Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss
Funny-looking old cookbook
53 views
Skip to first unread message
Lenona
Jan 5, 2022, 8:39:35 AM1/5/22
to
Just stumbled on it. It's British. Title: Cooking in a Bedsitter (1961), by Katharine Whitehorn. (She was a journalist for The Observer and died a year ago.)
Long, formal review:
https://www.rachellaudan.com/2021/01/cooking-in-a-bedsitter.html
And:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6066773-cooking-in-a-bedsitter
(includes the cover)
Some customer reviews:
"...Much of the advice remains sound, and the author has an entertainingly cynical attitude to her subject. It's also, now, a fascinating period piece - some of the ingredients dealt with no longer exist, or are findable only in specialist shops, or have changed their names in the last 50 years. (And given the prevalence of recipes that call for a quarter pound of meat and one or more onions, I can only assume that onions used to be rather smaller than they are now!) And, of course, the bedsit containing a single gas ring and no water source is also a thing of the past."
"...People complain about the book being dated, and being very English, but it’s full of solid culinary advice. I learnt from Whitehorn about the “potato-shaped space” that must be filled at every meal. I have one, and so does everyone in my family, and while in summer it might be fine to serve a dish of meat and vegetables up with a nice green salad, in January that’s going to leave everyone reaching for the biscuit tin..."
"Re-read this to see how it has stood up to the passage of time, and whether it will be any use to the teenager in my life. It is still quite funny, refreshingly realistic, and there are even a few recipes worth trying out. (It's a lot more modern in some ways than you might expect from the date of publication - quite a bit of Mediterranean influence, for instance). It assumes not much knowledge (even so, I would find some of this challenging, especially without a fridge), explains things clearly, and, because of the assumed space issues, doesn't present you with a huge list of ingredients for everything (so if that is something that puts you off some cookery books this might be a good place to start)..."
"...Useful for the sort of cooking that goes "I have ingredient X - what can I make with it?" as opposed to what I have privately dubbed the Yotam Ottolenghi school of cookery that requires you to go out and buy half a dozen obscure ingredients before you start. I've never actually needed the expedients that allow you to avoid using more than a single gas ring at once (the modern bedsitter equivalent probably contains only a grotty microwave as cooking facilities!) but the other advice is handy. I deployed milk bottles as rolling pins for some time."
"Written in the late 50s when, in the UK at least, if you left home and weren't getting married you lived in a room in a house with a shared bathroom and one gas ring (so no cooker and no kitchen sink). Republished a couple of years ago as the crowded standards of living for singletons in London is regressing to 50s standards..."
And, here's a LONG article/interview about the author from 2008, plus a few recipes. One is for trifle, the first is for "poor man's goulash," and one is for "egg casserole" - made with canned tomato soup. (I'm curious about that one, though I only use canned tomato soup for a certain type of cake, since it's loaded with sugar!)
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/aug/17/british.vegetablesrecipes
Check out the part about how things have changed for women - and for people in general.
Lenona.
Long, formal review:
https://www.rachellaudan.com/2021/01/cooking-in-a-bedsitter.html
And:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6066773-cooking-in-a-bedsitter
(includes the cover)
Some customer reviews:
"...Much of the advice remains sound, and the author has an entertainingly cynical attitude to her subject. It's also, now, a fascinating period piece - some of the ingredients dealt with no longer exist, or are findable only in specialist shops, or have changed their names in the last 50 years. (And given the prevalence of recipes that call for a quarter pound of meat and one or more onions, I can only assume that onions used to be rather smaller than they are now!) And, of course, the bedsit containing a single gas ring and no water source is also a thing of the past."
"...People complain about the book being dated, and being very English, but it’s full of solid culinary advice. I learnt from Whitehorn about the “potato-shaped space” that must be filled at every meal. I have one, and so does everyone in my family, and while in summer it might be fine to serve a dish of meat and vegetables up with a nice green salad, in January that’s going to leave everyone reaching for the biscuit tin..."
