Family Recipe Friday - Nanna Carriage's Blackberry Jam

Late January through to February is Blackberry time in Australia. Blackberry bushes have long been recognised as one of the most noxious weeds in Australia and are the bane of many a farmer because of their tendency  to take over valuable pastures

However for those of us who delight in the bushes sweet succulent fruit it is a different matter.  Over the past 150 years or so, children have delighted in heading out to pick the berries in the summer time and bring them home for their mothers and grandmothers to make jam, pies and other delights.  

As I outlined in my recent post, Sharing Memories - It's Blackberry time! blackberry picking in our summer school holidays was something we really looked forward to.

We would head out early in the morning and pick the berries, bringing them back to our Nanna, Christina Carriage's kitchen, ready for her to make her jam.  The obvious next part of this story is the actual jam making, so today I would like to share with you Nanna Carriage's Blackberry Jam.

Nanna Carriage's Blackberry Jam

6lbs fresh firm blackberries

1/2 cup of water

4 tablespoons of lemon juice

Sort berries, to check there are no old, overripe or damaged berries.  Wash in a colander, drain and place into a large preserving pan or saucepan. Add water and lemon juice. Press the berries with a wooden spoon to release their juices. Place on a low heat and bring slowly to boil. Continue to boil slowly for approximately half an hour until the fruit is soft and liquid reduced.  

Add sugar (which has been preheated) to the berry mixture.  Stir till dissolved, then turn heat up and boil quickly until the jam sets when tested.

Pour the jam mixture into warm sterile jars and seal with airtight lids or jam papers. Label, date and store in a cool place. 

Nanna had some other tips for making good jam:

1. If you didn't have lemons, a peeled green apple can be added to the berries when cooking and this will aid in setting the jam.

2. Cook the fruit slowly, and only bring to the boil once the added sugar is dissolved. Remember it is the fruit that requires the cooking not the sugar, so low heat when cooking the fruit to soften, when the sugar is added heat is turned up to cook quickly.

3.  To test if the jam is ready,  drop a little jam into cold water in a saucer and push with finger, if the mixture is set and surface wrinkles it is ready.

4.  To sterilize bottles wash in hot water, dry thoroughly and then place into warm oven before filling with jam.

"Family Recipe Friday" - Nan's Lemon Butter

Since I have been blogging I continue to be surprised by the blogs that attract the most readers.  Two years ago, not long after "Nan" passed away, I posted her recipe for stale bread cake (Family Recipe Friday - Nan's Stale Bread Cake) to celebrate her birthday.

This recipe was an old family favorite that she always had on hand when someone dropped in for a cup of tea. Of all the posts I have written the number of hits "Nan's Stale Bread Cake" far out numbers any other blog I have written!

So today, to celebrate her birthday and memory, I will share another of her favorites.  Lemon Butter!

When ever she visited us, she never failed to bring along a jar of lemon butter for my husband. I can remember when visiting her in her lovely cottage in the North Queensland home of Atherton, we would have to go on a special excursion to a small farm about 20 kms outside of town to buy six dozen eggs (because they were much cheaper) for the lemon butter.  

Nan's Lemon Butter

1 cup of butter

1 cup of  castor sugar

6 eggs

6 lemons (from her lemon tree)

grated zest of three lemons

Beat eggs in bowl, add sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest.  In a large saucepan, melt the butter, slowly add the egg, sugar and lemon mix into the saucepan and cook over a low heat, stirring constantly until thickened.   Spoon the mixture into sterile jars.  When cooled, seal and store in the fridge.

Nan loved to make large quantities for family, so if you feel that this will be more lemon butter than you need you can easily halve the recipe to make a smaller quantity.

Lemon butter is wonderful in sponge cakes and tarts, but my favorite is on hot buttered toast.

