vlogs #PeerTube

Rudy Gardea makes cheerfully relaxed videos about cooking food, gardening, travelling, playing music and other topics. You can follow the account at:

➡️ @rudy_gardea

Don't worry if the account looks blank or outdated, it just means no one from your server has followed it yet. Follow the account and its latest videos will start gradually showing up on your server too.

You can also follow their Mastodon account at @rudygardea

#FeaturedPeerTube #Food #Cooking #Cookery #Vlogs #PeerTube

There are many things I don't like about the kitchen in the Chicory House where we're living medium-term following our house flood.

But I like the fact that the integrated spice rack makes it much easier to see where we perhaps have a very-specific blind spot for "buying a new one where the last one's still more than half-full".

#note #cookery #cooking #spices #flood2026 #kitchen

Via: 🔗 https://danq.me/2026/05/31/ground-white-pepper/

There are many things I don't like about the kitchen in the Chicory House where we're living medium-term following our house flood.

But I like the fact that the integrated spice rack makes it much easier to see where we perhaps have a very-specific blind spot for "buying a new one where the last one's still more than half-full".

#note #cookery #cooking #spices #flood2026 #kitchen

Via: 🔗 https://danq.me/2026/05/31/ground-white-pepper/

In today's kitchen: fresh asparagus with butter sauce for dinner; tomato-mushroom-cheese quiche for tomorrow; fresh scones with butter and Marmite as a snack for this evening.

#life #foodie #cookery

In today's kitchen: fresh asparagus with butter sauce for dinner; tomato-mushroom-cheese quiche for tomorrow; fresh scones with butter and Marmite as a snack for this evening.

#life #foodie #cookery

"On the eve of #Shavuot, a fascinating document recently acquired by the National Library offers a glimpse at some of the earliest #cheesecakes documented in #culinary #literature. It is a rare copy of what is believed to be the first #kosher #cookbook ever published.

The #book, published in 1846, is titled The #Jewish Manual of Modern #Cookery, With a Collection of Valuable #Recipes & Hints Relating to the Toilette. It was written in English and published anonymously under the credit “A Lady.”

Although there is no conclusive proof, researchers attribute the book to Lady #JudithMontefiore for several reasons..."

https://www.ynetnews.com/jewish-world/article/s1mauhfkge

"On the eve of #Shavuot, a fascinating document recently acquired by the National Library offers a glimpse at some of the earliest #cheesecakes documented in #culinary #literature. It is a rare copy of what is believed to be the first #kosher #cookbook ever published.

The #book, published in 1846, is titled The #Jewish Manual of Modern #Cookery, With a Collection of Valuable #Recipes & Hints Relating to the Toilette. It was written in English and published anonymously under the credit “A Lady.”

Although there is no conclusive proof, researchers attribute the book to Lady #JudithMontefiore for several reasons..."

https://www.ynetnews.com/jewish-world/article/s1mauhfkge

Made a macaroni tuna meal yesterday and I had a stale corner of bread I made earlier in the week which I grated and put on top of the dish then added sliced tomato and sliced pickled jalapeno then a layer of cheese before putting it in the over and can confirm that it was superb and I will make it that way again, maybe for all casserole type dishes, also got my cheese sauce on point with bay leaves and mustard, three cheeses, butter and milk and herbes de provence. #cookery

Made a macaroni tuna meal yesterday and I had a stale corner of bread I made earlier in the week which I grated and put on top of the dish then added sliced tomato and sliced pickled jalapeno then a layer of cheese before putting it in the over and can confirm that it was superb and I will make it that way again, maybe for all casserole type dishes, also got my cheese sauce on point with bay leaves and mustard, three cheeses, butter and milk and herbes de provence. #cookery

#Cookery #McCormickFoods #foodindustry #food #Cancer

#ethylenedioxide #cadmium

https://m.youtube.com/shorts/sCzkeJxwy0w?ra=m

#Cookery #McCormickFoods #foodindustry #food #Cancer

#ethylenedioxide #cadmium

https://m.youtube.com/shorts/sCzkeJxwy0w?ra=m

I’m addicted to foodie TikTok. Can Julia Child teach me ‘real’ cooking?

