in Ný matreiðslubók (A New Cookbook)
December is the darkest month of the year, but it also brings more light and longer days. Since ancient times people have celebrated the occasion with feasting and drinking. It is always welcome news when new cookbooks are published that make it easier to cook and to brew good drinks, and the book that is now the Highlight of the month must have come in handy when it was published, and who knows, it may still be useful.
Þóra Andrea Nikólína Jónsdóttir published a cookbook that will delight many a gourmet, with recipes for party cakes, festive roasts and dips, to name but a few. The book also has recipes for drinks such as whiskey (Irish brandy), bishop and pope, and detailed instructions for brewing ale. But there is more in the book, as Þóra says: “Besides thus showing people how to treat themselves to food, I have also added guidance on serving food, and on dyeing clothes, washing garments and other such matters … as is to be expected, ‘since man does not live by bread alone’ … So I send this book out in the hope that it may guide those it is meant for, that is, all women who have to see to cooking, towards the thrift and handling of food that is best and most fitting.”
Þóra published her book, Ný matreiðslubók ásamt ávísun um litun, þvott o.fl. (A new cookbook, with guidance on dyeing, washing etc.), at Akureyri in 1858; it was the second printed Icelandic cookbook. The first was Einfalt matreiðslukver fyrir heldri manna húsfreyjur (A simple cookery booklet for gentlemen’s housewives), published in 1800.
Þóra was born in Denmark in 1813, the daughter of Rev. Jón Jónsson helsingi and his Danish wife, Helena Jóhanna Andrésdóttir Olsen. The family moved to Iceland in 1824 and settled at Möðrufell, where Þóra grew up. She died in 1861.
Þóra’s cookbook has many curious recipes, among them the following recipe for Irish whiskey:
Whiskey (Irish brandy)
Put 2 lóð (about 30 g) of good tea in ½ pottur (about half a litre) of boiling water. Leave this on a brazier so that it becomes as strong as possible. Then strain it through the corner of a tablecloth onto 2 pounds of sugar, into which the juice of two lemons has already been squeezed. When the tea has been added, pour in 3 bottles of Rhine wine; then put this over embers and let it get piping hot. It should be served hot, in glasses.
Click the picture to view the book on the website bækur.is:
