Pickled onions

A couple of days ago I bottled some pickled onions, or more correctly, I bottled some onions in pickling vinegar and they should be pickled in a couple of weeks.

Whenever we buy commercially pickled onions they are invariably soft and the vinegar seems to be watered down. I thought about the wonderful, crisp POs that my aunty Glad used to make and decided to look up pickled onions in the CWA Cookery and Household Hints book.

This book was compiled from recipes and hints from women members of the Western Australian Country Womens' Association. It was first published in 1941 and surprisingly, is still sold for around $30. I say surprisingly because it is full of recipes that are relics from the past and often are inaccurate or not detailed enough. No Souffles or Satay Beef and Noodle Stirfry there.

Here is a recipe for Ginger Beer.....The average home brewer knows that those bottles would explode if not consumed within a week. Kerosene tins were in common use up until the late 50s for all sorts of things including cooking crabs.
Another old cook book is the Golden Wattle Cookbook published in 1926. The Golden Wattle is a bit more professionally set out and was used by HomeEc teachers in days of old. It has an updated edition at around $19.

Joan received a message on her phone to call her GP. When she replied, the receptionist couldn't tell her what it was about except that the GP wanted to see her and the earliest she could get in was a week today. If Joan was waiting for some test results this could be a bit scary. She cannot imagine what this is all about and I confess that I wouldn't be waiting a week to find out if it were me.