AddThis SmartLayers

Traditional dishes key ingredient for journalist’s book

A former deputy editor who spent 50 years with the same newspaper has combined old photos with traditional recipes to create a cook book to raise money for charity.

Margaret Watson was a reporter on the Dewsbury Reporter from the age of 17 and went on to become deputy editor.

Dewsbury in Food and Photos contains nearly a hundred photographs, each accompanied by a traditional Yorkshire recipe.

Margaret came up with the idea after recalling a book she was given in her youth called A Taste of Ireland.

Said Margaret: “I remember thinking at the time, if a book could be written about the food of a country, surely one  could be written about the food of a town, or at least about the traditional food we used to eat, such as feather cake, corned beef hash and rock buns.

Margaret finally decided to produce the book was when the new mayor of Kirklees, Eric Firth, named the Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice as his civic charity.

She went ahead with the book to raise funds for the cause.

The photographs and recipes have come from a large collection Margaret has amassed during her 50-year journalistic career.

Many of the recipes come from old recipe books produced by Dewsbury churches and women’s organisations including the Women’s Institute and Townswomen’s Guild.

Said Margaret: “I was born during the war and during my childhood food was rationed and money was scarce. I grew up watching my mother make meals that were cheap and simple to make but always tasty, like corned beef hash, shepherd’s pie and roast breast of mutton.

She added: “I would like to think this book is in part a tribute to a generation of hard-working women who raised families in difficult circumstances, sometimes poverty, sometimes war.

“Cooking is, of course, much more than a mere matter of providing sustenance. There’s no doubt that in recalling the meals we ate as children we remember the women who made them and how they nourished us in more ways than one.”  

The limited edition book is on sale at WH Smith, priced £10 with all proceeds going to Forget Me Not.

It can be ordered by e-mailing [email protected]. For more information, log onto www.dewsburyinfoodandphotos.btck.co.uk.