Friday's Family Recipe and Sharing Memories - Homemade Tomato Sauce

Summer time brings back memories of Mum and Dad’s vegie garden and the glut of ripe juicy tomatoes.  Dad would check the vines morning and night to pick the tomatoes before the pesky birds and insects attacked them.  Our kitchen would have huge bowls of  ripe tomatoes, that we would eat like apples, juice and tomato seeds dribbling down our chins.  The tomatoes that were just ripening would all be sitting along the kitchen window, and my mother would rotate them so that they ripened evenly.

My mother was very resourceful and would use the overabundance of tomatoes to stock up on homemade relish and tomato sauce.  All family members would be called to the kitchen, including my Dad, and we would chop up tomatoes and onions for relish and sauce.  There was always a bit of a battle as to who would be landed with cutting up the onions.

Mum would stock up on vinegar and other condiments, and pull out her large pots.  All the bottles and jars that she had saved through the winter months would be pulled out, rewashed and dried, and lined up ready for the bottling.  Soon the wonderful aromas of garlic, spices and tomatoes would be wafting out of the kitchen, as Mum stirred the tomatoey mixture that bubbled gently in large pots on her stove.  She would careful test small amounts of the sauce in a spoon at different intervals to check how it was setting, and if it need to be cooked a little longer. 

As soon as the sauce reached the required thickness, it was taken off the stove and it was time to bottle the mixture into the shiny clean bottles (of all different sizes and shapes) that were lined up on the kitchen skink. When the sauce had cooled in the bottles, Mum would seal, label and date them ready for the pantry cupboard and gifts to family and friends.  Even after we were married, my husband expected to be given a bottle of Mum's tomato or plum (that is another recipe) when ever we visited.  Here is Mum's recipe if you feel like trying it for yourself.!!

Family Recipe Friday, and Sharing Memories - Lamingtons

It has been quite a while since I have shared one of our family recipes and as with the last recipe, Anzac Biscuits, this one is also linked with my posts on Sharing Family Memories. An old family Aussie favourite is the delicious chocolate and coconut coated lamington. 

Lamingtons have been baked in Australian kitchens for well over 100 years. It is a little unclear how they first originated, and there is some controversy that the recipie actually came to Australia from Scotland.  Controversy aside, they are definitely considered to be an "Aussie icon" and are always listed amongst our traditional recipes.

These delicious chocolaty treats played an important part (and still do) in raising money for schools and sporting groups such as the local netball club, or the nippers club.  Lamington Drives were a common fundraising event, with groups of mothers gathering together for  large baking sessions which made dozens and dozens of lamington. I can assure you, every box produced  would be sold, as there is nothing better than a rich chocolaty lamington with the morning or afternoon cup of tea.

Like many children growing up in the 50's and 60's I have wonderful memories of the "production" line in Mum's kitchen, where we made dozens of lamingtons for a "Lamington Drive" for my local netball team.  Mum would bake the cakes (double mixtures) in large baking trays the evening before and cut them into squares ready for our netball team to assemble the next day.

The kitchen table would be set up with three or four bowls of the icing mixture, and plates with coconut.  Wire racks would be set up on the side bench for the finished lamingtons. My friends and I would spend the morning dipping and rolling the squares of cake, often getting more coconut and chocolate icing on our faces and fingers than on the lamingtons. There was always the sly slip of the finger in to the chocolate mixture, (just to assure it taste ok), and if a square of cake that accidentally broke in the mixture and had to be eaten on the spot. yum!!

When all the cakes were coated and rolled, Mum would serve us all a hot cup of tea and we would munch into one of the lamingtons, while we waited for the others to be ready for packing into boxes to fill all the orders collected in the drive.  In reflection I have to admire my mother's patience, smiling and joining in with the frivolity of a group of teenage girls who were turning her normally tidy and orderly kitchen into a chaotic chocolaty mess.

If you feel inclined, I have included the recipe below.  Happy lamington baking.

