Keen cooks get new taste of Kiwi classic
A group of young cooks were keen to celebrate the refresh of one of New Zealand’s most famous culinary reference books.
The Edmonds Cookery Book, a Kiwi kitchen staple that has sold more than three million copies since it was first published in 1908, is now in its 69th edition.
Eleven students from Kristin School who take part in a weekly after-school cooking programme, LittleCooks, were treated to a copy of the new edition and a visit from the writer behind its revamp, as they’ve been making recipes from Edmonds all term.
One of the LittleCooks founders Suzi Tait-Bradly says the children specifically asked if they could make food from the iconic cookery bible.
‘‘I said, ‘Guys, do you have any ideas for what you’d like to do [next term]?’ They started saying, ‘Oh, can we cook from the Edmonds cookbook?’
‘‘So we took a class vote, and sure enough, it was a winner.’’
Tait-Bradly says apart from simplifying the instructions for her young chefs, the recipes remained true to the originals.
When curator and cookbook writer Alexa Johnston was tasked with updating Edmonds, she says she suggested a ‘‘complete rewrite’’, as she felt many of the recipes were out of fashion, or needed to be brought back in from previous editions.
‘‘A lot of butter had been dropped in the time when people thought butter was terribly bad for you,’’ Johnston says.
‘‘So we went back to butter for the baking, because I think that’s what makes baking delicious and baking isn’t the main event it’s just a treat, so it can be small and delicious.’’
The rewrite took around four months, including testing.
Johnston has also made the recipes easier to follow for novice cooks, as she says prior cooking knowledge or even learning how to bake at home, isn’t a given these days.
LittleCooks student Naomi Harwood, 10, has been baking since she was four, and says in class she’s most enjoyed the baking aspect of the Edmonds book.
‘‘[Baking is] just really fun, keeps you busy, and you don’t want to really leave it,’’ Naomi says.
Johnston says the new Edmonds edition reflects fun and necessity, as well as being an ‘‘encyclopaedic’’ cookbook.
‘‘You have to have fun doing it, because if people don’t enjoy cooking, they won’t do it.’’