On Christmas Eve, I spent 15 hours cooking a potato. It wasn’t the only thing I did: I went to a carol service, watched Wallace and Gromit, and risked life and limb to retrieve late present…
#dining #cooking #diet #food #Frenchcooking #cookery #Cooking #francais #france #French #frenchcooking #SkyAtlantic #TVFeatures
https://www.diningandcooking.com/2637904/im-addicted-to-foodie-tiktok-can-julia-child-teach-me-real-cooking/

I’m addicted to foodie TikTok. Can Julia Child teach me ‘real’ cooking?

On Christmas Eve, I spent 15 hours cooking a potato. It wasn’t the only thing I did: I went to a carol service, watched Wallace and Gromit, and risked life and limb to retrieve late present…
#dining #cooking #diet #food #Frenchcooking #cookery #Cooking #francais #france #French #frenchcooking #SkyAtlantic #TVFeatures
https://www.diningandcooking.com/2637904/im-addicted-to-foodie-tiktok-can-julia-child-teach-me-real-cooking/

I’m addicted to foodie TikTok. Can Julia Child teach me ‘real’ cooking? https://www.diningandcooking.com/2637904/im-addicted-to-foodie-tiktok-can-julia-child-teach-me-real-cooking/ #cookery #Cooking #francais #france #French #FrenchCooking #SkyAtlantic #TVFeatures

I’m addicted to foodie TikTok. Can Julia Child teach me ‘real’ cooking? https://www.diningandcooking.com/2637904/im-addicted-to-foodie-tiktok-can-julia-child-teach-me-real-cooking/ #cookery #Cooking #francais #france #French #FrenchCooking #SkyAtlantic #TVFeatures

My wife is making a stew from a #NigellaLawson recipe book. I chose the recipe, but I didn’t read it that closely.
The recipe makes 8 servings, but calls for an entire bottle of white wine, and 2.5 kg of lamb. At today’s prices that’s about £75 just for the two ingredients.
Also the way the book is laid out is terrible, and the recipe takes 3 days to cook.
#HowTheOtherHalfLive #food #cookery

My wife is making a stew from a #NigellaLawson recipe book. I chose the recipe, but I didn’t read it that closely.
The recipe makes 8 servings, but calls for an entire bottle of white wine, and 2.5 kg of lamb. At today’s prices that’s about £75 just for the two ingredients.
Also the way the book is laid out is terrible, and the recipe takes 3 days to cook.
#HowTheOtherHalfLive #food #cookery

Whats the Italian 🇮🇹 term for #pasta cooked in sauce, rather than water?

The Yanks call it "one-pot pasta", which feels crude. I want poetry.

Today, I was ahead of schedule, so I decided to take the extra time needed to cook the pasta in sauce. Instead of reducing the sauce, add liquid. Mix in the pasta, and cook slowly. After 30 mins, fhe result is pasta full of flavour.

Is the technique banned in Italy, like onion & garlic together?

Or is there a vowel-lsden word, full of A I O?

#cookery

Whats the Italian 🇮🇹 term for #pasta cooked in sauce, rather than water?

The Yanks call it "one-pot pasta", which feels crude. I want poetry.

Today, I was ahead of schedule, so I decided to take the extra time needed to cook the pasta in sauce. Instead of reducing the sauce, add liquid. Mix in the pasta, and cook slowly. After 30 mins, fhe result is pasta full of flavour.

Is the technique banned in Italy, like onion & garlic together?

Or is there a vowel-lsden word, full of A I O?

#cookery

Most-often when a toaster has a 'cancel' button it's simply labelled 'cancel', 'stop', or with a cross. But this week, I discovered a toaster that uses the 'eject' icon - like you'd find on a VHS tape recorder - on its button.

At first I thought this was an unusual user interface choice, but I'm coming around to it. It feels like a more-accurate and skeuomorphic representation of what actually happens than a cross suggests.

But the existence of toasters like this one does necessarily mean that, some day, some Gen Alpha will see a tape deck in, like, a museum or something, and will say 'hey, that's cute: the button you press to pop the tape out is the same as the one you use to pop your toast out'.

#note #cooking #cookery #bread #userInterface

Via: 🔗 https://danq.me/2026/03/26/eject-toast/

Most-often when a toaster has a 'cancel' button it's simply labelled 'cancel', 'stop', or with a cross. But this week, I discovered a toaster that uses the 'eject' icon - like you'd find on a VHS tape recorder - on its button.

At first I thought this was an unusual user interface choice, but I'm coming around to it. It feels like a more-accurate and skeuomorphic representation of what actually happens than a cross suggests.

