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Mrs Maclurcan's Cookery Book
- Year
- 1898
- Era
- 19th century
- Origin
- Australia · Oceania
- Language
- English
- Category
- Australasia
Mrs Maclurcan's Cookery Book, first issued in 1898, is among the earliest substantial Australian cookery manuals to address the particular conditions of tropical Queensland. Compiled by a Townsville hotelier, it gathers recipes and household instruction suited to a hot northern climate, incorporating local fish, fruits and game alongside British colonial staples. Frequently reprinted in subsequent decades, it became a standard domestic reference across northern Australia.
Cooking from this book
Green Turtle Soup
Signature dishMrs Maclurcan's book is inseparable from the tropical bounty of Queensland, and her treatment of green turtle soup became something of a calling card. Drawing on the produce of northern waters around Townsville, where she ran the Queens Hotel, the dish reflects a colonial kitchen confidently working with ingredients unfamiliar to European cooks. Its inclusion signalled an Australian cookery emerging on its own terms, proud of regional resources and the warm climate larder.
An editorial note on a dish associated with this book, written for The Coquinist. It is not a reproduction of the book's recipe.