Today I take a trip down memory lane.. It is a very long lane.
52 years ago this week, I had my very first official cookery lesson. I had been cooking and helping in the kitchen at mammy’s side for many years before that.
This first lesson was at school. Today I reproduce that recipe.
Rock buns.
Preheat the oven to 200°C
225g self raising flour
Pinch salt
100g butter
75g mixed dried fruit
25g mixed candied peel
50g caster sugar
1 egg size 3
Milk to mix
Mix the flour and salt and rub in the butter.
Stir in the dried fruit, mixed peel and sugar.
Mix to a stiff dough with egg and milk.
Place in rough spoonfuls on a greased baking sheet
Bake for 10-15 minutes.
Do you have an early memory of cooking?
When I think of “rock buns”, I think of an individuals butt who has been excercising for years, to go with “rock abs”.
But I bet your “rock buns” are very good also.
Mayo – My rock buns are tasty!!
Grannymar,
Have you read before about my early cooking efforts to make Turkey Soup?
It was the early 1960’s and my MIL gave me the verbal recipe for the soup. She never wrote anything down,she just passed recipes around by word of mouth. That wasn’t so bad but she had no measurements, either. It was a little of this and a lot of that, etc.
So, she told me to put the leftover turkey bits in the pot along with a lot of water ,some carrots, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Let cook for “Awhile” then add a little rice. I was such a young and inexperienced cook that the directions didn’t seem strange to me at all and I proceeded to make the soup.
When it was time to add a “Little” rice I add two cups.
In a few minutes I heard the lid of the soup pot banging up and down as the rice boiled and then,
SILENCE! I immediately ran to the cooker to see what had made everything go quiet.
As I entered the kitchen I was amazed to see that a solid block of rice was coming up out of the pot,pushing the lid up about 6 inches above the pot.
Just at that minute, my husband came in from work and when he looked at the rice he exploded in laughter and said,” Who are you making this for ?
Ho Chi Min’s Army?
It was pretty good soup in the end even if we did have to eat it with a fork!
Nancy – I think thet is the best ‘cooking’ story I ever heard!
One of my brothers and I attempted this very same recipe when my mother was in hospital. I couldn’t boil an egg and he couldn’t boil a kettle.
We couldn’t figure out the size of the egg and “candied peel” could have been Swahili.
My granny and daddy broke their teeth on the results and banned us from the kitchen forever which pleased me no end.
TRUE!
XO
WW
WWW – I love it! *Note to self: Be careful what you eat when visiting WWW!*
That’s pretty much the same recipe I first cooked in school!
Like you though I had been used to ‘helping’ int he kitchen from toddlerhood. I particularly remember making pastry which was like cardboard. 🙂
Pseu – Back in those days when I was learning, we had no scales to measure or electric mixers. I had to beat butter and sugar with a wooden spoon, in a large baking bowl. I thought I would go through life with callouses on the palm of my hand from my fingernails digging in!
I was never very successful with pastry and since I can buy it when needed, I have given up trying.
GM:
The secret to good pastry (I make GREAT pastry) is a good food processor. If you have one, let me know and I will send you a pastry recipe that is ready in less than a minute.
And light as a feather.
XO
WWW
WWW I do have have a good and very active food processor. Email on way!
Your buns rock 🙂
Tilly – :lol; That remark is playing right into Mayo’s hands!
My baking powder biscuits in home-ec class. They were not flaky and were lopsided. I was in ninth grade. I tried to tell Mr. Guthrie I’d rather take the psychology class with the sophomores and juniors (grades 10 and 11), but nooooooooo !
Alice – your baking powder biscuits remind me of an early effort at making wheaten bread. It weighed a tonne and my brothers wrapped it in gift wrap, attached a card for my uncle as a present from me! They ( brothers) thought he could use it as a doorstop! 😆