Grandmother’s Pantry

About this book

Around 1900 there was no refrigerator. In autumn, after the killing season, the meat had to be kept through the whole winter and summer — in brine, in smoke or in the cellar; the fruit of the garden and the mushrooms of the wood had to go into pots, bottles and barrels, so that in January there would be something to set on the table. This book is everything a Latvian housekeeper of that time knew about it: meat, sausages, fish, cheese and butter, eggs, fruit, berries, mushrooms and garden stuff — salting, drying, smoking, souring, preserving and storing.

The text is word for word — nothing has been retold, shortened or “improved”. Only the letters have been changed: the gothic type and the old orthography have been put into modern letters, and the book translated into English. Old and foreign words are explained beside the text, and at the end there is a table of the old measures and a glossary.

What is inside

• Salting, drying and smoking meat
• Sausages, fish, cheese, butter and eggs
• Fruit, berries, mushrooms and garden stuff
• Souring, preserves, syrups and jellies
• How to fit up a pantry and what vessels serve
• 186 numbered hints and recipes
• 221 old and foreign words explained beside the text, plus a glossary and a table of measures at the end

About the series

The text is word for word — nothing has been retold, shortened or “improved”. Only the letters have been changed: the gothic type and the old orthography have been put into modern letters, and the book translated into English. Old and foreign words are explained beside the text, and at the end there is a table of the old measures and a glossary.