But the existence of toasters like this one does necessarily mean that, some day, some Gen Alpha will see a tape deck in, like, a museum or something, and will say 'hey, that's cute: the button you press to pop the tape out is the same as the one you use to pop your toast out'.

#note #cooking #cookery #bread #userInterface

Via: 🔗 https://danq.me/2026/03/26/eject-toast/

"Georgina Hayden updating traditional Greek recipes, Thomasina Miers changing the face of school canteens, Sally Abé calling out sexism in professional kitchens, Asma Khan giving value to domestic traditions (pictured top with her all-female team of chefs at Darjeeling Express). The people who champion the best and most delicious food, the people who expand the conversation around food, are very often women."

#women #kitchen #cooking #cookery #chefs #food
/3

"Georgina Hayden updating traditional Greek recipes, Thomasina Miers changing the face of school canteens, Sally Abé calling out sexism in professional kitchens, Asma Khan giving value to domestic traditions (pictured top with her all-female team of chefs at Darjeeling Express). The people who champion the best and most delicious food, the people who expand the conversation around food, are very often women."

#women #kitchen #cooking #cookery #chefs #food
/3

"For inspiration, we look at the great female cooks – Claudia Roden, Madhur Jaffrey, Elizabeth David and many more who knew the value of these traditions- and we look at countless others who innovate and stretch what food can be and do:"

#women #kitchen #cooking #cookery #chefs #food
/2

"For inspiration, we look at the great female cooks – Claudia Roden, Madhur Jaffrey, Elizabeth David and many more who knew the value of these traditions- and we look at countless others who innovate and stretch what food can be and do:"

#women #kitchen #cooking #cookery #chefs #food
/2

"For generations, cooking has been predominantly a women’s realm, and the knowledge and wisdom that sustained humanity has been passed through the female line. So the culinary world is one of the few in the professional sphere where women have an edge."

~ Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich

#women #kitchen #cooking #cookery #chefs #food
/1

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2026/mar/05/feast-master-chefs-international-womens-day

"For generations, cooking has been predominantly a women’s realm, and the knowledge and wisdom that sustained humanity has been passed through the female line. So the culinary world is one of the few in the professional sphere where women have an edge."

~ Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich

#women #kitchen #cooking #cookery #chefs #food
/1

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2026/mar/05/feast-master-chefs-international-womens-day

From classes and books to visual tutorials, how cooking has changed

A few weeks ago, in the leafy folds of Safdarjung Enclave, I found myself at a supper club that made me think of those maroon diaries again. It did not belong to any single region’s cuisine. Instead, it drew from the personal archive of Mr Khaitan, a man who coo…
#dining #cooking #diet #food #Cooking #cookery #foodtrends
https://www.diningandcooking.com/2489658/from-classes-and-books-to-visual-tutorials-how-cooking-has-changed/

From classes and books to visual tutorials, how cooking has changed

A few weeks ago, in the leafy folds of Safdarjung Enclave, I found myself at a supper club that made me think of those maroon diaries again. It did not belong to any single region’s cuisine. Instead, it drew from the personal archive of Mr Khaitan, a man who coo…
#dining #cooking #diet #food #Cooking #cookery #foodtrends
https://www.diningandcooking.com/2489658/from-classes-and-books-to-visual-tutorials-how-cooking-has-changed/

From classes and books to visual tutorials, how cooking has changed https://www.diningandcooking.com/2489658/from-classes-and-books-to-visual-tutorials-how-cooking-has-changed/ #cookery #Cooking #food #FoodTrends

From classes and books to visual tutorials, how cooking has changed https://www.diningandcooking.com/2489658/from-classes-and-books-to-visual-tutorials-how-cooking-has-changed/ #cookery #Cooking #food #FoodTrends

There are now hundreds of food and cooking videos on PeerTube! You can watch a human-curated playlist here:

➡️ https://fedi.video/w/p/4w8xB6R598fMw1YekgfxXq

The most food-themed accounts from the playlist that you might want to follow are:
➡️ @grumpasaurus
➡️ @tfkitchen
➡️ @rudy_gardea

#PeerTube #Food #Drink #FoodAndDrink #Cookery #Cooking

There are now hundreds of food and cooking videos on PeerTube! You can watch a human-curated playlist here:

➡️ https://fedi.video/w/p/4w8xB6R598fMw1YekgfxXq

The most food-themed accounts from the playlist that you might want to follow are:
➡️ @grumpasaurus
➡️ @tfkitchen
➡️ @rudy_gardea

#PeerTube #Food #Drink #FoodAndDrink #Cookery #Cooking

Random gift from beloved family member.
5 litres of olive oil.

