Everything a Woman Ought to Know

Is a book by Florence Jack - it's main title is The Woman's Book of Household Management.

Here are some of her handy tips:

Ventilation is essential to avoid the dangers of Vitiated Air!

Electric light as an illuminant has many advantages. It is cleanly, hygienic and convenient.

In the new Boudoir Grate, an almost perfect imitation of a homely log fire is achieved.

Brown Lincrusta is much used for dining-room dadoes.

Wood panelling painted white is often used in drawing-room decoration.

To paper a library in pale shades of blue or green would be to go against every law of what is fitting and proper.

The ugly gilt-edged mirror which formed the conventional chimney-piece decoration of the time of our grandmother is now mercifully buried in oblivion. Artistic wooden chimney-pieces and overmantels combined now form part of the decorative equipment of most tastefully furnished houses.

There are still some middle class people who keep their drawing room as a show room... but such rooms always wear an air of stiffness which is often reflected in the manner of the mistress...

Grand pianos give an air of "finish" to a drawing room which is achieved by no other means.

Chairs of one period must not be mixed up with tables of another, and a bureau of still another epoch.

The wooden bedsteads now on the market are artistic in every way and free from that ugliness which characterised those of Victorian days. during the Victorian era art in furniture went through a marked decadence. The furniture of this recent period is marked by its stiffness, ungainliness, and general air of discomfort. It may safely be said that connoisseurs of the future will not readily advocate a revival of the Victorian style. (Some bold types went against the tide of public opinion and bought Victoriana in the 30s, about 20 years after the date of this book, but it didn't really catch on until the 70s.)

John Major's Bacon Risotto

From Redcliffe Recipes.

2 oz butter
1 large onion, chopped
4 oz sliced mushrooms
6 oz long grain rice
1-1 1/2 pints stock
6 oz cooked bacon/ham
4 oz cooked peas
7 oz can sweetcorn with peppers
Pepper

Melt butter in large frying pan, add onion and cook gently for 5 mins. Add mushrooms, stir round and cook for a few seconds. Stir in rice and one pint of stock. Cover and cook gently for 20-25 mins until rice is cooked. If necessary, add extra stock. Cube the bacon and add to the rice with the remaining ingredients. Season with pepper. Cook for further five minutes to heat through. A few sultanas may be added.

Layered Cashew Nut and Mushroom Roast

From Redcliffe Recipes, compiled to raise money for Redcliffe School some time in the 80s (with a contribution from Prime Minister John Major - he was known for his bacon risotto)

1 tbsp oil
1 small chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, crushed
225g ground cashew nuts mixed with
110g fresh breadcrumbs
1 beaten egg
3 parsnips, cooked and mashed with butter
dried rosemary and thyme
1 tsp yeast extract, dissolved into 150 ml hot water or stock
25g butter
225g mushrooms, chopped

Heat oil, fry onion and garlic until soft. Mix egg, breadcrumbs and nuts, mashed parsnips, herbs and fried onion with all its juices. Add yeast extract. melt the butter in a frying pan, saute the mushrooms until soft. Grease a 2lb loaf tin, press in half the mixture, cover with mushrooms and top with remaining mixture. Cover with foil, and bake for one hour. Stand for ten mins before turning out.

Dried herbs - very 80s! You could use fresh thyme, parsley or sage, or chopped spring onions (scallions). In the 80s we put rosemary in everything.

Creamy Mushroom Risotto

From The Philadelphia Coobook (2011)

2 tsp olive oil
200g risotto rice
600ml hot good quality vegetable stock
350g mixed mushrooms, cut into large pieces
1 clove garlic, crushed
120g Philadelphia Light
a little skimmed milk (optional)
a handful of fresh parsley, roughly chopped
freshly ground black pepper

Heat 1 tsp of oil in a saucepan. Add the rice and gently fry over a medium heat for 2 mins or until lightly golden. Gradually add the stock and 300ml hot water, then bring to the boil. Simmer for 20 mins or until tender and all the liquid is absorbed. Add a little more water if required during cooking.

Heat the remaining olive oil in a frying pan and add the mushrooms and garlic. Fry for 4-5 mins, until starting to brown.

Stir the Philly into the cooked rice. If the mixture is too thick add a little milk. Remove the rice from the heat and stir in the mushrooms, parsley and black pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

Vegetarian Sausages and War Pie

From the Best Way Book (World War I)

Three carrots, three onions, one turnip, one parsnip, half a pint of split peas, two eggs, two ounces of butter, half a pound of breadcrumbs, a little stock, one tablespoonful of chopped parsley, pinch of sage. Soak peas overnight, then boil them till soft. Boil the other vegetables till done, pound them with the peas, and stir in stock, also beaten egg, parsley, breadcrumbs, and seasoning. When thoroughly mixed, roll paste into sausages. Dip each one in beaten egg and breadcrumbs, and fry till brown.

War Pie
Boil some potatoes and mash with milk. Parboil three onions, cut them up. Fill a dish with alternate layers of potatoes and onions. Cover the top with pastry, and bake till this is brown.

Tomato Curry

From The Bestway Book (1914-18)

Take four ounces of rice, on tbsp milk, one tbsp curry powder, 1 gill of stock, one hard-boiled egg, an ounce and a half of butter, one tomato, two shallots. Put on a stewpan and melt the fat, adding shallots, peeled and cut small. When golden brown, stir in the curry powder and cook five minutes longer. Now add the rice, which has been washed and drained, the stock, and the milk, blending all carefully together. Next stir in the tomato, peeled and cut into dice, with grated nutmeg, salt and pepper. Stir gently, and let simmer until the rice is quite tender. Serve with slices of hard-boiled egg.

Kind of a risotto, really. I'd use about four tomatoes, and core them - or open a tin! Here's a book all about tomatoes:

Can You Cook a Cabbage?

From The Best Way Book (6d), published during World War II

Cream of Cabbage
Cook a nice cabbage, adding to the water an onion stuck with cloves. Let the water boil fast until the cabbage is cooked; then drain it well, and chop up the cabbage and onion finely, taking out the cloves. Put the vegetables into a saucepan with some sour milk and a little nut margarine, pepper and salt, and a dust of nutmeg. Stir it until it is smoking hot. Have some large slices of buttered toast ready in a vegetable dish. Heap the cabbage on the top of this, and sprinkle with chopped parsley and a dust of red pepper.

Mmm, delicious, I don't think. Meanwhile, here's a beauty tip:

To prevent freckles, use a lotion made by mixing equal parts of honey and lemon-juice. Massage it into the face before going out. (And the bees will love you...)

Cabbage Savoury
Well wash and cut a cabbage into shreds. Cut up two onions and fry them in dripping or lard, then put in the cabbage, and a pinch of ground chillies and ginger. Cover the pan and simmer gently until the cabbage is tender.

That's more like it. You can leave out the chillies and add nutmeg. A little chopped spring onion and/or fennel is also good.