In the first half of the 20th century, before fast foods (except for fish and chips) appeared in Australia, home cooking, family dinners and cut lunches ruled the day. Mothers spent their time in the kitchen and, except for a brief period during World War II, they stayed there. They inherited recipes from their own mothers, and shared them as well with relatives and friends. Although many of the recipes and cooking practices were typically English, many came from the Irish, the Chinese who tried their luck in the gold fields in the 1850s, and after World War II, from European immigrants, especially Italian and Greek. Pub lunches led the way in the latter part of the 20th century, followed by take-out restaurants, coffee shops, and restaurants of almost any cultural origin. Today in the 21st century, mothers and fathers go out to work, there are ready made meals available in supermarkets, and going out to a pub for lunch or dinner is no big deal. This cookbook revives the old recipes of the past, the simple tastes of the home made meat pie or sausage roll, the wonderful pastries, cookies, slices and cakes that no modern restaurant or bakery can ever match. For those older readers who no longer cook for themselves, this book will help resurrect for your children or grandchildren what home cooking was all about. The true joys of cooking!
