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I don't, and I know canny lass doesn't (as she always checks her posts and edit's where necessary) I very rarely check anything. Most of my edits hinge around adding photos, maps etc. Editing after adding a photo to the text is the only way I've found of being able to continue writing after adding the photo. Sometimes I need to add a comment and then another photo so it involves quite a lot of editing.

These recipes are taken from The Geordie Cook Book. I'll not blind you with science but every now and again I'll add a recipe. I'll start you off with a classic! ENJOY. SHEEP'S HEAD PIE ingredients: 1 Sheep's head and trotters 1/2lb puff pastry 6oz. cooked bacon pepper, salt and a little powdered mace 2 eggs hard boiled method: Scrape, and clean well, the head and trotters. Simmer for two hours slowly. While still warm, remove the bone and cut the meat into small pieces. Slice the hard boiled eggs and cut up bacon. Place alternately a layer of meat in the bottom of a pie dish, sprinkled with pepper, salt and mace, and a layer of bacon and eggs and repeat this until dish is filled. A cupful of the stock the head was cooked in can be added before covering with puff pastry. Bake for thirty minutes. Serve cold with green salad

Nay, lad, like isn’t good enough, LOVE 💕, seeing this index, can’t wait to get hold of these cookbooks 😁🌈xx thanks very much. I’m going to post my favourite little old gem of a cookbook, I’m confident that copyright is not an issue with this one 😁🌈xxx

This is the contents of "The Geordie Cook Book, 9The other book has "Panackelty") I'm not sure if we are allowed to copy from the books without permission?

Essential reading.

Welcome to the club! maps, cook books and dictionaries, the latter an industrial injury - well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it! The Geordie Cook Book does exist but it's also the name that Merlin gave to this topic when he started it 11 years ago. I don't have the book but I had a quick google and it's available online. Quite a few used copies available at Barter Books in Alnwick, a lovely place that Maggie introduced me to (nice day out). Also available on E-bay. Prices aren't too bad anywhere.

Never heard of it!

BEEF OLIVES @lilbill15 I'm moving this here to our Geordie Cook Book. Hope that's OK. You asked: "what is a proper beef olive stuffed with, please? I’ve found several options, including simple breadcrumbs, but haven’t managed to produce anything that resembles the yummy school dinner version. I’d be very grateful for your advice". Here's my take on a family favourite. Filling 1. Slightly brown a couple of chopped onions in butter (not margarine). Add 3-4 oz fresh breadcrumbs and fry until really soft. That’s the base. Add any, or several, of the following in quantities to suit your own taste: Chopped: Bacon, chorizo, apple, dates (yum yum), cranberries, nuts, celery, mushrooms, or raisins. Sausage meat and leftovers work well too as do any herbs or spices you happen to have on the shelf. Just let your fantasy loose! You can add a beaten egg if you wish. I don’t. Filling 2. Mix together about 3-4 oz breadcrumbs, 1-2 oz suet (works with ice cold butter as well – I can’t buy suet here), I tbs chopped parsley, 1 tsp dried thyme, 1 tsp grated lemon rind, salt & pepper, 1 ägg and enough milk to bind it all together. That’s my mother’s recipe. After filling and frying my ‘olives’ I add more butter to the pan and fry some onions and carrots. When soft, I whisk a bit of flour into the fat left in the pan, pour in some strong beef stock (from cubes) and let it thicken a bit. Then I put the ‘olives’ in a slow cooker, pour over the sauce (sometimes I add a bay leaf, depends on the filling) and cook slowly (instead of using a big oven for one small pot). PS. You do know that you can cheat and make up a packet of dried stuffing which you then mix with any of the above additions?

@lilbill15are Joy & Valerie members of this group or did you mean to post this comment on another platform?

@Kevin1956 thanks for that interesting read, never thought that Netherton would get such a write up👌. I can't remember ever hearing the term - Bob an Joan (page 2). Enjoyed the description of the 'old colliery caller' (page 3) I'm please by the time I was delivered into this world the '...narrow minded and puritanical folk of Bedlington..' (page 8 ) had slightly eased. I see Netherton is numbered XLV = 45 in 'OUR COLLIERY VILLAGES'. Not that I want to read them all but does anyone know if there is a full list of the Colliery Villages that the author has written about?

That brings back memories! Beef Olives was the first thing I made in 'cookery classes' - or 'domestic science' as the teacher called it. I still make a version of it. There are no strange ingredients so you should be able to find what you need. I don't know if you can get your beef really thinly sliced, I can't but here's a tip: Buy a piece of beef, rather than sliced beef. Half freeze it (or half thaw it if it's already frozen) and then it's easy to cut extremely thin slices using a very sharp knife.

PS. Yes typewriters did exist in 1873 - but only just, having been invented in the 1860's.

@lilbill15 I can vouch for the authenticity of this text. I’ve seen the original (National Archives). It is, as you suggest, a transcript of the original. This is evident in the transcriber’s use of the Latin “sic” indicating that he/she has quoted the text verbatim to include even the author’s non-standard language use. “and away to the south east firey (sic) heaps” (p8) “Away from the old pit is what is what (sic) is very appropriately” (p8) The article is one in a series, Our Colliery Villages, published in the Newcastle Weekly Chronicle 1872 onwards. There are a few transcripts floating about on the internet if you don't want to subscribe to the NA.

No - Kevin Brown, but I can understand your confusion as he is now resembling a Foss(il)

I believe I was just there as a chaperone for my friend. If I'd known you were reading those books I would have taken backup.