Probably not its final title!
Writing this in August and looking at my copy of “The Hampstead Cookery Book” I notice that it is exactly 40 years since the book was conceived by the then Vicar, Francis Hall. That book took 4 years to realisation, being published in 1975. Most of you reading this may not even be aware that there was a parish cookery book as we have long since run out of copies.
I have heard a few people mutter about a new cookery book so some of us have decided that we’ll do one. We hope to have it out in time for next year’s Flower Festival. I anticipate that the proceeds from the sale will go to the Fabric Fund towards the Church redecoration
Since the 1970s things have changed, more ingredients are readily available, cooking has changed and some of the recipes in the original book are from those who had to produce meals in the austerity years. Someone commented on how many of the recipes included tinned fruit. Do we look back and reproduce some of the recipes from that book, or do we say it should all be new? Some of the contributors are still very much in evidence in the parish (I wonder if they still use their recipes). Do we want a theme or simply “parishioners’ favourites”, do we include recipes from friends who have made food for us that we really appreciated or say only recipes from members of the congregation? How many recipes, how many pages, what size will the book be, colour or black and white, photographs or drawings? These kind of decisions will have to be made so we would like ideas please.
Are you interested in getting involved in the project?
Have you got a recipe you would like included?
Would you like to be a recipe tester?
Would you like to be a taster?