This little cocoa tin was amongst my Mother-in-law's sewing things that were given to me when she passed away. I keep it on a shelf in my kitchen. It reminds me of days gone by when Cocoa was much more of a luxury item than it is today. It is Rowntree Cocoa, Manufactured by Rowntree Mackintosh LTD, York, England - perhaps cocoa was imported to NZ in days gone by. It contained a mere 1/4 pound = 113gms. Our commonly used Cadbury Cocoa is a 250gm pack. On the back of this little tin it reads - 'To make cocoa. Measure out a tsp of cocoa for each cup required. Add sugar to taste. Pour on a little milk and mix to a smooth paste. Then pour on boiling milk (or milk and water).'When I stayed at my Nana & Grandad Main's place when I was a child, they would make us hot cocoa to drink. It was a bit of a novelty to us as we had Milo at home. You certainly don't hear of it as a drink now. I checked on my Cadbury Cocoa packet, there is certainly no recipe for cocoa as a drink.
A quick visit to the Cadbury website and I learned that 'in 1884 Richard Hudson of Dunedin purchased and operated what was thought to be the first chocolate and cocoa manufacturing plant in the Southern Hemisphere.' Maybe that wee Cocoa tin originated in My Mother-in-Law's Mother's sewing basket or kitchen???
What Cocoa tales of days gone by do you 'mature' bloggers have for us?
There has certainly been a lot of debate around 'the chocolate-y-ness' of our local NZ chocolate...
A lot of our more 'modern' baking recipes have LOTS of cocoa AND cooking chocolate... very rich and luxurious!!! I am going back to some of the old-school recipes that are still chocolate-y and tasty but not so rich and hard on the stomach. This morning I made one of our family favorites - and enjoyed thinking of my darling Mother-in law and all the Peanut Brownies she must have baked over the years for her family of 10!
Peanut Brownies.
1 egg
125gms butter
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 dessertspns cocoa
1 cup peanuts
1/2 tsp salt
Beat butter and sugar to a cream, then add egg, flour, baking powder, peanuts and cocoa. Make into balls and bake 180 deg C for 15 minutes.
I roast my peanuts in the oven at 200 deg C first and cool them completely.
i remember my dad having cocoa (now 84) as a hot drink in the evening. being used to milo it tasted horrible (he had no sugar in it... or not enough from memory). i often think as cocoa the drink as well, but havent tried it since. i think the term "hot cocoa" now means "hot chocolate" in hot-drink circles. i enjoy your posts :-)
ReplyDeleteInstead of milo we prefer cadbury's drinking chocolate and one morning when we had run out I decoded to have a go at making my own using cocoa and icing sugar. It tasted pretty similar.
ReplyDeleteI love that old tin!
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ReplyDeleteCocoa & toast with loads of melted butter & vegemite was the supper of choice in our family when we were growing up - I still sometimes have it when I'm feeling the need for comfort food in the middle of the night! The history of the Cadbury factory is very interesting - did you know they began manufacturing chocolate drink as an alternative to alcohol?
ReplyDeleteNow that IS interesting!!! I will have to look into that history a bit more... My Mum tells me that she remembers having the shared responsibility as a senior pupil at shcool of making a great urn of hot Cocoa to be dished out to the students at break time - Nice!
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