The Cook and the Curator

© Sydney Living Museums
© Sydney Living Museums

The Cook and the Curator is a wonderful blog published by Sydney Living Museums.

Sydney Living Museums cares for a group of 12 of the most important historic houses, gardens and museums in NSW.

Formerly the Historic Houses Trust of NSW, the new identity was launched in 2013 and attempts to:

…bring our museums to life through a dynamic and diverse program of exhibitions, research and events such as walks, talks and tours so that our visitors can experience Sydney’s past as if they had lived it themselves.

SLM cares for Elizabeth Macarthur’s former home, Elizabeth Farm, hence my interest.  But even without that link I think I’d be reading the blog anyway!
The Cook and the Curator explores Australia’s food heritage. Each month they visit one of the SLM properties, introduce its past residents and look at what, where and how they ate.
We’ll comb through old cookery books, decipher handwritten recipes, experiment with heirloom produce, rediscover lost culinary arts, and reveal family stories. We’ll also show you how to blend exotic spices, whip up apple snow, make gelatine from calves’ feet (if you dare!) and lay the perfect Regency table – and this is just a portion of what’s on our menu.
The blog is well written, beautifully illustrated and carefully researched (with footnotes – thank you!).  It is prepared by SLM’s “resident gastronomer” Jacqui Newling and by curator Scott Hill.  I usually find something useful and/or interesting in every post – I hope you will too.  Earlier this month the discussion was all about cooking eels.  Yum?

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