Should last a little while.

#RandomGift
#Cookery
#SaladDressing
#Abundance

Random gift from beloved family member. 5 litres of olive oil.

Should last a little while.

#RandomGift
#Cookery
#SaladDressing
#Abundance

Spent the afternoon making the Delia Smith traditional rich fruit cake for Christmas. Creaming the butter & sugar is a tough business and folding the thick batter really is quite tiring! Four hours or so now in a low oven until I take it out, wrap it in greaseproof paper and feed it brandy for the next couple of weeks.

#baking #cookery

Spent the afternoon making the Delia Smith traditional rich fruit cake for Christmas. Creaming the butter & sugar is a tough business and folding the thick batter really is quite tiring! Four hours or so now in a low oven until I take it out, wrap it in greaseproof paper and feed it brandy for the next couple of weeks.

#baking #cookery

When your cat watches too much Master Chef.

#Cookery #Cats 🐾 🩷

When your cat watches too much Master Chef.

#Cookery #Cats 🐾 🩷

Italian cooking as world heritage

Why can Italian cooking be considered a world heritage? This is a debate yet to be answered. This question will be the title of the talk to be given by Emeritus Professor Massimo Montanari today at the Department of …
#dining #cooking #diet #food #Italianculinary #cookery #culinary #culinarytraditions #Italia #Italian #ItalianCulinary #Italianculinarytraditions #italiano #italy #Türkiye
https://www.diningandcooking.com/2374787/italian-cooking-as-world-heritage/

Italian cooking as world heritage https://www.diningandcooking.com/2374787/italian-cooking-as-world-heritage/ #cookery #culinary #CulinaryTraditions #Italia #Italian #ItalianCulinary #ItalianCulinaryTraditions #italiano #italy #Türkiye

Visited the autonomous region of #Gagauzia in #Moldova today. Everyone was speaking #Russian, but I'm not sure if the area is particularly pro Russian, or they're just using the language. It's a little weird to a foreigner like me though. Lovely food and drink. Did a master #cookery class here too, so now I can make some sort of local bread delicacy with goat cheese.

A seasonal treat for the urban poor: the thread about Scotland’s New Years steak pie tradition

With the filling for the obligatory Ne’erday steak pie doing its thing in the slow cooker, it inevitably leads to the question of how such a pie should properly be flavoured. Should it have any herbs and spices beyond salt and pepper? A bit red wine or ale perhaps? A few drops of Worcester sauce? And more intriguing for me than the finer points of the recipe, what are the origins of this seasonal pie tradition in Scotland? Let’s try and find out, shall we?

There’s a syndicated short story entitled How Shall I hold New-Year’s Day which was printed across Scottish newspapers on the Boxing Day 1851 which discusses new year traditions and in which a “beef steak pie” features. The story takes the form of a conversation between two working class men – Jock and Bob – on their plans for the season and it’s quite obviously the work of the Temperance movement. Jock, the man with the pie, intends not to drink any whisky and instead to spend his time with his family enjoying the fruits of his abstemiousness. Instead of his usual parritch (porrdige) he is having a feast of ham, eggs, hot rolls, cheese, currant buns and “tea along with the elders” for Hogmanay. Bob’s plans, in contrast, mainly involve whisky. Come the morning of the 1st, Bob will have argued with his family and be left with his hangover. But canny Jock has the benefit of his “rest and sobriety of the previous night” and will take his children out to the toy shop, then come home to his pie, followed by a sing-along with invited friends and the treat of fresh fruit. All very sober! An interesting point noted by Jock is that while his wife has “made” the pie, it was “covered and baked by the baker the previous night“; most people would not have had a home oven that could have baked such a pie, so they would take their filling in a dish to their baker who would cook it in the bread oven. The pie could then be reheated atop the range on the girdle (griddle).

