I love cooking from old cookbooks for their connection to the past and family recipes.
This 1934 Goulburn Cookery Book belonged to my grandmother-in-law whom I didn’t get to meet but I know and much admire that she cared for her eight children in their country town through prudent circumstance and for many years independently after she was widowed.
I love that her middle name was Philadelphia and that in this cookbook she pasted cut-out recipes and wrote some in as well. (Roger has made the grapefruit jam like his grandmother’s handwritten recipe.)
There’s even a recipe for Eggs in Purgatory, albeit a bit different to the version likely cooked in 1930s Italy or the ‘eggs in tomato’ my great-granny Maddalena cooked!
Interestingly, recent studies have revealed that despite the use of ingredients like butter and eggs, most recipes in 1930s cookbooks have a third less calories than current ones, often due to their smaller portion sizes.
Zoë Boccabella 
I can relate to your comment about the smaller portions. I recently started using vintage dinner plates and I’ve noticed the difference (in a good way)!
I know what you mean – I have my grandparents’ dinner set from the 1950s and it’s incredible how much smaller the largest dinner plates are!
We are also taller now, need more food and bigger furniture and plates… Love the eggs in purgatory, great name!
I treasure the recipe books – handwritten – from previous generations of my family. Love making “Nanna’s Gingernuts” or “Mum’s Date Loaf” etc. Let’s hope the next generations will value them also. Susan.
Hi Susan, I am with you there. Sounds like you have some wonderful handwritten, family recipes. Hopefully there’ll always be that one person along the line who treasures them just the same. Zoe xx