Food History

It’s Australia Day. Well, it was Australia Day until 44 minutes ago. The thing is, I didn’t post French recipes on Bastille Day (I don’t think I did, anyhow) or American Recipes on 4 July, or any other recipes on any other national day. So I won’t type out Australia day recipes for you here. What would I give you if I did? A selection of potato salads and some discussion of how the mayo got replaced by yoghourt and sour cream? No, it just doesn’t rock my boat tonight. There are some nice photos of Australia Day-ish things here, if this saddens you also, a link here to suitable Aussie recipes (though not potato salad, sorry).

What rocks my boat tonight is recipes from my late Grandmother’s notebook, because I spent a very long time on the phone to my kid sister today, talking deep and meaningfully about the history of coffee. This doesn’t mean I’m going to give you coffee recipes.

I prefer bananas.

There are many bananas around the moment and I can’t eat even one of them (I had an unfortunate set of experiences while I was away and I’m super-sensitised to some foods). I can still enjoy reading banana recipes, though, so that’s what I’m giving you: banana recipes from Melbourne in the 1950s.

The picture is for me, since you lot get to eat the bananas. I don’t think even I can be allergic to a moustache cup (picture by Donna, in case you’d forgotten).

Banana Cream Pie

Make short pastry. Roll out & line a flat tart tin. Prick well before cooking in moderate oven. Take 6 large bananas mash & mix with 1 cup whipped cream. Add to the cream 1 tablespoon castor sugar & ½ teaspoon vanilla. Fill shell with this mixture.

Beat whites of 2 eggs stiff add 3 tablesp granulated sugar. Beat until creamy spread over the top of tart & place in oven (slow) until the meringue is pale gold. Serve hot or cold.

Banana Cheese Toast

Beat 1 egg slightly & add ¾ cup milk, ¼ teaspoon of salt, 1 teasp sugar. Dip 6 slices of bread in this mixture & fry a golden brown. While hot, cut into squares & cover with sliced banana & then thick grated cheese.