 Lamingtons

 Ingredients
1/2 cup self-raising flour
1/2 cup plain flour 
6 x 59 g eggs at room temperature 
1 cup caster sugar
1 tbs boiling water
2 cups desiccated coconut 

Chocolate icing
2 cups icing sugar mixture
1/3 cup cocoa powder 
1/4 cup milk 
1/4 cup boiling water 

Preheat oven to 160°C. Brush a 19 x 29cm lamington pan with melted butter to lightly grease. Line the base and sides with non-stick baking paper, allowing it to overhang slightly. Sift flour into a large bowl, twice. Whisk eggs in large bowl until thick and pale.  Add the sugar, gradually, whisking well as you add the sugar, whisk until the mixture is thick and sugar dissolved.  Sift the flour over the egg mixture, pour the boiling water down the side of the bowl.  Then with a large metal spoon gently fold until the flour, water and egg mix just combined.  Pour the mixture into the prepared pan, smoothing the surface with the metal spoon.  Bake in oven for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.  Gently, take cake out of the oven and turn onto a wire cooling rack, cover with clean tea towel. Let the cake cool over night.
Trim the edges of the cake and cut into squares.  Pour the coconut into a shallow bowl or plate. Now, make the chocolate icing, sift the icing sugar and cocoa powder into a bowl.  Pour in the mild and water and stir until mixture is smooth, and slightly runny.
Now comes the fun bit!! dip the cake squares into the warm icing, coating evenly, then roll the cake into the coconut, giving it an even coat all over, then place the lamington on the cooking rack.  Repeat this process with all the cake squares, and set aside for an hour or so until the icing has set.


Note:  You can make different versions by slicing the sponge through the center and putting cream and jam in the middle before dipping the squares into the chocolate mixture.

Family Recipe Friday - ANZAC Biscuits



Anzac Biscuits



Yesterday in my post on "Sharing Memories"  I mentioned a family favourite, the Anzac Biscuit, so as it has been quite a while  I  since I have posted a “Family Recipe”  I thought I would share this recipe. The recipe for Anzac Biscuits has been passed through our family for at least four generations.   Besides being a family recipe this is a very traditional Australia recipe that has been baked in Australia Homes since the First World War.  

First let me tell you a little about the history of the ANZAC Biscuit!!  ANZAC refers to the Australian and New Zealand Army Corp of WWI, and ANZAC Day, 25 April, is a public holiday day when Australia and New Zealand remember the soldiers who participated in all international conflicts.

The Anzac Biscuit or bikkie and my grandchildren call it!! Originated from the need to send troops a nutritional, tasty treat that would last the 2-3 months in transit to the battlefront.  The story goes, that a group of women came up with the recipe, based on a Scottish biscuit recipe that used rolled oats.  Using a combination of ingredients that didn’t spoil over time (golden syrup or treacle, rolled oats, coconut, sugar, plain flour, butter, water and bicarbonate of soda) they developed the recipe known as “soldiers biscuits” that were baked, packed into tins, and sent to the soldiers on the front.  After the landing of the Australian and New Zealand troops at Gallipoli the biscuits were renamed “ANZAC Biscuits).

As has happened in our family, this recipe has become an iconic tradition for families in Australia, with various forms of the recipe passed down from one generation to the other.  There is nothing better than Anzac biscuits dunked in your tea or coffee.  Not having any daughters, I taught my sons to make the biscuits, and now my eldest son is passing down the tradition to his sons.

Now for the recipe:

recipe notes

Ingredients: 

1 cup plain flour

1 cup of sugar (this can be white, brown or a mix of both)

1 cup of rolled oats

1 cup of coconut

125 gms butter

1 tablespoon water

2 tablespoons golden syrup

½ teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

Sift flour into a bowl, add sugar, rolled oats, and coconut to the bowl and mix together.  Melt butter, and golden syrup in a saucepan (or microwave), mix bicarbonate of soda with water and add to the melted butter and golden syrup, mix together and add to the dry ingredient.  Mix together thoroughly, then roll the mixture into small balls (size of a walnut), place on a greased tray, flattening slightly and bake in a moderate oven (170 degrees ) for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

When cooled and they will be nice and crisp. 

