I purchased an edmonds cookbook the other day and brought it home. When I got home, I was looking through it and was horrified to see that in some recipes it says to use a prepackaged cake or muffin mix. Is this the way they want people to learn to bake! By buying a prepackaged, just add milk or water muffin mix. I am very disappointed in Edmonds. I thought they would have been better than that. What does everyone else think!
davidt4,
Jun 29, 2:23am
"Is this the way they want people to learn to bake!"
They don't care about health or education.The Edmonds Cookbook is a promotional tool for Edmonds products and always has been.
indy95,
Jun 29, 2:53am
Mrsamsam, did you buy the book intending to use it to teach someone baking ! If so there are far better publications available for that purpose, for example the Australian Women's Weekly series. I'm not certain what the most recent titles are but I know they are updated regularly and there are several in the series aimed at teaching the "basics".I think it would be worthwhile checking them out.
elliehen,
Jun 29, 4:03am
You must have bought a recent edition.Look on Trade Me for one of the old Edmonds books and you'll have a genuine glimpse of the early to mid-twentieth century New Zealand kitchen.
whitehead.,
Jun 29, 6:29am
nosy through the op shops and you will find cook books well worth the hunt
nat148,
Jun 29, 10:25pm
There's a Jo Seagar book called 'Easier than You Think' - it's A-MAZ-ING! It's designed to help beginner bakers AND masters learn heaps of different yummy things. My 13 yr old made Creme Brûlées with it that were very good.
vinee,
Jun 29, 10:57pm
Old ones I've seen had a chapter called baking with edmonds, just a few pages, though.
sarahb5,
Jun 29, 11:24pm
My Edmonds cookery book has the same chapter vinee and was published in 2007
accroul,
Jun 30, 12:20am
Likewise with my 1996 edition. My 1955 edition however doesn't - probably hadn't invented premixes back then. I do however wonder at the volume/capacity of a breakfastcup at that time!
elliehen,
Jun 30, 1:01am
A teacup was the dainty china cup from a tea set and the breakfast cup was just a tad bigger.more like a heaped teacup.There seem to be differences of opiion about the actual metric measurements.I'm sure Alison Holst will know :)
terraalba,
Jun 30, 1:03am
I have several editions sstarting from the 4th through to a relatively recent one. The best version I find is the mid 1950s. I guess it has the style of cooking I was taught and recipes familiar to my generation. Many recipes that are in these gradually disappear over the later decades editions.
sarahb5,
Jun 30, 1:08am
Cake mixes were available in the UK from at least the end of the 1940s because my mum's step-mum used to use them
daleaway,
Jun 30, 4:31am
I recall cake mixes here from the early fifties - may have been earlier but I wasn't doing too much in the kitchen in those days on account of not being tall enough to reach the bench.
Betty Crocker mixes were early starters here. I remember a later one where the radio jingle went "Add one egg and milk, just mix and bake.!'s cake mix, so easy to make."
Very effective advertising, eh - after 50 years I remember the tune and everything except the maker's name.
davidt4,
Jun 30, 5:08am
Apparently the earlier cake mixes didn't require the addition of an egg, but the marketers realised that housewives felt the need to have slightly more input than just adding water.The formula was changed so that an egg was required and sales rocketed.
karrie3,
Jun 30, 6:28am
Mine is the 1972 version ( in ounces!) and has the cake mix section too. Those recipes look quick and easy , just a choice for those who want to make something without starting from scratch - though with the prices of the boxed mixes plus other ingredients it wouldn't be cheap!
el.diablo,
Jul 1, 9:33am
I used to own an exteremely old copy of the cookbook. It used to belong to my mother and she'd written all her "modifications" to recipes throughout the book, along with my own ones. I went to my dad's house one day and left it there by accident. The next time I went to retrieve it I was horrified to hear he'd thrown it out! A whole generation's worth of recipes lost :( Bought a new one recently, but ti's just not the same.
ibcreative,
Jul 1, 9:38am
Oh how awful. I would be gutted too. All that history lost!
el.diablo,
Jul 1, 9:42am
I know! I nearly cried knowing her take on banana cakes or carrot cakes would be lost forever. It was really comforting reading it as well, nostalgia from childhood. He thought it was rubbish as the pages were all ruined, falling out, and the spine was held together by an clipboard clip. You could imagine the state of a cookbook after 40-odd years of faithful following
elliehen,
Jul 1, 10:34am
I had a similar Aunt Daisy book that belonged to my mother.In spite of its tattered, splattered and written-on condition, it was bought by the Turnbull Library.Don't underestimate the significance of those battered old early New Zealand cookbooks.Many have more than sentimental value.
catlover28,
Jul 1, 10:06pm
Ive got my ordinary Edmonds (1999) and a special edition - Edmonds classic or something like that. Its got recipes from some of the older books so its great coming across stuff that you wont see in modern day versions. Some of those old school books are really good.
el.diablo,
Jul 1, 10:15pm
My primary school book also has prime real-estate on my cookbook shelf! Recipes that are tried-and-true for real people in real homes just taste so much better! Everything I make I now quickly search the TM cooking section first for tips for the same reason :D
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