Suet from Pre 1890 in Australia
The Australian Tiger Cat or Spotted Tail Quoll
The Spotted Tail Quoll is the second largest surviving carnivorous marsupial with a peak weight of four kilos. Found in cool rain forests they meal on rats, birds, wallabies, insects, bird eggs, etc. The female will give birth to up to six young during winter months.
The Recipes
Helpers
1 gill = 1/2 cup
Scant = Not quite full measure
Tammy Cloth = A fine woollen cloth
Unless specified otherwise, all temps are in Fahrenheit
Flour = Unless otherwise stated, "flour" refers to plain flour.
All oven temperatures are based on the standard wood oven, gas oven and electric oven.
Special Recipes
Old Handy Hints & Ideas
Measure Conversions & Cooking Terms Link
Oven Temperatures & Reference Link
Suet
Suet is the fat that protects an animal’s kidneys. It is hard and granular, unlike other fat. Beef suet is traditionally used to make dumplings, suet pastry and puddings. If you get suet from a butcher’s, it comes in a piece and you need to grate it or chop it finely. You can also buy it ready shredded in boxes from the general store and you can also buy vegetarian suet, which works equally well. (Quote from papers)
HANDY HINT- Old-Time Cough'n'Cold Syrup. 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup brown vinegar, 1 cup fine grated horseradish. Take 1 teaspoonful during a meal and one before going to bed. Keep air tight. (from old papers, interest piece only)
Veal Forcemeat
Used for various stuffing
Ingredients
6oz bread crumbs
2oz suet finely chopped
1 egg
Seasoning
Chopped parsley.
Method
Mix all ingredients together. Bind with beaten egg.
HANDY HINT- A tablespoon of vinegar added to the water will help prevent eggs from cracking when boiling.
Savoury Balls
Add to stews or soups
Ingredients
4oz flour
Pinch of salt
Pinch of chopped parsley
Pinch of baking powder
1oz chopped suet
Seasoning
Water to mix
Method
Measure the flour and add salt and baking powder. Chop the suet. Remove all strings and shreddy parts. Mix into the flour. Add parsley and seasoning. Mix with cold water to an elastic consistency. Form into balls, roll in dry flour and add to a stew. Cook till well risen and firm.
HANDY HINT- The Aloe Vera plant is very helpful in treating minor burns. Snap off a piece of the fleshy part and lightly rub in the juice to the area.
Suet Pastry
Ingredients
1/2 pound of flour or 6oz flour and 2oz bread crumbs
Water to mix
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
1/4 pound suet.
Method
Chop the suet finely. remove all skin and shreds. Add the salt to the flour. Mix in the suet and baking powder. Mix to an elastic dough with cold water. Suet pastry is best boiled, steamed or stewed and may be used for dumplings or savoury balls, etc. The puddings are lighter with the addition of bread crumbs in place of some of the flour.
HANDY HINT- Shorten your oven cleaning times by lining the bottom of your oven with aluminium foil cut to size. The foil will catch all drips and grease.
Collectable Cookbooks For Sale
The Old Bush School by John O'Brien
'Tis a queer, old battered landmark that belongs to other years;
With the dog-leg fence around it, and its hat about its ears,
And the cow-bell in the gum-tree, and the bucket on the stool,
There's a motley host of memories round that old bush school--
With its seedy desks and benches, where at least I left a name
Carved in agricultural letters--'twas my only bid for fame;
And the spider-haunted ceilings, and the rafters, firmly set,
Lined with darts of nibs and paper (doubtless sticking in them yet),
And the greasy slates and blackboards, where I oft was proved a fool
And a blur upon the scutcheon of the old bush school.
There I see the boots in order--" 'lastic-sides" we used to wear--
With a pair of "everlastin's" cracked and dusty here and there;
And we marched with great "high action"--hands behind and eyes
before--
While we murdered "Swanee River" as we tramped around the floor.
Still the scholars pass before me with their freckled features grave,
And a nickname fitting better than the name their mothers gave;
Tousled hair and vacant faces, and their garments every one
Shabby heirlooms in the family, handed down from sire to son.
Ay, and mine were patched in places, and half-masted, as a rule--
They were fashionable trousers at the old bush school.
There I trudged it from the Three-mile, like a patient, toiling brute,
With a stocking round my ankle, and my heart within my boot,
Morgan, Nell and Michael Joseph, Jim and Mary, Kate and Mart
Tramping down the sheep-track with me, little rebels at the heart;
Shivery grasses round about us nodding bonnets in the breeze,
Happy Jacks and Twelve Apostles* hurdle-racing up the trees,
Peewees calling from the gullies, living wonders in the pool--
Hard bare seats and drab gray humdrum at the old bush school.
Early rising in the half-light, when the morn came, bleak and chill;
For the little mother roused us ere the sun had topped the hill,
"Up, you children, late 'tis gettin'." Shook the house beneath her knock,
And she wasn't always truthful, and she tampered with the clock.
Keen she was about "the learnin'," and she told us o'er and o'er
Of our luck to have "the schoolin'" right against our very door.
And the lectures--Oh, those lectures to our stony hearts addressed!
"Don't be mixin' with the Regans and the Ryans and the rest"--
"Don't be pickin' up with Carey's little talkative kanats*"--
Well, she had us almost thinking we were born aristocrats.
But we found our level early--in disaster, as a rule~
For they knocked "the notions" sideways at the old bush school.
Down the road came Laughing Mary, and the beast that she bestrode
Was Maloney's sorry piebald she had found beside the road;
Straight we scrambled up behind her, and as many as could fit
Clung like circus riders bare-back without bridle-rein or bit,.
On that corrugated backbone in a merry row we sat~
We propelled him with our school-bags; Mary steered him with her
hat~
And we rolled the road behind us like a ribbon from the spool,
"Making butter," so we called it, to the old bush school.
What a girl was Mary Casey in the days of long ago!
She was queen among the scholars, or at least we thought her so;
She was first in every mischief and, when overwhelmed by fate,
She could make delightful drawings of the teacher on her slate.
There was rhythm in every movement, as she gaily passed along
With a rippling laugh that lilted like the music of a song;
So we called her "Laughing Mary," and a fitful fancy blessed
E'en the bashful little daisies that her dainty feet caressed.
She had cheeks like native roses in the fullness of their bloom,
And she used to sing the sweetest as we marched around the room;
In her eyes there lurked the magic, maiden freshness of the morn,
In her hair the haunting colour I had seen upon the corn;
Round her danced the happy sunshine when she smiled upon the stool--
And I used to swap her dinners at the old bush school.
Hard the cobbled road of knowledge to the feet of him who plods
After fragile fragments fallen from the workshop of the gods;
Long the quest, and ever thieving pass the pedlars o'er the hill
With the treasures in their bundles, but to leave us questing still.
Mystic fires horizons redden, but each crimson flash in turn
Only lights the empty places in the bracken and the fern;
So in after years I've proved it, spite of pedant, crank, and fool,
Very much the way I found it at the old bush school.
The Dreamer by Errol J Brewer
Yesterdays they stay ready on my mind
But not tomorrows, they’re sometimes unkind
Experiences of the past are easy to recall
Unlike the future, scarce knowledge at all
Some say my life, must trudge on ahead
But I’m a dreamer of things that were said
A lifetime of history, stored here in my brain
With satisfaction look back, some little pain
When I’m in replay expressions will show
As I drift into daydreams, of the past I know
People around me, sometimes disappear
The memories in playback, to another yesteryear
So if confusing, the look on my face
Totally not sure, we’re in the same place
Don’t interrupt me then or feel you’re ignored
Wait and ask questions, you won’t be bored
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