With the end of summer comes a sense of ennui at the endless run of glossy recipe books flooding the stores; a trend that was thrown into sharp relief by Marilyn Monroe’s handwritten stuffing recipe, submitted to our Loves stream by AnOther
With the end of summer comes a sense of ennui at the endless run of glossy recipe books flooding the stores; a trend that was thrown into sharp relief by Marilyn Monroe’s handwritten stuffing recipe, submitted to our Loves stream by AnOther contributor Paula Gerbase. Scribbled on headed insurance notepaper, it is wonderfully freewheeling, and creates an unconventional vision of the great filmstar boiling giblets, banning garlic from her kitchen and massaging butter into a turkey. Fashion designer Gerbase, a self-confessed recipe enthusiast reveals that fellow American, the US military and political leader George Washinton was a 'foodie' before the term became popular. "As well having a vegatable garden growing produce which most deemed poisonous (such as brussel sprouts!), he also kept handwritten notes on new recipes, including one for 'Macaroni & Cheese'. He even had a macaroni shaping machine made up to make his own!"
A further antidote to the stylised cookery tome comes courtesy of the Wellcome Collection, which is looking back at 17th and 18th century recipe and remedy collections, and investigating the hidden meanings and expressions of status to be found in these handwritten notes. A cure for bedwetting calls for boiled moules pounded with chopped acorns and ladies seeking a natural miscarriage are set on the hunt for dragon blood and powder of red coral. Gorgeously calligraphied, quirkily illustrated and annotated by later generations, these documents are steeped in domestic history.
With AnOther currently showing a series of vintage restaurant menus from America and revitalising the Recipe column with handwritten instructions from the likes of Fergus Henderson and Margherita Missoni, it seems about time to eschew the printed word and to share your culinary favourites in a Marilynesque scribble.
The Wellcome Library's collection of recipes will be discussed as part of their Recipes and Remedies event series, in Reading Between the Lines on November 17 2011.
Text by Tish Wrigley