This was the earliest mention of steak pie at New Year that I could find in Scottish newspapers. However the phrase comes up again and again (and again!) over the next 60 or so years of press in one specific context; feeding the poor at new years and (later) Christmas. In January 1863, the Glasgow Herald reported that the inmates of the Paisley Abbey Poorhouse had been treated to an “excellent beef-steak pie” and oranges by the benevolent committee of the parish poor board. In 1876, the Edinburgh Evening News similarly describes the inmates of the City Poorhouse at Craiglockhart had gotten their “usual new year’s treat” of “excellent soup, beef-steak pie and pudding“. Those in St. Cuthbert’s Poorhouse were in contrast served a mutton pie, plum pudding, currant loaf and jugs of beer.

Craiglockhart was still serving New Year steak pie in 1893, but the soup had by this time been downgraded from excellent to mere potato. In 1898, the Evening News reported that an injunction of the Local Government Board had prevented the Parish Board from financing any “special entertainments during the festive season” at the poorhouses from their own funds and these instead had to be met by private benevolence. Fortunately £70 was provided by Alexander Oliver Riddle (or Riddell) of neighbouring Craiglockhart House, a whisky magnate in the distilling firm of Usher & Co. and the inmates of the poorhouses still got their roast beef and mutton “along with a steak pie and fruit“. The men were provided with a treat of an ounce of tobacco, the women got a similar weight in snuff and the children the same but in sweets. A. Oliver Riddle continued to fund the Craiglockhart New Year steak pie dinner thereafter and in 1902 645 mouths were fed. By 1907 times had changed slightly and the women were being provided with sweets instead of snuff. Craigleith seems to have lacked such a sponsor however and the inmates instead were getting a dinner of coffee, bread and butter, soup and mince – all washed down by a visit from local councillors.

It wasn’t just the poorhouses providing New Year steak pie; The Scotsman in 1896 reported that it was the custom in Glasgow for the merchants of the Royal Exchange to fund a steak pie and potato dinner for the poor, held at the City Chambers. This dinner had by 1905 shifted to Christmas Day at which time 3,000 people got their lunch, but had in turn to suffer a lecture from Lord Provost Bilsland about knowing their place and being grateful for philanthropy. It was noted at this time that the tradition was now 36 years old. Similarly in Edinburgh, in 1904 Lord Provost Sir Robert Cranston (noted champion of Temperance) put on a New Year steak pie dinner for 1,000 of the city’s poor at the Grassmarket Corn Exchange; but it had to be held on January 2nd as a bird show had the venue booked on the 1st!

In 1910, the Home for Aged Women in Portobello served a Christmas Day dinner – provided by a Mrs Sellar – of steak pie, plum pudding and fruit, and a New Year’s Day “godly repast” of roast mutton, pudding, jellies, meringues and sweets provided by Mrs Durham and Miss Scott Moncrieff. When Edinburgh wine importer William Crambe Reid died in February 1922, £68,000 of his £184,000 fortune was left to good causes in the city. The interest on one benefaction went to providing an annual Christmas meal for 4-500 of the city’s poor; the “William Crambe Reid Dinner“. The inaugural menu had soup, haggis and mashed potatoes, steak pie, vegetables, more potatoes, plum pudding and fruit. In North Leith Parish, a bequest of property by a Mr Neill paid a £51 annual profit on rents that was still providing such a meal on New Year’s Day as late as 1938.

But what of the actual pies themselves? What were people being actually eating ? We can get an early recipe for a Scottish steak pie from the book “Cookery and Pastry as taught and practised by Mrs Maciver, Teacher of those Arts in Edinburgh“. Susanna Maciver was one of Scotland’s first cookery teachers and published a cookery manual in Edinburgh around 1777. Her steak pie is very different to what we might have today; it was made from alternating strips of lean and fatty beef that had been cut into thin slices and then beaten thinner, much like a schnitzel before it was “seasoned with salt and spices” (she doesn’t say what spices, sadly.) These strips were rolled up into “ollops” (or collops, i.e. like beef olives), packed into a dish with some water, covered in puff pastry and baked.

