Learning To Cook 1

Many people my age grew up with stay-at-home mothers. When Australian men signed up to help fight WWII and were posted overseas, Australian women moved from the home into the workforce to take up those important jobs in factories and on the land formerly occupied by those men. When the men returned home after the war, throughout society things were never the same again. Ex-servicemen received priority in resuming jobs , retraining or studying, and while many women retreated to the home, others did not care to. During the 50s and early 60s it became more common for women, particularly single women, to remain in the workforce, and in a far greater variety of occupations than they had done pre-war. Far fewer apparently worked ‘in service’ that is as home help, live in or not.

I remember Mum saying two interesting things about women and the workforce: (1) Her father, a bank manager who had paid for her and her sister to go to a good private school where she did extremely well, held view that post-secondary education for girls was a waste of time and money, because they’d marry, have babies and raise families, anyway. She always regretted and possibly resented that this had been denied her, and that was aggravated by marrying into a family where all her in-laws held at least one degree. She was bright, well read, and would have excelled at university. Her intelligent, clearly articulated approach to community and social problems was always admired. (2) Mum also told me that when she married, 1945, straight after the war, she’d had to leave her job in the Commonwealth Bank, as did married women in all other public service/government run agencies. Mum had some friends who were school teachers, nurses and doctors, one was a part-time radio broadcaster, another was on the city council for some years; but when I was growing up, women became prominent and active in the community usually through volunteering, not paid jobs. Mum was a great volunteer and community activist – in the Girl guides, The Good Neighbour and the Marriage Guidance Councils, and other community groups, some of which raised funds for charity, others had more to do with presenting societal issues to politicians at various levels.

This brief podcast covers how the post-war social upheaval included returning ex-servicemen, the influx of European migrants and changed economic conditions and expectations, eventually producing profound changes in the numbers and roles of women in the workforce. Today’s young parents, especially the mothers find it very difficult to successfully balance job requirements and earning income against the stresses of parenting and nurturing/maintaining personal relationships.

To return to Mum – and the topic of this post! Mum declared that when she married she could barely boil the kettle, let alone an egg, was how she put her meagre cooking skills. Newly arrived in Launceston as a young bride, her intelligent approach to augmenting her meagre cooking skills was to enrol in evening cooking classes – she was a great believer in self education. Certainly by the time I was really aware, she was comfortable cooking for a family, handling bottling of garden produce, making jams and chutneys and indeed branching out into the gourmet area. I was still small when she began making chiffon pies for special family lunches or the dinner parties she and Dad gave as his professional life expanded and out-of-town visitors on business became more frequent at our evening meal table. I remember she entered a phase of gelatine cookery, and this pic I found on the internet is of the book she used as her go to gelatine bible, opened out to show the whole cover

Her own battered copy is with my cookbooks in storage. It illustrates perfectly how food in a gelatine mixture placed in a shape to set before being turned out onto a plate can look so fancy, festive and even professional, really.

I have the mahjong girls coming later this week, for brunch before we play. It’s hot, so something in aspic with cold crudites might be a good approach. This morning a close friend brought us a dozen fresh eggs from her daughter’s farm in the campo. I might serve something like this fish in aspic ring, below, which I apparently served up 4 years ago. Note the clear top layer with capers. Obviously there were stuffed, possibly curried, eggs on the platter, which I still have.