New publication pays homage to the century-old Barossa Cookery Book
Two passionate home cooks have released a new book paying homage to the century-old The Barossa Cookery Book, preserving the rich stories and timeless recipes of women who banded together for their community at a time of great hardship and loss.
The first edition of The Barossa Cookery Book was released on Tanunda Australia Day, 1917, with its cover proudly proclaiming “400 Tried Recipes” for the price of sixpence, with each recipe donated by a member of the community. “All these recipes have been tried and tested and bear the signature of each donor as a guarantee of faith,” reads the cover.
The pocket-sized cookbook is a quaint reminder of country life in the early 20th century, with recipes ranging from cakes and scones and stews, to fricassee of rabbit, brains, and steak and kidney pie. But between the lines, there are untold stories of harrowing loss and inspiring resilience; women supporting their community at a time of war.
Each recipe was contributed by a local woman and, as a sign of the times, was attributed to her husband’s name if she was married. A second edition saw 600 more recipes added, and further editions introduced a female character on the front cover, an iconic symbol for all the women who submitted recipes – influential social matriarchs who were often the wives of prominent local businessmen, but also the mothers of soldiers.
The train line from Gawler to Angaston had opened six years before the first edition was published, bringing new “exotic” ingredients to local pantries. These included coconut, tinned pineapple and fresh fish. Many recipes contain walnuts as walnut trees were common in backyards.
Friends Sheralee Menz and Marieka Ashmore are creating a companion book to the title.
It is now one of Australia’s oldest community cookbooks and has been reprinted 35 times – placing it among the country’s longest-running book titles. For more than a century, the cookery book has been a key fundraiser for the Tanunda Soldiers Memorial Hall, now also the home of the Barossa Regional Gallery. Barossa Valley friends Sheralee Menz and Marieka Ashmore – who run local food workshops under their title ‘Those Barossa Girls’ – have long been fascinated with the book and the women behind it.
With a love of food and history, the pair developed an idea to create a companion book to The Barossa Cookery Book, with a curated selection of 85 timeless recipes translated to metric measurements and beautiful photography to bring the century-old recipes to life on page.
The recipes are printed alongside well-researched stories of the women who contributed them, recognising their quiet support of the community. The book – titled Rolling up Their Sleeves – is written by Sheralee, relying heavily on research undertaken with Marieka, including interviews with living relatives where possible.
“We’re referring to it as a companion book because we don’t want to take away from The Barossa Cookery Book, which is still in publication. Our book will enrich people’s understanding of the original cookery book and make it more approachable,” explains Sheralee.
Amanda Adeline Kuchel contributed recipes to the cookbook.
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The book was launched in March 2025, and just as the original cookbook intended, all proceeds directly support the Tanunda Soldiers Memorial Hall. Donations and pre-orders were invited to help fund the up-front costs of producing the book.
“We started the project because we fell in love with the book, which we thought was cute and quaint. But the more we researched the history, the more we became invested in what is a significant story and regional asset. We felt more people should know about this,” says Sheralee.
“We discovered that in the 1917 edition, just about every contributor had a direct connection to the war, be it their son, brother, husband or cousin off fighting overseas. Every day, I drive past more than a dozen houses of women who are in our book.
“I know where Mary, Fay, Gwen, Selma and Emma lived. I know where they went to church and where their husbands worked.
“Every community across Australia had women like this during wartime, so we’re shining a light on the quiet voices who just got on with it and built their communities amongst heartbreaking loss and tragedy.
“The recipes still resonate with those we know today. They’re frugal, they’re seasonal, and you can make them quickly and easily out of standard pantry ingredients.”
Marieka says that in 1917, recipes came with assumed knowledge that wasn’t spelled out in the method. Women were cooking on wood stoves so instructions will say ‘remove from the fire’ or ‘cook in a quick oven’. She says that in this format, these recipes may die out.
“Our project has involved researching what these women did and why they felt so compelled to put a recipe in this cookbook. It started out as a modest project, but the vision became more elaborate as we discovered such rich stories along the way,” she says.
“We got to know the women and became protective of them and wanted to produce the best product to honour their memory. Families have entrusted us with information and stories, so we want to do it justice. We’ve worked hard to ensure the information is accurate and the stories are polished.
Various iterations of The Barossa Cookery Book over the decades.
“These stories are very rich, but also very sad. There are many examples of tragedy, and you wonder why some families get lumped with so much bad luck.”
One example is Fay Smith who contributed her recipe several months after her first son Caley went missing in action in 1917, his body never found. Her second son Cecil arrived in Europe after the armistice and was deployed to battlefields for the gruesome task of burying the dead, and her third son Douglas enlisted during World War II and after returning home from the battlefields of Tobruk refused to talk about his experience there.
“Sheralee and myself both have teenage boys, and we can’t imagine what it would be like to send your 17-year-old son off to war on the other side of the world. They often had not one, not two, but three or four kids who served,” says Marieka.
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But even after such heartbreaking loss, the women continued to actively support their community. Sheralee says it can be hard to imagine what this was like for people in the past, but food and recipes speak a timeless language to bring such stories to life.
“Those Barossa Girls” Sheralee Menz and Marieka Ashmore have re-made Amanda Adeline Kuchel’s honey biscuits, from the 1932 edition of The Barossa Cookery Book.
“Baking is a love language; you cook for the people you love. These women were homemakers and they were nurturing their families. It was largely about contributing and doing what had to be done, and like they said in the Second World War: “keep calm and carry on,” says Sheralee.
Once Marieka and Sheralee translated the recipes into a modern format, a Facebook post went out seeking volunteers to test the recipes by preparing them at home. The pair was pleasantly surprised when 150 people from across Australia put their hands up to take part.
“We farmed out recipes to 150 people and asked them to cook it three times, send us a photograph and provide feedback. It was a great feeling to have people across Australia making these recipes that were more than 100 years old,” says Sheralee.
“The recipes often made really big batches, because these were families with 10 or 12 children. There’s a recipe for a traditional German cake that would have been big enough to feed half of Tanunda, so we downsized the quantities.”
Sheralee puts the finishing touches on the biscuits.
After the recipes passed the test, all 85 dishes were prepared over several weeks, to be photographed by local photographer Sarah Castle.
“It was quite wonderful to bring them to life,” says Marieka.
The new book will omit dishes that have fallen out of favour, such as lamb’s brains or cold pigeon pie. “We did a social media survey on steak and kidney pie and it was 50/50, so we decided to leave it in because it speaks to the nose-to-tail philosophy of the era. Enough people would still make this recipe, so it deserves to be included,” says Marieka.
The new book includes easy but delicious recipes with enduring relevance that will hopefully inspire a new generation to establish their own family food traditions.
Sheralee explains: “Food memories and rituals from our childhood are powerful, but we can all start new ones at any time. If you don’t have a food tradition in your family, start one. Make this the recipe that you use to make honey biscuits or shortbread stars every Christmas.
“We hope that readers will choose at least one recipe that will become theirs and they’ll honour the legacy of its creator by putting her name on it; Gwen’s Henley Cake, or Linda’s Tomato Pie. What a beautiful legacy for these women who donated the recipe if 100 years later, people are still making them.”
To purchase a copy of Rolling up Their Sleeves, visit thosebarossagirls.com.au
This article first appeared in the November 2024 issue of SALIFE magazine.
