Australia's culinary gems: revived and reimagined
'A glorious endeavour' Nigella Lawson
Over 90 rediscovered and revived Australian classics - thrifty, no-waste recipes from a time that honoured seasonal, locally grown ingredients and truly understood the value of food as comfort. Nostalgic, yes, but completely relevant to today's kitchens.
Chef and bestselling cookbook author Ross Dobson has a hobby: scouring old journals, newspapers and books for Australia's 'forgotten' recipes. While his research has revealed some shockers not worth repeating, he has come across many more worthy dishes that are missing from the repertoire of modern-day cooks. In The Lost Recipes he sets about righting this culinary injustice by presenting a selection of bygone gems, savoury and sweet, dating from the Victorian era through to the 1950s - all of them rescued, researched, tested and updated by Ross. Threaded throughout are handy tips (celery leaves dried in the oven and then ground with salt make a seasoning with endless uses - especially good on roasted potatoes) and insights into old-fashioned cooking techniques and ingredients deserving of revival.
Among these once-forgotten recipes you will find:
- mushroom ketchup (1886)
- hot slaugh (1876)
- olive & anchovy salad (1921)
- devilled whitebait (1938)
- Sunday Chinese chicken (1949)
- brisket with macaroni (1915)
- golden billy bread (1925)
- pumpkin brownies (1939)
- cream lilies (1954)
- green tomato & pineapple jam (1933)
'There isn't one recipe in this book that wasn't, in essence, once a lovely idea. It has been a privilege and joy to bring them back to life - and in a workable condition.' Ross Dobson
About the Author
Ross Dobson has been having a great deal of fun and success working in the international publishing industry for 20 years. Ross' first cookbook, Chinatown (Murdoch Books) was published in 2004. His most recent tome Australia: The Cookbook (Phaidon) was published in 2021.
In between, Ross has published some 20 cookbook titles ranging from best-selling barbecue books (Fired Up, More Fired Up and Vegetarian Fired Up), a slow cooker cookbook (The Healthy Slow Cooker), great food to eat with beer (Food Plus Beer) and even a book on Argentinian recipes (The Food of Argentina). Ross has also been busy as a magazine food editor (BBC Good Food) and operating several highly regarded eating establishments in Sydney's western suburbs.
Ross in currently on an exciting new publishing career path with Echo Publishing, who are publishing The Lost Recipes and Three Ways With...