Foot note:  I have made different versions of this recipe where I have used honey instead of golden syrup, or substituted the rolled oats with muesli. 

-----------------
Sources

1. http://www.emubottombiscuits.com.au/the-history-of-the-anzac.html

2. http://www.anzacday.org.au/miscellaneous/bikkies.html

3. http://www.anzacsite.gov.au/

Family Recipe Friday - Family Christmas Cake

December is upon us, and it is time to start preparing for the festive season.  I don’t know about you but the traditions and family culture that surrounds Christmas fascinates me.  Every family has their own set of traditions that evolve over time, within the traditions and culture of their country, religion and ethnic backgrounds.    An important part of this evolution is the food and drink that is cooked, shared and given as gifts to family and friends.  

 

One of the traditions that has been passed down in our family has been the baking of the Christmas cake and Christmas pudding. 

I have fond memories of sharing in these baking activities.  The mixing, baking and hanging of the Christmas pudding was one of the highlights of Christmas with my paternal grandmother Christina Carriage (Shepherd, nee Lee)  and I have written about this in my blog on the women in my family tree. 

However, the family tradition that comes to mind today is closer to home and was passed on to me by my mother.  That is the baking of the traditional Christmas cake.  I am not sure of customs in other countries, but in Australia around Christmas time, when I was a child,  when someone dropped  in for a cup of tea, you would always have to have a plate piled high with slices of rich moist Christmas cake to go with it.   There are so many versions of this recipe, but here is the one that my mother used as the base for her cakes. 

She would often deviate from the recipe, adding what ever was in the pantry, for example some marmalade jam, extra nuts, glace cherries, ginger pieces etc.  As you can see from the picture taken from her recipe book, the page is well worn, with a collection of food stains, which I am sure if you analysed would be made up of spices, sugar, flour, butter and brandy or sherry. I now carry on this tradition and continue to bake this cake around the beginning of December each year. I do hope this family tradition will pass on to the next generation.

Rich Boiled Fruit Cake

 8 cups (2 ½ lb) mixed fruit

2 tablespoons golden syrup

3 tablespoons rum, sherry or brandy

¾ cups water

8 oz butter

1 ½ cups (8 oz) brown sugar

5 eggs

2 ½ cups (10 oz) plain flour

¼ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons mixed spice

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoons ground nutmeg

2 oz split blanched almonds

Place the mixed fruit, golden syrup, rum, sherry or brandy and the water in a saucepan.  Bring to the boil, stirring occasionally and simmer for 2 minutes.  Pour into a bowl, cover and allow to stand overnight.  Set oven temperature at slow.  Cream butter and brown sugar together well.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Sift dry ingredients together, then sift half over the boiled fruit mixture.  Mix lightly and stir into the creamed mixture.  Add remainder of sieved dry ingredients and fold into mixture.  Place in a 9-inch round cake tin, previously lined with greaseproof paper and three thicknesses of brown paper and greased.  Arrange the split blanched almonds in a pattern on the top.  Bake in a slow oven for 3 ½ -4 hours.  Remove cake from tin, leaving paper on and leave on wire cooling tray until cool.

Follow Friday - An accumulation of my weekly research - 6

Friday is here again! What a week.  I really got a start yesterday when someone informed me that it is only 6 weeks to Christmas.  This week I would like to share some sites that are a little off the track from the normal family tree research but fit in with my interest in knowing more about the times and customs that our ancestors lived in. 

