Fish Dainties

Melbourne : Mutual Provedoring Co. Ltd, 1892.Octavo, lettered papered boards with decorative design (worn and chipped), blue paper spine, offsetting to endpapers, pp. 56, light scattered foxing, a good copy.

Born in Lambeth, cookery writer Harriet Frances Wicken emigrated from England to Australia in 1886. Having studied at the National Training School for Cookery in South Kensington in London shortly after it opened and acquiring a diploma, Harriet Wicken published her first book, the ‘Kingswood Cookery Book’, in 1885. An expanded Australian edition of her English cookery book assisted in securing her the position of head ‘instructress’ of domestic economy at the Sydney Technical College and ensured continuity for her publishing career.

According to the ‘Australian Dictionary of Biography’, in other small cookbooks that appeared during the 1890s, such as The Cook’s Compass (Sydney, 1890) to promote the Sydney grocers J. G. Hanks & Co, and Fish Dainties (Melbourne, 1892) for the Melbourne Mutual Provedoring Co., or Recipes of Lenten Dishes (1896) as a seasonal gesture, Harriet Wicken stressed simplicity and her favourite ‘dainty’ recipes.

Among the fish cakes, patties and soufflé, recipes in ‘Fish Dainties’ include baked barracouta, whiting a la Parisienne, blue cod pie, boudins of whiting, kromskies of oysters and lobster, steamed moki with piquante sauce, schnapper in aspic, and a sharp maitre d’hotel sauce.