The Day By Day Cookery Book

I'm still at home in Wales, and have spent a happy morning pottering around the charity shops and haberdashery shop of my home town, more on this later. But what I'm going to blog about today is one of my mum's favorite cookery books, although I don't think she has every made anything from it.

The Day By Day Cookery Book by A N Whybrow was published in London in 1900. It details, as the name suggests, menus and recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner for every day of the year. I remember loving the book as a child, and looking up what amazing fare we should be eating that day. The book is very 'on trend' now as it is all about seasonal produce and using up leftovers. For example on January 2nd you use the neck and shoulders of a rabbit to make mulligatawny soup (I've only ever had it with chicken), the rest of the rabbit is then used to make potted rabbit for breakfast the next day. I also suspect there was a companion volume that had you making a hat from the skin.

However, health fanatics might find the book a little more difficult to stomach, as the sheer amount, and range, of food present at each meal is mind-boggling. With you potted rabbit for breakfast on 3rd January, you should also have hot rolls, honey (fair enough), brown and white bread (as well as hot rolls!?!), fried scallops and potato rissoles. Well, all I can say is that would certainly keep you filled up until lunch time.

On the menu today (26th September) is a breakfast of Quaker oats, honey, hot rolls, rolled tongue and foie gras. (yes, for breakfast!) Lunch of tongue fritters (you can never have too much tongue in a day), macaroni cheese and compote of greengages. Rounding of the day with a dinner of tomato soup, curried calf's head, roast snipe, straw potatoes, spinach and strawberry whips.

An in case you want more time to prepare for following the recipes I will let you know what you should be making tomorrow:

Breakfast: Wheat meal porridge, buttered scones, radishes, potted tongue and fried slips.

Lunch: Minced tongue in macaroni (using up two lots of yesterday's left overs), grilled stake, horseradish sauce, mash potatoes, cheese and celery.

Dinner: Mock turtle soup, sirloin of beef, cauliflower, mashed potatoes, roast partridge, bread sauce, lax (Norwegian salmon) on toast. You will be glad to know that 'Lax, which is rather an expensive luxury, can be procured in tins, and will be found very delicious'.

Bon Appetit!

Mum's copy of the book, which has just been very beautifully rebound

by our local book binder, Jenny Bevan.