"Re-read this to see how it has stood up to the passage of time, and whether it will be any use to the teenager in my life. It is still quite funny, refreshingly realistic, and there are even a few recipes worth trying out. (It's a lot more modern in some ways than you might expect from the date of publication - quite a bit of Mediterranean influence, for instance). It assumes not much knowledge (even so, I would find some of this challenging, especially without a fridge), explains things clearly, and, because of the assumed space issues, doesn't present you with a huge list of ingredients for everything (so if that is something that puts you off some cookery books this might be a good place to start)..."
"...Useful for the sort of cooking that goes "I have ingredient X - what can I make with it?" as opposed to what I have privately dubbed the Yotam Ottolenghi school of cookery that requires you to go out and buy half a dozen obscure ingredients before you start. I've never actually needed the expedients that allow you to avoid using more than a single gas ring at once (the modern bedsitter equivalent probably contains only a grotty microwave as cooking facilities!) but the other advice is handy. I deployed milk bottles as rolling pins for some time."
"Written in the late 50s when, in the UK at least, if you left home and weren't getting married you lived in a room in a house with a shared bathroom and one gas ring (so no cooker and no kitchen sink). Republished a couple of years ago as the crowded standards of living for singletons in London is regressing to 50s standards..."
And, here's a LONG article/interview about the author from 2008, plus a few recipes. One is for trifle, the first is for "poor man's goulash," and one is for "egg casserole" - made with canned tomato soup. (I'm curious about that one, though I only use canned tomato soup for a certain type of cake, since it's loaded with sugar!)
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/aug/17/british.vegetablesrecipes
Check out the part about how things have changed for women - and for people in general.
Lenona.
Cindy Hamilton
Jan 5, 2022, 9:19:06 AM1/5/22
to
On Wednesday, January 5, 2022 at 8:39:35 AM UTC-5, Lenona wrote:
> And, here's a LONG article/interview about the author from 2008, plus a few recipes. One is for trifle, the first is for "poor man's goulash," and one is for "egg casserole" - made with canned tomato soup. (I'm curious about that one, though I only use canned tomato soup for a certain type of cake, since it's loaded with sugar!)
Perhaps the British are not stupid enough to put up with sugar in canned tomato
> And, here's a LONG article/interview about the author from 2008, plus a few recipes. One is for trifle, the first is for "poor man's goulash," and one is for "egg casserole" - made with canned tomato soup. (I'm curious about that one, though I only use canned tomato soup for a certain type of cake, since it's loaded with sugar!)
soup.
Cindy Hamilton
Janet
Jan 5, 2022, 10:18:03 AM1/5/22
to
In article <76b327e6-43df-41ab...@googlegroups.com>,
leno...@yahoo.com says...
> "Written in the late 50s when, in the UK at least, if you left home and weren't getting married
you lived in a room in a house with a shared bathroom and one gas ring
(so no cooker and no kitchen sink).
That is a lying fantasy and misrepresentation of the period.
> Republished a couple of years ago as the crowded standards of living >
for singletons in London is regressing to 50s standards..."
That is also a lying fantasy and misrepresentation, this time of the
present.
As your own link told you:
"When Katharine Whitehorn was asked to write Cooking in a Bedsitter
there were two problems: she wasn't interested in cooking and she didn't
live in a bedsit."
IOW, she knew absolutely nothing about either. The book is A JOKE, a
SKIT, intended to entertain her middle-class readers.
Whitehorn said of the re-print "Virago are doing the book as a kind of
retro joke"
Next you 'll be telling us "I Love Lucy" or "Bewitched" were a hard-
hitting social-realism documentaries about life and cookery in the USA.
Janet UK
>
leno...@yahoo.com says...
> "Written in the late 50s when, in the UK at least, if you left home and weren't getting married
you lived in a room in a house with a shared bathroom and one gas ring
(so no cooker and no kitchen sink).
> Republished a couple of years ago as the crowded standards of living >
for singletons in London is regressing to 50s standards..."
present.