The Cook and Housewife’s Manual etc. by Margaret Dods (actually a pseudonymous collaboration between Isobel Christian Johnston and Walter Scott) of 1826 gives fundamentally the same collop-style pie but adds gravy instead of water and the optional taste of some onions. What is much more interesting is that the book also suggests you can add a catsup (a preserved mushroom sauce), cut pickles, “other seasonings“, oysters and/or forcemeat balls (balls of minced offal and breadcrumbs). In February 1882, a Lady Correspondent submitted a recipe to the Dundee Evening Telegraph for a steak pie. It was made with 1lb of fillet steak which was cut thin, layered with oysters and flavoured with mace, walnut ketchup, port, lemon peel, gravy, salt and pepper. The same paper provided a different recipe in 1884, which was made with shoulder steak and included two kidneys “to enrich the sauce“. No mention was made of spices or other flavourings. The most unusual aspect of this pier was that it was served along with a side dish of macaroni cheese (which was actually made with spaghetti!). In 1892, the Aberdeen People’s Journal gives a recipe by a correspondent called Wiganer made from 2lb steak, 1/4lb kidney, salt and pepper with the meat diced up into chunks (rather than strips or collops) as would be recognisable now. The filling was cooked in the dish then covered in a lard shortcrust pastry and returned to the oven.

Economy steak pie recipes were published in the papers in WW1; the Dundee People’s Journal has one made from much cheaper meat – 1½lb of beef hough (shin) – which had to be boiled for 90 minutes before mixing with an instant gravy and boiled again with salt and pepper before it could be topped with pastry. And in 1917, as a reflection of how bad the food supply situation was getting, the Arbroath Herald has a recipe where sliced potatoes are used to bulk out the meat (which was itself a 2:1 ratio of beef and kidneys) and which was topped with a pastry that was ¾ mashed potatoes. This recipe used margarine or butter in the pastry – but things were so dire in January 1918 that the Food Control Committee published a recipe in newspapers for “potato butter“. This awful-sounding ersatz butter was fundamentally real butter that was stretched out by mixing it with boiled and sieved potatoes, dying it with butter colouring, preserving it with butter preservatives and setting it again in pats.

There are an infinite number of genuine and authentic and traditional Scottish steak pie recipes that you can find in cookery books and blogs. In the book “A Scottish feast : an anthology of food and eating” published in 1996, the food writer Catherine Brown gives a recipe for such a pie that attempts to meet the steak pie yardstick of Mr Glasgow (writer, broadcaster, bon viveur and foot critic Jack House) – which was the steak pie served in the Boulevard Hotel in Clydebank! This is an intersting hybrid of older pie recipe techniques, with the meat again beaten thin, but wrapped around pieces of kidney and sausage. It was thoroughly modernised however with the addition of ground clove, chopped parsley and marjoram and mushrooms. The addition of mushrooms was not just for flavouring purposes, but to form a barrier to hold the pastry off of the filling and prevent a “soggy bottom” forming on the pastry lid (which is personally my favourite part of the pie!). In reality, there is no one, authentic Scottish New Years steak pie recipe, beyond the one that you choose to enjoy on that day.

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Mrs Maciver: the thread about Edinburgh’s first cookery teacher and publisher of the earliest known Haggis recipe

Today’s Auction House Artefact is this old Edinburgh-published cook book, an edition from 1777.

COOKERY,
and
PASTRY.
As taught and practised by
Mrs MACIVER,
Teacher of those Arts in Edinburgh.

Although it is neither the first such book printed in Scotland (that title goes to Mrs McLintock’s Recepits for Cooking and Pastrywork, Glasgow, 1736) Cookbook, nor even Edinburgh (A New and Easy Method of Cookery, 1755), this remains a very special cookbook. If you were a member of Enlightenment Edinburgh’s genteel classes then this was probably the cookery book; instructing you and your domestic staff in all the latest food and dining trends.

Mrs Maciver (or Mciver) was Susanna Maciver, born circa 1709. In her own words prefacing the first (1774) edition of her book and written in 1773, she stated “her situation in life hath led her to be very much conversant in Cookery, Pastry etc. and afforded her ample opportunity of knowing the most approved methods practiced by others“. She “opened a school in this city for instructing young Ladies in this necessary branch of female education, and she hath the satisfaction to find that success hath accompanied her labours“. Running a school for other women would have been one of the few business opportunities open to an enterprising lady in Georgian Edinburgh. And clearly she was both enterprising and successful in her chosen career path.

Her 238-page book was laid out in a format that would be recognisable to modern home cooks; starting with soups and then going through fish, flesh (meat), pies and pasties etc. – mixing savoury pies with sweet desert dishes – and finishing on preserves and pickles etc. It is full, cover-to-cover, of Georgian recipes, from Imperial White Soup to Roast Cod’s Head to Beef a-la-Mode to Carrot Pudding. But my personal favourite is the Syrup of Turnip:

Despite the Syrup of Turnip it proved to sell well and was republished over a number of years. The advert to announce the initial publication was placed in the Caledonian Mercury newspaper on December 4th 1773 and was repeated in The Scots Magazine that month. From this we can also glean that she also sold her own preserved fruits, cakes and pastries.

