Books and cooks

Old books, handwritten books especially, interest me. Twenty five years ago I bought a handwritten cookery book at an auction in Bristol. 

Though no information was available about where the book had come from, I was still pleased with my find. I took it home and read it carefully. Copper plate writing flowed over the thick yellow pages, horizontally and diagonally, too, in some places. (Past generations had a habit of 'saving' everything, writing over notes they no longer required).  Unfortunately, the cook had not written her name but, evidently, her family was well fed. I could smell the old, floury kitchen and long ago meals.

There were recipes for 'Breakfast Cake', mayonnaise, kedgeree, wines, jams, jellies, pickles and even cough mixture, emetics, hair colouring, bees wax polish. 

As I carefully turned the pages, some of which were coming away from the spine, I encountered a recipe dated 1745!  This book had been a family treasure and the last entries were in the twentieth century.

Accompanying the book were some loose recipes, known as receipts. Examining a torn envelope, I found the name, 'Mrs Averill', Broadway. On the back of the envelope was a recipe for soup, for the attention of the overseers of  the 'Poor House'. (The soup required gallons of water and just a few vegetables).

This was a find. I had a name and, by sheer chance, I had recently spent a holiday in Broadway, not far from Stratford on Avon.

I asked the then Vicar of Broadway for his help and he was excellent, copying the Averill names on gravestones and sending them to me. Going one further, he asked an elderly relative of the Averill family if she would like to correspond with me.

This resulted in contact with family members in America and an invitation to stay with them in New England.