As your own link told you:
"When Katharine Whitehorn was asked to write Cooking in a Bedsitter
there were two problems: she wasn't interested in cooking and she didn't
live in a bedsit."
IOW, she knew absolutely nothing about either. The book is A JOKE, a
SKIT, intended to entertain her middle-class readers.
Whitehorn said of the re-print "Virago are doing the book as a kind of
retro joke"
Next you 'll be telling us "I Love Lucy" or "Bewitched" were a hard-
hitting social-realism documentaries about life and cookery in the USA.
Janet UK
>
Graham
Jan 5, 2022, 11:31:12 AM1/5/22
to
a woman should do when at a party, standing with a drink in one hand and a
plate of food in the other, and her knicker elastic failed.
bruce bowser
Jan 5, 2022, 11:43:13 AM1/5/22
to
bruce bowser
Jan 5, 2022, 11:45:27 AM1/5/22
to
Bruce 7
Jan 5, 2022, 1:18:40 PM1/5/22
to
On Wed, 5 Jan 2022 15:17:55 -0000, Janet <nob...@hame.cock> wrote:
>In article <76b327e6-43df-41ab...@googlegroups.com>,
>leno...@yahoo.com says...
>
>
>> "Written in the late 50s when, in the UK at least, if you left home and weren't getting married
> you lived in a room in a house with a shared bathroom and one gas ring
>(so no cooker and no kitchen sink).
>
> That is a lying fantasy and misrepresentation of the period.
>
>> Republished a couple of years ago as the crowded standards of living >
>for singletons in London is regressing to 50s standards..."
>
> That is also a lying fantasy and misrepresentation, this time of the
>present.
It's ok, Janet. The UK is the greatest country in the known and
>In article <76b327e6-43df-41ab...@googlegroups.com>,
>leno...@yahoo.com says...
>
>
>> "Written in the late 50s when, in the UK at least, if you left home and weren't getting married
> you lived in a room in a house with a shared bathroom and one gas ring
>(so no cooker and no kitchen sink).
>
> That is a lying fantasy and misrepresentation of the period.
>
>> Republished a couple of years ago as the crowded standards of living >
>for singletons in London is regressing to 50s standards..."
>
> That is also a lying fantasy and misrepresentation, this time of the
>present.
unknown universe! And beyond!
Bruce 7
Jan 5, 2022, 1:38:14 PM1/5/22
to
On Thu, 06 Jan 2022 05:18:27 +1100, Bruce 7 <br...@notreal.invalid>
wrote:
Ghe Ghe Ghe
This is my frogger.
wrote:
This is my frogger.
Bruce 7
Jan 5, 2022, 1:40:34 PM1/5/22
to
Bruce 7
Jan 5, 2022, 1:40:49 PM1/5/22
to
Bruce 8
Jan 5, 2022, 1:46:04 PM1/5/22
to
Bruce 8
Jan 5, 2022, 4:04:57 PM1/5/22
to
Bruce 7
Jan 5, 2022, 4:16:31 PM1/5/22
to
On Wed, 05 Jan 2022 14:04:50 -0700, Bruce 8 <Br...@notreal.invalid>
wrote:
Ghe Ghe Ghe
wrote:
Michael Trew
Jan 5, 2022, 11:23:00 PM1/5/22
to
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSOoJiKbpWs
An excellent rendition (my favorite) of Mr. Dylan's song.
Dave Smith
Jan 12, 2022, 9:55:04 PM1/12/22
to
On Wed, 5 Jan 2022 05:39:32 -0800 (PST), Lenona <leno...@yahoo.com>
wrote:
This is NOT my frogger.
--
This is NOT a post by Dave Smith
wrote:
--
This is NOT a post by Dave Smith
Dave Smith
Jan 12, 2022, 9:55:34 PM1/12/22
to
Dave Smith
Jan 16, 2022, 10:01:46 PM1/16/22
to
0 new messages