Her house and cookery school was in Stephenlaw’s Close (also spelled Stevenlaw, Stanelaw and Stonelaw’s) off the High Street – it is number 74 on Edgar’s town plan below of 1765. You can handily located for the city’s produce markets centred on the Tron Kirk. The structure in the middle of the High Street marked M is the City Guard referred to in the above advert, the old guardhouse of the Toun Rats.

From her preface to the first edition, we know that the school had been established some time when her book was first printed and is listed in Edinburgh’s first postal directories (those of the similarly enterprising “Indian Peter” Williamson).

In October 1786 a “New Edition, With Additions“, described as “Greatly Improved” was released, now running to 264 pages. Those who had recently purchased the previous edition were offered the additional pages gratis per an advert in the Caledonian Mercury. Susanna Maciver would have been almost 80 at this time, a very good age for the 18th century.

It was suggested by some friends, that the addition of some figures of courses for dinners and suppers should be subjoined; accordingly, I have made out several courses from five to fifteen dishes.

This took the book from being just a collection of recipes to a complete guide to entertaining in Georgian polite society, keeping you right in such important matters of etiquette as how to lay the table correctly. Wealthy people still dined service à la Française at this time where a whole range of sweet, savoury and side dishes were put on the table at the same time and would be replaced as they were finished. This is opposed to the more modern style of service à la Russe where you are served in separate courses. So at this time any host or hostess had to know where to place the Soup and when to remove it, where the Roast Tongue went relative to the Artichoke Bottom Fricasee, how to stew Peas and Lettuce etc.

The prospect of serving orange pudding and apricot tart alongside the roast pig and Boiled turkey with oyster sauce may seem odd to us these days, but it was the height of gastronomic sophistication in its own time! This second edition was also reprinted both in Edinburgh and London, being advertised in the London Morning Post for sale at 2 shillings and sixpence. One of the more unusually named recipes was Robert Walpole Dumplings, a stodgy, fatty, rotund pudding served soaked in alcohol. Whether or not this was a homage to, or a clever mocking of Cock Robin is a secret that only she will know. But undoubtedly Susanna Maciver’s greatest contribution to both the Edinburgh and Scottish culinary arts, and culture in general, was that in her books she published the first ever “standard” Haggis recipe (north of the border)!

But note the bit in parenthesis at the end of the last paragraph. Yes, shockingly, Haggis has a rather longer history on record in English printed cuisine than Scottish! A dish very similar to haggis called Afronchemoyle is contained in the first known English cookbook, The Form of Cury, from way, way back in 1390 by the cooks of King Richard II of England. As a Scottish dish, it does not have quite such a long recorded history. The word itself is Old Scots, with a root from Middle English hagas, hagese etc., probably from the noun hag, to chop. The Gaelic for haggis, taigeis, is imported from the Scots. The earliest printed mention seems to be it used in an insult, in an early 16th century poem by William Dunbar:

The gallows gapes after thy graceless gruntill,
As thou wouldst for a haggis, hungry

The Flyting of Dunbar and Kenndie, c. 1500-1520

The poet Alexander Pennecuik uses it as a pejorative (haggis-headed) in 1715, Alan Ramsay refers to it as haggies in 1725 in The Gentle Shepherd and surviving household ledgers from Ochtertyre House for instance record it as haggise, being served for the servants’ meal in 1737 (alongside puddings and mutton). The haggis of course has been immortalised in Scottish culture by its association with the poet Robert Burns and the annual Suppers held in his memory. In 1786 Burns was newly arrived in Edinburgh and wrote the Address to a Haggice (sic). It was first published in the pages of the Caledonian Mercury newspaper on December 19th that year (n.b. most internet sources will tell you December 20th, but the newspaper did not publish that day, it was thrice weekly). Its book publication was the next year in an Edinburgh edition of his Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. It is noteworthy that the last verse of the newspaper version is different from the Edinburgh edition version which is that used to this day.

Ye Pow’rs wha gie us a’ that’s gude,
Still bless auld Caledonia’s brood
Wi’ great John Barleycorn’s heart’s blade,
In stowps or luggies;
And on our board that king o’food,
A glorious Haggice!”

