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This is where I note my efforts as I try to recreate some old recipes. Most are taken from my small collection of handwritten recipe books which date from the late 1700's to around 1922. I also have a collection of old tatty old recipe books, well thumbed and heavily splashed from years of use. I love all of them.

The old-fashioned very stylised handwriting writing is sometimes difficult to decipher, measurements and cooking instructions are minimal, no tin sizes given. Luckily I enjoy a challenge. Just to complicate things I cook and bake on my wood-fired Rayburn, which can be... unpredictable.

I suspect this blog is less about the food and more about my passion for these lovely old books and the wonderful women who wrote them.


Sunday 16 October 2016

Dog Biscuits and Planning

Apart from day to day meals and the occasional cake-baking session, I have been busy with other things, so my experiments with old recipes have ground to a temporary halt.




There are Christmas Fairs, parties, and events looming, as well as Halloween and Bonfire Night.   All of these require baking and support of one kind or another.  

Experimental biscuits are my next small project, dog biscuits!    I have a book which is packed with scrumptious-sounding recipes, for dogs.    I have picked out two particularly appealing ones, appealing to me, that is.   Not sure how they will go down with Dobson and his canine friends, so I shall have to make them and see.

The first one contains, rice flour, dates, walnuts, carob powder and other surprising ingredients.    The book is devoted to canine health and nutrition, so I hope this holds true of the treats and that the dogs actually want to eat them.   I'll let you know.

The second one contains garlic, parsley, oats, yeast and a meaty brew and I can well imagine them appealing to Dobson.  

This kind of baking is ideal for in the Rayburn.   After baking they need to be dried out in a warm oven for seven hours, so the lower oven will be the ideal place for them, they can be left in there overnight.

Then it is down to the dogs and the taste test.

I'll let you know.