Big Mulch Archives - Compost

Portable, powdered, effervescent. S(n)ippets of lemonade at the Australian table 1806 – 1906

Paul van Reyk — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 20:09:40 +0000

I’ve been a fan of lemonade as an icy pole, an aerated drink, and a mixer with beer as a shandy. With summer, the season of icy poles, coming up now seems a good time to have a look at […]

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Know how to Cook a Plain Dinner. A review of advertisements for employment of men as household cooks1803 – 1853.

Paul van Reyk — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 20:02:17 +0000

It has never occurred to me that a household cook in Australian colonial days could have been a man. Well, I do now. I came across an advertisement for one in 1807. Wanted, as Cook in a genteel family, a […]

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Bidgee, fish paste and mutton stew. Food in Fiona Kelly McGregor’s novels Iris and The Trap

Paul van Reyk — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 21:02:15 +0000

I’m always on the lookout for Australian writers for whom food is an essential part of their narratives. Fiona Kelly McGregor is one such. Two linked novels of theirs – Iris covering 1932 – 1937, and The Trap covering 1942 […]

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They grew wild over the back shed. A choko story

Paul van Reyk — Wed, 02 Sep 2026 21:14:56 +0000

If there was any vegetable in Australia likely to draw wildly opposing views, it’s the choko – Sechium edule. My first encounter with it was unbeknownst to me one of the preserved fruits in a Sri Lankan Christmas Cake – […]

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The biography of the Sunbeam Mixmaster in Australian kitchens 1933 – 1970

Paul van Reyk — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 21:33:41 +0000

In 1933 this advertisement appeared in a Brisbane newspaper. The “Sunbeam Mixmaster” is the latest electrical labour-saving device, designed to aid busy cooks. Its primary use is that of mixing cake ingredients, but among the multitude of uses, the Mix […]

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Some ambitious people try emu. 50 Years of bush camp meals

Paul van Reyk — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 02:45:42 +0000

‘Cooking in the bush is no longer just damper made from water and flour accompanied by a rabbit or kangaroo stew’ writes Cathy Savage in Australian Bush Cooking. The book is a primer for camping and the meals associated with […]

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‘Aborigines were not indifferent cooks’. Symposiums of Australian Gastronomy engagement with Aboriginal peoples and their cuisines

Paul van Reyk — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 21:03:34 +0000

Symposiums of Australian Gastronomy (SAG) have been held every 18 months to two years since March 1984. There have been 25 SAGs, the latest being held in Launceston 8 – 12 July 2024. Michael Symons giving the opening address to […]

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‘Very classy’. Cahill’s Restaurants in Sydney 1933 – 1981

Paul van Reyk — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 21:34:51 +0000

‘The one next door to the Hotel Australia was my choice’, recalled Margaret Fulton, doyenne of Australian cookery: Crumbed cutlets and other crumbed foods such as croquettes were much in demand. Many students worked their way through university in the […]

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To-day, the kitchen has a war job to do. World War 2 food rationing in Australia.

Paul van Reyk — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 21:59:07 +0000

Foods were rationed in Australia during World War 2 and for five years after to manage shortages and control civilian consumption. Householders were given Ration Books with coupons. Rationed food could then be obtained according to a number of coupons […]

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Aboriginal assimilation promoted through food related material published in Dawn magazine.

Paul van Reyk — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:30:38 +0000

(The artwork above is “Mission Days” by Roy Kennedy) I want to look at assimilation as promoted through three vectors in the first ten years of Dawn 1952 – 1961, vegetable gardens, recipes, and healthy foods. The vectors were published […]

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