Last verse of the 1786 Caledonian Mercury version of “To A Haggice”.

When Robert Burns immortalised the Haggis in Scottish culture as the “Great Chieftain o the puddin race” with his eponymous address of 1787, there is every chance he was referring to something made to Mrs Maciver’s recipe. And if it was served in the manner she prescribed, it may well have been on the same table as the blancmange, cheesecake and trifle! And speaking of trifles, it was her book that give us one of the earliest recipes for what we would recognise as a “modern” trifle.

The Scottish food historian Florence Marian McNeill and the food writer Clarissa Dickson Wright both favour the theory that the practice of cooking the contents of an animal in its own stomach point to a Scandinavian origin of the dish. A haggis is fundamentally an offal sausage, and offal was an important source of food for the poorer classes; it spoils quickly and is not easy to transport without a modern cold chain, so it would be eaten quickly at the source; people could just not afford to waste it and it was also still perfectly nourishing. Chopping up the less palatable and digestible parts of the “pluck” of an animal and mixing it in with oatmeal as a binder and to make it go a bit further was a perfectly logical way to make a slaughtered animal feed more people for longer. Some pepper, spice or herbs – as available – would make the contents more palatable. At a time when many people would have possessed only a fire on which to cook and probably only a pot and a griddle to cook on or in, the boiled haggis is just a logical sort of dish for the ordinary folk to be cooking and eating. The cooked final product could then be smoked to preserve it.

As evidenced by its inclusion in Maciver’s book, by the time of Burns haggis had moved on from being purely a peasant and servants’ dish of necessity to something popular amongst the enlightenment classes on their dinner tables. It also became increasingly popular with the men of letters on their drinking tables. Perhaps the earliest known illustration of haggis, from c. 1810, shows two enlightenment worthies of Glasgow supping on a giant haggis, washed down with copious quantities of claret.

In the 1826 book The Cook and Housewife’s Manual etc. by Margaret Dods, a recipe is given fora genuine Scotch haggis at the head of the chapter entitled Scotch National Dishes (introduced by quoting Burns). Margaret – Meg – Dods was actually a character from a Walter Scott novel and the book itself was by the writer Isobel Christian Johnston, the publisher’s wife. Scott himself contributed the book’s introduction.

This elusive but important Susanna Maciver died on August 23rd 1790 at Jamieson’s in the Canongate, aged 81 years, of “decay” (registrars’ speak for dying of old age of otherwise unknown specific reasons.) There is a plaque to mark the approximate location of her house and cookery school at Stevenlaw’s Close, appropriately featuring her recipe for “A Good Scotch Haggis”.

But that is not the end of the story, because she had a protégé, Mrs Frazer, who took on the school and the book, updating and expanding it and issuing subsequent editions. She describer herself as the “sole teacher of these arts in Edinburgh” and “several years colleague and afterwards successor” to Mrs Maciver. Of Mrs Frazer (later rendered as Fraser), I can find nothing concrete and the surname is much too common to get lucky on Scotland’s People without any dates or a forename.

Frazer’s book moved on from purely recipes, to describing general principles and techniques of both cooking and also buying and choosing ingredients (an important skill in a time of no real food controls and produce that would easily spoil or potentially have been doctored). An interesting addition are the illustrations of table setting plans. More calf feet jelly with your small tarts?

As well as this guide to laying your table, other helpful information such as foods listed by their season, a one-page ready reckoner of suggested “Things for Supper Dishes” and “General Observations” were also included such as the correct order of serving your boiled, baked and roasted meats.

By 1806 she had moved the cook school, now described as a “pastry school“, to Milne’s Square; opposite the Tron Kirk, still handy for the markets. The school is listed in the post office directories under her name until 1831-32, after which it disappears for a few years then a school under Miss Fraser appears at 69 Northumberland Street. I have made the assumption this was a daughter perhaps.

You can read a digital version of Mrs Maciver’s cookbook for free online and it is still published in a modern facsmilie edition. If you want to get a bit closer to the wacky dining habits of Enlightenment Edinburgh, I recommend a trip to the National Trust for Scotland’s Georgian House, who have a great display and description of the eating, drinking and cooking habits in the 18th century New Town’s dining room and kitchens.So if you want to pay homage to the great, great, great, great, grandmother of Scottish cuisine, why not do as the Georgians might have done and serve yourself up a tasty supper of haggis and trifle this weekend?

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