Afternoon tea staples, pikelets and scones, from my 1950s edition.
Most Kiwi homes have a copy of the Edmonds Cookery Book somewhere in the kitchen.
It was first published in 1907 as a 50-page pamphlet of recipes promoting Thomas John Edmonds’ baking powder and jellies. The marketing ploy proved so successful that the second edition, in 1910, had a print run of 150,000. Sales of Edmonds’ baking powder were also soaring. In 1905 370,600 tins were sold. By 1913 this had leapt to 1,171,344. There was a lot of baking going on in those days.
The 1914 edition of Edmonds Cookery Book, now digitised.
It is not known if any first editions of the book survive. However, some second editions do.
I have a couple of copies of the later Edmonds book which was first issued in 1955. One of mine dates back to this era and was my mother’s kitchen bible. I inherited it, coverless and a bit tattered, when she bought a new one. My second one is the 25th anniversary edition. According to the cover, “This new improved edition, designed for the 1980s, offers a reliable A-Z in cooking techniques and recipes.”
Today, more than three million copies of the Edmonds books have been sold. Now, thanks to modern technology, the third (1914) edition of the iconic Edmonds Cookery Book is available in cyberspace, courtesy of Victoria University of Wellington.
Some 150,000 copies of the third edition were printed and the university’s New Zealand Electronic Text Centre converted the book, lent by publishers of the modern text, Goodman Fielder, into a digital format. It is now freely accessible via the New Zealand Electronic Text collection.
Alison Stevenson, director of Victoria’s text centre, says the project has been very exciting. “There aren’t many families in New Zealand who have grown up without a copy of the Edmonds Cookery Book, so it’s been great to see what it was like almost at the beginning.
The centre scanned and digitised all 50 pages, including advertisements and testimonials for the baking powder from happy housewives.
Mrs A T Phillips, of Taranaki, wrote: “I use 1 ½ tins a month, and always refuse any other offered to me” while Mrs H Bromley of Taumarunui boasted: “At the Levin and Horowhenua Autumn Shows I was awarded 10 Firsts, 3 Seconds, and 2 Highly Commended Prizes for Cakes, etc., made with your Baking Powder.”
Egg powder for a time when eggs were "generally more or less doubtful and expensive"...
Recipes include more typical treats such as rock cakes, Christmas cake, and the Kiwi favourite, pikelets. While Elsie’s Fingers keep their attribution in modern versions of the book, Rene’s Kisses just become Kisses (both definitely in Mum’s repertoire).
There’s a Vegetarian Roast with the ubiquitous peanuts. But it’s not a very committed one – the recipe contains milk and suggests basting with butter if the roast starts to dry out. I don’t think there were that many vegetarians around in those days.
Inside the back cover there’s an ad for Edmonds’ Egg Powder. “It’s unwise to experiement with eggs,” says the ad. “They’re generally more or less doubtful and expensive. For a modest sixpence you can buy a tin of Edmonds’ Egg Powder. It is always reliable and is a perfect substitute for eggs.” Sales of this powder started in 1879. Nonetheless, plenty of the recipes contain eggs.
I was interested to see the 1914 book was published by The Christchurch Press Printing Company. I worked at The Press newspaper in Christchurch for a couple of years and still write for its food section Zest.
This iconic book can be downloaded from the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre.
Here’s a link to the current edition, published this year.
Footnote – Reader Ettie recently started a blog http://chefiasco.blogspot.com where she is working her way through the recipes in the 1914 Edmonds book. Check it out.
