PINK SATURDAY - COOKING IN A HOT CLIMATE

Written by Mrs Marie Edwards, an Old India Hand (as they used to be called).

















Copyright Quettabalochistan

The ladies of the old British Raj were a formidable bunch, very resourceful, expected to handle a large household including servants, in a totally foreign country with different climate, language and customs - yet still play Gracious Hostess, entertain and feed guests from two to a hundred at virtually a moment's notice.

This was the time of Somerset Maughan and Noel Coward, tea dresses, Pimms and white linen tablecloths on the lawn for picnics...

Take particular note of the remarks at the top of each menu section - I would have loved to meet Mrs Edwards in real life: she sounds such a character (pretty formidable, I'd say...).

You'll note that in this period of our history, the British Class system was alive and well (still is, unfortunately, but not as bad as it used to be) and views were definitely not PC!

I've had this cookbook a while; got it at a car boot sale. Published in 1933, it hasn't been treated kindly: loose pages and a hardcover in Hunting Pink (ie: red).

As you can see, the colour has run due to some water damage.Although in my view, it enhances the period feel.

I've scanned entire pages as you may want to print this off to make an actual book, or add pages into a loose-leaf recipe book etc. The jpgs are at 200dpi, large files, and unretouched - so do all your cropping, retouching, enhancing in one go - THEN save again. This way you won't lose any detail.

For those of you unused to playing around with your images: jpgs are lossy formula (each time you save, you lose a little definition, eg: a photocopy of a photocopy).

So if you do all of your editing in one hit, rather than saving after each process, you won't lose detail. Unfortunately, Blogger wouldn't accept me loading these as gifs: the files were too large.

Anyone actually trying these recipes? I'd love to hear how they turn out! Have fun!

Note: I have duplicated this on the Freebies page so anyone who wants it will be able to find it more easily.

Go here to visit Beverly at How Sweet The Sound and to see all the other Pink Saturday posts!