This research was triggered by an old recipe book, Cassell's New Universal Cookery Book  that was given to me by an  Aunt when I was a teenager.  I shared a short story on this book in one of my earlier blogs "Family Recipe Friday - Recipes from the Past".   The book contains a fascinating collection of old recipies and details about the running of a home at the end of the 19th Century and sparked my interest to find out what other online resources there are about the food, recipies and kitchen customs of our ancestors.  Here is a brief summary of some of the sites I have found.  If you know of others please share them as I would like to delve into this more.

Blogs

Old Recipe Blog: http://oldrecipeblog.com/

The Old Foodie: http://www.theoldfoodie.com/

18thC Cuisine: http://18thccuisine.blogspot.com.au/

The History Chef: http://lincolnslunch.blogspot.com.au/

The Shiksa Blog: Exploring the Fascinating History of Food : http://theshiksa.com/

My Grandmas' Recipies: http://mygrandmasrecipes.wordpress.com/

Cookit, Victorian Food Facts and History: http://cookit.e2bn.org/historycookbook/23-116-victorians-Food-facts.html

Food History Jottings:  http://foodhistorjottings.blogspot.com.au/

Getting Started in Food History: http://www.rachellaudan.com/culinary-history/getting-started-in-food-history

Food Tracks: http://foodtracks.net/tag/food-history-2/

Other Sites of Interest

The Food Time Line: http://www.foodtimeline.org/

Online Culinary History Network: http://culinaryhistory.org/

English Cuisine History and information about English Cooking, Food and Recipies:  http://www.recipes4us.co.uk/Cooking%20by%20Country/England%20Recipes%20Culinary%20History%20and%20Information.htm

FoodWise: Australian Food History: http://foodwise.com.au/did-you-know/australian-food-history.aspx

Baking History: the Joy of baking:  http://www.joyofbaking.com/printpages/Historyprint.html

German Cooking through the Hands of my Ancestors: http://salinehistory.org/index.php?section=history&content=german_cooking

 The Dictionery of Victorian London: http://www.victorianlondon.org/lee/website.htm

"Family Recipe Friday" Nan's Stale Bread Cake

Food and family recipes can tells us so much about the times that our ancestors lived in.  I was delighted to see among the lists for GeneaBloggers Daily prompts for Friday the title "Family Friday Recipe". What a great opportunity to share one of my husband's mother's favorite recipes.  We all call it Nan's Stale Bread Cake. She loved to make this for the family and when we visited we always left with a parcel wrapped in foil to take home or to share with our work mates for morning tea.

Some say that this is a recipe to use up stale bread, which was originally devised when it was considered a sin to throw away bread because of the association with Christ. However, I think the recipe was carried on through difficult economic times when it was easy to obtain stale bread, nothing was wasted and the bread was used to make a cheap and delicious treat for the family. Earlier this year when my husband visited Nan and returned with the usual parcel wrapped in foil it also included a typed out copy of the recipe.  Here is Nan's stale bread cake recipe.  I hope you enjoy it as much as our family does.

Nan's Stale Break Cake

(Note from Nan: "I have used this recipe for over 40 years, I don't measure anything")

1. A couple of loaves of stale bread, (soak till moist) about 5 minutes.

2. Squeeze out as much water as you can.

3.  Add mixed fruit (generally add about 1 kilo).

4.  Add 250 gm of margarine (I melt it in the microwave)

5. Add two cups of sugar.  (taste it to see if it is sweet enough).

6.  Mixed spice (a real good shake).

Mix well (If you find it too moist use some flour, (consistency of a fruit cake)

Grease a baking dish well, cook in a moderate to hot oven until baked.

(At the bottom Nan wrote me a little message:  It's easy, I added some rum to the one Steve gave you a tast of.  I get my stale bread from the bakery they only charge a $1.  I also used tea cake and sultana bread, ask your baker for stale bread etc.  any bread will do, except MULTIGRAIN! It's an easy recipe, good luck' it's lovely hot with custard).  Thanks Nan!!!


Footnote:  Nan passed away a couple of months ago after a prolonged illness, so it is nice to be able to share this recipe in her memory.